• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.135-145
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• 2019

The slope collapse can be classified into internal and external factors. Internal factors are engineering factors inherent in the formation of slopes such as soil depth, slope angle, shear strength of soil, and external factors are external loading such as earthquakes. The external factor for earthquake can be expressed by various values such as peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), Arias coefficient (I), natural period (T_p), and spectral acceleration (S_aT=1.0). Specially, PGA is the most typical value that defines the magnitude of the ground motion of an earthquake. However, it is not enough to consider the displacement in the slope which depends on the duration of the earthquake even if the vibration has the same peak ground acceleration. In this study, numerical analysis of two-dimensional plane strain conditions was performed on engineered block, and slope responses due to seismic motion of scaling PGA to 0.2 g various event scenarios was analyzed. As a result, the response of slope is different depending on the presence or absence of sliding block; it is shown that slope response depend on the seismic wave triggering sliding block than the input motion factors.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.455-475
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• 2023

The present study investigates the non-linear soil-pile interaction using three-dimensional (3D) non-linear finite element models. The numerical models were validated by using the results of extensive pile load and shaking table tests. The pile performance in liquefiable and non-liquefiable soil has been studied by analyzing the liquefaction ratio, pile lateral displacement (LD), pile bending moment (BM), and frictional resistance (FR) results. The pile models have been developed for the different ground conditions. The study reveals that the results obtained during the pile load test and shaking cycles have good agreement with the predicted pile and soil response. The soil density, peak ground acceleration (PGA), slenderness ratio (L/D), and soil condition (i.e., dry and saturated) are considered during modeling. Four ground motions are used for the non-linear time history analyses. Consequently, design charts are proposed depended on the analysis results to be used for design practice. Eleven models have been used to validate the capability of these charts to capture the soil-pile response under different seismic intensities. The results of the present study demonstrate that L/D ratio slightly affects the lateral displacement when compared with other parameters. Also, it has been observed that the increasing in PGA and decreasing L/D decreases the excess pore water pressure ratio; i.e., increasing PGA from 0.1 g to 0.82 g of loose sand model, decrease the liquefaction ratio by about 50%, and increasing L/D from 15 to 75 of the similar models (under Kobe earthquake), increase this ratio by about 30%. This study reveals that the lateral displacement increases nonlinearly under both dry and saturated conditions as the PGA increases. Similarly, it is observed that the BM increases under both dry and saturated states as the L/D ratio increases. Regarding the acceleration histories, the pile BM was reduced by reducing the acceleration intensity. Hence, the pile BM decreased to about 31% when the applied ground motion switched from Kobe (PGA=0.82 g) to Ali Algharbi (PGA=0.10 g). This study reveals that the soil conditions affect the relationship pattern between the FR and the PGA. Also, this research could be helpful in understanding the threat of earthquakes in different ground characteristics.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.1 s.47
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• pp.17-23
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• 2006

The research on strong ground motions became important recently due to more severe requirement of seismic design for the domestic buildings and structures. The empirical Green's function method, which uses similarities between small and large earthquakes, was applied to make synthetic ground motions. That method was applied to the 2 earthquakes which occurred sequently in time within narrow area in Japan. The strong ground motions for the virtual earthquake (magnitude 6.5) were synthesized using those observed from the magnitude 4.7 earthquake. Then, the synthesized ground motions (acceleration, velocity, and displacement) were compared to those observed from real earthquake (magnitude 6.5). The results showed that the general shapes of waveforms in time domain and the Fourier spectrum In frequency domain from synthesized ground motions (acceleration, velocity, and displacement) are similar to the observed strong ground motions within acceptable degree. The peak values of 3 kinds of synthesized strong ground motions in time domain are comparable between the synthesized and the real strong ground motions, especially only about 9% difference in acceleration peak value.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2022

This study proposes an intelligent semi-active isolation system combining a variable-stiffness control device and ground motion characteristic prediction. To determine the optimal control parameter in real-time, a genetic algorithm (GA)-fuzzy control law was developed in this study. Data on various types of ground motions were collected, and the ground motion characteristics were quantified to derive a near-fault (NF) characteristic ratio by employing an on-site earthquake early warning system. On the basis of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) and the derived NF ratio, a fuzzy inference system (FIS) was developed. The control parameters were optimized using a GA. To support continuity under near-fault and far-field ground motions, the optimal control parameter was linked with the predicted PGA and NF ratio through the FIS. The GA-fuzzy law was then compared with other control laws to verify its effectiveness. The results revealed that the GA-fuzzy control law could reliably predict different ground motion characteristics for real-time control because of the high sensitivity of its control parameter to the ground motion characteristics. Even under near-fault and far-field ground motions, the GA-fuzzy control law outperformed the FPEEA control law in terms of controlling the isolation layer displacement and the superstructure acceleration.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.289-304
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• 2022

During strong ground motions, adjacent structures with insufficient separation distances collide with each other causing considerable architectural and structural damage or collapse of the whole structure. Generally, existing design procedures for determining the separation distance between adjacent buildings subjected to structural pounding are based on approximations of the buildings' peak relative displacement. These procedures are based on unknown safety levels. This paper attempts to evaluate the influence of foundation flexibility on the structural seismic response by considering the variability in the system and uncertainties in the ground motion characteristics through comprehensive numerical simulations. Actually, the aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of foundation flexibility on probabilistic evaluation of structural pounding. A Hertz-damp pounding force model has been considered in order to effectively capture impact forces during collisions. In total, 5.25 million time-history analyses were performed over the adopted models using an ensemble of 25 ground motions as seismic input within OpenSees software. The results of the study indicate that the soil-structure interaction significantly influences the pounding-involved responses of adjacent structures during earthquakes and generally increases the pounding probability.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.1283-1301
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• 2014

Ground motion modification is extensively used in seismic design of civil infrastructure, especially where few or no recorded ground motions representative of the design scenario are available. A site in Los Angeles, California is used as a study site and 28 ground motions consistent with the design earthquake scenario are selected. The suite of 28 ground motions is scaled and modified in the time domain (TD) and frequency domain (FD) before being used as input to a bilinear SDOF system. The median structural responses to the suites of scaled, TD-modified, and FD-modified motions, along with ratios of he modified-to-scaled responses, are investigated for SDOF systems with different periods, strength ratios, and post-yield stiffness ratios. Overall, little difference (less than 20%) is observed in the peak structural accelerations, velocities, and displacements; displacement ductility; and absolute accelerations caused by the TD-modified and FD-modified motions when compared to the responses caused by the scaled motions. The energy absorbed by the system when the modified motions are used as input is more than 20% greater than when scaled motions are used as input. The observed trends in the structural response are predominantly the result of changes in the ground motion characteristics caused by modification.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.341-380
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• 2023

This study evaluates the seismic fragilities in fill slopes in South Korea through parametric finite element analyses that have been barely investigated thus far. We consider three slope geometries for a slope of height 10 m and three slope angles, and two soil types, namely frictional and frictionless, associated with two soil states, loose and dense for frictional soils and soft and stiff for frictionless soils. The input ground motions accounting for four site conditions in South Korea are obtained from one-dimensional site response analyses. By comparing the numerical modeling of slopes using PLAXIS^2D against the previous studies, we compiled suites of the maximum permanent slope displacement (D_max) against two ground motion parameters, namely, peak ground acceleration (PGA) and Arias Intensity (I_A). A probabilistic seismic demand model is adopted to compute the probabilities of exceeding three limit states (minor, moderate, and extensive). We propose multiple seismic fragility curves as functions of a single ground motion parameter and numerous seismic fragility surfaces as functions of two ground motion parameters. The results show that soil type, slope angle, and input ground motion influence these probabilities, and are expected to help regional authorities and engineers assess the seismic fragility of fill slopes in the road systems in South Korea.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.439-459
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• 2013

Main objective of the present study is to determine the statistical properties and suitable probability distribution functions of spectral displacements from nonlinear static and nonlinear dynamic analysis within the frame work of Monte Carlo simulation for typical low rise and high rise RC framed buildings located in zone III and zone V and designed as per Indian seismic codes. Probabilistic analysis of spectral displacement is useful for strength assessment and loss estimation. To the author's knowledge, no study is reported in literature on comparison of spectral displacement including the uncertainties in capacity and demand in Indian context. In the present study, uncertainties in capacity of the building is modeled by choosing cross sectional dimensions of beams and columns, density and compressive strength of concrete, yield strength and elastic modulus of steel and, live load as random variables. Uncertainty in demand is modeled by choosing peak ground acceleration (PGA) as a random variable. Nonlinear static analysis (NSA) and nonlinear dynamic analysis (NDA) are carried out for typical low rise and high rise reinforced concrete framed buildings using IDARC 2D computer program with the random sample input parameters. Statistical properties are obtained for spectral displacements corresponding to performance point from NSA and maximum absolute roof displacement from NDA and suitable probability distribution functions viz., normal, Weibull, lognormal are examined for goodness-of-fit. From the hypothesis test for goodness-of-fit, lognormal function is found to be suitable to represent the statistical variation of spectral displacement obtained from NSA and NDA.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.527-532
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• 2002

Near field ground motions contain distinct and large amplitude pulses in both velocity and displacement. This paper investigates characteristics of near field earthquakes and their effects on seismic demands. 20 EQGMs were selected for this purpose that satisfied 5 conditions for Near field motion. Among them ten EQGMs have one distinct peak velocity pulse in the velocity time history. In this study the responsed are Linear Elastic Response Spectrum(LERS), Response Modification Factor(R) and Inelastic Response Spectrum(IRS). The effect of the selection of Near field EQGMs on these response parameters are investigated.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.275-304
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• 2015

The objective of this paper is to investigate the validity of transmitting boundaries in dynamic analysis of soil-structure interaction problems. As a case study, the proposed Baghdad metro line is considered. The information about the dimensions and the material properties of the concrete tunnel and surrounding soil were obtained from a previous study. A parametric study is carried out to investigate the effect of several parameters including the peak value of the horizontal component of earthquake displacement records and the frequency of the dynamic load. The computer program (Mod-MIXDYN) is used for the analysis. The numerical results are analyzed for three conditions; finite boundaries (traditional boundaries), infinite boundaries modelled by infinite elements (5-node mapped infinite element) presented by Selvadurai and Karpurapu, 1988), and infinite boundaries modelled by dashpot elements (viscous boundaries). It was found that the transmitting boundary absorbs most of the incident energy. The distinct reflections observed for the "fixed boundaries" disappear by using "transmitted boundaries". This is true for both cases of using viscous boundaries or mapped infinite elements. The type and location of the dynamic load represent two controlling factors in deciding the importance of using infinite boundaries. It was found that the results present significant differences when earthquake is applied as a base motion or a pressure load is applied at the surface ground. The peak value of the vertical displacement at nodes A, B, E and F (located at the tunnel's crown and side walls, and at the surface above the tunnel and at the surface 6.5 m away from tunnel's centre respectively) increases with the frequency of the surface pressure load for both cases 1 and 2 (traditional boundaries and mapped infinite elements respectively) while it decreases for case 3 (viscous boundaries). The modular ratio Ec/Es (modulus of elasticity of the concrete lining to that of the surrounding soil) has a considerable effect on the peak value of the horizontal displacement at node B (on the side wall of the tunnel lining) increase about (17.5) times, for the three cases (1, 2, and 3).