• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1481-1497
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• 2015

Vertical earthquake ground motion may magnify vertical dynamic responses of structures, and thus cause serious damage to bridges. As main support structures, piers and bearings play an important role in vertical seismic response analysis of girder bridges. In this study, the pier and bearing are simplified as a vertical series spring system without mass. Then, based on the assumption of small displacement, the equation of motion governing the simply-supported straight girder bridge under vertical ground motion is established including effects of vertical deformation of support structures. Considering boundary conditions, the differential quadrature method (DQM) is applied to discretize the above equation of motion into a MDOF (multi-degree-of-freedom) system. Then seismic responses of this MDOF system are calculated by a step-by-step integration method. Effects of support structures on vertical dynamic responses of girder bridges are studied under different vertical strong earthquake motions. Results indicate that support structures may remarkably increase or decrease vertical seismic responses of girder bridges. So it is of great importance to consider effects of support structures in structural seismic design of girder bridges in near-fault region. Finally, optimization of support structures to resist vertical strong earthquake motions is discussed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1029-1044
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• 2015

To investigate the seismic pounding response of long-span bridges with high-piers under strong ground motions, shaking table tests were performed on a 1/10-scaled bridge model consisting of three continuous spans with rigid frames and one simply-supported span. The seismic pounding responses of this bridge model under different earthquake excitations including the uniform excitation and the traveling wave excitations were experimentally studied. The influence of dampers to the seismic pounding effects at the expansion joints was analyzed through nonlinear dynamic analyses in this research. The seismic pounding effects obtained from numerical analyses of the bridge model are in favorable agreement with the experimental results. Seismic pounding effect of bridge superstructures is dependent on the structural dynamic properties of the adjacent spans and characteristics of ground motions. Moreover, supplemental damping can effectively mitigate pounding effects of the bridge superstructures, and reduce the base shear forces of the bridge piers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.269-282
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• 2023

This study investigates a rocking seismic isolation (RSI) system as a seismic protection measure against narrow-band ground-motions generated by earthquakes. Structures supported over RSIs are considered capable of reducing the lateral demands and damage of the main structural system through lifting and rocking. This lifting and rocking during earthquake activity is provided by free-standing columns. A single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system supported on a RSI system is subjected to narrow-band seismic motions and its response is compared to an analog system without RSI. The comparison is then extended to reinforced concrete linear frames with and without RSI; three-bay frames with 11 and 17 storeys are considered. It is found that the RSI systems significantly reduce acceleration and displacement demands in the main structural frames, more noticeably if the first structural mode dominates the response and for ratios of the predominant frequency of the ground motion to the predominant frequency of the main frame near one. It is also found that the RSI system is more effective in reducing lateral accelerations and displacements of the main structure when the aspect ratio, b/h, and size, R, of the free-standing columns decrease, although the rocking stability of the RSI system is also reduced.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.274-281
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• 2011

We analysed ground motions form Mw 4.3 earthquake around Backryoung Island for the seismic source focal mechanism and horizontal response spectrum. Focal mechanism of the Backryoung Islands area was compared to existing principal stress orientation of the Korean Peninsula and horizontal response spectrum was also compared to those of the US NRC Regulatory Guide (1.60) and the Korean National Building Code. The ground motions of 3 stations, including vertical, radial, and tangential components for each station, were used for grid search method of moment tensor seismic source. The principal stress orientation from this study, ENE-WSW, is consistent fairly well with that of the Korean Peninsula. The horizontal response spectrum using 30 observed ground motions analysed and then were compared to both the seismic design response spectra (Reg Guide 1.60), applied to the domestic nuclear power plants, and the Korean Standard Design Response Spectrum for general structures and buildings (1997). Response spectrum of 30 horizontal ground motions were used for normalization with respect to the peak acceleration value of each ground motion. The results showed that the horizontal response spectrum revealed higher values for frequency bands above 3 Hz than Reg. Guide (1.60). The results were also compared to the Korean Standard Response Spectrum for the 3 different soil types and showed that the vertical response spectra revealed higher values for the frequency bands below 0.8 second than the Korean Standard Response Spectrum (SD soil condition). However, through the qualitative improvements and quantitative enhancement of the observed ground motions, the conservation of horizontal seismic design response spectrum should be considered more significantly for the higher frequency bands.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.1-6
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• 2008

Most of seismic design code provisions provide the design response spectra for defining design earthquake ground motions. The design spectra in the code provisions generally come under the 5% of critical damping value, which corresponds to the responses of common structure under the design earthquake. Energy dissipation devices and seismic isolation systems became more popular and the design response spectra at higher damping levels are required. Damping coefficients can be effectively used in conversion of 5%-damped design spectra into other damping levels. These coefficients in the current seismic design code provisions are based on the strong ground motion records. Since the weak and moderate earthquake data have different characteristics from those of strong earthquake data, the application of these coefficients should be investigated in the weak and moderate earthquakes zones. In this study, damping coefficients based on the weak and moderate ground motions were developed and compared to those of current seismic design code provisions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.3
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• pp.305-315
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• 2019

Extremely long-span transmission tower-line system is an indispensable portion of an electricity transmission system, and its failures or collapse can impact on the entire electricity grid, affect the modern life, and cause great economic losses. It is therefore imperative to investigate the failure and safety of the transmission tower subjected to ground motions. In the present study, a detailed finite element (FE) model of a representative extremely long-span transmission tower-line system is established. A segmental damage indicator (SDI) is proposed to quantitatively assess the damage level of each segment of the transmission tower under earthquakes. Additionally, parametric studies are conducted to investigate the influence of different ground motions and incident angles on the ultimate capacity and weakest segment of the transmission tower. Finally, the collapse fragility curve in terms of the maximum SDI value and PGA is plotted for the exampled transmission tower. The results show that the proposed SDI can quantitatively assess the damage level of the segments, and thus determine the ultimate capacity and weakest segment of the transmission tower. Moreover, the different ground motions and incident angles have a significant influence on the SDI values of the transmission tower, and the collapse fragility curve is utilized to evaluate the collapse resistant capacity of the transmission tower subjected to ground motions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2021

Ground motions recorded in near-fault sites, where the rupture propagates toward the site, are significantly different from those observed in far-fault regions. In this research, finite element modeling is used to investigate the effect of pile cap stiffness on the seismic response of soil-pile-structure systems under near-fault ground motions. The Von Wolffersdorff hypoplastic model with the intergranular strain concept is applied for modeling of granular soil (sand) and the behavior of structure is considered to be non-linear. Eight fault-normal near-field ground motion records, recorded on rock, are applied to the model. The numerical method developed is verified by comparing the results with an experimental test (shaking table test) for a soil-pile-structure system. The results, obtained from finite element modeling under near-fault ground motions, show that when the value of cap stiffness increases, the drift ratio of the structure decreases, whereas the pile relative displacement increases. Also, the residual deformations in the piles are due to the non-linear behavior of soil around the piles.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.3
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• pp.325-341
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• 2022

Previous major earthquakes indicated that the earthquake induced ground motions are typical non-stationary processes, which are non-stationary in both amplification and frequency. For the convenience of aseismic design and analysis, it usually assumes that the ground motions at structural supports are stationary processes. The development of time-frequency analysis technique makes it possible to evaluate the non-stationary responses of engineering structures subjected to non-stationary inputs, which is more general and realistic than the analysis method commonly used in engineering. In this paper, the wavelet-based stochastic vibration analysis methodology is adopted to calculate the non-stationary responses of multi-support structures. For comparison, the stationary response based on the standard random vibration method is also investigated. A frame structure and a two-span bridge are analyzed. The effects of non-stationary spatial ground motion and local site conditions are considered, and the influence of structural property on the structural responses are also considered. The analytical results demonstrate that the non-stationary spatial ground motions have significant influence on the response of multi-support structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.349-365
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• 2020

Since the peak seismic response of a base-isolated building strongly depends on the characteristics of the imposed seismic ground motion, the behavior of a base-isolated building under different seismic ground motions is studied, in order to better assess their effects on its peak seismic response. Specifically, the behavior of a typical steel building is examined as base-isolated with elastomeric bearings, while the effect of near-fault ground motions is studied by imposing 7 pairs of near- and 7 pairs of far-fault seismic records, from the same 7 earthquake events, to the building, under 3 different loading combinations, through three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear dynamic analyses, conducted with SAP2000. The results indicate that near-fault seismic components are more likely to increase the building's peak seismic response than the corresponding far-fault components. Furthermore, the direction of the imposed earthquake excitations is also varied by rotating the imposed pairs of seismic records from 0◦ to 360◦, with respect to the major construction axes. It is observed that the peak seismic responses along the critical incident angles, which in general differ from the major horizontal construction axes of the building, are significantly higher. Moreover, the influence of 5% and 10% accidental mass eccentricities is also studied, revealing that when considering accidental mass eccentricities the peak relative displacements of the base isolated building at the isolation level are substantially increased, while the peak floor accelerations and interstory drifts of its superstructure are only slightly affected.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.581-594
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• 2014

A feasibility study on the seismic design of nuclear reactor buildings with application of a seismic isolation system is introduced. After the Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake in Japan of 1995, seismic isolation technologies have been widely employed for commercial buildings. Having become a mature technology, seismic isolation systems can be applied to NPP facilities in areas of high seismicity. Two reactor buildings are discussed, representing the PWR and BWR buildings in Japan, and the application of seismic isolation systems is discussed. The isolation system employing rubber bearings with a lead plug positioned (LRB) is examined. Through a series of seismic response analyses using the so-named standard design earthquake motions covering the design basis earthquake motions obtained for NPP sites in Japan, the responses of the seismic isolated reactor buildings are evaluated. It is revealed that for the building structures examined herein: (1) the responses of both isolated buildings and isolating LRBs fulfill the specified design criteria; (2) the responses obtained for the isolating LRBs first reach the ultimate condition when intensity of motion is 2.0 to 2.5 times as large as that of the design-basis; and (3) the responses of isolated reactor building fall below the range of the prescribed criteria.