• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.959-982
• /
• 2015

In this study, a non-stationary random earthquake Clough-Penzien model is used to describe earthquake ground motion. Using stochastic direct integration in combination with an equivalent linear method, a solution is established to describe the non-stationary response of lead-rubber bearing (LRB) system to a stochastic earthquake. Two parameters are used to develop an optimization method for bearing design: the post-yielding stiffness and the normalized yield strength of the isolation bearing. Using the minimization of the maximum energy response level of the upper structure subjected to an earthquake as an objective function, and with the constraints that the bearing failure probability is no more than 5% and the second shape factor of the bearing is less than 5, a calculation method for the two optimal design parameters is presented. In this optimization process, the radial basis function (RBF) response surface was applied, instead of the implicit objective function and constraints, and a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm was used to solve the optimization problems. By considering the uncertainties of the structural parameters and seismic ground motion input parameters for the optimization of the bearing design, convex set models (such as the interval model and ellipsoidal model) are used to describe the uncertainty parameters. Subsequently, the optimal bearing design parameters were expanded at their median values into first-order Taylor series expansions, and then, the Lagrange multipliers method was used to determine the upper and lower boundaries of the parameters. Moreover, using a calculation example, the impacts of site soil parameters, such as input peak ground acceleration, bearing diameter and rubber shore hardness on the optimization parameters, are investigated.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.485-496
• /
• 2017

The behavior of 8 steel reinforced high-strength concrete (SRHSC) columns, which comprised of four identical columns with cross-shaped steel and other four identical columns with square steel tube, was investigated experimentally under cyclic uniaxial and biaxial loading independently. The influence of steel configuration and loading path on the global behavior of SRHSC columns in terms of failure process, hysteretic characteristics, stiffness degradation and ductility were investigated and discussed, as well as stress level of the longitudinal and transverse reinforcing bars and steel. The research results indicate that with a same steel ratio deformation capacity of steel reinforced concrete columns with a square steel tube is better than the one with a cross-shaped steel. Loading path affects hysteretic characteristics of the specimens significantly. Under asymmetrical loading path, hysteretic characteristics of the specimens are also asymmetry. Compared with specimens under unidirectional loading, specimens subjected to bidirectional loading have poor carrying capacity, fast stiffness degradation, small yielding displacement, poor ductility and small ultimate failure drift. It also demonstrates that loading paths affect the deformation capacity or deformation performance significantly. Longitudinal reinforcement yielding occurs before the peak load is attained, while steel yielding occurs at the peak load. During later displacement loading, strain of longitudinal and transverse reinforcing bars and steel of specimens under biaxial loading increased faster than those of specimens subjected to unidirectional loading. Therefore, the bidirectional loading path has great influence on the seismic performance such as carrying capacity and deformation performance, which should be paid more attentions in structure design.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.179-186
• /
• 2020

Investigating damage potential of the railway infrastructure requires either large amount of case histories or in-depth numerical analyses, or both for which large amounts of effort and time are necessary to accomplish thoroughly. Rather than performing comprehensive studies for each damage case, in this study we collect and analyze a case history of the high-speed railway system damaged by the 2004 M6.6 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake for the development of the seismic fragility curve. The development processes are: 1) slice the railway system as 200 m segments and assigned damage levels and intensity measures (IMs) to each segment; 2) calculate probability of damage for a given IM; 3) estimate fragility curves using the maximum likelihood estimation regression method. Among IMs considered for fragility curves, spectral acceleration at 3 second period has the most prediction power for the probability of damage occurrence. Also, viaduct-type structure provides less scattered probability data points resulting in the best-fitted fragility curve, but for the tunnel-type structure data are poorly scattered for which fragility curve fitted is not meaningful. For validation purpose fragility curves developed are applied to the 2016 M7.0 Kumamoto earthquake case history by which another high-speed railway system was damaged. The number of actual damaged segments by the 2016 event is 25, and the number of equivalent damaged segments predicted using fragility curve is 22.21. Both numbers are very similar indicating that the developed fragility curve fits well to the Kumamoto region. Comparing with railway fragility curves from HAZUS, we found that HAZUS fragility curves are more conservative.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.369-380
• /
• 2017

The effects of the vertical component of a ground motion on the earthquake performances of semi-ductile high-rise R/C structures were investigated in the present study. Linear and non-linear time-history analyses were conducted on an existing in-service R/C building for the loading scenarios including and excluding the vertical component of the ground motion. The ratio of the vertical peak acceleration to the horizontal peak acceleration (V/H) of the ground motion was adopted as the main parameter of the study. Three different near-source earthquake records with varying V/H ratio were used in the analyses. The linear time-history analyses indicated that the incorporation of the vertical component of a ground motion into analyses greatly influences the vertical deflections of a structure and the overturning moments at its base. The lateral deflections, the angles of rotation and the base shear forces were influenced to a lesser extent. Considering the key indicators of vertical deflection and overturning moments determined from the linear time-history analysis, the non-linear analyses revealed that the changes in the forces and deformations of the structure with the inclusion of the vertical ground motion are resisted by the shear-walls. The performances and damage states of the beams were not affected by the vertical ground motion. The vertical ground motion component of earthquakes is markedly concluded to be considered for design and damage estimation of the vertical load-bearing elements of the shear-walls and columns.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
• /
• v.5 no.4 s.19
• /
• pp.71-78
• /
• 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 Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.254-262
• /
• 2014

KISStool is developed and established by KIGAM, in order to link and share the earthquake data easily with institutes related, this study includes the development of a KISStool program format and protocol supporting Kit. The Kit has functions such as transforming and sending a seismic data. The functions of the kit are implemented in modules, which are running on the realtime basis. The firmware is embedded into the Kit, which transforms the seismic data into the formats, miniSEED and QSCD20. These data are sent to KISStool program. We have confirmed the results of the data transforming, transmissions and storage functions are conducted normally, the speed of transmission shows same level when comparing with a standard system. We expect that the firmware developed in this study will have high usability not only for linking with KISStool program through being embedded into incompatible digitizers, but also for improving performance of older ones.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.99-117
• /
• 2015

The Stonecutters Bridge (SCB) in Hong Kong is the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in the world with a main span stretching 1,018 m between two 298 m high single-leg tapering composite towers. A Wind and Structural Health Monitoring System (WASHMS) is being implemented on SCB by the Highways Department of The Hong Kong SAR Government, and the SCB-WASHMS is composed of more than 1,300 sensors in 15 types. In order to establish a linkage between structural health monitoring and maintenance management, a Structural Health Rating System (SHRS) with relevant rating tools and indices is devised. On the basis of a 3D space frame finite element model (FEM) of SCB and model updating, this paper presents the development of an SHR-oriented 3D multi-scale FEM for the purpose of load-resistance analysis and damage evaluation in structural element level, including modeling, refinement and validation of the multi-scale FEM. The refined 3D structural segments at deck and towers are established in critical segment positions corresponding to maximum cable forces. The components in the critical segment region are modeled as a full 3D FEM and fitted into the 3D space frame FEM. The boundary conditions between beam and shell elements are performed conforming to equivalent stiffness, effective mass and compatibility of deformation. The 3D multi-scale FEM is verified by the in-situ measured dynamic characteristics and static response. A good agreement between the FEM and measurement results indicates that the 3D multi-scale FEM is precise and efficient for WASHMS and SHRS of SCB. In addition, stress distribution and concentration of the critical segments in the 3D multi-scale FEM under temperature loads, static wind loads and equivalent seismic loads are investigated. Stress concentration elements under equivalent seismic loads exist in the anchor zone in steel/concrete beam and the anchor plate edge in steel anchor box of the towers.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.307-318
• /
• 2019

The frequently excessive vibrations presented in civil structures during seismic events or service conditions may result in users' discomfort, or worst, in structures failure, producing economic and even human casualties. This work contributes in proposing the synthesis of a nonlinear optimal control strategy for semiactive structural control, with the main characteristic that the synthesis considers both the structure model and the semiactive actuator nonlinear dynamics, which produces a nonlinear system that requires a nonlinear controller design. The aim is to reduce the unwanted vibrations in the response of civil structures, by means of intelligent fluid semiactive actuator such as the Magnetorheological Damper (MRD), which is a device with a low level of power consumption. The civil structures for which the proposed control methodology can be applied are those admitting a state-dependent coefficient factorized representation model, such as buildings, bridges, among others. A scaled model of a three storey building is analyzed as a case study, whose dynamical response involves displacement, velocity and acceleration of each one of the storeys, subjected to the North-South component of the September 19th., 2017, Puebla-Morelos (7.1M), Mexico earthquake. The investigation rests on comparing the structural response over time for two different conditions: with no control device installed and with one MRD installed between the first floor and the ground, where a nonlinear optimal signal for the MRD input voltage is determined. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller for reducing the building's dynamical response.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.27 no.spc
• /
• pp.19-33
• /
• 2022

When subsurface is polluted, contaminants tend to migrate through groundwater flow path. The groundwater flow path is highly dependent upon underground geological structures in the contaminated area. Geophysical survey is an useful tool to identify subsurface geological structure. In addition, geophysical logging in a borehole precisely provides detailed information about geological characteristics in vicinity of the borehole, including fractures, lithology, and groundwater level. In this work, surface seismic refraction and electrical resistivity surveys were conducted in a test site located in Namyangju city, South Korea, along with well logging tests in five boreholes installed in the site. Geophysical data and well logging data were collected and processed to construct an 3D geological map in the site.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.625-635
• /
• 2022

High-rise buildings (HRBs) are considered one of the most common structures nowadays due to the population growth, especially in crowded towns. The lack of land in crowded cities has led to the convergence of the HRBs and the absence of any gaps between them, especially in lands with weak soil (e.g., liquefaction-prone soil), but then during earthquakes, these structures may be exposed to the risk of collision between them due to the large increase in the horizontal displacements, which may be destructive in some cases to the one or both of these adjacent buildings. To evaluate methods of reducing the risk of collision between adjacent twin HRBs, this research investigates three vibration control methods to reduce the risk of collision due to five different earthquakes for the case of two adjacent reinforced concrete (RC) twin high-rise buildings of 15 floors height without gap distance between them, founded on raft foundation supported on piles inside a liquefaction-prone soil. Contact pounding elements between the two buildings (distributed at all floor levels and at the raft foundation level) are used to make the impact strength between the two buildings realistic. The mitigation methods investigated are the base isolation, the tuned mass damper (TMD) method (using traditional TMDs), and the pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) method (using PTMDs connected between the two buildings). The results show that the PTMD method between the two adjacent RC twin high-rise buildings is more efficient than the other two methods in mitigating the earthquake-induced pounding risk.