• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.124-135
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• 2011

The capacity of bearings installed at abutments and piers for continuous bridges is usually determined by the magnitude of the maximum vertical reaction at each support and the capacity of bearings placed at piers is higher than that at abutments. In this study, the possibility of the improved seismic performance of base-isolated continuous skew bridges was investigated by analysing the variation of the seismic behavior of them according to three arrangements of bearings. Based on the conventional arrangement of bearings(Case A), three arrangements of bearings such as Case A, Case B and Case C were selected considering the variation of the horizontal stiffness of the lead rubber bearing(LRB) installed at the pier. The seismic behavior of the total 36 skew bridges was investigated by conducting the response spectrum analysis using the hybrid response spectrum considered the effect of LRB's damping. Results of analyses show that a more desirable seismic behavior of base-isolated continuous skew bridges can be obtained by reducing the magnitude of the horizontal stiffness of LRB placed at the pier to similar to or less than that of LRB installed at abutments. The variation of LRB's stiffness at the pier brings about period elongation and the change of mode shapes of base-isolated skew bridges and results in the reduction of the total base shear, the maximum base shear at the pier and the girder stresses. Although positive effects on the seismic behavior of base-isolated skew bridges caused by the change of arrangement of bearings decreased slighty with an increase in the flexibility of the substructure, the proposed arrangements of bearings bring about the improved seismic performance of base-isolated continuous skew plate girder bridges with less than 10m height of piers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.479-500
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• 2013

This paper presents the experimental as well as analytical study conducted on layer-bonded scrap tire rubber pad (STRP) isolators to develop low-cost seismic isolators applicable to structures in developing countries. The STRP specimen samples were produced by stacking the STRP layers one on top of another with the application of adhesive. In unbonded application, the STRP bearings were placed between the substructure and superstructure without fastening between the contact surfaces which allows roll-off of the contact supports. The vertical compression and horizontal shear tests were conducted with varying axial loads. These results were used to compute the different mechanical properties of the STRP isolators including vertical stiffness, horizontal effective stiffness, average horizontal stiffness and effective damping ratios. The load-displacement relationships of STRP isolators obtained by experimental and finite element analysis results were found to be in close agreement. The tested STRP samples show energy dissipation capacity considerably greater than the natural rubber bearings. The layer-bonded STRP isolators serve positive incremental force resisting capacity up to the shear strain level of 150%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.605-618
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• 2014

The effects of variability of the mechanical properties of lead rubber bearings on the response of a seismic isolation system are investigated. Material variability in manufacturing, aging, and operation temperature is assumed, and two variation models of an isolation system are considered. To evaluate the effect of ground motion characteristics on the response, 27 earthquake record sets with different peak A/V ratios were selected, and three components of ground motions were used for a seismic response analysis. The response in an isolation system and a superstructure increases significantly for ground motions with low A/V ratios. The variation in the mechanical properties of isolators results in a significant influence on the shear strains of the isolators and the acceleration response of the superstructure. The variation provisions in the ASCE-4 are reasonable, but more strict variation limits should be given to isolation systems subjected to ground motions having low A/V ratios. For application of seismic isolation systems to safety-related nuclear structures, the variation in the material and mechanical properties of the isolation system should be properly controlled during the manufacturing and aging processes. In addition, special consideration should be given to minimize the accidental torsion caused by the dissimilarity in the stiffness variations of the isolators.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.144-153
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• 1998

Base isolation is an innovative design strategy that provides a practical alternative for the seismic design of structures. Base isolators, mainly employed to isolate large structures subjected to earthquake ground excitations and to rehabilitate structures damaged by past earthquakes, deflect and absorb the seismic energy horizontally transmitted to the structures. This study demonstrates that the base isolation system may offer effective performance for bridges during severe seismic events through shaking table tests. Two base isolation system using laminated rubber bearings with and without hydraulic dampers are tested. The test results strongly show that the laminated rubber bearings cause the natural period of the bridge structure increased considerably, which results in the deck acceleration and the shear forces on the piers reduced significantly. The results also demonstrate that the hydraulic dampers enhance the system's capacity in dissipating energy to reduce the relative displacement between the bridge deck and the pier.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.481-488
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• 1998

Elastomeric bearing is used as one of the most useful way for isolation structures, because the horizontal stiffness is much lower than the vertical stiffness. In the design criteria of Elastomeric bearing, the stability of the bearings is evaluated by shear strain due to compression, lateral displacement, and rotation. The question how soft rubber can sustain heavy structure is now able to be solved by Ultimate capacity test of Laminated Elastomeric Bearings, which results 1,200kg/$\textrm{cm}^2$ of the max. compressive stress and this shows what a sufficient safety factor Elastomeric bearing has !

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.133-143
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• 2015

It is very important to assure the seismic performance of equipment as well as building structures in seismic design of nuclear power plant(NPP). Seismically isolated structures may be reviewed mainly on the horizontal seismic responses. Considering the equipment installed in the NPP, the vertical earthquake responses of the structure also should be reviewed. This study has investigated the vertical seismic demand of seismically isolated structure by lead rubber bearings(LRBs). For the numerical evaluation of seismic demand of the base isolated NPP, the Korean standard nuclear power plant (APR1400) is modeled as 4 different models, which are supported by LRBs to have 4 different horizontal target periods. Two real earthquake records and artificially generated input motions have been used as inputs for earthquake analyses. For the study, the vertical floor response spectra(FRS) were generated at the major points of the structure. As a results, the vertical seismic responses of horizontally isolated structure have largely increased due to flexibility of elastomeric isolator. The vertical stiffness of the bearings are more carefully considered in the seismic design of the base-isolated NPPs which have the various equipment inside.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.79-89
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• 1997

The objective of this paper is to investigate the mechanical characteristics of the laminated rubber bearings (LRBs) for the seismic isolation. The evaluations of the proposed equations of the LRB horizontal stiffness are carried out and these equations are extended to the visco-elastic problems to investigate the damping amplifications of LRBs. The stability evaluation of LRBs is also performed. For investigation of the dynamic characteristics of LRBs, the horizontal stiffness equations of the LRBs considering the P-delta effects are applied to the modeling of a seismically isolated structure and the earthquake response time history analyses are carried out. From this research, the proposed simple equation of the horizontal stiffness of LRB is so useful for the design loads and easily extended to the visco-elastic problems. Through the stability evaluation of LRB, the increasing ratio of the total rubber thickness of the LRB severely decrecises the bucking load than the increasing ratio of unit rubber thickness. From the comparison of the dynamic shear deflection of LRB, the analysis results are in good agreement with those of the experiments.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.45-51
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• 1996

The combined shear and compression behaviors of seismic isolation rubber bearings are analyzed using the hyperelasticity material option of the ABAQUS computer program. The purpose of the analysis is to predict the behavior of laminated rubber bearing before the several tests. Some kinds of strain energy density functions are used as constitutive law for rubber itself having the hyperelasticity. The results are compared with test data peformed in Italy The analysis results show a little different with experimental results depending on the constitutive model and the refinement of finite element. The high order form of strain energy density functions results in good agreements and the mesh refinement above two for one rubber layer is enough to get good results.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.777-784
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• 2000

During past earthquakes several bridges have failed due to a loss of support at their bearings, seats, and/or expansion joints. Most efforts to prevent this have been directed toward tying bridges together at their bearings and expansion joints. Longitudinal restrainers are installed to limit the relative displacement at joints and thus decrease the chance of a loss of support as these locations. Transverse restrainers are necessary in many cases to keep the superstructure from sliding off in the transverse direction. Vertical restrainers are used at bearings to prevent uplifting deck, but usually not economically justified unless additional bearing retrofit is being performed. To obtain this three function of restrainer, a universal restrainer is developed. The load capacities were evaluated in static and dynamic experimental test. The test results show that the measured capacity or strength of the bridge deck restrainer is similar to that of design value.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.117-120
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• 2008

The bridge bearings are devices absorbing the displacements of the superstructure. KS F 4420 relative to the design of elastomeric bearings in Korea allows shear deformation up to 70% of total rubber height. For the elastomeric bearings to fulfill their shear function required in the design, the stability of allowable shear strain of elastomeric bearings relative to the shear failure should be guaranteed. Moreover considering the possibility that elastomeric bearings are applied to the seismic design together with isolation devices, elastomeric bearings is supposed to display higher shear performance. In this paper ultimate shear performance tests were performed. The measured ultimate shear strains were over 200%. Therefore an allowable shear strain provision becomes safe. But elastomeric bearings expected to show their performance in one united body reveled the separation of components near 200% shear strain. These separation in elastomeric bearing can cause unexpected impact or concentrated stress to bridge system considering to application of seismic design. Therefore provision relevant to separation problem is necessary.