• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1-15
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• 2010

In this study, the reduction factor of the code-defined site coefficient due to the embedment of a foundation was estimated for the seismic analysis of a building built on a soft soil site. This was done by utilizing the in-house finite element software P3DASS, which has the capability of pseudo 3D seismic analysis with nonlinear soil layers. A 30m thick soft soil site laid on the rock was assumed to be homogeneous, elastic, viscous and isotropic, and equivalent circular rigid foundations with radii of 10-70m were considered to be embedded at 0, 10, 20 and 30m in the soil layer. Seismic analyses were performed with 7 bedrock earthquake records deconvoluted from the outcrop records of which the effective ground acceleration was scaled to 0.1g. The study results showed that the site coefficients are gradually reduced except in the case of a small foundation embedded deeply in the weak soil layer, and it was estimated that the deviation of the site coefficients due to the foundation size was not significant. The standard reduction factor due to the foundation embedment were calculated adding the standard deviation to the average of 5 reduction factors calculated for 5 different foundation radii. Standard reduction factors for the site amplification factor were proposed for the practical amplification and the codes of KBC, etc., in accordance with the average shear wave velocity of the site, and the site class.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2020

Ground motion models predicting intensity measures on surface use a time-averaged shear wave velocity, V_S30, as a key variable simulating site effect. The V_S30 can be directly estimated from V_S profiles if the profile depth (z) is greater than or equal to 30 m. However, some sites have V_S profiles with z < 30 m. In this case V_S30 can be predicted using extension models. This study proposes new coefficient sets for existing prediction equations using 297 Korea V_S profiles. We have collected V_S profiles from KMA and Geoinfo database. Fitting six existing methods to data, we suggest new coefficients for each method and evaluate their performance. It turns out that if z ≥ 15 m, the standard deviation (σ) of residual in log₁₀ is 0.061, which indicates that the estimated V_S30 is nearly accurate. If z < 15 m, the σ keeps increasing up to 0.1 for z = 5 m, so we caution the use of models at very low z. Nonetheless, we recommend investigating up to 30 m depth for V_S30 calculation if possible.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.533-541
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• 2021

Retaining walls have been used to prevent slope failure through resistance of earth pressure in railway, road, nuclear power plant, dam, and river infrastructure. To calculate dynamic earth pressure and determine the characteristics for seismic behavior, many researchers have analyzed the nonlinear response of ground and structure based on various numerical analyses (FLAC, PLAXIS, ABAQUS etc). In addition, seismic fragility evaluation is performed to ensure safety against earthquakes for structures. In this study, we used the FLAC2D program to understand the seismic response of the inverted T-type wall with a backfill slope, and evaluated seismic fragility based on relative horizontal displacements of the wall. Nonlinear site response analysis was performed for each site (S2 and S4) using the seven ground motions to calculate various seismic loadings reflecting site characteristics. The numerical model was validated based on other numerical models, experiment results, and generalized formula for dynamic active earth pressure. We also determined the damage state and damage index based on the height of retaining wall, and developed the seismic fragility curves. The damage probabilities of the retaining wall for the S4 site were computed to be larger than those for the S2 site.