• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.35-42
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• 2012

We propose a probabilistic method to evaluate the uniform hazard spectra (UHS) of the soil of nuclear power plant(NPP) sites corresponding to that of a bedrock site. To do this, amplification factors on the surface of soil sites were estimated through site response analysis while considering the uncertainty in the earthquake ground motion and soil deposit characteristics. The amplification factors were calculated by regression analysis with spectral acceleration because these two factors are mostly correlated. The proposed method was applied to the evaluation of UHS for the KNGR (Korean Next Generation Reactor) and the APR1400 (Advanced Power Reactor 1400) nuclear power plant sites of B1, B4, C1 and C3. The most dominant frequency range with respect to the annual frequency of earthquakes was evaluated from the UHS analysis. It can be expected that the proposed method will improve the results of integrated risk assessments of NPPs rationally. We expect also that the proposed method will be applied to the evaluation of the UHS and of many other kinds of soil sites.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.205-216
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• 2024

Recently, seismic Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) methods have been developed for process plants, such as gas plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants. The framework originated from the PSA of nuclear power plants, which aims to assess the risk of reactor core damage. The original PSA method was modified to adopt the characteristics of a process plant whose purpose is continuous operation without shutdown. Therefore, a fault tree, whose top event is shut down, was constructed and transformed into a Bayesian Network (BN), a probabilistic graph model, for efficient risk-informed decision-making. In this research, the fault tree-based BN from the previous research is further developed to consider the multi-hazard of earthquake-induced fire and explosion (EQ-induced F&E). For this purpose, an event tree describing the occurrence of fire and explosion from a release is first constructed and transformed into a BN. And then, this BN is connected to the previous BN model developed for seismic PSA. A virtual plot plan of a gas plant is introduced as a basis for the construction of the specific EQ-induced F&E BN to test the proposed BN framework. The paper demonstrates the method through two examples of risk-informed decision-making. In particular, the second example verifies how the proposed method can establish a repair and retrofit strategy when a shutdown occurs in a process plant.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.789-830
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• 2015

The recent re-assessment of the seismic hazard in Europe led for many regions of low to moderate seismicity to an increase in the seismic demand. As a consequence, several modern unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, constructed with reinforced concrete (RC) slabs that provide an efficient rigid diaphragm action, no longer satisfy the seismic design check and have been retrofitted by adding or replacing URM walls with RC walls. Of late, also several new construction projects have been conceived directly as buildings with both RC and URM walls. Despite the widespread use of such construction technique, very little is known about the seismic behaviour of mixed RC-URM wall structures and codes do not provide adequate support to designers. The aim of the paper is therefore to propose a displacement-based design methodology for the design of mixed RC-URM edifices and the retrofit of URM buildings by replacing or adding selected URM walls with RC ones. The article describes also two tools developed for estimating important quantities relevant for the displacement-based design of structures with both RC and URM walls. The tools are (i) a mechanical model based on the shear-flexure interaction between URM and RC walls and (ii) an elastic model for estimating the contribution of the RC slabs to the overturning moment capacity of the system. In the last part of the article the proposed design method is verified through nonlinear dynamic analyses of several case studies. These results show that the proposed design approach has the ability of controlling the displacement profile of the designed structures, avoiding concentration of deformations in one single storey, a typical feature of URM wall structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.2
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• pp.197-215
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• 2021

Under a severe environment of multiple hazards such as earthquakes and winds, the life-cycle performance of engineering structures may inevitably be deteriorated due to the fatigue effect caused by long-term exposure to wind loads, which would further increase the structural vulnerability to earthquakes. This paper presents a framework for evaluating the lifetime structural seismic performance under the effect of wind-induced fatigue considering different sources of uncertainties. The seismic behavior of a high-rise steel-concrete composite frame with buckling-restrained braces (FBRB) during its service life is systematically investigated using the proposed approach. Recorded field data for the wind hazard of Fuzhou, Fujian Province of China from Jan. 1, 1980 to Mar. 31, 2019 is collected, based on which the distribution of wind velocity is constructed by the Gumbel model after comparisons. The OpenSees platform is employed to establish the numerical model of the FBRB and conduct subsequent numerical computations. Allowed for the uncertainties caused by the wind generation and structural modeling, the final annual fatigue damage takes the average of 50 groups of simulations. The lifetime structural performance assessments, including static pushover analyses, nonlinear dynamic time history analyses and fragility analyses, are conducted on the time-dependent finite element (FE) models which are modified in lines with the material deterioration models. The results indicate that the structural performance tends to degrade over time under the effect of fatigue, while the influencing degree of fatigue varies with the duration time of fatigue process and seismic intensity. The impact of wind-induced fatigue on structural responses and fragilities are explicitly quantified and discussed in details.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.43-49
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• 2018

Seismic hazard assessments are performed on a variety of infrastructure projects. One component of a seismic hazard assessment is the attenuation relationship. Several attenuation relationships have been developed over the decades to predict peak ground acceleration under a variety of site conditions. For example, many attenuation relationships were designed to estimate peak ground acceleration, as well as other intensity measures, under a variety of soil conditions, mostly using the average shear wave velocity for the upper 30 m of earth material as a classification scheme. However, certain types of infrastructure, such as tunnels and nuclear power plants, are typically founded on and in bedrock. Using data from Japan, we developed a simple correlation to estimate peak ground acceleration for rock sites and compare the results from another popular attenuation relationship. Results indicate the popular attenuation relationship to be less than the proposed model for distances less than 200 km.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.5 no.4 s.19
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• pp.71-78
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• 2005

The principal basic concepts of aseismic design minimize damage of human-life and have little probability during life of structures. For detailed understanding of the design, the best reasonable countermeasure can be possible equally the smallest damage of human-life and economic loss. As a result, it can be achieved by notion of not structure-centered but city-centered, the notion is actualized by development of a macro-level evaluation. A seismic damage between city and country is different. And the larger the city then, the greater the loss by rather collateral hazards than collapse of structures. Hence, the macro-evaluation of an earthquake disaster is suitable for an old city where is center of political and economic activity, and is concentration of population and infrastructure. This study aims to develop comprehensive earthquake desaster risk index, and assesses relative earthquake risk of six zones in Seoul metropolitan area.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.221-230
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• 2023

This study proposes a methodology for assessing seismic liquefaction hazard by implementing high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) ground models with high-density/high-precision site investigation data acquired in an area of interest, which would be linked to geotechnical numerical analysis tools. It is possible to estimate the vulnerability of earthquake-induced geotechnical phenomena (ground motion amplification, liquefaction, landslide, etc.) and their triggering complex disasters across an area for urban development with several stages of high-density datasets. In this study, the spatial-ground models for city development were built with a 3D high-precision grid of 5 m × 5 m × 1 m by applying geostatistic methods. Finally, after comparing each prediction error, the geotechnical model from the Gaussian sequential simulation is selected to assess earthquake-induced geotechnical hazards. In particular, with seven independent input earthquake motions, liquefaction analysis with finite element analyses and hazard mappings with LPI and LSN are performed reliably based on the spatial geotechnical models in the study area. Furthermore, various phenomena and parameters, including settlement in the city planning area, are assessed in terms of geotechnical vulnerability also based on the high-resolution spatial-ground modeling. This case study on the high-precision 3D ground model-based zonations in the area of interest verifies the usefulness in assessing spatially earthquake-induced hazards and geotechnical vulnerability and their decision-making support.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.6 no.3 s.22
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• pp.37-45
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• 2006

In this study, displacement ductility capacity and plastic hinge regions of reinforced concrete multi-column bent with different transverse reinforcement ratio are investigated. The ductility increases remarkably as transverse reinforcement ratio increase and the multi-column bent loaded along transverse direction is more ductile. The plastic hinge length for special detailing requirements of transverse reinforcement is estimated. For high target ductility, plastic hinge length for confinement should be extended with increased transverse reinforcement ratio. The plastic hinge length of multi-column bent loaded along transverse direction is shorter than that along longitudinal direction, because of the different moment distribution.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.9-17
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• 2001

This paper focuses on the earthquake hazard delineation and physical loss estimation for lifelines and utilities. Emphasis is given to geographic information systems(GIS) and their application to pipeline networks in evaluating the spatial characteristics of earthquake effects. The paper examines the GIS databases for water supply performance obtained for the 1994 northridge. Relationships among buried lifeline damage and various seismic parameters are examined, and the parameters that are statistically most significant are identified. Using GIS data from the Northridge earthquake, the relationships among pipeline repair rate, type of pipe, diameter, and various seismic parameters are assessed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.1079-1089
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• 2017

Nuclear power plants under expansion and under construction in China are mostly located in coastal areas, which means they are at risk of suffering strong earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis. This paper presents a safety analysis for a new reinforced concrete containment vessel in such events. A finite element method-based model was built, verified, and first used to understand the seismic performance of the containment vessel under earthquakes with increased intensities. Then, the model was used to assess the safety performance of the containment vessel subject to an earthquake with peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 0.56g and subsequent tsunamis with increased inundation depths, similar to the 2011 Great East earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Results indicated that the containment vessel reached Limit State I (concrete cracking) and Limit State II (concrete crushing) when the PGAs were in a range of 0.8-1.1g and 1.2-1.7g, respectively. The containment vessel reached Limit State I with a tsunami inundation depth of 10 m after suffering an earthquake with a PGA of 0.56g. A site-specific hazard assessment was conducted to consider the likelihood of tsunami sources.