• 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.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.371-380
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• 2023

To calculate seismic fragility, it is important to select input earthquake ground motions that can properly express the characteristics of the target site. This study analyzed the seismic fragility of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model based on input earthquake ground motions in strong and low-to-moderate seismic regions. As a first step, a total of four sets of input earthquake ground motions were selected,: two sets measured near or far from overseas strong earthquake records and two sets exhibiting the characteristics of low-to-moderate earthquake regions in South Korea. A nonlinear SDOF model for three natural periods was applied to the target structure, and incremental dynamic analysis was used for fragility analysis. In addition, four damage states were defined, and seismic fragility results for each natural period of the nonlinear SDOF model for the four aforementioned input earthquake ground motion sets were obtained for each damage state.

• 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.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1638-1653
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• 2024

Given the unpredictability of the occurrence of the earthquake and other potential disasters into consideration, the nuclear power plant may be confronted with beyond design-basis earthquake load in the future. The containment structure may be severely damaged under such severe earthquake loading, increasing the risk of containment concrete cracking and potential radioactive materials leaking. Moreover, initial damage caused by the earthquake may significantly alter the pressure performance of the containment under follow-up internal pressure. To compromise the dangers of beyond design-basis earthquake to the containment, an alternative of replacing the conventional concrete with fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) to upgrade the seismic resistance capacity of the containment is attempted and thoroughly researched. In this study, the influence of various fiber types such as rigid fiber and mixed fiber is regarded to constitute fiber-reinforced PCCVs. The physical properties of traditional and fiber-reinforced PCCVs under earthquake ground motions are scientifically compared and identified by using traditional and proposed evaluation indices. The results indicate that both the traditional evaluation index (i.e. top displacement, stress, strain) and the proposed damage index are greatly reduced by the practice of fiber strengthening under earthquake ground motions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.577-590
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• 2019

The seismic response of structures to strong ground motions is a complex problem that has been studied for decades. However, most of current seismic regulations do not assess the potential level of damage that a structure may undergo during a strong earthquake. This will happen in spite that the design objectives for any structural system are formulated in terms of acceptable levels of damage. In this article, we analyze the expected damage in single-degree-of-freedom systems subjected to long-duration ground motions generated in soft soil sites, such as those located in the lakebed of Mexico City. An energy-based methodology is formulated, under the consideration of input energy as the basis for the evaluation process, to estimate expected damage. The results of the proposed methodology are validated with damage curves established directly with nonlinear dynamic analyses.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.53-63
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• 2011

Selection or generation of appropriate input ground motion is very important in performing a dynamic analysis. In Korea, it is a common practice to use recorded strong ground motions or artificial motions. The recorded motions show non-stationary characteristics, which is a distinct property of all earthquake motions, but have the problem of not matching the design response spectrum. The artificial motions match the design spectrum, but show stationary characteristics. This study generated ground motions that preserve the non-stationary characteristics of a real earthquake motion, but also matches the design spectrum. In the process, an impulse function-based algorithm that adjusts a given time series in time domain such that it matches the target response spectrum is used. Application of the algorithm showed that it can successfully adjust any recorded motions to match the target spectrum and also preserve the non-stationary characteristics. The modified motions are used to perform a series of nonlinear site response analyses. It is shown that the results using the adjusted motions result in more reliable estimates of ground vibration. It is thus recommended that the newly adjusted motions be used in practice instead of original recorded motions.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.213-232
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• 2014

Pounding is a major cause of bridge damage during earthquakes. In an extreme situation, it can even contribute to the unseating of bridge girders. Long-span bridges will inevitably experience spatially varying ground motions. Soil-structure interaction (SSI) may play a significant role in the structural response of these structures. The objective of this research is to experimentally investigate the effect of spatially varying ground motions on the response of a three-segment bridge considering SSI and pounding. To incorporate SSI, the model was placed on sand contained in sandboxes. The sandboxes were fabricated using soft rubber in order to minimise the rigid wall effect. The spatially varying ground motion inputs were simulated based on the New Zealand design spectra for soft soil, shallow soil and strong rock conditions, using an empirical coherency loss function. The results show that with pounding, SSI can amplify the pier bending moments and the relative opening displacements.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.401-416
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• 2024

Long-span structures, such as bridges, can experience different seismic excitations at the supports due to spatially variability of ground motion. Regarding current bridge designing codes, it is just EC 2008 that suggested some regulations to consider it and in the other codes almost ignored while based on some previous studies it is found that the effect of mentioned issue could not be neglected. The current study aimed to perform a comprehensive study about the effect of spatially varying ground motions on the dynamic response of a reinforced concrete bridge under asynchronous input motions considering soil-structure interactions. The correlated ground motions were generated by an introduced method that contains all spatially varying components, and imposed on the supports of the finite element model under different load scenarios. Then the obtained results from uniform and non-uniform excitations were compared to each other. In addition, the effect of soil-structure interactions involved and the corresponding results compared to the previous results. Also, to better understand the seismic response of the bridge, the responses caused by pseudo-static components decompose from the total response. Finally, an incremental dynamic analysis was performed to survey the non-linear behavior of the bridge under assumed load scenarios. The outcomes revealed that the local site condition plays an important role and strongly amplifies the responses. Furthermore, it was found that a combination of wave-passage and strong incoherency severely affected the responses of the structure. Moreover, it has been found that the pseudo-static component's contribution increase with increasing incoherent parameters. In addition, regarding the soil condition was considered for the studied bridge, it was found that a combination of spatially varying ground motions and soil-structure interactions effects could make a very destructive scenarios like, pounding and unseating.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.237-262
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• 2015

In this study, we try to compare different intensity measures for evaluating nonlinear response of bridge structure. This paper presents seismic analytic fragility of a three-span concrete girder highway bridge. A complete detail of bridge modeling parameters and also its verification has been presented. Fragility function considers the relationship of intensities of the ground motion and probability of exceeding certain state of damage. Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) has been subjected to the bridge from medium to strong ground motions. A suite of 20 earthquake ground motions with different range of PGAs are used in nonlinear dynamic analysis of the bridge. Complete sensitive analyses have been done on the response of bridge and also efficiency and practically of them are studied to obtain a proficient intensity measure for these types of structure by considering its sensitivity to the period of the bridge. Three dimensional finite element (FE) model of the bridge is developed and analyzed. The numerical results show that the bridge response is very sensitive to the earthquake ground motions when PGA and Sa (Ti, 5%) are used as intensity measure (IM) and also indicated that the failure probability of the bridge system is dominated by the bridge piers.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.497-504
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• 1998

In the nonlinear dynamic structural analysis, the given ground excitation as an input should be well defined. Because of the lack of recorded accelerograms in Korea, it is required to generate an artificial earthquake by a stochastic model of ground excitation with various dynamic properties rather than recorded accelerograms. It is well own that earthquake motions are generally non-stationary with time-varying intensity and frequency content. Many researchers have proposed non-stationary random process models. Yeh and Wen (1990) proposed a non-stationary stochastic process model which can be modeled as components with an intensity function, a frequency modulation function and a power spectral density function to describe such non-stationary characteristics. This model is based on the simulation for the strong-motion earthquakes with magnitude greater than approximately 5.0~6.0, because it will be not only expected to cause structural damage but also involved the characteristics of earthquake motions. Also, the recorded earthquake motion within this range are still very scarce in Korea. Thus, it is necessary to verify the model by the application of it to the mid-magnitude (approximately 4.0~6.0) earthquakes actually recorded in domestic or foreign area. The purpose of the paper is to generate an artificial earthquake using the model of Yeh and Wen in the area with low seismicity.