• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.389-398
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• 2018

The seismic isolation system makes a structure isolated from ground motions to protect the structure from seismic events. Seismic isolation techniques have been implemented in full-scale buildings and bridges because of their simplicity, economic effectiveness, inherent stability and reliability. As for the responses of an isolated structure due to seismic events, it is well known that the most uncertain aspects are the seismic loading itself and structural properties. Due to the randomness of earthquakes and uncertainty of structures, seismic response distributions of an isolated structure are needed when evaluating the seismic fragility assessment (or probabilistic seismic safety assessment) of an isolated structure. Seismic response time histories are useful and often essential elements in its design or evaluation stage. Thus, a large number of non-linear dynamic analyses should be performed to evaluate the seismic performance of an isolated structure. However, it is a monumental task to gather the design or evaluation information of the isolated structure from too many seismic analyses, which is impractical. In this paper, a new methodology that can evaluate the seismic fragility assessment of an isolated structure is proposed by using stochastic response database, which is a device that can estimate the seismic response distributions of an isolated structure without any seismic response analyses. The seismic fragility assessment of the isolated nuclear power plant is performed using the proposed methodology. The proposed methodology is able to evaluate the seismic performance of isolated structures effectively and reduce the computational efforts tremendously.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.967-973
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• 2021

In 2011, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing simultaneous accidents in several reactors. This accident shows us that if there are several reactors on site, the seismic risk to multiple units is important to consider, in addition to that to single units in isolation. When a seismic event occurs, a seismic-failure correlation exists between the nuclear power plant's structures, systems, and components (SSCs) due to their seismic-response and seismic-capacity correlations. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the multi-unit seismic risk by considering the SSCs' seismic-failure-correlation effect. In this study, a methodology is proposed to obtain the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs to calculate the risk to multi-unit facilities. This coefficient is calculated from a probabilistic multi-unit seismic-response analysis. The seismic-response and seismic-failure-correlation coefficients of the emergency diesel generators installed within the units are successfully derived via the proposed method. In addition, the distribution of the seismic-response-correlation coefficient was observed as a function of the distance between SSCs of various dynamic characteristics. It is demonstrated that the proposed methodology can reasonably derive the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs, which is the input data for multi-unit seismic probabilistic safety assessment.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 2013

Structures in a nuclear power system are designed to be elastic even under an earthquake excitation. However a structural component such as an isolator shows inelastic behavior inherently. For the seismic assessment of nonlinear structures, response history analysis should be performed. In this study, the response of base isolation system was analyzed by response history analysis for the seismic performance assessment. Firstly, several seismic assessment criteria for a nuclear power plant structure were reviewed for the nonlinear response history analysis. Based on these criteria, the spectrum matched ground motion generation method modifying a seed earthquake ground motion time history was adjusted. Using these spectrum matched accelerograms, the distribution of displacement responses of the simplified base isolation system was evaluated. The resulting seismic responses excited by the modified ground motion time histories and the synthesized time history generated by stochastic approach were compared. And the response analysis of the base isolation system considering the different intensities in each orthogonal direction was performed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.705-714
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• 2019

Seismic assessment of underground structures is one of the challenging problems in engineering design. This is because there are usually many sources of uncertainties in rocks and probable earthquake characteristics. Therefore, for decreasing of the uncertainties, seismic response of underground structures should be evaluated by sufficient number of earthquake records which is scarcely possible in common seismic assessment of underground structures. In the present study, a practical risk-based approach was performed for seismic risk assessment of an unsupported tunnel. For this purpose, Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) was used to evaluate the seismic response of a tunnel in south-west railway of Iran and different analyses were conducted using 15 real records of earthquakes which were chosen from the PEER ground motion database. All of the selected records were scaled to different intensity levels (PGA=0.1-1.7 g) and applied to the numerical models. Based on the numerical modeling results, seismic fragility curves of the tunnel under study were derived from the IDA curves. In the next, seismic risk curve of the tunnel were determined by convolving the hazard and fragility curves. On the basis of the tunnel fragility curves, an earthquake with PGA equal to 0.35 g may lead to severe damage or collapse of the tunnel with only 3% probability and the probability of moderate damage to the tunnel is 12%.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2011

In this study, a ground motion response spectrum for the seismic risk assessment of low and intermediate level radioactive waste repositories was developed. For the development of the ground motion response spectrum, a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) was performed. Through the performance of a PSHA, a seismic hazard curve which was based on a seismic bed rock was developed. A uniform hazard spectrum was determined by using a developed seismic hazard curve. Artificial seismic motions were developed based on the uniform hazard spectrum. A seismic response analysis was performed on the developed artificial seismic motion. Finally, an evaluation response spectrum for the seismic risk assessment analysis of low and intermediate level radioactive waste repositories was developed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.469-479
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• 2023

A probabilistic seismic damage analysis is an essential procedure to identify seismically vulnerable structures, prioritize the seismic retrofit, and ultimately minimize the overall seismic risk. To assess the seismic risk of multiple structures within a region, a large number of nonlinear time-history structural analyses must be conducted and studied. As a result, each assessment requires high computing resources. To overcome this limitation, we explore a deep learning-based metamodel to enable the prediction of the mean and the standard deviation of the seismic damage distribution of track-on steel-plate girder railway bridges in Korea considering the geometric variation. For machine learning training, nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses are performed to generate 800 high-fidelity datasets on the seismic response. Through intensive trial and error, the study is concentrated on developing an optimal machine learning architecture with the pre-identified variables of the physical configuration of the bridge. Additionally, the prediction performance of the proposed method is compared with a previous, well-defined, response surface model. Finally, the statistical testing results indicate that the overall performance of the deep-learning model is improved compared to the response surface model, as its errors are reduced by as much as 61%. In conclusion, the model proposed in this study can be effectively deployed for the seismic fragility and risk assessment of a region with a large number of structures.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.181-188
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• 2017

Current seismic design provisions such as ASCE 7-10 provide criteria for selecting ground motions for conducting response history analysis. This study is the sequel of a companion paper (I - Ground Motion Selection) for assessment of the ASCE 7-10 criteria. To assess of the ASCE 7-10 criteria, nonlinear response history analyses of twelve single degree of freedom (SDF) systems and one multi-degree of freedom (MDF) system are conducted in this study. The results show that the target seismic demands for SDF can be predicted using the mean seismic demands over seven and ten ground motions selected according to the proposed method within an error of 30% and 20%, respectively

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.421-443
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• 2016

When conducting seismic assessment of an asymmetric building, it is essential to carry out three-dimensional analysis considering all the possible directions of seismic input. For this purpose, the author proposed a simplified procedure is to predict the largest peak seismic response of an asymmetric building subjected to horizontal bidirectional ground motion acting in an arbitrary angle of incidence in previous study. This simplified procedure has been applied to torsionally stiff (TS) asymmetric buildings with regular elevation. However, the suitability of this procedure to estimate the peak response of an asymmetric building with vertical irregularity, such as an asymmetric building with setback, has not been assessed. In this article, the pushover-based simplified procedure is applied to estimate the peak response of asymmetric buildings with bidirectional setback. Nonlinear dynamic (time-history) analysis of two six-storey asymmetric buildings with bidirectional setback and designed according to strong-column weak beam concept is carried out considering various directions of seismic input, and the results compared with those estimated by the proposed method. The largest peak displacement estimated by the simplified method agrees well with the envelope of the dynamic analysis response. The suitability assessment of the simplified procedure to analysed building models is made as well based on pushover analysis results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.586-595
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• 2002

The Seismic probabilistic risk assessment (SPRA) or seismic margin assessment (SMA) have been used for the seismic safety evaluation of nuclear power plant structures and equipments. For the SPRA or SMA, the reference response spectrum should be defined. The site-specific median spectrum has been generally used for the seismic fragility analysis of structures and equipments in a Korean nuclear power plant Since the site-specific spectrum has been developed based on the peak ground motion parameter, the site-specific response spectrum does not represent the same probability of exceedance over the entire frequency range of interest. The uniform hazard spectrum is more appropriate to be used in seismic probabilistic risk assessment than the site- specific spectrum. A method for modifying the seismic fragility parameters that are calculated based on the site-specific median spectrum is described. This simple method was developed to incorporate the effects of the uniform hazard spectrum. The seismic fragility parameters of typical NPP components are modified using the uniform hazard spectrum. The modification factor is used to modify the original fragility parameters. An example uniform hazard spectrum is developed using the available seismic hazard data for the Korean nuclear power plant (NPP) site. This uniform hazard spectrum is used for the modification of fragility parameters.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.599-609
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• 2019

After an earthquake, a quick seismic assessment of a structure can facilitate the recovery of operations, and consequently, improve structural resilience. Especially for facilities that play a key role in rescue or refuge efforts (e.g., hospitals and power facilities), or even economically important facilities (e.g., high-tech factories and financial centers), immediately resuming operations after disruptions resulting from an earthquake is critical. Therefore, this study proposes a prompt post-earthquake seismic evaluation method that uses displacement and acceleration measurements taken from real structural responses that resulted during an earthquake. With a prepared pre-earthquake capacity curve of a structure, the residual seismic capacity can be estimated using the residual roof drift ratio and stiffness. The proposed method was verified using a 6-story steel frame structure on a shaking table. The structure was damaged during a moderate earthquake, after which it collapsed completely during a severe earthquake. According to the experimental results, a reasonable estimation of the residual seismic capacity of structures can be performed using the proposed post-earthquake seismic evaluation method.