• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.2
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• pp.207-227
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• 2022

In general, the interaction conditions between the discrete stones are not taken into account by structural engineers during the modeling and analyzing of historical stone bridges. However, many structural damages in the stone bridges occur due to ignoring the interaction conditions between discrete stones. In this study, it is aimed to examine the seismic behavior of a historical stone bridge by considering the interaction stiffness parameters between stone elements. For this purpose, Tokatli historical stone arch bridge was built in 1179 in Karabük-Turkey, is chosen for three-dimensional (3D) seismic analyses. Firstly, the 3D finite-difference model of the Tokatli stone bridge is created using the FLAC3D software. During the modeling processes, the Burger-Creep material model which was not used to examine the seismic behavior of historical stone bridges in the past is utilized. Furthermore, the free-field and quiet non-reflecting boundary conditions are defined to the lateral and bottom boundaries of the bridge. Thanks to these boundary conditions, earthquake waves do not reflect in the 3D model. After each stone element is modeled separately, stiffness elements are defined between the stone elements. Three situations of the stiffness elements are considered in the seismic analyses; a) for only normal direction b) for only shear direction c) for both normal and shear directions. The earthquake analyses of the bridge are performed for these three different situations of the bridge. The far-fault and near-fault conditions of 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake are taken into account during the earthquake analyses. According to the seismic analysis results, the directions of the stiffness parameters seriously changed the earthquake behavior of the Tokatli bridge. Moreover, the most critical stiffness parameter is determined for seismic analyses of historical stone arch bridges.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.701-721
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• 2016

Base isolation is a well-established passive strategy for seismic response control of buildings. In this paper, an efficient framework is proposed for reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) of isolated buildings subjected to uncertain earthquakes. The framework uses reduced function evaluations method, as an efficient tool for structural reliability analysis, and an efficient optimization algorithm for optimal structural design. The probability of failure is calculated considering excessive base displacement, superstructure inter-storey drifts, member stress ratios and absolute accelerations of floors of the isolated building as failure events. The behavior of rubber bearing isolators is modeled using nonlinear hysteretic model and the variability of future earthquakes is modeled by applying a probabilistic approach. The effects of pulse component of stochastic near-fault ground motions, fixity-factor of semi-rigid beam-to-column connections, values of isolator parameters, earthquake magnitude and epicentral distance on the performance and safety of semi-rigidly connected base-isolated steel framed buildings are studied. Suitable RBDO examples are solved to illustrate the results of investigations.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 1998

An intensity of the 1997 Kyungju earthquake(M=4.3) was estimated at three hundred locations based on the field survey and questionaires from 2200 residents. The isoseismal shows almost circular pattern which doesnot reflect some specific geological trends. However,most of the Kyeongsang basin except the southwestern part is included within the area of MM intensity V. There occurred strong shaking, numerous cracks on the wall of the houses, and movement of slate on the roofs, falling of the tiles from the monument. The isoseismal of the highest MM intensity VII, 1-3 km in width and 9 km in length, is elongated along the Yangsan fault, which is located about 1.5 km west from epicenter. The lineaments near the epicenter exhibit almost N-S and NNE directions. The lineament distribution, the pattern of damage area and the solution of fault plane suggest that the Kyongju earthquake occurred with strike-slip sense along the Yangsan fault. The calculated intensity attenuation(I) with distance(R) is as follows : $I{\;}={\;}I_o{\;}+{\;}0.3461{\;}-{\;}0.3274{\;}{\times}{\;}1nR{\;}-{\;}0.086{\;}{\times}{\;}R$.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.293-315
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• 2016

Seismic isolation is often used in protecting mission-critical structures including hospitals, data centers, telecommunication buildings, etc. Such structures typically house vibration-sensitive equipment which has to provide continued service but may fail in case sustained accelerations during earthquakes exceed threshold limit values. Thus, peak floor acceleration is one of the two main parameters that control the design of such structures while the other one is peak base displacement since the overall safety of the structure depends on the safety of the isolation system. And in case peak base displacement exceeds the design base displacement during an earthquake, rupture and/or buckling of isolators as well as bumping against stops around the seismic gap may occur. Therefore, obtaining accurate peak floor accelerations and peak base displacement is vital. However, although nominal design values for isolation system and superstructure parameters are calculated in order to meet target peak design base displacement and peak floor accelerations, their actual values may potentially deviate from these nominal design values. In this study, the sensitivity of the seismic performance of structures equipped with linear and nonlinear seismic isolation systems to the aforementioned potential deviations is assessed in the context of a benchmark shear building under different earthquake records with near-fault and far-fault characteristics. The results put forth the degree of sensitivity of peak top floor acceleration and peak base displacement to superstructure parameters including mass, stiffness, and damping and isolation system parameters including stiffness, damping, yield strength, yield displacement, and post-yield to pre-yield stiffness ratio.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.243-259
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• 2023

Turkey is one of the most important earthquake regions in Europe. This region has been exposed to many earthquakes of different magnitudes from past to present. It is of great importance to determine the dynamic properties of the soils for structures to be built in earthquake zones. In order to minimize the damages that may occur, the behavior of the soils under repeated loads should be known and taken into consideration in the design. In this study, 4 different point borings were taken near active fault lines in the North Anatolian fault zone (NAFZ). In order to determine the dynamic parameters of soils, both dynamic triaxial (TRX) and resonant column (RC) tests were carried out on undisturbed samples at every 5 m. As a result of the experiments, V_s and G_max values were obtained from the field and differences were determined. The dynamic behavior of the soil was examined at varying depths with the comparison of reference models in the literature and compatible results were obtained. Finally, the behavior at the transition region is highlighted. As a result, three shear modulus and dumping ratio models have been proposed for clay soils to be used in different soil conditions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1481-1497
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• 2015

Vertical earthquake ground motion may magnify vertical dynamic responses of structures, and thus cause serious damage to bridges. As main support structures, piers and bearings play an important role in vertical seismic response analysis of girder bridges. In this study, the pier and bearing are simplified as a vertical series spring system without mass. Then, based on the assumption of small displacement, the equation of motion governing the simply-supported straight girder bridge under vertical ground motion is established including effects of vertical deformation of support structures. Considering boundary conditions, the differential quadrature method (DQM) is applied to discretize the above equation of motion into a MDOF (multi-degree-of-freedom) system. Then seismic responses of this MDOF system are calculated by a step-by-step integration method. Effects of support structures on vertical dynamic responses of girder bridges are studied under different vertical strong earthquake motions. Results indicate that support structures may remarkably increase or decrease vertical seismic responses of girder bridges. So it is of great importance to consider effects of support structures in structural seismic design of girder bridges in near-fault region. Finally, optimization of support structures to resist vertical strong earthquake motions is discussed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.53-63
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• 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
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.215-227
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• 2018

Supplemental passive control devices are widely considered as an important tool to mitigate the dynamic response of a building under seismic excitation. Nevertheless, a systematic method for strategically placing dampers in the buildings is not prescribed in building codes and guidelines. Many deterministic and stochastic methods have been proposed by previous researchers to investigate the optimum distribution of the viscous dampers in the steel frames. However, the seismic performances of the retrofitted buildings that are under large earthquake intensity levels or near collapse state have not been evaluated by any seismic research. Recent years, an increasing number of studies utilize genetic algorithms (GA) to explore the complex engineering optimization problems. GA interfaced with nonlinear response history (NRH) analysis is considered as one of the most powerful and popular stochastic methods to deal with the nonlinear optimization problem of damper distribution. In this paper, the effectiveness and the efficiency of GA on optimizing damper distribution are first evaluated by strong ground motions associated with the collapse failure. A practical optimization framework using GA and NRH analysis is proposed for optimizing the distribution of the fluid viscous dampers within the moment resisting frames (MRF) regarding the improvements of large drifts under intensive seismic context. Both a 10-storey and a 20-storey building are involved to explore higher mode effect. A far-fault and a near-fault earthquake environment are also considered for the frames under different seismic intensity levels. To evaluate the improvements obtained from the GA optimization regarding the collapse performance of the buildings, Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is conducted and comparisons are made between the GA damper distribution and stiffness proportional damping distribution on the collapse probability of the retrofitted frames.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.195-211
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• 2020

Among anti-seismic technologies, base isolation is a very effective means of mitigating damage to structural and nonstructural components, such as equipment. However, most seismic isolation systems are designed for mitigating only horizontal seismic responses because the realization of a vertical isolation system (VIS) is difficult. The difficulty is primarily due to conflicting isolation stiffness demands in the static and dynamic states for a VIS, which requires sufficient rigidity to support the self-weight of the isolated object in the static state, but sufficient flexibility to lengthen the isolation period and uncouple the ground motion in the dynamic state. To overcome this problem, a semi-active VIS, called the piezoelectric inertia-type vertical isolation system (PIVIS), is proposed in this study. PIVIS is composed of a piezoelectric friction damper (PFD) and a leverage mechanism with a counterweight. The counterweight provides an uplifting force in the static state and an extra inertial force in the dynamic state; therefore, the effective vertical stiffness of PIVIS is higher in the static state and lower in the dynamic state. The PFD provides a controllable friction force for PIVIS to further prevent its excessive displacement. For experimental verification, a shaking table test was conducted on a prototype PIVIS controlled by a simple controller. The experimental results well agree with the theoretical results. To further investigate the isolation performance of PIVIS, the seismic responses of PIVIS were simulated numerically by considering 14 vertical ground motions with different characteristics. The responses of PIVIS were compared with those of a traditional VIS and a passive system (PIVIS without control). The numerical results demonstrate that compared with the traditional and passive systems, PIVIS can effectively suppress isolation displacement in all kinds of earthquake with various peak ground accelerations and frequency content while maintaining its isolation efficiency. The proposed system is particularly effective for near-fault earthquakes with long-period components, for which it prevents resonant-like motion.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 2009

Recent earthquake, such as the Northridge(1994), the Kobe(1995) and the Izmit(1990) earthquakes, gave serious damage in various buildings and bridges by the vertical seismic component. Most of the seismic designs neglect the vertical seismic component for usual frame structures. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the vertical seismic component and to compare the axial force of columns and plastic rotation angle of the analytical models in these effects. The vertical seismic component produced a large increment of axial force in columns. And the vertical seismic component caused a significant increase of the damage in the columns. As analysis result, increase of axial force cause the damage of columns and give possibility of story collapse mechanism of the structure system. Therefore, area that near fault ground motion is expected may be consider the effect of vertical component of seismic ground motions.