• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.373-379
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• 2017

Seismic probabilistic safety assessments are used to help understand the impact potential seismic events can have on the operation of a nuclear power plant. An important component to seismic probabilistic safety assessment is the seismic hazard curve which shows the frequency of seismic events. However, these hazard curves are estimated assuming a normal distribution of the seismic events. This may not be a strong assumption given the number of recorded events at each source-to-site distance. The use of a normal distribution makes the calculations significantly easier but may underestimate or overestimate the more rare events, which is of concern to nuclear power plants. This paper shows a preliminary exploration into the effect of using a distribution that perhaps more represents the distribution of events, such as the t-distribution to describe data. The integration of a probability distribution with potentially larger tails basically pushes the hazard curves outward, suggesting a different range of frequencies for use in seismic probabilistic safety assessments. Therefore the use of a more realistic distribution results in an increase in the frequency calculations suggesting rare events are less rare than thought in terms of seismic probabilistic safety assessment. However, the opposite was observed with the ground motion prediction equation considered.

• 한국지진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국지진공학회 2003년도 춘계 학술발표회논문집
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• pp.12-15
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• 2003

Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources(KIGAM) is operating Wonju Korea Seismic Research Station(KSRS), 29 regional seismic research stations and 5 Korea-China joint seismic stations in China. Also KIGAM is operating Korea Earthquake Monitoring System (KEMS) to archive the real-time data stream and to determine event parameters (epicenter, origin time, and magnitude) by the automatic processing and analyst review. To do this, KEMS used KIGAM's regional seismic network and other institute's network in a near real-time base. From Dec. 1, 2001 to Nov. 30, 2002, 3,827 seismic events were analyzed in a automatic processing procedure and finally 3,437 events were analyzed by analyst and archived. But problem is this event catalog includes not only natural earthquake, but also artificial events produced by the blast. More than 80 % events were concentrated in daytime and many events were concentrated in the confirmed blast sites, Pyeongyang, Pocheon, Yeongjong-do, Donghae city, etc. Because these artificial events are a major potential cause of error when estimating the seismicity of a specific region, discrimination procedure has to be developed in the first place.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제38권6호
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• pp.621-631
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• 2024

In designing earthquake-resistant structures, we traditionally select dynamic loads based on the recurrence period of earthquakes, using individual seismic records or aligning them with the design spectrum. However, these records often represent isolated waveforms lacking continuity, underscoring the need for a deeper understanding of natural seismic phenomena. The Earth's crustal movement, both before and after a significant earthquake, can trigger a series of both minor and major seismic events. These minor earthquakes, which often occur in short time before or after the major seismic events, prompt a critical reassessment of their potential impact on structural design. In this study, we conducted a detailed tunnel response analysis to assess the impact of both single mainshock and multiple earthquake scenarios (including foreshock-mainshock and mainshock-aftershock sequences). Utilizing numerical analysis, we explored how multiple earthquakes affect tunnel deformation. Our findings reveal that sequential seismic events, even those of moderate magnitude, can exert considerable stress on tunnel lining, resulting in heightened bending stress and permanent displacement. This research highlights a significant insight: current seismic design methodologies, which predominantly focus on the largest seismic intensity, may fail to account for the cumulative impact of smaller, yet frequent, seismic events like foreshocks and aftershocks. Our results demonstrate that dynamic analyses considering only a single mainshock are likely to underestimate the potential damage (i.e., ovaling deformation, failure lining, permanent displacement etc.) when compared to analyses that incorporate multiple earthquake scenarios.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제14권5호
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• pp.389-398
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• 2018

The seismic isolation system makes a structure isolated from ground motions to protect the structure from seismic events. Seismic isolation techniques have been implemented in full-scale buildings and bridges because of their simplicity, economic effectiveness, inherent stability and reliability. As for the responses of an isolated structure due to seismic events, it is well known that the most uncertain aspects are the seismic loading itself and structural properties. Due to the randomness of earthquakes and uncertainty of structures, seismic response distributions of an isolated structure are needed when evaluating the seismic fragility assessment (or probabilistic seismic safety assessment) of an isolated structure. Seismic response time histories are useful and often essential elements in its design or evaluation stage. Thus, a large number of non-linear dynamic analyses should be performed to evaluate the seismic performance of an isolated structure. However, it is a monumental task to gather the design or evaluation information of the isolated structure from too many seismic analyses, which is impractical. In this paper, a new methodology that can evaluate the seismic fragility assessment of an isolated structure is proposed by using stochastic response database, which is a device that can estimate the seismic response distributions of an isolated structure without any seismic response analyses. The seismic fragility assessment of the isolated nuclear power plant is performed using the proposed methodology. The proposed methodology is able to evaluate the seismic performance of isolated structures effectively and reduce the computational efforts tremendously.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.21-38
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• 2011

This study examines the influence of curved, steel, I-girder bridge configuration on girder end reactions and cross frame member forces during seismic events. Simply-supported bridge finite element models were created and examined under seismic events mimicking what could be experienced in AASHTO Seismic Zone 2. Bridges were analyzed using practical ranges of: radius of curvature; girder and cross frame spacings; and lateral bracing configuration. Results from the study indicated that: (1) radius of curvature had the greatest influence on seismic response; (2) interior (lowest radius) girder reactions were heavily influenced by parameter variations and, in certain instances, uplift at their bearings could be a concern; (3) vertical excitation more heavily influenced bearing and cross frame seismic response; and (4) lateral bracing helped reduce seismic effects but using bracing along the entire span did not provide additional benefit over placing bracing only in bays adjacent to the supports.

• 지질공학
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.59-74
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• 1995

HYPO71PC 프로그래을 이용하여 지진 관측망안에서 일어난 지진의 진원인자 결정은 잘알려져 있다. 그러나 이 지진 관측망이 일정하게 진원주위로 분포 되지 않거나 지진 관측망 밖의 진원 결정은 이 프로그램의 사용시에 문제가 있다. 더우기 남, 북한 지진 자료 교환이 없기 때문에 북한의 소규모 지진을 결정하는 것은 매우 어렵다. 우리는 지진 관측망 밖의 천발지진을 결정하기 위하여 3 성분의 단일 지진관측시 편광 방법을 사용한다. 우선 1991. 4. 14. 의성 지진, 1994. 2. 12. 계룡산 지진 등 지진관측망의 내부지진과 1992. 11. 12. 서평양지진, 1994. 7. 26. 황해 지진등 외부지진을 예로 사용하였다. 지진 관측망 안의 진원은 곧 수렴하는데 관측망 밖의 지진은 수렴이 되지 않았다. 따라서 관측망 밖의 진원을 3 성분의 단일 지진관측을 이용한 Polarization 방법으로 쉽게 진원의 방위각을 결정하고 위상 차이에 의한 진앙거리를 결정할 수 있다. Polarization 방법을 모델링에 의해서 만들어진 이론지진 기록지의 방위각과 입사각을 결정함으로 이 방법의 유용성을 증명하였다.

• 한국지진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국지진공학회 2002년도 춘계 학술발표회 논문집
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• pp.59-63
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• 2002

Artificial blasts, defined as seismo-acoustic events, were discriminated from natural earthquakes in the Korean Peninsula by analyzing seismo-acoustic data. 219 seismo-acoustic events corresponding to 9 percent of total seismic events in 2001 were analyzed and classified as artificial surface blasts. Most seismo-acoustic events were concentrated in several areas. This distribution pattern was similar to the previous result in 1999-2000. Most of seismo-acoustic events especially concentrated at 7 small areas in North and South Korea. The number of seismo-acoustic events occurred in North and South Korea was 79 and 140 events, respectively. The local magnitude of seismic events from North Korea was relatively larger than from South. And some infrasound occurred from North Korea had a characteristic of sequential arrivals of signals, which reflected the different propagation in the atmosphere.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제36권5호
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• pp.86-91
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• 2021

Calculating the scrutable core damage frequency (CDF) of nuclear power plants is an important component of the seismic probabilistic safety assessment (SPSA). In this work, a simple approach is developed to calculate CDF from minimal cut sets (MCSs) with non-rare events. When conventional calculation methods based on rare event approximations are employed, the CDF of industry SPSA models is significantly overestimated by non-rare events in the MCSs. Recently, quantification algorithms using binary decision diagrams (BDDs) have been introduced to prevent CDF overestimation in the SPSA. However, BDD structures are generated from a small part of whole MCSs due to limited computational memory, and they cannot be reviewed due to their complicated logic structure. This study suggests a simple approach for scrutinizing the CDF calculation based on whole MCSs in the SPSA system analysis model. The proposed approach compares the new results to outputs from existing algorithms, which helps in avoiding CDF overestimation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.495-505
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• 2009

Bridges form crucial links in the transportation network especially in high seismic risk regions. This research aims to provide a quantitative methodology for post-earthquake performance evaluation of the bridges. The experimental portion of the research involved shake table tests of a 4-span bridge which was subjected to progressively increasing amplitudes of seismic motions recorded from the Northridge earthquake. As part of this project, a high resolution long gauge fiber optic displacement sensor was developed for post-seismic evaluation of damage in the columns of the bridge. The nonlinear finite element model was developed using Opensees program to simulate the response of the bridge and the abutments to the seismic loads. The model was modified to predict the bent displacements of the bridge commensurate with the measured bent displacements obtained from experimental analysis results. Following seismic events, the tangential stiffness matrix of the whole structure is reduced due to reduction in structural strength. The nonlinear static push over analysis using current damaged stiffness matrix provides the longitudinal and transverse ultimate capacities of the bridge. Capacity loss in the transverse and longitudinal directions following the seismic events was correlated to the maximum displacements of the deck recorded during the events.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제9권5호
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• pp.937-956
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• 2015

Seismic isolation systems decouple structures from ground motions to protect them from seismic events. Seismic isolation devices have been implemented in many full-scale buildings and bridges because of their simplicity, economic effectiveness, inherent stability, and reliability. It is well known that the most uncertain aspect for obtaining the accurate responses of an isolated structure from seismic events is the seismic loading itself. It is needed to know the seismic response distributions of the isolated structure resulting from the randomness of earthquakes when probabilistic designing or probabilistic evaluating an isolated structure. Earthquake time histories are useful and often an essential element for designing or evaluating isolated structures. However, it is very challenging to gather the design and evaluation information for an isolated structure from many seismic analyses. In order to evaluate the seismic performance of an isolated structure, numerous nonlinear dynamic analyses need to be performed, but this is impractical. In this paper, the concept of the stochastic response database (SRD) is defined to obtain the seismic response distributions of an isolated structure instantaneously, thereby significantly reducing the computational efforts. An equivalent model of the isolated structure is also developed to improve the applicability and practicality of the SRD. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is numerically verified.