• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.269-282
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• 2015

Civil structures should be designed with the lowest cost and longest lifetime possible and without service failure. The efficient and sustainable use of materials in building design and construction has always been at the forefront for civil engineers and environmentalists. Timber is one of the best contenders for these purposes particularly in terms of aesthetics; fire protection; strength-to-weight ratio; acoustic properties and seismic resistance. In recent years, timber has been used in commercial and taller buildings due to these significant advantages. It should be noted that, since the launch of the modern building standards and codes, a number of different structural systems have been developed to stabilise steel or concrete multistorey buildings, however, structural analysis of high-rise and multi-storey timber frame buildings subjected to lateral loads has not yet been fully understood. Additionally, timber degradation can occur as a result of biological decay of the elements and overloading that can result in structural damage. In such structures, the deficient members and joints require strengthening in order to satisfy new code requirements; determine acceptable level of safety; and avoid brittle failure following earthquake actions. This paper investigates performance assessment and damage assessment of older multi-storey timber buildings. One approach is to retrofit the beams in order to increase the ductility of the frame. Experimental studies indicate that Sprayed Fibre Reinforced Polymer (SFRP) repairing/retrofitting not only updates the integrity of the joint, but also increases its strength; stiffness; and ductility in such a way that the joint remains elastic. Non-linear finite element analysis ('pushover') is carried out to study the behaviour of the structure subjected to simulated gravity and lateral loads. A new global index is re-assessed for damage assessment of the plain and SFRP-retrofitted frames using capacity curves obtained from pushover analysis. This study shows that the proposed method is suitable for structural damage assessment of aged timber buildings. Also SFRP retrofitting can potentially improve the performance and load carrying capacity of the structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.169-184
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• 2022

The importance of seismicity in developing countries and the strengthening of buildings is a topic of major importance. Therefore, the study of several solutions with the development of new technologies is of great importance to investigate the damage on retrofitted structures by using probabilistic methods. The Federal Emergency Management Agency considers three types of performance levels by considering different scenarios, intensity and duration. The selection and scaling of ground motions mainly depends on the aim of the study. Intensity-based assessments are the most common and compute the response of buildings for a specified seismic intensity. Assessments based on scenarios estimate the response of buildings to different earthquake scenarios. A risk-based assessment is considered as one of the most effective. This research represents a practical method for developing countries where exists many active faults, tall buildings and lack of good implementable approaches. Therefore, to achieve the main goal, two high-rise steel buildings have been modeled and assessed. The contribution of buckling-restrained braces in the elastic design of both buildings is firstly verified. In the nonlinear static range, both buildings presented repairable damage at the central top part and some life safety hinges at the bottom. The nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis was applied by 15 representative/scaled accelerograms to obtain levels of performance and fragility curves. The results shown that by using probabilistic methods, it is possible to estimate the probability of collapse of retrofitted buildings by buckling-restrained braces and tuned mass dampers, which are practical retrofitting options to protect existing structures against earthquakes.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 2007

External confinement by CFS (Carbon Fiber Sheet) is a very effective retrofit method for the reinforced concrete columns subject to either static or seismic loads. For the reliable and cost-effective design of CFS, an accurate stress-strain curve is required for CFS-confined concrete. In this paper, uniaxial compression test on short RC column with circular section was performed. To evaluate the effect of confinement on the stress-strain relationship of CFS-confined concrete, CFS area ratio, spiral area ratio, and concrete compressive strength are considered as the test variables. Experiment results indicate that CFS jacketing significantly enhances strength and ductility of concrete. In addition, the CFS-jacketed specimens with the spiral steel show the lower load increasement ratio than those without the spiral steel.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.115-127
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• 2019

The low-flow grouting injection technique, the target construction method for this study, is a method of pouring mortar into the ground by non-emission replacement principle, which can be expected to increase the density of the ground, and, in some cases, be used as a base file using the strength of the high injection solids, along with low noise, low pollution, and high durability. To verify that the dynamic characteristics of the ground are improved by the low-flow injection technique, the test work was conducted on the site and physical tests were performed, and the quality of the improvement formed in the ground was verified through the indoor test on the core and core recovery rate was analyzed. The density logs test layer calculated the volume density of the ground layer by using the Compton scattering of gamma-rays, and the sonic logs was tested on the ground around the drill hole using a detector consisting of sonar and receiver devices inside the drill hole. As a result of the measurement of the change in physical properties (density and sonic logs) before and after grouting, both properties were basically increased after infusion of grout agent. However, the variation in density increase was greater than the increase in speed after grouting, and the ground density measurement method was thought to be effective in measuring the fill effect of the filler. Strength and core recovery rates were measured from specimens taken after the age of 28 days, and the results of the test results of the diffusion and strength test of the improved products were verified to satisfy the design criteria, thereby satisfying the seismic performance reinforcement.

• 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.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.108-113
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• 2006

Urban conditions, such as existing underground facilities and ambient noise due to cultural activity, restrict the general application of conventional geophysical techniques. At a tunnelling site in an urban area along an existing railroad, we used the refraction microtremor (REMI) technique (Louie, 2001) as an alternative way to get geotechnical information. The REMI method uses ambient noise recorded by standard refraction equipment and a linear geophone array to derive a shear-wave velocity profile. In the inversion procedure, the Rayleigh wave dispersion curve is picked from a wavefield transformation, and iteratively modelled to get the S-wave velocity structure. The REMI survey was carried out along the line of the planned railway tunnel. At this site vibrations from trains and cars provided strong seismic sources that allowed REMI to be very effective. The objective of the survey was to evaluate the rock mass rating (RMR), using shear-wave velocity information from REMI. First, the relation between uniaxial compressive strength, which is a component of the RMR, and shear-wave velocity from laboratory tests was studied to learn whether shear-wave velocity and RMR are closely related. Then Suspension PS (SPS) logging was performed in selected boreholes along the profile, in order to draw out the quantitative relation between the shear-wave velocity from SPS logging and the RMR determined from inspection of core from the same boreholes. In these tests, shear-wave velocity showed fairly good correlation with RMR. A good relation between shear-wave velocity from REMI and RMR could be obtained, so it is possible to estimate the RMR of the entire profile for use in design of the underground tunnel.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.7-13
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• 2000

Abstract The characteristics of bed rock in the study area was classified by means of the crack coefficient estimated from the seismic velocities of in-situ and intact rocks. Various statistical methods were investigated in order to minimize the possible errors in estimating the predictive equation of blasting vibration and to enhance the determination coefficient $R^2$, for more reliable estimation. The determination coefficient showed the highest in the analysis for those groups using weighting function with the number of samples. The analysis for the weighting function employed with standard coefficient and variance also enhanced the determination coefficients significantly compared to the others, but the reliability was slightly lower than results obtained former method. Therefore the most reliable predictive equation of blasting vibration was found to be obtained from a regression analysis of the mean vibration level using the weighting of same distance groups within 15m with the same explosive charge weight per delay. The coefficients, K and n 317.4 and -1.66, respectively, when using the square root scaling, and 209.9 and -1.66, respectively, when using the cube root scaling. The analysis also showed that the square root scaling may be used in the distance less than 31m form the blast source, and the cube root scaling in the distance more than 31m for safe design.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.399-406
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• 2012

Beam-column joints are generally recognized as the critical regions in the moment resisting reinforced concrete (RC) frames subjected to both lateral and vertical loads. As a result of severe lateral load such as seismic loading, the joint region is subjected to horizontal and vertical shear forces whose magnitudes are many times higher than in column and adjacent beam. Consequently, much larger bond and shear stresses are required to sustain these magnified forces. The critical deterioration of potential shear strength in the joint area should not occur until ductile capacity of adjacent beams reach the design demand. In this study, a method was provided to predict the deformability of reinforced concrete beam-column joints failing in shear after the plastic hinges developed at both ends of the adjacent beams. In order to verify the deformability estimated by the proposed method, an experimental study consisting of three joint specimens with varying tensile reinforcement ratios was carried out. The result between the observed and predicted behavior of the joints showed reasonably good agreement.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.1 s.182
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• pp.87-101
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• 2007

A variety of informations obtained from satellite image, digital elevation relief map (DEM), borehole logging, televiewer, geophysical prospecting, etc were synthetically analyzed to investigate subsurface geological and structural characteristics and to evaluate geohazard pertinent to fault-damage in the Busan metropolitan city. It is revealed that the geology is composed of the Cretaceous andesitic$\sim$dacitic volcanics, gabbro, and granitoid and that at least three major faults including the Dongrae fault are developed in the study area. Based on characteristics of topography, fault-fractured zone, and isobath maps of the Quaternary sediments and weathered residuals of the basement, the Dongrae fault is decreased in its width and fracturing intensity of damaged zone from south toward north, and the fault is segmented around the area between the Seomyeon and Yangieong junctions. Meanwhile, we drew a geohazard sectional map using the five major parameters that significantly suggest damage intensity of basement by fault, i.e. distance from fault core, TCR, RQD, uniaxial rock strength, and seismic velocity of S wave. The map is evaluated as a suitable method to express the geological and structural characteristics and fault-damaged intensity of basement in the study area. It is, thus, concluded that the proposed method can contribute to complement and amplify the capability of the present evaluation system of rock mass.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.18-28
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to develop a new seismic resistant method by using precast concrete wall panels for existing low-rise, reinforced concrete beam-column buildings such as school buildings. Three quasi-static hysteresis loading tests were performed on one unreinforced beam-column specimen and two reinforced specimens with U-type precast wall panels. The results were analyzed to find that the specimen with anchored connection experienced shear failure, while the other specimen with steel plate connection principally manifested flexural failure. The ultimate strength of the specimens was determined to be the weaker of the shear strength of top connection and flexural strength at the critical section of precast panel. In this setup of U-type panel specimens, if a push loading is applied to the reinforced concrete column on one side and push the precast concrete panel, a pull loading from upper shear connection is to be applied to the other side of the top shear connection of precast panel. Since the composite flexural behavior of the two members govern the total behavior during the push loading process, the ultimate horizontal resistance of this specimen was not directly influenced by shear strength at the top connection of precast panel. However, the RC column and PC wall panel member mainly exhibited non-composite behavior during the pull loading process. The ultimate horizontal resistance was directly influenced by the shear strength of top connection because the pull loading from the beam applied directly to the upper shear connection. The analytical result for the internal shear resistance at the connection pursuant to the anchor shear design of ACI 318M-11 Appendix-D, agreed with the experimental result based on the elastic analysis of Midas-Zen by using the largest loading from experiment.