• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.629-637
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• 2018

In recent years, selection of strong ground motion records by means of intensity measures representing the spectral shape of the earthquake excitation has been studied by many researchers. These studies indicate the adequacy of this record selection approach in reduction of the scattering of seismic responses. In present study, this method has been studied more in depth to reveal the sufficiency of the spectral shape in predicting structural seismic responses such as the plastic deformation and the dissipated hysteresis energy which are associated with cumulative properties of the selected records. For this purpose, after selecting the records based on the spectral shape, the correlation of some seismic responses and strong ground motion duration of earthquake records are explored. Findings indicate strong correlation of some structural responses with the significant duration of the records. This fact implies that the spectral shape could not reflect all characteristics of the strong ground motion and emphasizes the importance of additional criteria along with the spectral shape in the record selection.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.367-392
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• 2020

The specific characteristics of near-field earthquake records can lead to different dynamic responses of bridges compared to far-field records. However, the effect of near-field strong ground motion has often been neglected in the seismic performance assessment of the bridges. Furthermore, damage to horizontally curved multi-frame RC box-girder bridges in the past earthquakes has intensified the potential of seismic vulnerability of these structures due to their distinctive dynamic behavior. Based on the nonlinear time history analyses in OpenSEES, this article, assesses the effects of near-field versus far-field earthquakes on the seismic performance of horizontally curved multi-frame RC box-girder bridges by accounting the vertical component of the earthquake records. Analytical seismic fragility curves have been derived thru considering uncertainties in the earthquake records, material and geometric properties of bridges. The findings indicate that near-field effects reasonably increase the seismic vulnerability in this bridge sub-class. The results pave the way for future regional risk assessments regarding the importance of either including or excluding near-field effects on the seismic performance of horizontally curved bridges.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.983-997
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• 2015

This research evaluates the soil conditions for seismic stations situated in Romania using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR). The strong ground motion database assembled for this study consists of 179 analogue and digital strong ground motion recordings from four intermediate-depth Vrancea seismic events with $M_w{\geq}6.0$. In the first step of the analysis, the influence of the earthquake magnitude and source-to-site distance on the H/V curves is evaluated. Significant influences from both the earthquake magnitude and hypocentral distance are found especially for soil class A sites. Next, a site classification method proposed in the literature is applied for each seismic station and the soil classes are compared with those obtained from borehole data and from the topographic slope method. In addition, the success and error rates of this method are computed and compared with other studies from the literature. A more in-depth analysis of the H/V results is performed using data from seismic stations in Bucharest and a comparison of the free-field and borehole H/V curves is done for three seismic stations. The results show large differences between the free-field and the borehole curves. As a conclusion, the results from this study represent an intermediary step in the evaluation of the soil conditions for seismic stations in Romania and the need to perform more detailed soil classification analysis is highly emphasized.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.369-376
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• 2020

Given the importance of quickly recovering livelihoods and economic activity after an earthquake, the seismic performance of the pile foundation is becoming more critical than before. In order to promote seismic retrofit of the pile foundations, it is necessary to develop a method for evaluating the seismic performance of the pile foundation based on the experimental data. In this paper, we focus on the building that was suffered severe damage to the pile foundation, conduct simulation analyses of the building, and report the results of evaluating the dynamic characteristics when piles are damaged using a system identification method. As a result, an analysis model that can accurately simulate the behavior of the damaged building during an earthquake was constructed, and it was shown that the system identification method could extract dynamic characteristics that may damage piles.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.133-140
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• 2006

This paper addresses a fundamental research subject to complement and improve current domestic design specifications for the strong motion duration criterion and the envelop function of artificial accelerograms that can be applied to the earthquake-proof design of nuclear structures. The criteria for design response spectra and strong motion duration suggested by WRC RG 1.60 and ASCE Standard 4-98 are commonly being used in the profession, and they are first compared with each other and reviewed. By applying 152 real strong earthquake records that are over magnitude of 5 in the rock sites to the strong motion duration criterion in ASCE 4-98, an empirical regression model that predicts the strong motion duration as a function of earthquake magnitude is then developed. Using synthetically generated earthquake time histories for the five cases whose strong motion durations vary from 6 to 15 seconds, a seismic analysis is conducted to identify effects of the strong motion durations on the seismic responses of nuclear structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.489-500
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• 2011

The elastic seismic response of plan-asymmetric multi storey steel-frame buildings is investigated under earthquake loading with particular emphasis on forward-rupture directivity and fling records. Three asymmetric building systems are generated with different torsional stiffness and varying static eccentricity. The structural characteristic of these systems are designed according to UBC 97 code and their seismic responses subjected to a set of earthquake records are obtained from the response history analysis (RHA) as well as the linear static analysis (LSA). It is shown that, the elastic torsional response is influenced by the intensity of near-fault ground motions with different energy contents. In the extreme case of very strong earthquakes, the behaviour of torsionally stiff buildings and torsionally flexible buildings may differ substantially due to the fact that the displacement envelope of the deck depends on ground motion characteristics.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.25-31
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• 2007

For areas such as the Korean Peninsula, which have moderate seismic activity but no available records of strong ground motion, synthetic seismograms can be used to evaluate ground motion without waiting for a strong earthquake. Such seismograms represent the estimated ground motions expected from a set of possible earthquake scenarios. Local site effects are especially important in assessing the seismic hazard and possible ground motion scenarios for a specific fault. The earthquake source and rupture dynamics can be described as a two-step process of rupture initiation and front propagation controlled by a frictional sliding mechanism. The seismic wavefield propagates through heterogeneous geological media and finally undergoes near-surface modulations such as amplification or deamplification. This is a complex system in which various scales of physical phenomena are integrated. A unified approach incorporates multi-scale problems of dynamic rupture, radiated wave propagation, and site effects into an all-in-one model using a three-dimensional, fourth-order, staggered-grid, finite-difference method. The method explains strong ground motions as products of complex systems that can be modified according to a variety of fine-scale rupture scenarios and friction models. A series of such deterministic earthquake scenarios can shed light on the kind of damage that would result and where it would be located.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.15-24
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• 2004

This paper describes a GIS-based assessment of residential building damage caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake in which the fractions of existing buildings damaged at various percentages of replacement cost are related to a range of seismic parameters. The assessment uses data from safety inspection reports and tax assessor records, both of which were geocoded and linked to seismic parameters derived from strong motion records at 164 different sites. The paper also describes a GIS-based pattern recognition algorithm for identifying locations of most intense building damage. The algorithm provides a framework for rapidly screening remote sensing data and dispatching emerging services.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.33-43
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• 2011

This paper addresses a fundamental study that is necessary to complement and improve the current domestic design specifications for the strong motion duration criterion and the envelope function of artificial accelerograms that can be applied to the earthquake-proof design of nuclear structures. The criteria for the design response spectra and strong motion duration suggested by USNRC and ASCE Standard 4-98 are commonly being used in the profession, and they are first compared with each other and reviewed. By applying 209 real strong earthquake records that are greater than 5 in magnitude at rock sites to the strong motion duration criterion in ASCE 4-98, an empirical regression model that predicts the strong motion duration as a function of the earthquake magnitude was then developed. Using synthetically generated earthquake time histories for the 10 cases whose strong motion durations varied from 6 to 20 seconds, extensive seismic analyses were finally conducted to identify the effects of the strong motion durations on the seismic responses of the nuclear power plant containment structures.