• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.53-68
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• 2018

In this paper, an innovative procedure is proposed for the seismic design of reinforced concrete frame structures. The main contribution of the proposed procedure is to minimize the construction cost, considering the uniform damage distribution over the height of structure due to earthquake excitations. As such, this procedure is structured in the framework of an optimization problem, and the initial construction cost is chosen as the objective function. The aim of uniform damage distribution is reached through a design constraint in the optimization problem. Since this aim requires defining allowable degree of damage, a damage pattern based on the concept of global collapse mechanism is presented. To show the efficiency of the proposed procedure, the uniform damage-based optimum seismic design is compared with two other seismic design procedures, which are the strength-based optimum seismic design and the damage-based optimum seismic design. By using the three different seismic design methods, three reinforced concrete frames including six-, nine-, and twelve-story with three bays are designed optimally under a same artificial earthquake. Then, to show the effects of the uniform damage distribution, all three optimized frames are used for seismic damage analysis under a suite of earthquake records. The results show that the uniform damage-based optimum seismic design method renders a design that will suffer less damage under severe earthquakes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.651-662
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• 2001

In order to investigate the seismic behavior and seismic design methods in the transverse direction of a shield tunnel, a series of model shaking table tests and a two-dimensional finite element dynamic analysis on the tests are carried out. Two kinds of static analytical methods based on ground-tunnel composite finite element model and beam-spring element model are proposed, and the validity of the static analyses is verified by model shaking table tests. The investigation concerns the dynamic response behavior of a tunnel and the ground, the interaction between the tunnel and ground, and an evaluation of different seismic design methods. Results of the investigation indicate that the shield tunnel follows the surrounding ground in displacement and dynamic characteristics in the transverse direction; also, the static analytical methods proposed by the authors can be used directly as the seismic design methods in the transverse direction of a shield tunnel.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.422-429
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• 2003

A comparative study was performed for a suspension bridge to grasp the possible differences in seismic responses evaluated by several analytical methods. The items mainly investigated are the linear vs. nonlinear response the response spectrum method vs. the linear dynamic analysis method and the damping ratio and it's implementation into analysis procedures. According to the numerical example, it is found that the seismic responses are considerably affected by the damping-related parameters even though slight differences are shown depending on the response quantities md the exciting directions. On the other hand, it is also confirmed that the seismic responses are less affected by the analysis method-related parameters such as the response spectrum method vs. the linear dynamic analysis method, and the linear and nonlinear analysis method. The response spectrum method is expected to give conservative results for the examined bridge, provided that the design response spectrum in the Korean Highway Design Specification is modified according to the proper damping ratio.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.45-53
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• 2015

This paper reviews the current seismic design code and research for dynamic earth pressure on retaining structures. Domestic design codes do not clearly define the estimation of dynamic earth pressure and give different comments for seismic coefficient, wall inertia and distribution of dynamic earth pressure using Mononobe-Okabe method. AASHTO has been revised reflecting current research and aims for effective seismic design. Various design codes are analyzed to compare their performance and economic efficiency. The results are used to make improvement of current domestic seismic design code. Further, it is concluded that the experimental investigation is also needed to verify and improve domestic seismic code for dynamic earth pressure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.925-942
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• 2016

With ongoing development of earthquake engineering research and the lessons learnt from a series of strong earthquakes, the seismic design concept of "resilience" has received much attention. Resilience describes the capability of a structure or a city to recover rapidly after earthquakes or other disasters. As one of the main features of urban constructions, tall buildings have greater impact on the sustainability and resilience of major cities. Therefore, it is important and timely to quantify their seismic resilience. In this work, a quantitative comparison of the seismic resilience of two tall buildings designed according to the Chinese and US seismic design codes was conducted. The prototype building, originally designed according to the US code as part of the Tall Building Initiative (TBI) Project, was redesigned in this work according to the Chinese codes under the same design conditions. Two refined nonlinear finite element (FE) models were established for both cases and their seismic responses were evaluated at different earthquake intensities, including the service level earthquake (SLE), the design-based earthquake (DBE) and the maximum considered earthquake (MCE). In addition, the collapse fragility functions of these two building models were established through incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Based on the numerical results, the seismic resilience of both models was quantified and compared using the new-generation seismic performance assessment method proposed by FEMA P-58. The outcomes of this study indicate that the seismic resilience of the building according to the Chinese design is slightly better than that according to the US design. The conclusions drawn from this research are expected to guide further in-depth studies on improving the seismic resilience of tall buildings.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.69-80
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• 2013

This study evaluates the seismic performance of road tunnels designed before the provisions for seismic design of tunnels were first established in 1999. Extensive design data and site investigation reports are investigated to select tunnels sections that are considered to be most susceptible to seismically induced damage under earthquake loading. Detailed analyses are performed on selected tunnels. The methods used are method of displacement and dynamic analysis. In performing the method of displacement, which is a type of pseudo-static analysis method used for underground structures, full domain and reduced domain modeling were used. The dynamic analyses are performed using finite difference method and using nonlinear constitutive model. Comparisons show that the reduced domain method of displacement match very closely with the dynamic analysis, demonstrating that it is the most suitable method for evaluating the seismic performance of road tunnels built in rocks. It is also shown that road tunnels, for which seismic design were not applied, are safe under the seismic risks corresponding to an earthquake with a return period 1000 years. It is concluded that additional seismic retrofit of tunnels is not necessary.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.309-323
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• 2016

As the forefront of structural design method, capacity spectrum method can be applied conveniently, and through this method, deformation demand of structure can be considered. However, there is no research for the seismic application in the structure of sheet pile retaining wall to report. Therefore, focusing on laterally loaded stabilizing sheet pile wall, which belongs to flexible cantilever retaining structure and meets the applying requirement of capacity spectrum method from seismic design of building structure, this paper studied an approach of seismic design of sheet pile wall based on capacity spectrum method. In the procedure, the interaction between soil and structure was simplified, and through Pushover analysis, seismic fortification standard was well associated with performance of retaining structure. In addition, by comparing the result of nonlinear time history analysis, it suggests that this approach is applicable.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.413-434
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• 2012

This paper presents a displacement-based seismic design method with damage control, in which the targets for the considered performance level are set as displacements and a damage distribution is proposed by the designer. The method is based on concepts of basic structural dynamics and of a reference single degree of freedom system associated to the fundamental mode with a bilinear behaviour. Based on the characteristics of this behaviour curve and on the requirements of modal spectral analysis, the stiffness and strength of the structural elements of the structure satisfying the target design displacement are calculated. The formulation of this method is presented together with the formulations of two other existing methods currently considered of practical interest. To illustrate the application of the proposed method, 5 reinforced concrete plane frames: 8, 17 and 25 storey regular, and 8 and 12 storey irregular in elevation. All frames are designed for a seismic demand defined by single earthquake record in order to compare the performances and damage distributions used as design targets with the corresponding results of the nonlinear step by step analyses of the designed structures subjected to the same seismic demand. The performances and damage distributions calculated with these analyses show a good agreement with those postulated as targets.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2022

The optimum design of reinforced concrete cantilever retaining walls subjected to seismic loads is an extremely important challenge in structural and geotechnical engineering, especially in seismic zones. This study proposes an adaptive sperm swarm optimization algorithm (ASSO) for economic design of retaining structure under static and seismic loading. The proposed ASSO algorithm utilizes a time-varying velocity damping factor to provide a fine balance between the explorative and exploitative behavior of the original method. In addition, the new method considers a reasonable velocity limitation to avoid the divergence of the sperm movement. The proposed algorithm is benchmarked with a set of test functions and the results are compared with the standard sperm swarm optimization (SSO) and some other robust metaheuristic from the literature. For seismic optimization of retaining structures, Mononobe-Okabe method is employed for dynamic loading conditions and total construction cost of the structure is considered as the single objective function. The optimization constraints include both geotechnical and structural restrictions and the design variables are the geometrical dimensions of the wall and the amount of steel reinforcement. Finally, optimization of two benchmark retaining structures under static and seismic loads using the ASSO algorithm is presented. According to the numerical results, the ASSO may provide better optimal solutions, and the designs obtained by ASSO have a lower cost by up to 20% compared with some other methods from the literature.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.253-261
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• 2018

This article details a bridge-specific fragility method developed to enhance the seismic design and resilience of bridges. Current seismic design processes provide guidance for the design of a bridge that will not collapse during a design hazard event. However, they do not provide performance information of the bridge at different hazard levels or due to design changes. Therefore, there is a need for a supplement to this design process that will provide statistical information on the performance of a bridge, beyond traditional emphases on collapse prevention. This article proposes a bridge-specific parameterized fragility method to enable efficient estimation of various levels of damage probability for alternative bridge design parameters. A multi-parameter demand model is developed to incorporate bridge design details directly in the fragility estimation. Monte Carlo simulation and Logistic regression are used to determine the fragility of the bridge or bridge component. The resulting parameterized fragility model offers a basis for a bridge-specific design tool to explore the influence of design parameter variation on the expected performance of a bridge. When used as part of the design process, these tools can help to transform a prescriptive approach into a more performance-based approach, efficiently providing probabilistic performance information about a new bridge design. An example of the method and resulting fragility estimation is presented.