• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.45-65
• /
• 2018

Over the last three decades, Performance-based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) has been mainly developed for high seismicity regions. Although information is abundant for PBEE throughout the world, the application of PBEE to lower-seismicity regions, such as those where the magnitude of the maximum considered earthquake (MCE) is less than 6.5, is not always straightforward because some portions of PBEE may not be appropriate for such regions due to geological differences between high- and low-seismicity regions. This paper presents a brief review of state-of-art PBEE methodologies and introduces the seismic hazard of lower-seismicity regions, including those of the Korean Peninsula, with their unique characteristics. With this seismic hazard, representative low-rise RC MRF structures and high-rise RC wall residential structures are evaluated using PBEE. Also, the range of the forces and deformations of the representative building structures under the design earthquake (DE) and the MCE of South Korea are presented. These reviews are used to propose some ideas to improve the practice of state-of-art PBEE in lower-seismicity regions.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.53-63
• /
• 2007

Seismic design codes are developed mainly based on the observation of the behavior of structures in the high seismicity regions where structures may experience significant amount of inelastic deformations and major earthquakes may result in structural damages in a vast area. Therefore, seismic loads are reduced in current design codes for building structures using response modification factors which depend on the ductility capacity and overstrength of a structural system. However, structures in low seismicity regions, subjected to a minor earthquake, will behave almost elastically because of the larger overstrength of structures in low seismicity regions such as Korea. Structures in low seismicity regions may have longer periods since they are designed to smaller seismic loads and main target of design will be minor or moderate earthquakes occurring nearby. Ground accelerations recorded at stations near the epicenter may have somewhat different response spectra from those of distant station records. Therefore, it is necessary to verify if the seismic design methods based on high seismicity would he applicable to low seismicity regions. In this study, the adequacy of design spectra, period estimation and response modification factors are discussed for the seismic design in low seismicity regions. The response modification factors are verified based on the ductility and overstrength of building structures estimated from the farce-displacement relationship. For the same response modification factor, the ductility demand in low seismicity regions may be smaller than that of high seismicity regions because the overstrength of structures may be larger in low seismicity regions. The ductility demands in example structures designed to UBC97 for high, moderate and low seismicity regions were compared. Demands of plastic rotation in connections were much lower in low seismicity regions compared to those of high seismicity regions when the structures are designed with the same response modification factor. Therefore, in low seismicity regions, it would be not required to use connection details with large ductility capacity even for structures designed with a large response modification factor.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.29-44
• /
• 2018

A ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE) for the Korean Peninsula, especially for South Korea, is developed based on synthetic ground motions generated using a ground motion model derived from instrumental records from 11 recent earthquakes of $M_L$>4.5 in Korea, including the Gyeongju earthquake of Sept. 12. 2016 ($M_L$5.8). PSAs of one standard deviation from the developed GMPE with $M_W$ 6.5 at hypocentral distances of 15 km and 25 km are compared to the design spectrum (soil condition, $S_B$) of the Korean Building Code 2016 (KBC), indicating that: (1) PSAs at short periods around 0.2 sec can be 1.5 times larger than the corresponding KBC PSA, and (2) SD's at periods longer than 2 sec do not exceed 8 cm. Although this comparison of the design spectrum with those of the GMPE developed herein intends to identify the characteristics of the scenario earthquake in a lower-seismicity region such as South Korea, it does not mean that the current design spectrum should be modified accordingly. To develop a design spectrum compatible with the Korean Peninsula, more systematic research using probabilistic seismic hazard analysis is necessary in the future.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.256-267
• /
• 2010

Earthquakes in the Korean Peninsula occur along the faults formed and boundaries between major geological units ruptured due to violent tectonic activities during the Mesozoic. E-W and/or ENE-SSW compressive stress regime resulting from collisions between the Eurasian plate and neighbouring the Indian plate, the Pacific plate and the Philippine plate trigger Korean earthquakes of thrust faulting with predominant strike-slip components along the mostly NNE-SSW trending active faults. Seismicity of the Korean peninsula has been moderate to low during the past 20 centuries except for the period from the 15th to the 18th centuries of exceptionally high seismicity, showing the typical irregularity of intraplate seismicity. The structure of the Korean peninsula is rather homogeneous without the Conrad discontinuity sharply dividing the upper and lower crust. Lateral heterogeneities exist in the crust. The crust with an average thickness of about 33 km is thicker in the mountainous region than the plain due to the Airy-type isostatic equilibrium maintained in the peninsula. Crustal P-wave velocity with average of about 6.3 km/sec increases gradually from the near surface to the Moho. The upper mantle P-wave (Pn) velocity is about 7.8 km/sec.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.435-448
• /
• 2018

In order to make reliable earthquake-resistant design of civil engineering structures, one of the most important considerations in a region with high seismicity is to pay attention to the local soil condition of regions. It is aimed in the current study at specifying dynamic soil characteristics of Kirikkale city center conducting the 1-D equivalent linear and non-linear site response analyses. Due to high vulnerability and seismicity of the city center of Kirikkale surrounded by active many faults, such as the North Anatolian Fault (NAF), the city of Kirikkale is classified as highly earthquake-prone city. The first effort to determine critical site response parameter is to perform the seismic hazard analyses of the region through the earthquake record catalogues. The moment magnitude of the city center is obtained as $M_w=7.0$ according to the recorded probability of exceedance of 10% in the last 50 years. Using the data from site tests, the 1-D equivalent linear (EL) and nonlinear site response analyses (NL) are performed with respect to the shear modulus reduction and damping ratio models proposed in literature. The important engineering parameters of the amplification ratio, predominant site period, peak ground acceleration (PGA) and spectral acceleration values are predicted. Except for the periods between the period of T=0.2-1.0 s, the results from the NL are obtained to be similar to the EL results. Lower spectral acceleration values are estimated in the locations of the city where the higher amplification ratio is attained or vice-versa. Construction of high-rise buildings with modal periods higher than T=1.0 s are obtained to be suitable for the city of Kirikkale. The buildings at the city center are recommended to be assessed with street survey rapid structural evaluation methods so as to mitigate seismic damages. The obtained contour maps in this study are estimated to be effective for visually characterizing the city in terms of the considered parameters.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.61-75
• /
• 2000

Through modeling fault network using thin plate finite element technique in the San Andreas Fault system with slip rate over 1mm/year, as well as elevation, heat flow, earthquakes, geodetic data and crustal thickness, we compare the results with velocity boundary conditions of plate based on the NUVEL-1 plate model and the approximation of deformation in the Great Basin region. The frictional and dislocation creep constants of the crust are calculated to reproduce the observed variations in the maximum depth of seismicity which corresponds to the temperature ranging from $350^{\circ}C$ to $410^{\circ}C$. The rheologic constants are defined by the coefficient of friction on faults, and the apparent activation energy for creep in the lower crust. Two parameters above represent systematic variations in three experiments. The pattern of model indicates that the friction coefficient of major faults is 0.17~0.25. we test whether the weakness of faults is uniform or proportional to net slip. The geologic data show a good agreement when fault weakness is a trend of an additional 30% slip dependent weakening of the San Andreas. The results of study suggest that all weakening is slip dependent. The best models can be explained by the available data with RMS mismatch of as little as 3mm/year, so their predictions can be closely related with seismic hazard estimation, at least along faults where no data are available.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2009

Liquefaction is a significant threat to structures on loose saturated sandy soil deposits in the event of an earthquake, and can often cause catastrophic damage, economic loss, and loss of life. Nevertheless, the Korean peninsula has for a long time been recognized as a safe region with respect to the hazard of liquefaction, as the peninsula is located in a moderate seismicity region, and there have been no reports of liquefaction, with the exception of references in some historical documents. However, some earthquakes that have recently occurred in different parts of the world have led to liquefaction in non-plastic silty soils, a soil type that can be found in many of the western coastal areas of Korea. In this study, we first present procedures for evaluating the liquefaction potential, and calculate the liquefaction potential index (LPI) distribution at two western coastal sites using both piezocone penetration test (CPTu) data and standard penetration test (SPT) data. The LPI is computed by integrating liquefaction potential over a depth of 20m, and provides an estimate of liquefaction-related surface damage. In addition, we compared the LPI values obtained from CPTu and SPT, respectively. Our research found that the CRR values from CPTu were lower than those from the SPT, particularly in the range between 40 and 120 for the corrected tip resistance, (qc1N)CS, from the CPTu, or in the range of CRR less than 0.23, resulting in relatively high LPI values. Moreover, it was observed that the differences in the CRR between the two methods were relatively higher for soils with high fine contents.