• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.144-153
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• 1998

Base isolation is an innovative design strategy that provides a practical alternative for the seismic design of structures. Base isolators, mainly employed to isolate large structures subjected to earthquake ground excitations and to rehabilitate structures damaged by past earthquakes, deflect and absorb the seismic energy horizontally transmitted to the structures. This study demonstrates that the base isolation system may offer effective performance for bridges during severe seismic events through shaking table tests. Two base isolation system using laminated rubber bearings with and without hydraulic dampers are tested. The test results strongly show that the laminated rubber bearings cause the natural period of the bridge structure increased considerably, which results in the deck acceleration and the shear forces on the piers reduced significantly. The results also demonstrate that the hydraulic dampers enhance the system's capacity in dissipating energy to reduce the relative displacement between the bridge deck and the pier.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.523-545
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• 2013

In this study, the effect of presence and distribution of masonry infill walls on the mid-rise steel frame structures having soft ground storey was evaluated by implementing finite element (FE) methods. Masonry infill walls were distributed randomly in the upper storey keeping the ground storey open without any infill walls, thus generating the worst case scenario for seismic events. It was observed from the analysis that there was an increase in the seismic design forces, moments and base shear in presence of randomly distributed masonry infill walls which underlines that these design values need to be amplified when designing a mid-rise soft ground storey steel frame with randomly distributed masonry infill. In addition, it was found that the overstrength related force modification factor increased and the ductility related force modification factor decreased with the increase in the amount of masonry infilled bays and panels. These must be accounted for in the design of mid-rise steel frames. Based on the FE analysis results on two mid-rise steel frames, design equations were proposed for determining the over strength and the ductility related force modification factors. However, it was recommended that these equations to be generalized for other steel frame structure systems based on an extensive analysis.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.131-141
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• 2019

Irregular distribution of mass in elevation is regarded as a structural irregularity by which the modes with high energy levels are excited and in addition, it can lead the structure to withstanding concentration of nonlinear deformations and consequently, suffer from unpredictable local or global damages. Accordingly, with respect to the lack of knowledge and insight towards the performance of concrete buildings making use of tunnel-form structural system in seismic events, it is of utmost significance to assess seismic vulnerability of such structures involved in vertical mass irregularity. To resolve such a crucial drawback, this papers aims to seismically assess vulnerability of RC tunnel-form buildings considering effects of irregular mass distribution. The results indicate that modal responses are not affected by building's height and patterns of mass distribution in elevation. Moreover, there was no considerable effect observed on the performance levels under DBE and MCE hazard scenarios within different patterns of irregular mass distribution. In conclusion, it appears that necessarily of vertical regularity for tunnel-form buildings, is somehow drastic and conservative at least for the buildings and irregularity patterns studied herein.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.209-219
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• 2022

Offshore platforms in seismically active areas must be designed to survive in the face of intense earthquakes without a global structural collapse. This paper scrutinizes the seismic performance of a newly designed and established jacket type offshore platform situated in the entrance of the Gulf of Suez region based on the API-RP2A normalized response spectra during seismic events. A nonlinear finite element model of a typical jacket type offshore platform is constructed taking into consideration the effect of structure-soil-interaction. Soil properties at the site were manipulated to generate the pile lateral soil properties in the form of load deflection curves, based on API-RP2A recommendations. Dynamic characteristics of the offshore platform, the response function, output power spectral density and transfer functions for different elements of the platform are discussed. The joints deflection and acceleration responses demands are presented. It is generally concluded that consideration of the interaction between structure, piles and soil leads to higher deflections and less stresses in platform elements due to soil elasticity, nonlinearity, and damping and leads to a more realistic platform design. The earthquake-based analysis for offshore platform structure is essential for the safe design and operation of offshore platforms.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1577-1586
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• 2023

Safety qualification of a steam generator is a crucial issue related to faulted condition design loads, including earthquake loads, and it should be ensured that the structural integrity of a steam generator does not exceed its design load. Using data from the Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes, the two most powerful recorded seismic events in Korea, seismic analyses of a typical steam generator are conducted in this study. The modal characteristics are used to develop an input deck for these analyses. With a time history analysis, the responses of the steam generator in the event of an earthquake are obtained. In particular, the displacement, velocity, and acceleration responses are obtained in the time domain, with these outcomes then used for a detailed structural analysis as part of the ensuing assessment. The response spectra are also generated to determine the response characteristics in the frequency domain, focusing on the response comparisons between the Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes. Structural integrity can be ensured by performing additional analysis using results obtained from the time history analysis considering the input excitations of various earthquakes considered in the design.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1001-1025
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• 2016

Building structures generally have inherent low damping capability and hence are vulnerable to seismic excitations. Control devices therefore play a useful role in providing safety to building structures subject to seismic events. In recent years semi-active dampers have gained considerable attention as structural control devices in the building construction industry. Magneto-rheological (MR) damper, a type of semi-active damper has proven to be effective in seismic mitigation of building structures. MR dampers contain a controllable MR fluid whose rheological properties vary rapidly with the applied magnetic field. Although some research has been carried out on the use of MR dampers in building structures, optimal design of MR damper and combined use of MR and passive dampers for real scale buildings has hardly been investigated. This paper investigates the use of MR dampers and incorporating MR-passive damper combinations in building structures in order to achieve acceptable levels of seismic performance. In order to do so, it first develops the MR damper model by integrating control algorithms commonly used in MR damper modelling. The developed MR damper is then integrated in to the seismically excited structure as a time domain function. Linear and nonlinear structure models are evaluated in real time scenarios. Analyses are conducted to investigate the influence of location and number of devices on the seismic performance of the building structure. The findings of this paper provide information towards the design and construction of earthquake safe buildings with optimally employed MR dampers and MR-passive damper combinations.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.201-212
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• 2014

The plastic hinge region of RC pier ensures its nonlinear behavior during strong earthquake events. It is assumed that the piers secure sufficient strength and ductility in order to prevent the collapse of the bridge during strong earthquake. However, the presence of a lap-splice of longitudinal bars in the plastic hinge region may lead to the occurrence of early bond failure in the lap-splice zone and result in significant loss of the seismic performance. The current regulations for seismic performance evaluation limit the ultimate strain and displacement ductility considering the eventual presence of lap-splice, but do not consider the lap-splice length. In this study, seismic performance test and analysis are performed according to the cross-sectional size and the lap-splice length in the case of longitudinal bars with lap-splice located in the plastic hinge region of existing RC bridge columns with circular cross-section. The seismic behavioral characteristics of the piers are also analyzed. Based upon the results, this paper presents a more reasonable seismic performance evaluation method considering the lap-splice length and the cross-sectional size of the column.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.161-170
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• 2014

Newmark-type deformation analysis has rarely been done in Korea due to the popularity of simple pseudo-static limit equilibrium analysis and detailed time-history FE/FD dynamic analysis. However, the Korean seismic dam design code updated in 2011 prescribes Newmark-type deformation analysis as a major dynamic analysis method for the seismic evaluation of fill dams. In addition, a design PGA for dynamic analysis is significantly increased in the code. This paper aims to study the seismic evaluation of four existing large fill dams through advanced FEM/Newmark-type deformation analyses for the artificial earthquake time histories with the design PGA of 0.22g. Dynamic soil properties obtained from in-situ geo-physical surveys are applied as input parameters. For the FEM/Newmark analyses, sensitivity analyses are performed to study the effects of input PGA and $G_{max}$ of shell zone on the Newmark deformation. As a result, in terms of deformation, four fill dams are proved to be reasonably safe under the PGA of 0.22g with yield coefficients of 0.136 to 0.187, which are highly resistant for extreme events. Sensitivity analysis as a function of PGA shows that $PGA_{30cm}$ (a limiting PGA to cause the 30 cm of Newmark permanent displacement on the critical slip surface) is a good indicator for seismic safety check. CFRD shows a higher seismic resistance than ECRD. Another sensitivity analysis shows that $G_{max}$ per depth does not significantly affect the site response characteristics, however lower $G_{max}$ profile causes larger Newmark deformation. Through this study, it is proved that the amplification of ground motion within the sliding mass and the location of critical slip surface are the dominant factors governing permanent displacements.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2022

For surveying shallow gas reservoirs in the Pohang basin, we proposed a seismic exploration method applicable to the transition zone in which land and marine areas are connected. We designed the seismic acquisition geometry considering both environments. We installed land nodal receivers on the ground and employed vibroseis and airgun sources in both land and marine areas. For seismic exploration in the transition zone, specific acquisition and processing techniques are required to ensure precise matching of reflectors at the boundary between the onshore and offshore regions. To enhance the continuity of reflection events on the seismic section, we performed amplitude and phase corrections with respect to the source types and applied a static correction. Following these processing steps, we obtained a seismic section showing connected reflectors around the boundary in the transition zone. We anticipate that our proposed seismic exploration method can also be used for fault detection in the transition zone.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2008

Acoustic emission (AE) and Microseimsic (MS) activities are law-energy seismic events associated with a sudden inelastic deformation such as the sudden movement of existing fractures, the generation of new fractures or the propagation of fractures. These events rapidly increase before major failure and happen within a given rock volume and radiate detectable seismic waves. The main difference between AE and MS signals is that the seismic motion frequencies of AE signals are higher than those of MS signals. As the failure of geotechnical structures usually happens as a high velocity and small displacement, it is nat easy ta determine the precursor and initiation stress level of failure in displacement detection method. To overcame this problem, AE/MS techniques far detection of structure failure and damage have recently adapt in civil engineering. This study deal with the basic theory of AE/MS and state of arts in monitoring technique using AE/MS.