• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.129-135
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• 2018

Following a 5.8 magnitude earthquake on September 12, 2016 in Gyeongju Province, a magnitude 5.4 earthquake occurred in the northern region of Pohang City on November 15, 2017 in South Korea. Only 7.9 % of the building structures are earthquake-resistant, according to the recent survey conducted by the government agencies in October 2017. In this paper, the linear analysis seismic performance evaluation procedure of the existing school structures presented in the revised methodology(Seismic Performance Evaluation Procedure and Rehabilitation Manual for School Facilities) was introduced. In this paper, the linear analysis evaluation procedure presented in the revised methodology was introduced and the seismic performance index of the example structure was evaluated using the linear analysis evaluation procedure. The seismic retrofit was verified by the linear and nonlinear dynamic analyses using Perform 3D. The analysis results show that the dissipated inelastic energy is concentrated on the retrofitted shear wall and the maximum inter-story drift of the stadium model structure with damping system satisfies the requirement of the current code.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.15-27
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanism about damages occurring at quay wall and backfill in Youngilman Port during Pohang earthquake (M5.4) on November 15, 2017. In the field investigation, the horizontal displacement of the caisson occurred between 5 cm and 15 cm, and the settlement at backfill occurred higher than 10 cm. 2D-effective Stress Analysis was performed to clarify the mechanism for the damage. The input earthquake motion used acceleration ($3.25m/s^2$) measured at bedrock of Pohang habor. Based on a numerical analysis, it was found that the effective stress decreased due to the increase of excess pore pressure in the backfill ground and the horizontal displacement of the caisson occurred by about 14 cm, and the settlement occurred by about 3 cm. In backfill, the settlements occurred between 6 cm and 9 cm. This is similar to field investigation results. Also, it was found that the backfill soil was close to the Mohr-Coulomb failure line due to the cyclic loading from the effective stress path and the stress-strain behavior. It may be related to decreasing of bearing capacity induced by the reduction of effective stress caused by the increase of the excess pore water pressure.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.585-596
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• 2020

The 2017 Pohang Earthquakes occurred near a drill site in the Pohang Enhanced Geothermal System. Water injected for well stimulation was believed to have reactivated the buried near-critically stressed Miocene faults by the accumulation of the Quaternary tectonic strain. However, surface expressions of the Quaternary tectonic activity had not been reported near the epicenter of the earthquakes before the site construction. Unusual, large-scale water-escaped structures were identified 4 km away from the epicenter during a post-seismic investigation. The water-escaped structures comprise Miocene mudstones injected into overlying Pleistocene coastal sediments that formed during Marine Isotope Stage 5. This indicates the vulnerable state of the mudstones long after deposition, resulted from the combined effects of rapid tectonic uplift (before significant diagenesis) and the development of an aquifer at their unconformable interface of the mudstone. Based on the detailed field analysis and consideration of all possible endogenic triggers, we interpreted the structures to have been formed by elevated pore pressures in the mudstones (thixotropy), triggered by cyclic ground motion during the earthquakes. This interpretation is strengthened by the presence of faults 400 m from the study area, which cut unconsolidated coastal sediment deposited after Marine Isotope Stage 5. Geological context, including high rates of tectonic uplift in SE Korea, paleo-seismological research on Quaternary faults near the study area, and historical records of paleoearthquakes in SE Korea, also support the interpretation. Thus, epicenter and surrounding areas of the 2017 Pohang Earthquake are considered as a paleoseismologically active area, and the causative fault of the 2017 Pohang Earthquakes was expected to be nearly critical state.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.78-88
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• 2021

Owing to the abnormal weather conditions due to global warming, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has attracted global attention as a countermeasure to reduce CO₂ emissions. In the Pohang CCS demonstration project in South Korea, 100 tons of CO₂ were successfully injected into the subsurface CO₂ storage in early 2017. However, after the 2017 Pohang earthquake, the Pohang CCS demonstration project was suspended due to an increase in social concerns about the safety of the CCS project. In this study, to reconfirm the structural suitability of the CO₂ storage site in the Pohang Basin, we employed seismic imaging based on reverse-time migration (RTM) to analyze small-scale ocean-bottom seismic data, which have not been utilized in previous studies. Compared with seismic images using marine streamer data, the continuity of subsurface layers in the RTM image using the ocean-bottom seismic data is improved. Based on the obtained subsurface image, we discuss the structural suitability of the Pohang CO₂ storage site.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.173-184
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• 2018

Geologic structures related to the latest event in the evolution around Gyeongsang Basin are mainly associated with the Yangsan Fault. In particular, the structures in the northern part of the Yangsan Fault are mainly observed in the region between Bogyeongsa Temple and Danguri. Such structures are also clustered in the vicinity of the Yangsan Fault, exhibiting similar geometric and kinematic patterns. In general, N-S and NE-SW trending fractures and tectonogeomorphic lineament are mainly eastward dipping reverse faults, such that the blocks in the east of the structures moved west or northwest. The reverse faults are segmented by NW trending fractures that accommodate strike-slip movements. The reverse faults and geomorphotectonic lineaments related to the latest event of deformation in the northern part of the Yangsan Fault show a westward convex patterns. We infer that these structures were initially normal faults that formed during a NW-SE extensional environment and were later reactivated during an E-W compressional one. Such a deformation pattern is also well developed around Pohang-Heunghae area based on the tectonogeomorphic analysis, which appears to be closely related to the Pohang Earthquake (15 Nov. 2017), and its development of the surface rupture and highly damaged zones.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.261-269
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• 2018

This study examines earthquake-induced sloshing effects on liquid storage tanks using computation fluid dynamics. To achieve this goal, this study selects an existing square steel tank tested by Seismic Simulation Test Center at Pusan National University as a case study. The model validation was firstly performed through the comparison of shaking table test data and simulated results for the water tank subjected to a harmonic excitation. For a realistic estimation of the wall pressure response of the water tank, three recorded earthquakes with similar peak ground acceleration are applied:1940 El Centro earthquake, 2016 Gyeongju earthquake, and 2017 Pohang earthquake. Wall pressures monitored during the dynamic analyses are examined and compared for different earthquake motions and monitoring points, using power spectrum density. Finally, the maximum dynamic pressure for three earthquakes is compared with the design pressure calculated from a seismic design code. Results indicated that the maximum pressure from the El Centro earthquake exceeds the design pressure although its peak ground acceleration is less than 0.4 g, which is the design acceleration. On the other hand, the maximum pressure due to two Korean earthquakes does not reach the design pressure. Thus, engineers should not consider only the peak ground acceleration when determining the design pressure of water tanks.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.811-819
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• 2019

Since the Gyeongju earthquake in 2016 and the Pohang earthquake in 2017, the performance of various dynamic tests for seismic design has increased in Korea. However, sinusoidal load has been continuously used in the conventional laboratory tests to evaluate liquefaction potential and determine input-parameters in the numerical analysis. However, recent research results suggest that it is difficult to accurately simulate excess pore water changes of the ground under earthquake loads. In order to solve this problem, this study proposes a combined sinusoidal loading and examines its applicability to the cyclic shear and triaxial test. Also, its validity is examined through performing of shaking-table test and numerical analysis based on the effective stress model. As a result, it was found that the proposed combined sinusoidal loading can more accurately simulate the change of excess pore water pressure in saturated soils under real earthquake load than the sinusoidal load.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.293-303
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• 2021

Seismic fragility functions for unreinforced masonry buildings were derived based on the incremental dynamic analysis of eight representative inelastic numerical models for application to Korea's earthquake damage estimation system. The effects of panel zones formed between piers and spandrels around openings were taken into account explicitly or implicitly regarding stiffness and inelastic deformation capacity. The site response of ground motion records measured at the rock site was used as input ground motion. Limit states were proposed based on the fraction of structural components that do not meet the required performance from the nonlinear static analysis of each model. In addition to the randomness of ground motion considered in the incremental dynamic analysis explicitly, supplementary standard deviation due to uncertainty that was not reflected in the fragility assessment procedure was added. The proposed seismic fragility functions were verified by applying them to the damage estimation of masonry buildings located around the epicenter of the 2017 Pohang earthquake and comparing the result with actual damage statistics.

• Journal of the Regional Association of Architectural Institute of Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.185-192
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• 2019

Recently, the frequency and magnitude of earthquakes are increasing worldwide. In Korea, the Gyeongju earthquake (2016) and the Pohang earthquake (2017) caused structural damage to many buildings. Since Korea's seismic design standards were revised to three or more stories in 2005, five-story buildings built before the revision are not designed to be earthquake-resistant. In this situation, if strong earthquake occurs in Korea, there will be great damage. To prevent this, seismic retrofit of buildings should be necessary. The seismic retrofit of classical method is mainly used to reduce the displacement generated in the structure by strengthening stiffness and strength. However, since this method increases the base shear force of the structure, it is difficult to apply it to buildings which have weak foundation. Therefore, in this study, we propose the damper system that reduces the response displacement of buildings and suppresses the increase of base shear force by using high damping rubber and steel. And the seismic performance of the damper system is verified through the experiment and the seismic analysis of the structure.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.33-42
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• 2021

The design response spectrum presented in the seismic design standard reflects the characteristics of the tectonic environment at a site. However, since the design response spectrum does not represent the ground motion with a specific earthquake magnitude or distance, input ground motions for response history analysis need to be selected reasonably. It is appropriate to use observed ground motions recorded in Korea for the seismic design. However, recently recorded ground motions in the Gyeongju (2016) or Pohang (2017) earthquakes are not compatible with the design response spectrum. Therefore, it is necessary to convert the recorded ground motion in Korea to a model similar to the design response spectrum. In this study, several approaches to adjust the spectral acceleration level at each period range were tested. These are the intrinsic and scattering attenuation considering the earthquake environment, magnitude, distance change by the green function method, and a rupture propagation direction's directivity effect. Using these variables, the amplification ratio for the representative natural period was regressed. Finally, the optimum condition compatible with the design response spectrum was suggested, and the validation was performed by converting the recorded ground motion.