• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.701-723
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• 2015

Friction isolators are one of the most important types of bearings used to mitigate damages of earthquakes. The adaptive behavior of these isolators allows them to achieve multiple levels of performances and predictable seismic behavior during different earthquake hazard levels. There are three main types of friction isolators. The first generation with one sliding surface is known as Friction Pendulum System (FPS) isolators. The double concave friction pendulum (DCFP) with two sliding surfaces is an advanced form of FPS, and the third one, with fully adaptive behavior, is named as triple concave friction pendulum (TCFP). The current study has been conducted to investigate and compare seismic responses of these three types of isolators. The structure is idealized as a two-dimensional single degree of freedom (SDOF) resting on isolators. The coupled differential equations of motion are derived and solved using state space formulation. Seismic responses of isolated structures using each one of these isolators are investigated under seven near fault earthquake motions. The peak values of bearing displacement and base shear are studied employing the variation of essential parameters such as superstructure period, effective isolation period and effective damping of isolator. The results demonstrate a more efficient seismic behavior of TCFP isolator comparing to the other types of isolators. This efficiency depends on the selected effective isolation period as well as effective isolation damping. The investigation shows that increasing the effective isolation period or decreasing the effective isolation damping improves the seismic behavior of TCFP compared to the other isolators. The maximum difference in seismic responses, the base shear and the bearing displacement, for the TCFP isolator are calculated 26.8 and 13.4 percent less than the DCFP and FPS in effective isolation damping equal to10%, respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.230-236
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• 2018

Earthquakes over 5.0 on the Richter scale have recently occurred in Korea, which has led to interest in the seismic safety of structures. If a water storage facility is damaged by an earthquake, the water could leak, and the insufficient water would make fire suppression difficult. Therefore, a water storage facility should satisfy safety requirements for earthquakes. In this study, the seismic performance of a water tank was improved by installing a lead rubber bearing between the foundation and the tank. It designed the lead rubber bearing available to the existed concrete foundation. ANSYS was used for modeling to consider the interaction between the fluid and structure of the tank and the hydrostatic and hydrodynamic pressure using four seismic waves. In the case of hydrostatic pressure at 2.5 water level, full level, the same stress appeared irrespective of whether the seismic isolation was installed. When hydrostatic pressure and hydrodynamic pressures are applied at the same time, the seismic-isolated water tank showed less seismic force, and the damping ratio was lower than that of general seismic isolation. This occurred because the weight of the water tank is much smaller than the stiffness of the seismic isolation. The result is expected to be used for further research on seismic capacity evaluation for water tanks.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.23-33
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• 2017

Variable Curvature Friction Pendulum (VCFP) bearing is one of the alternatives to control excessive induced responses of isolated structures subjected to near-fault ground motions. The curvature of sliding surface in this isolator is varying with displacement and its function is non-spherical. Selecting the most appropriate function for the sliding surface depends on the design objectives and ground motion characteristics. To date, few polynomial functions have been experimentally tested for VCFP however it needs comprehensive parametric study to find out which one provides the most effective behavior. Herein, seismic performance of the isolated structure mounted on VCFP is investigated with two different polynomial functions of the sliding surface (Order 4 and 6). By variation of the constants in these functions through changing design parameters, 120 cases of isolators are evaluated and the most proper function is explored to minimize floor acceleration and/or isolator displacement under different hazard levels. Beside representing the desire sliding surface with adaptive behavior, it was shown that the polynomial function with order 6 has least possible floor acceleration under seven near-field ground motions in different levels.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.175-182
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• 2008

In performing a risk analysis of structure for earthquake, it is imperative to identify the vulnerability of structures associated with various stages of damage. And the earthquake resisting capability is needed for structures like bridge. So the damage analysis of bridges with or without isolator for earthquake effects is necessary. In this paper, the risk analysis of seismic isolated LRB bridges considering earthquake effects such as PGA, PGV, SA, SV, and SI is performed using fragility curves to assure the earthquake resisting capability of the structures. And, the stability of fragility curve is investigated with respect to elastic modulus.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.275-284
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• 2020

The scope of this study is the comparison between experimental results of tests performed on a base isolated building using helical wire rope isolators (WRs), and results of Nonlinear Response History Analyses (NRHAs) performed using SAP 2000, a commercial software for structural analysis. In the first stage of this research, WRs have been tested under shear deformation beyond their linear range of deformation, and analytical models have been derived to describe the nonlinear response of the bearings under different directions of loading. On the following stage, shaking table tests have been carried out on a 1/3 scale steel model isolated at the base by means of curved surface sliders (CSS) and WRs. The response of the structure under ground motion excitation has been compared to that obtained using numerical analyses in SAP 2000. The feasibility of modelling the nonlinear behavior of the tested isolation layer using multilinear link elements embedded in SAP 2000 is discussed in this paper, together with the advantages of using WRs as supplemental devices for CSSs base isolated structures.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.4 s.44
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• pp.55-66
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• 2005

The effectiveness of fuzzy supervisory control technique for the control of seismic responses of smart base isolation system is investigated in this study. To this end, first generation base isolated building benchmark problem is employed for the numerical simulation. The benchmark structure under consideration is an eight-story base isolated building having irregular plan and is equipped with low-damping elastometric bearings and magnetorheological (MR) dampers for seismic protection. Lower level fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) for far-fault or near-fault earthquakes are developed in order to effectively control base isolated building using multi-objective genetic algorithm. Four objectives, i.e. reduction of peak structural acceleration, peak base drift, RMS structural acceleration and RMS base drift, are used in multi-objective optimization process. When earthquakes are applied to benchmark building, each of low level FLCs provides different command voltage and supervisory fuzzy controller combines two command voltages io one based on fuzzy inference system in real time. Results from the numerical simulations demonstrate that base drift as well as superstructure responses can be effectively reduced using the proposed supervisory fuzzy control technique.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.448-454
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• 2000

Piled multi-block system has been frequently adopted in the historic structures or monuments of cultural heritage. It is well known that such a structural system is very vulnerable to the earthquake shaking. If the structure is of slender type, then it may experience overturning at very low level intensity of ground shaking. One of the methods used to protect such structures from earthquake is seismic isolation system. But the behavior of multi-block systems mounted on the isolated basis is not well understood yet. In this paper we investigate the dynamic behavior of single slender rigid block mounted on the three different isolation systems, i.e., P-F system, FPS and LRB system. Sliding at the isolation interface of P-F system and FPS is formulated based on Coulomb friction. The mounted single block is assumed undergoing rocking or sticking only. Impacting of a single block is described using distinct element method (DEM). Free vibrations due to a prescribed initial conditions are studied. Responses to the harmonic excitation and earthquake motions are calculated

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2974-2988
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• 2022

Implementation of component isolation in nuclear industry is challenging due to gaps in research and the lack of specific guidelines. In this study, parameters affecting component-level isolation of advanced reactor vessels are identified based on a representative numerical model with explicit consideration of nonlinear soil-structure interaction (SSI). The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of, and to identify potential limitations of using conventional friction pendulum bearings to seismically isolate vessels. It is found that slender vessels or components are particularly vulnerable to rotational accelerations at the isolation interface, which are caused by rotation of the sub-structure and by excitation of higher modes in the horizontal direction of the seismically isolated system. Component isolation is found to be more effective for relatively stiffer vessels and at sites with stiff soil. Considering that conventional isolators are deficient in resisting axial tension, it is observed that the optimum location for supporting a component to achieve seismic isolation, is at a cross-sectional plane passing through the center of mass of the vessel. These findings are corroborated by numerous simulations of the response of seismically isolated reactor vessels at different nuclear power plant sites subject to a variety of ground motions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.529-545
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• 2023

The coupled soil-pile-structure seismic response is recently in the spotlight of researchers because of its extensive applications in the different fields of engineering such as bridges, offshore platforms, wind turbines, and buildings. In this paper, a simple analytical model is developed to evaluate the dynamic performance of seismically isolated bridges considering triple interactions of soil, piles, and bridges simultaneously. Novel expressions are proposed to present the dynamic behavior of pile groups in inhomogeneous soils with various shear modulus along with depth. Both cohesive and cohesionless soil deposits can be simulated by this analytical model with a generalized function of varied shear modulus along the soil depth belonging to an inhomogeneous stratum. The methodology is discussed in detail and validated by rigorous dynamic solution of 3D continuum modeling, and time history analysis of centrifuge tests. The proposed analytical model accuracy is guaranteed by the acceptable agreement between the experimental/numerical and analytical results. A comparison of the proposed linear model results with nonlinear centrifuge tests showed that during moderate (frequent) earthquakes the relative differences in responses of the superstructure and the pile cap can be ignored. However, during strong excitations, the response calculated in the linear time history analysis is always lower than the real conditions with the nonlinear behavior of the soil-pile-bridge system. The current simple and efficient method provides the accuracy and the least computational costs in comparison to the full three-dimensional analyses.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.77-83
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• 2019

Upon installing a seismic isolation device on a nuclear power plant, the device takes on the suppression of seismic loads. This is expected to bring about a larger displacement than what is seen prior to the installation of the seismic isolation device. Depending on the displacement change, the seismic risk for some equipment can increase. Particularly in case of the piping system, which is used for connecting the structure isolated from seismic events with common structures, the seismic risk is expected to rise significantly. In this study, the limit state of the steel pipe tee, which is a vulnerability part of the nuclear power plant piping system, was defined as leakage, and an in-plane cyclic loading test was conducted. As it is difficult to measure the moment and rotation of the steel pipe tee using the conventional sensors, an image signal was used. This study proposed a leakage line and low-cycle fatigue curves using the relationship between the moment and the rotation of a 3-inch steel pipe tee.