• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.291-299
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• 2014

There has been an increasing demand for introducing a base isolation system to secure the seismic safety of a nuclear power plant. However, the design criteria and the safety assessment methodology of a base isolated nuclear facility are still being developed. A performance based design concept for the base isolation system needs to be added to the general seismic design procedures. For the base isolation system, the displacement responses of isolators excited by the extended design basis earthquake are important as well as the design displacement. The possible displacement response by the extended design basis earthquake should be limited less than the failure displacement of the isolator. The failure of isolators were investigated by an experimental test to define the ultimate strain level of rubber bearings. The uncertainty analysis, considering the variations of the mechanical properties of isolators and input ground motions, was performed to estimate the probabilistic distribution of the isolator displacement. The relationship of the displacement response by each ground motion level was compared in view of a period elongation and a reduction of damping. Finally, several examples of isolator parameters are calculated and the considerations for an acceptable isolation design is discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.5
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• pp.405-418
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• 2023

This study focused on the effectiveness of seismic isolation technique in case of a reinforced concrete structure with soft story defined as the stiffness irregularity between adjacent stories. In this context, a seismically isolated 3-story reinforced concrete structure was analyzed by gradually increasing the first story height (3.0, 4.5, and 6.0 m). The seismic isolation system of the structure is assumed to be composed of lead rubber bearings (LRB). In the analyses, isolators were modeled by both deteriorating (temperature-dependent analyses) and non-deteriorating (bounding analyses) hysteretic representations. The deterioration in strength of isolator is due to temperature rise in the lead core during cyclic motion. The ground motion pairs used in bi-directional nonlinear dynamic analyses were selected and scaled according to codified procedures. In the analyses, different isolation periods (Tiso) and characteristic strength to weight ratios (Q/W) were considered in order to determine the sensitivity of structural response to the isolator properties. Response quantities under consideration are floor accelerations, and interstory drift ratios. Analyses results are compared for both hysteretic representations of LRBs. Results are also used to assess the significance of the ratio between the horizontal stiffnesses of soft story and isolation system. It is revealed that seismic isolation is a viable method to reduce structural damage in structures with soft story.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.99-106
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• 1995

The seismic responses of a base Isolated Pressurized Water Reactor(PWR) are investigated using a mathematical model which expresses the superstructure as a linear lumped mass-spring and the seismic Isolator as an equivalent spring-damper. Time history analyses are performed for the 1940 El Centre earthquake with linear amplification. In the analysis 5% of structural damping is used for the superstructure. The effects of high damping rubber bearing on seismic response of the superstructure in base isolated system are evaluated for four stiffness model types. The acceleration responses in base isolated PWR superstructure with high damping rubber bearings are much smaller than those in fixed base structure. In the higher strain region where stiffness behaves non-linearly, the acceleration responses modelled by one equivalent stiffness are smaller than those in nonlinear spring model, and the higher stiffness spring model of isolator exhibits larger peak acceleration response at superstructure in the frequency range above 2.0 Hz. when subjected to linearly amplified 1940 El Centre earthquake.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.31-47
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• 2017

As a relatively new type of multi-layered rubber-based seismic isolators, fiber-reinforced elastomeric isolators (FREIs) are composed of several thin rubber layers reinforced with flexible fiber sheets. Limited analytical studies in literature have pointed out that "warping" (distortion) of reinforcing sheets has significant influence on buckling behavior of FREIs. However, none of these studies, to the best knowledge of authors, has investigated their warping behavior, thoroughly. This study aims to investigate, in detail, the warping behavior of strip-shaped FREIs by deriving advanced analytical solutions without utilizing the commonly used "pressure", incompressibility, inextensibility and the "linear axial displacement variation through the thickness" assumptions. Studies show that the warping behavior of FREIs mainly depends on the (i) aspect ratio (shape factor) of the interior elastomer layers, (ii) Poisson's ratio of the elastomer and (iii) extensibility of the fiber sheets. The basic assumptions of the "pressure" method as well as the commonly used incompressibility assumption are valid only for isolators with relatively large shape factors, strictly incompressible elastomeric material and nearly inextensible fiber reinforcement.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 2022

In this study, three types of combined isolator consisting of High Damping Rubber Bearing (HDRB) and wire isolator were developed for Uninterruptible Power Supply system (UPS). The dynamic characteristics of the combined isolator were investigated through one-axis shaking table test. The input acceleration were generated in accordance with ICC-ES AC156 code. Scale factors of the input acceleration were designed to be 0.5-2 times the required response spectrum defined in ICC-ES AC156. Based on the test results, damage and dynamic characteristics of the UPS were investigated: including natural frequency, damping ratio, acceleration time history response, dynamic amplification factor and relative displacement. Based on that, it was found that the combined isolator developed in this study could improve the seismic behavior of the UPS, in particular, the response acceleration.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.63-72
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to evaluate seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridge piers supported by laminated rubber bearings. A computer program, named RCAHEST(Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology), for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures was used. Material nonlinearity is taken into account by comprising tensile, compressive and shear models of cracked concrete and a model of reinforcing steel. The smeared crack approach is incorporated. Seismic isolator element is developed to predict behaviors of laminated rubber bearings. The proposed numerical method for seismic performance evaluation of reinforced concrete bridge piers supported by laminated rubber bearings is verified by comparison with reliable experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.358-362
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• 2006

Pyro-shock generally refers to the severe mechanical transients caused by the detonation of an ordnance device on a structure. Such device on a structure, including linear explosive, and point explosive are widely used to accomplish in-flight separation of structural elements on aerospace vehicle. And they are a significant cause of launch vehicle failures. The launch vehicle being developed in Korea also uses the explosive for separation events. In this paper, the isolator equipped to small satellite launch vehicle made of PTFE(Teflon) is developed to reduce the separation shock. The test to measure dynamic stiffness of PTFE isolator is performed. This test enables us to find the frequency range of PTFE isolator. And,, pyre-shock test using explosive to evaluate the performance of PTFE isolator is executed. from this study, the isolator conformed to frequency range and load requirement is developed using PTFE instead of rubber.

• Polymer Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.335-343
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• 1999

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.23-48
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• 2013

In this study, the effect of flexibility of superstructures and nonlinear characteristics of LRB (Lead Rubber Bearing) isolator on inelastic response of base isolated structures is investigated. To demonstrate the intensity of damage in superstructures, demand response modification factor without the consideration of damping reduction factor, demand RI, is used and the N2 method is applied to compute this factor. To evaluate the influence of superstructure flexibility on inelastic response of base isolated structures, different steel intermediate moment resisting frames with different heights have been investigated. In lead rubber bearing, the rubber provides flexibility and the lead is the source of damping; variations of aforementioned characteristics are also investigated on inelastic response of superstructures. It is observed that an increase in height of superstructure leads to higher value of demand RI till 4-story frame but afterward this factor remains constant; in other words, an increase in height until 4-story frame causes more damage in the superstructure but after that superstructure's damage is equal to the 4-story frame's. The results demonstrate that the low value of second stiffness (rubber stiffness in LRBs) tends to show a significant decrease in demand RI. Increase in value of characteristic strength (yield strength of the lead in LRBs) leads to decrease in the demand RI.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.451-458
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• 2002

To secure structures from strong earthquakes occurred recently and design economically seismic isolation design is spread rapidly. Specially, frictional isolator has superiority in application to bridge because it has many advantages. however, because isolator lies between pier and girder, responses of pier and superstructure contradict each other and we need to control the two responses to minimize the bridge's failure probability. In this study, frictional coefficient and horizontal stiffness is defined as design parameters of frictional isolator. the optimal design parameters of frictional isolator to minimize the bridge's failure probability are presented according to strength of earthquake and soil conditions. The result says that optimal friction coefficient is higher as the strength of earthquake is increased. And it is also higher as the soils are more flexible. But, optimal horizontal stiffness of rubber spring is insensitive to strength of earthquake and soil condition.