• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2019

In order to increase the seismic safety of nuclear power plant (NPP) structures, a technique to reduce the seismic load transmitted to the NPP structure by using a seismic isolation device such as a lead-rubber bearing has recently been actively researched. In seismic design of NPP structures, three directional (two horizontal and one vertical directions) artificial synthetic earthquakes (G0 group) corresponding to the standard design spectrum are generally used. In this study, seismic analysis was performed by using three directional artificial synthetic earthquakes (M0 group) corresponding to the maximum-minimum spectrum reflecting uncertainty of incident direction of earthquake load. The design basis earthquake (DBE) and the beyond design basis earthquakes (BDBEs are equal to 150%, 167%, and 200% DBE) of G0 and M0 earthquake groups were respectively generated for 30 sets and used for the seismic analysis. The purpose of this study is to compare seismic responses and seismic fragility curves of seismically isolated NPP structures subjected to DBE and BDBE. From the seismic fragility curves, the probability of failure of the seismic isolation system when the peak ground acceleration (PGA) is 0.5 g is about 5% for the M0 earthquake group and about 3% for the G0 earthquake group.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.395-410
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• 2014

Fiber Reinforced Elastomeric Bearings (FREBs) are a relatively new type of laminated bearings that can be used as seismic/vibration isolators or bridge bearings. In an unbonded (U)-FREB, the bearing is placed between the top and bottom supports with no bonding or fastening provided at its contact surfaces. Under shear loads the top and bottom faces of a U-FREB roll off the contact supports and the bearing exhibits rollover deformation. As a result of rollover deformation, the horizontal response characteristics of U-FREBs are significantly different than conventional elastomeric bearings that are employed in bonded application. Current literature lacks an efficient analytical horizontal stiffness solution for this type of bearings. This paper presents two simplified analytical models for horizontal stiffness evaluation of U-FREBs. Both models assume that the resistance to shear loads is only provided by an effective region of the bearing that sustains significant shear strains. The presented models are different in the way they relate this effective region to the horizontal bearing displacements. In comparison with experimental results and finite element analyses, the analytical models that are presented in this paper are found to be sufficiently accurate to be used in the preliminary design of U-FREBs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.5
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• pp.675-684
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• 2017

In this paper, a hybrid seismic response control (HSRC) system was developed to control bridge behavior caused by the seismic load. It was aimed at optimum vibration control, composed of a rubber bearing of passive type and MR-damper of semi-active type. Its mathematical modeling was driven and applied to a bridge model so as to prove its validity. The bridge model was built for the experiment, a two-span bridge of 8.3 meters in length with the HSRC system put up on it. Then, inflicting the EI Centro seismic load on it, shaking table tests were carried out to confirm the system's validity. The experiments were conducted under the basic structure state (without an MR-damper applied) first, and then under the state with an MR-damper applied. It was also done under the basic structure state with a reinforced rubber bearing applied, then the passive on/off state of the HSRC system, and finally the semi-active state where the control algorithm was applied to the system. From the experiments, it was observed that pounding rather increased when the MR-damper alone was applied, and also that the application of the HSRC system effectively prevented it from occurring. That is, the experiments showed that the system successfully mitigated structural behavior by 70% against the basic structure state, and, further, when control algorithm is applied for the operation of the MR-damper, relative displacement was found to be effectively mitigated by 80%. As a result, the HSRC system was proven to be effective in mitigating responses of the two-span bridge under seismic load.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.227-248
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• 2015

A CFPBS (Cone-type Friction Pendulum Bearing System) was developed to control the acceleration delivered to a structure to prevent the damage and degradation of critical communication equipment during earthquakes. This study evaluated the isolation performance of the CFPBS by numerical analysis. The CFPBS was manufactured in the shape of a cone differenced with the existing FPS (Friction Pendulum System), and a pattern was engraved on the friction surface. The natural frequencies of the CFPBS were evaluated from a free-vibration test with a seismic isolator system consisting of 4 CFPBS. To confirm the earthquake-resistant performance, a numerical analysis program was prepared using the equation of the CFPBS induced from the equations of motion. The equation reported by Tsai for the rolling-type seismic isolation bearings was proposed to design the equation of the CFPBS. Artificial seismic waves that satisfy the maximum earthquake scale of the Korean Building Code-Structural (KBC-2005) were created and verified to review the earthquake-resistant performance of the CFPBS by numerical analysis. The superstructural mass of the CFPBS and the skew angle of friction surface were considered for numerical analysis with El Centro NS, Kobe NS and artificial seismic waves. The CFPBS isolation performance evaluation was based on the numerical analysis results, and comparative analysis was performed between the results from numerical analysis and simplified theoretical equation under the same conditions. The validity of numerical analysis was verified from the shaking table test.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.381-399
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• 2005

Base isolation technologies have been proven to be very efficient in protecting structures from seismic hazards during experimental and theoretical studies. In recent years, there have been more and more engineering applications using base isolators to upgrade the seismic resistibility of structures. Optimum design of the base isolator can lessen the undesirable seismic hazard with the most efficiency. Hence, tracing the nonlinear behavior of the base isolator with good accuracy is important in the engineering profession. In order to predict the nonlinear behavior of base isolated structures precisely, hundreds even thousands of degrees-of-freedom and iterative algorithm are required for nonlinear time history analysis. In view of this, a simple and feasible exact formulation without any iteration has been proposed in this study to calculate the seismic responses of structures with base isolators. Comparison between the experimental results from shaking table tests conducted at National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taiwan and the analytical results show that the proposed method can accurately simulate the seismic behavior of base isolated structures with elastomeric bearings. Furthermore, it is also shown that the proposed method can predict the nonlinear behavior of the VCFPS isolated structure with accuracy as compared to that from the nonlinear finite element program. Therefore, the proposed concept can be used as a simple and practical tool for engineering professions for designing the elastomeric bearing as well as sliding bearing.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.145-151
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• 2008

The research so far has primarily analyzed efficiency improvement but in this research, it analyzes the characteristics of earthquake behavior, with changed pier heights, through ordinary and seismic analysis. For this, the kind of bridge bearing has been changed against PSC I-shaped bridge, which is mostly used in practice, and at all times earthquake analysis has been performed with through height of pier. Especially considering sectional power resulting from earthquake analysis, displacement of PSC I-shaped bridge bearing, diameter of pier pillar by earthquake load, and upper spare gap have been analyzed. In case of high-pear, seismic isolated device is decided as proper for cars' driving and for management of bridge since it decreases movement of upper structure, than elastic bearing, reducing size of elastic connect device, and it's been analyzed it is effective for improvement of fine view and economic efficiency reducing section of lower bridge structure. Finally, when design PSC I-shaped bridge bearing, for the proper structure and high-pier side, applying seismic isolated device through precise inner analysis is proper than applying equal elastic bearing.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.251-258
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• 2024

This study investigated the effect of bearing aging on the seismic response of a three-span continuous concrete girder bridge with pot bearings installed. The pot bearings were modeled as elastic springs in the longitudinal, transverse, and vertical directions of the bridge to reflect the stiffness of fixed and movable supports. The effect of bearing aging on the seismic response of the bridge was examined by considering two factors: a decrease in the horizontal stiffness of the fixed bearings and an increase in the horizontal stiffness of the movable bearings. The finite element model of the three-span continuous girder bridge was validated by comparing its numerical natural frequencies with the designed natural frequencies. Using artificial ground motions that conform to the design response spectrum specified by the KDS bridge seismic design code, the seismic responses of the bridge's girders and bearings were calculated, considering the bearing stiffness variation due to aging. The results of a numerical analysis revealed that a decrease in the horizontal stiffness of the fixed bearings led to an increase in the absolute maximum relative displacement of the bearings during an earthquake. This increases the risk of the mortar block that supports the bearing cracking and the anchor bolt breaking. However, an increase in the horizontal stiffness of the movable bearings due to aging decreased the absolute maximum shear on the fixed bearings. Despite the shear reduction in the fixed bearings, the aging of the pot bearings change could cause additional tensile bending stress in the girder section above the free bearings, which could lead to unexpected structural damage to the continuous bridge during an earthquake.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.415-425
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• 2016

Load-bearing steel stud wall system is widely used for the middle-to-high rise modular buildings worldwide. Seismic performance is a key issue to apply load-bearing steel stud wall system to modular buildings in Korea. This study proposes a new strap braced steel stud wall system with enhanced seismic performance and design equations considering the flexural behaviour of the vertical outer studs. For the verification, two specimens with different strap braces and vertical outer stud were designed and tested. The test results showed that the total strengths were evaluated to be 1.11 to 1.18 times higher than the predicted values. Usually strap braced walls are considered to have low energy dissipation capacities. The proposed system showed enhanced seismic performance with equivalent damping of 9.42% due to the reduced pinching effects.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.959-982
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• 2015

In this study, a non-stationary random earthquake Clough-Penzien model is used to describe earthquake ground motion. Using stochastic direct integration in combination with an equivalent linear method, a solution is established to describe the non-stationary response of lead-rubber bearing (LRB) system to a stochastic earthquake. Two parameters are used to develop an optimization method for bearing design: the post-yielding stiffness and the normalized yield strength of the isolation bearing. Using the minimization of the maximum energy response level of the upper structure subjected to an earthquake as an objective function, and with the constraints that the bearing failure probability is no more than 5% and the second shape factor of the bearing is less than 5, a calculation method for the two optimal design parameters is presented. In this optimization process, the radial basis function (RBF) response surface was applied, instead of the implicit objective function and constraints, and a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm was used to solve the optimization problems. By considering the uncertainties of the structural parameters and seismic ground motion input parameters for the optimization of the bearing design, convex set models (such as the interval model and ellipsoidal model) are used to describe the uncertainty parameters. Subsequently, the optimal bearing design parameters were expanded at their median values into first-order Taylor series expansions, and then, the Lagrange multipliers method was used to determine the upper and lower boundaries of the parameters. Moreover, using a calculation example, the impacts of site soil parameters, such as input peak ground acceleration, bearing diameter and rubber shore hardness on the optimization parameters, are investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.389-394
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• 2011

Existing FPS(Friction Pendulum System) is isolation system which is possible to isolate structures by pendulum characteristic from ground vibration. Structural natural frequency could be decided by designing the radius of curvature of FPS. Thus, response vibration could be reduced by changing natural frequency of structures from FPS. But effective periods of recorded seismic wave were various and estimation of earthquake characteristic could be difficult. If effective periods of seismic wave correspond to natural frequency of structures with FPS, resonance can be occurred. Therefore, CFPBS(Cone-type Friction Pendulum Bearing System) was developed for controlling the response acceleration and displacement by the slope of friction surfaces. Structural natural frequency with CFPBS can be changed according to position of ball on the friction surface which was designed cone-type. Therefore, Divergence of response could be controlled by CFPBS which had constantly changing natural frequency with low modal participation factor in wide-range. In this study, Seismic performance of CFPBS was evaluated by numerical analysis and shaking table test.