• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1-13
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• 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a moderate seismicity region, and there have been no reports of liquefaction, with the exception of references in some historical documents.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.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.193-202
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• 2008

Seismic design for bridge columns of the current Korea Highway Bridge Design Specifications which adopt full ductility design concept results in reinforcement congestion problems in construction site. It is due to large amount of confining steel is required even for small ductility demand which is a normal case in low and moderate seismicity regions like Korean peninsular. Therefore a new seismic design method based on limited ductility concept was proposed, which is called ductility demand based design method. It uses the new confining steel design equation considering ductility demand and aspect ratio of the column as well as material strength. The purpose of this study is to verify safety of the ductility demand based design method by the confining steel design equation. Eighty nine circular column test results are selected and investigated in terms of ductility factor and its safety. The safety factor for the circular column test results ranges between 1.11 and 3.98, and the average is 1.90. In this paper, the basic concept and detailed design procedure of the ductility demand based design method are also introduced as well as the investigation of the safety with respect to the major variables in confining steel design.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.53-60
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to propose a method that can reliably evaluate the fundamental period of a rockfill dam using the micro-earthquake records, which were obtained at the domestic dam sites. For total 20 micro-earthquake records obtained at 7 domestic rockfill dam sites against 6 earthquake events which recently occurred, the fundamental periods of seven rockfill dams were evaluated by two kinds of methods; one is a method using acceleration amplification ratio and the other is a method using acceleration response spectrum ratio. Applicability of each method to evaluation of fundamental periods of domestic rockfill dams was examined. In the moderate seismicity region like our country, the method using acceleration response spectrum ratio, which could evaluate the fundamental period of the rockfill dam using the ratio between the response spectrum for acceleration observed at the dam crest and that observed at the dam base or abutment, proved to be reliable and was proposed in this study. From the results of analyses, it was found that the proposed method could consistently evaluate the fundamental period of the rockfill dam and the results obtained by the proposed method were very similar to the results by the existing method which was proposed from the analysis for the earthquake records observed at Japanese dam sites.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.77-86
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• 2020

In this study, the importance of implied strength correction for shallow depths at a region of moderate to low seismicity with primary focus on its effect upon site natural period and mean period of the ground motion is investigated. In addition to the most commonly used Modified Kondner-Zelasko (MKZ) model, this paper uses a quadratic/hyperbolic (GQ/H) model that can capture the stress - strain response at large strains as well as small strain stiffness dependence. A total of six site profiles by downhole tests are used and 1D site response analyses are performed using three input motions with contrasting mean periods. The difference between non-corrected and corrected analyses is conditional on the site period as well as mean ground motion period. The effect of periods is analyzed by correlating them with the effective peak ground acceleration, maximum shear strains and amplification factors. The comparative study reveals that the difference is more prominent in soft sites with long site periods. Insignificant differences are observed when soil profiles are subjected to ground motion with very short mean period.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3C
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• pp.187-196
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• 2008

An earthquake of magnitude 5.0 occurred at Ssang-gye-sa, a Buddhist temple in Jirisan, located near the southern border of the Korean peninsula on 4 July 1936. It resulted in severe damage of several buildings and structures in Ssang-gye-sa. Particularly, the top component of a five-story stone pagoda in the temple was tipped over and fell down during the earthquake. This earthquake damage case would be usefully applied to estimating the intensity of ground motion in the Korean peninsula, a moderate seismicity region, where strong motion has never been recorded with the exception of historic seismic events. In order to estimate the local site effects and the corresponding ground motion at Ssang-gye-sa site, intensive site investigations including borehole drilling and in-situ seismic tests such as crosshole and SASW tests were performed in the temple area. Based on the site characteristics, site-specific seismic response analyses using various input motions were conducted for a representative Ssang-gye-sa site by means of both one-dimensional equivalent-linear and nonlinear methods with six input rock outcrop acceleration levels ranging from 0.044g to 0.220g. The resultant site-specific seismic responses indicated the amplified ground motions in the short-period range near the site period of Ssang-gye-sa. Furthermore, the intensity on rock outcrop of the 1936 Jirisan earthquake was estimated by making a comparison between the site responses analysis results in this study and the full-scaled seismic test of pagoda model in the prior study.