• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.971-980
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• 2018

Using the concept of quasi-static decomposition and using three-noded isoparametric locking-free element, this article presents a formulation of the finite element method for Timoshenko beam subjected to spatially different time-dependent motions at supports. To verify the validity of the formulation, three fixed-hinged beams excited by the real seismic motions are examined; one is a slender beam, another is a stocky one, and the other is an intermediate one. The numerical results of time histories of motions of the three beams are compared with corresponding analytical solutions. The internal loads such as bending moment and shearing force at a specific time are also compared with analytic solutions. These comparisons show good agreements. The comparisons between static components of the internal loads and the corresponding total internal loads show that the static components predominate in the stocky beam, whereas the dynamic components predominate in the slender one. Thus, the total internal loads of the stocky beam, which is governed by static components, can be predicted simply by static analysis. Careful numerical experiments indicate that the fundamental frequency of a beam can be used as a parameter identifying such a stocky beam.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2396-2406
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• 2021

The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center has been developing a performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) methodology, which is based on explicit determination of performance, e.g., monetary losses, in a probabilistic manner where uncertainties in earthquake ground motion, structural response, damage estimation, and losses are explicitly considered. To carry out the PEER PBEE procedure for a component of the nuclear power plant (NPP) such as the cable tray system, hazard curve and spectra were defined for two hazard levels of the ground motions, namely, operation basis earthquake, and safe shutdown earthquake. Accordingly, two sets of spectral compatible ground motions were selected for dynamic analysis of the cable tray system. In general, the PBEE analysis of the cable tray in NPP was introduced where the resulting floor motions from the time history analysis (THA) of the NPP structure should be used as the input motion to the cable tray. However, for simplicity, a finite element model of the cable tray was developed for THA under the effect of the selected ground motions. Based on the structural analysis results, fragility curves were generated in terms of specific engineering demand parameters. Loss analysis was performed considering monetary losses corresponding to the predefined damage states. Then, overall losses were evaluated for different damage groups using the PEER PBEE methodology.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.427-444
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• 2020

The performance of an isolated horizontally curved continuous bridge with High Damping Rubber (HDR) Bearings has been investigated under seismic loading conditions. The effectiveness of response controls of the bridge by HDR bearings for various aspects viz. variation in ground motion characteristics, multi-directional effect, level of earthquake shaking, varying incidence angle, have been determined. Three recorded ground motions, representative of historical earthquakes along with near-field, far-field and forward directivity effects, have been considered in the study. The efficacy of the bearings with bidirectional effect considering interaction behavior of bearing and pier has also been investigated. Modeling and analysis of the bridge have been done by finite element approach. Sensitivity studies of the bridge response with respect to design parameters of the bearings for the considered ground motions have been performed. The importance of the nonlinearity of HDR bearings along with crucial design parameters has been identified. It has been observed that the HDR bearings performed well in different variations of ground motions, especially for controlling torsional moment. However, the deck displacement has been found to be increased significantly in case of Turkey ground motions, considering forward directivity effect, which needs to be paid more attention from designer point of view.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.237-246
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• 2022

Based on the random-vibration-theory methodology, dynamic responses of nuclear facilities subjected to obliquely incidental and incoherent earthquake ground motions are calculated. The spectral power density functions of the 6-degree-of-freedom motions of a rigid foundation due to the incoherent ground motions are obtained with the local wave scattering and wave passage effects taken into consideration. The spectral power density function for the pseudo-acceleration of equipment installed on a structural floor is derived. The spectral acceleration of the equipment or the in-structure response spectrum is then estimated using the peak factors of random vibration. The approach is applied to nuclear power plant structures installed on half-spaces, and the reduction of high-frequency earthquake responses due to obliquely incident incoherent earthquake ground motions is examined. The influences of local wave scattering and wave passage effects are investigated for three half-spaces with different shear-wave velocities. When the shear-wave velocity is sufficiently large like hard rock, the local wave scattering significantly affects the reduction of the earthquake responses. In the cases of rock or soft rock, the earthquake responses of structures are further affected by the incident angles of seismic waves or the wave passage effects.

• 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 Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 2009

Recent earthquake, such as the Northridge(1994), the Kobe(1995) and the Izmit(1990) earthquakes, gave serious damage in various buildings and bridges by the vertical seismic component. Most of the seismic designs neglect the vertical seismic component for usual frame structures. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the vertical seismic component and to compare the axial force of columns and plastic rotation angle of the analytical models in these effects. The vertical seismic component produced a large increment of axial force in columns. And the vertical seismic component caused a significant increase of the damage in the columns. As analysis result, increase of axial force cause the damage of columns and give possibility of story collapse mechanism of the structure system. Therefore, area that near fault ground motion is expected may be consider the effect of vertical component of seismic ground motions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.192-205
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• 2020

Seismic design practices and seismic response analyses of civil structures and nuclear power plants (NPPs) have conventionally used the peak ground acceleration (PGA) or spectral acceleration (S_a) as an intensity measure (IM) of an earthquake. However, there are many other earthquake IMs that were proposed by various researchers. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between seismic responses of NPP components and 23 earthquake IMs and identify the best IMs for correlating with damage of NPP structures. Particularly, low- and high-frequency ground motion records are separately accounted in correlation analyses. An advanced power reactor NPP in Korea, APR1400, is selected for numerical analyses where containment and auxiliary buildings are modeled using SAP2000. Floor displacements and accelerations are monitored for the non- and base-isolated NPP structures while shear deformations of the base isolator are additionally monitored for the base-isolated NPP. A series of Pearson's correlation coefficients are calculated to recognize the correlation between each of the 23 earthquake IMs and responses of NPP structures. The numerical results demonstrate that there is a significant difference in the correlation between earthquake IMs and seismic responses of non-isolated NPP structures considering low- and high-frequency ground motion groups. Meanwhile, a trivial discrepancy of the correlation is observed in the case of the base-isolated NPP subjected to the two groups of ground motions. Moreover, a selection of PGA or S_a for seismic response analyses of NPP structures in the high-frequency seismic regions may not be the best option. Additionally, a set of fragility curves are thereafter developed for the base-isolated NPP based on the shear deformation of lead rubber bearing (LRB) with respect to the strongly correlated IMs. The results reveal that the probability of damage to the structure is higher for low-frequency earthquakes compared with that of high-frequency ground motions.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.48-54
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• 2022

This research describes a quantitative procedure used to estimate the effect of concrete cracking on stiffness degradation of concrete shear walls and provides analytical references for the seismic design of concrete shear walls. As preliminary research on the seismic response of concrete shear walls, nonlinear transient analysis was performed with commercial FE software. The study presents the nonlinear time history analysis results in terms of concrete damage and cracking behavior induced by seismic input motions. By varying the input motions, concrete strength and shear wall thickness, the seismic responses of a shear wall were examined with nonlinear time history analysis, and the progressive cracking behavior and corresponding hysteresis loop were described. Based on the analysis results, frequency and stiffness degradation of the shear wall from progressive concrete damage and cracking were captured with respect to the seismic levels. The results of this study suggest that stiffness degradation from concrete cracking should be appropriately considered when determining the seismic capacity of RC shear wall structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.5
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• pp.609-619
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• 2018

When the irregularities occurred in buildings, affect their seismic performance. This paper has focused on one of the types of irregularities at the height that named setback in elevation. For this purpose, several multistorey Reinforced Concrete Moment Resisting Frames (RCMRFs) with different types of setbacks were designed according to new edition of Iranian seismic code. The nonlinear time history analysis was performed to predict the seismic performance of frames subjected to seven input ground motions. The assessment of the seismic performance was done considering both global and local criteria. Results showed that the current edition of Iranian seismic code needs to be modified in order to improve the seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete moment resisting setback buildings. It was also shown that the maximum damages happen at the elements located in the vicinity of the setbacks. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen these elements by appropriate modification of Iranian seismic code.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.419-427
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• 2017

A methodology, based on fragility functions, is proposed to evaluate the seismic performance of seismic isolated $45^{\circ}$ skewed concrete bridge: 1) twelve types of seismic isolation devices are considered based on two different design parameters 2) fragility functions of a three-span bridge with and without seismic isolation devices are analytically evaluated based on 3D nonlinear incremental dynamic analyses which seismic input consists of 20 selected ground motions. The optimum combinations of isolation device design parameters are identified comparing, for different limit states, the performance of 1) the Seismic Isolated Bridges (SIB) and 2) Not Seismic Isolated Bridge (NSIB) designed according to the AASHTO standards.