• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.355-372
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• 2014

Considering the history of severe earthquakes and the presence of active faults in the greater Tehran region, the possibility of a destructive earthquake occurring is high and seismic hazard analysis is crucial. Gumbel distributions are commonly-used statistical distributions in earthquake engineering and seismology. Their main advantage is their basis on the largest earthquake magnitudes selected from an equal-time predefined set. In this study, the first asymptotic distribution of extremes is used to estimate seismicity parameters and peak ground acceleration (PGA). By assuming a Poisson distribution for the earthquakes, after estimation of seismicity parameters, the mean return period and the probable maximum magnitude within a given time interval are obtained. A maximum probable magnitude of 7.0 has a mean return period of 100 years in this region. For a return period of 475 years, the PGA in the greater Tehran region is estimated to be 0.39g to 0.42g, depending on local site conditions. This value is greater than that of the Iranian Code for Seismic Design of Buildings, indicating that a revision of the code is necessary.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.169-174
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• 2006

The Korean peninsula has been considered as seismically intermediate region, since seismic activities have been not severe for long time and the active tectonic boundary is also located far away. However, the activities of earthquakes have been increased for last decade. significantly. Since currently important structures and facilities are increasing rapidly in the Korean Peninsula, the importance of seismic design are increasing exponentially too. This study used observed ground motion of Fukuoka event including 11 afterschocks and then estimated seismic parameters representing seismic source, propagation effect, and site effects. The results were comparable to those of other studies. The results could be used seismic design of the important structures and facilities in Korean peninsula.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.983-1000
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• 2016

To date the engineering community has seen facade systems as non-structural elements with high aesthetic value and a barrier between the outdoor and indoor environments. The role of facades in energy use in a building has also been recognized and the industry is also witnessing the emergence of many energy efficient facade systems. This paper will focus on using exterior skin of the double skin facade system as a dissipative movable element during earthquake excitation. The main aim of this study is to investigate the potential of the facade system to act as a damper system to reduce earthquake-induced vibration of the primary structure. Unlike traditional mass dampers, which are usually placed at the top level of structures, the movable/smart double skin facade systems are distributed throughout the entire height of building structures. The outer skin is moveable and can act as a multi tuned mass dampers (MTMDs) that move and dissipate energy during strong earthquake motions. In this paper, using a three dimensional 10-storey building structure as the example, it is shown that with optimal choice of materials for stiffness and damping of brackets connecting the two skins, a substantial portion of earthquake induced vibration energy can be dissipated which leads to avoiding expensive ductile seismic designs. It is shown that the engineering demand parameters (EDPs) for a low-rise building structures subjected to moderate to severe earthquakes can be substantially reduced by introduction of a smart designed double skin system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.395-402
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• 2018

Floor location of adjacent buildings may be different in terms of height elevation, and thus, the slab may hit on the columns of adjacent insufficiently separated buildings during severe ground motions. Such impacts, often referred to as mid-column pounding, can be catastrophic. Substantial pounding damage or even total collapse of structures was often observed in large amount of adjacent low rise buildings. The research on the mid-column pounding between low rise buildings is in urgency need. In present study, the responses of two adjacent low rise buildings with unequal heights and different dynamic properties have been analyzed. Parametric studies have also been conducted to assess the influence of story height difference, gap distance and input direction of ground motion on the effect of structural pounding response. Another emphasis of this study is to analyze the near-fault effect, which is important for the structures located in the near-fault area. The analysis results show that collisions exhibit significant influence on the local shear force response of the column suffering impact. Because of asymmetric configuration of systems, the structural seismic behavior is distinct by varying the incident directions of the ground motions. Results also show that near-fault earthquakes induced ground motions can cause more significant effect on the pounding responses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.825-837
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• 2017

Due to the severe impacts of recent earthquakes, the use of seismic isolation is paramount for the safety of nuclear structures. The diversity observed in seismic events demands ongoing research to analyze the devastating attributes involved, and hence to enhance the sustainability of base-isolated nuclear power plants. This study reports the seismic performance of a seismically-isolated nuclear reactor containment building (NRCB) under strong short-period ground motions (SPGMs) and long-period ground motions (LPGMs). The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission-based design response spectrum for the seismic design of nuclear power plants is stipulated as the reference spectrum for ground motion selection. Within the period range(s) of interest, the spectral matching of selected records with the target spectrum is ensured using the spectral-compatibility approach. NRC-compliant SPGMs and LPGMs from the mega-thrust Tohoku earthquake are used to obtain the structural response of the base-isolated NRCB. To account for the lack of earthquakes in low-to-moderate seismicity zones and the gap in the artificial synthesis of long-period records, wavelet-decomposition based autoregressive moving average modeling for artificial generation of real ground motions is performed. Based on analysis results from real and simulated SPGMs versus LPGMs, the performance of NRCBs is discussed with suggestions for future research and seismic provisions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.539-549
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• 2017

Existing reinforced concrete frame buildings designed for vertical loads could only suffer severe damage during earthquakes. In recent years, many research activities were undertaken to develop a reliable and practical analysis procedure to identify the safety level of existing structures. The Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is considered to be one of the most accurate methods to estimate the seismic demand and capacity of structures. However, the executions of many nonlinear response history analyses (NL_RHA) are required to describe the entire range of structural response. The research discussed in this paper deals with the proposal of an efficient Incremental Modal Pushover Analysis (IMPA) to obtain capacity curves by replacing the nonlinear response history analysis of the IDA procedure with Modal Pushover Analysis (MPA). Firstly, In this work, the MPA is examined and extended to three-dimensional asymmetric structures and then it is incorporated into the proposed procedure (IMPA) to estimate the structure's seismic response and capacity for given seismic actions. This new procedure, which accounts for higher mode effects, does not require the execution of complex NL-RHA, but only a series of nonlinear static analysis. Finally, the extended MPA and IMPA were applied to an existing irregular framed building.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.415-430
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• 2015

Integral abutment bridges have many advantages over bridges with expansion joints in terms of economy and maintenance costs. However, in the design of abutments of integral bridges temperature loads play a crucial role. In addition, seismic loads are readily transferred to the substructure and affect the design of these components significantly. Currently, the European and American bridge design codes consider these two load cases separately in their recommended design load combinations. In this paper, the importance and necessity of combining the thermal and seismic loads is investigated for integral bridges. A 2D finite element combined pile-soil-structure interactive model is used in this evaluation. Nonlinear behavior is assumed for near field soil behind the abutments. The soil around the piles is modeled by nonlinear springs based on p-y curves. The uniform temperature changes occurring at the time of some significant earthquakes around the world are gathered and applied simultaneously with the corresponding earthquake time history ground motions. By comparing the results of these analyses to prescribed AASHTO LRFD load combinations it is observed that pile forces and abutment stresses are affected by this new load combination. This effect is more severe for contraction mode which is caused by negative uniform temperature changes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.519-532
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• 2012

Using nondestructive testing techniques to evaluate the length or depth of an existing foundation is an important issue with potential high application values. One of these is to evaluate whether the foundation is broken after severe earthquakes. In this aspect, academic research related to nondestructive evaluation for caisson foundations is rarely reported. The objective of this paper is to study the feasibility of using Sonic Echo method to evaluate the depth of caisson foundations. Two types of caissons, simple cylindrical caisson and compound caisson with chambers, were studied for their responses to the Sonic Echo tests. The study was carried out in numerical simulation with finite element method and experimental way with in-situ tests. A bridge system which spans over Sofong Brook in Taiwan was selected for the tests in situ. The bridge system is still under construction and therefore the effect of different construction stages on the testing results may be studied. In this paper, the parameters to be varied for the studies include the testing locations and the existence of chamber plates, the bottom plate and the top plate. Finally some preliminary conclusions can be reached for a successful test.

• 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%.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.87-100
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• 2022

Limiting the displacement of seismic isolators causes a pounding phenomenon under severe earthquakes. Therefore, the ASCE 7-16 has provided minimum criteria for the design of the isolated building. In this research the seismic response of isolated buildings by Triple Friction Pendulum Isolator (TFPI) under the impact, expected, and unexpected mass eccentricity was evaluated. Also, the effect of different design parameters on the seismic behavior of structural and nonstructural elements was found. For this, a special steel moment frame structure with a surrounding moat wall was designed according to the criteria, by considering different response modification coefficients (RI), and 20% mass eccentricity in one direction. Then, different values of these parameters and the damping of the base isolation were evaluated. The results show that the structural elements have acceptable behavior after impact, but the nonstructural components are placed in a moderate damage range after impact and the used improved methods could not ameliorate the level of damage. The reduction in the RI and the enhancement of the isolator's damping are beneficial up to a certain point for improving the seismic response after impact. The moat wall reduces torque and maximum absolute acceleration (MAA) due to unexpected enhancement of mass eccentricity. However, drifts of some stories increase. Also, the difference between the response of story drift by expected and unexpected mass eccentricity is less. This indicates that the minimum requirement displacement according to ASCE 7-16 criteria lead to acceptable results under the unexpected enhancement of mass eccentricity.