• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1237-1251
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• 2016

Although the horizontal component of an earthquake response can be significantly reduced through the use of conventional seismic isolators, the vertical component of excitation is still transmitted directly into the structure. Records from instrumented structures, and some recent tests and analyses have actually seen increases in vertical responses in base isolated structures under the combined effects of horizontal and vertical ground motions. This issue becomes a great concern to facilities such as a Nuclear Power Plants (NPP), with specialized equipment and machinery that is not only expensive, but critical to safe operation. As such, there is considerable interest worldwide in vertical and three-dimensional (3D) isolation systems. This paper examines several vertical and 3D isolation systems that have been proposed and their potential application to modern nuclear facilities. In particular, a series of case study analyses of a modern NPP model are performed to examine the benefits and challenges associated with 3D isolation compared with horizontal isolation. It was found that compared with the general horizontal isolators, isolators that have vertical frequencies of no more than 3 Hz can effectively reduce the vertical in-structure responses for the studied NPP model. Among the studied cases, the case that has a vertical isolation frequency of 3 Hz is the one that can keep the horizontal period of the isolators as the first period while having the most flexible vertical isolator properties. When the vertical frequency of isolators reduces to 1 Hz, the rocking effect is obvious and rocking restraining devices are necessary.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.5
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• pp.627-644
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• 2022

In past major earthquakes (1994 Northridge, 1995 Kobe, Chi-Chi 1999, Kocaeli 1999), significant damages occurred in the liquid storage tanks. The basic failure patterns were observed to be the buckling of the tank wall and uplift of the anchorage system. The damages in the industrial facilities and nuclear power plants have caused the spread of toxic substances to the environment and significant fires. Seismic isolation can be used in liquid storage tanks to decouple the structure and decrease the structural demand in the superstructure in case of ground shaking. Previous studies on the use of seismic isolation systems on liquid storage tanks show that an isolation system reduces the impulsive response but might slightly increase the convective one. There is still a lack of understanding of the seismic response of seismically isolated liquid storage tanks considering the fluid-structure interaction. In this study, one broad tank, one medium tank, and one slender tank are selected and designed. Two- and three-dimensional elastomeric bearings are used as seismic isolation systems. The seismic performance of the tanks is then investigated through nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses. The effectiveness of each seismic isolation system on tanks' performance was investigated. Isolator tension forces, modal analysis results, hydrodynamic stresses, strains, sloshing heights and base shear forces of the tanks are compared. The results show that the total base shear is lower in 3D-isolators compared to 2D-isolators. Even though the tank wall stresses, and strains are slightly higher in 3D-isolators, they are more efficient to prevent the tension problem.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.217-235
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• 2023

Orthogonal pairs of rollers on concave beds (OPRCB) are a low-cost, low-tech rolling-based isolating system, whose high efficiency has been shown in a previous study. However, seismic performance of OPRCB isolators has only been studied in the two-dimensional (2D) state so far. This is while their performance in the three-dimensional (3D) state differs from that of the 2D state, mainly since the vertical accelerations due to rollers' motion in their beds, simultaneously in two orthogonal horizontal directions, are added up and resulting in bigger vertical inertia forces and higher rolling resistance. In this study, first, Lagrange equations were used to derive the governing equations of motion of the OPRCB-isolated buildings in 3D. Then, some regular shear-type OPRCB-isolated buildings were considered subjected to three-component excitations of far- and near-source earthquakes, and their responses were compared to those of their fixed-base counterparts. Finally, the effects of more realistic modeling and analysis were examined by comparing the responses of isolated buildings in 2D and 3D states. Response histories were obtained by the fourth-order Runge-Kutta-Nystrom method, considering the geometrical nonlinearity of isolators. Results reveal that utilizing the OPRCB isolators effectively reduces the acceleration response, however, depending on the system specifications and earthquake characteristics, the maximum responses of isolated buildings in the 3D state can be up to 40% higher than those in the 2D state.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.16 no.3 s.108
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• pp.307-312
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• 2006

In this study a vibration isolation system with the cradle-type support was designed so as to reduce the transient vibration due to positioning motion of the moving mass on worktable as well as to achieve the desired isolation efficiency on the floor vibration. The design procedure was performed in the two steps. The first step to select appropriate isolators to meet the isolation efficiency, and the second step is to reduce the transient vibration of the worktable by adopting the cradle-type support. After the application of the selected isolators with the cradle-type support to the system it was shown that the required vibration criterion(VC-D) was easily satisfied and that the undesirable transient vibration was reduced remarkably.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.183-191
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• 2002

Rubber materials with excellent damping property are widely applied for vibration isolators. The dynamic characteristics of the rubber materials for vibration isolators were investigated. Dynamic tests for rubber materials with five different hardness were performed. In dynamic tests for test specimen, non-resonance method was used to obtain the dynamic storage modulus and loss factor. Moreover, the effect of dynamic vibration frequency, strain amplitude and temperature were investigated. As results, the storage modulus and loss factor generally increase when the hardness and frequency increase, and the glass transition temperature is $-50^{\circ}C$ by a large change in modulus and loss factor.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.513-528
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• 2018

A typical viable technique to decrease the seismic response of liquid storage tanks is to isolate them at the base. Base-isolation systems are an efficient and feasible solution to reduce the vulnerability of structures in high seismic risk zones. Nevertheless, when liquid storage tanks are under long-period shaking, the base-isolation systems could have different impacts. These kinds of earthquakes can damage the tanks readily. Hence, the seismic behaviour and vibration of cylindrical liquid storage tanks, subjected to earthquakes, is of paramount importance, and it is investigated in this paper. The Finite Element Method is used to evaluate seismic response in addition to the reduction of excessive liquid sloshing in the tank when subjected to the long-period ground motion. The non-linear stress-strain behaviour pertaining to polymers and rubbers is implemented while non-linear contact elements are employed to describe the 3-D surface-to-surface contact. Therefore, Nonlinear Procedures are used to investigate the fluid-structure interactions (FSI) between liquid and the tank wall while there is incompressible liquid. Part I, examines the effect of the flexibility of the isolation system and the tank aspect ratio (height to radius) on the tank wall radial displacements of the tank wall and the liquid sloshing heights. Maximum stress and base shear force for various aspect ratios and different base-isolators, which are subjected to three seismic conditions, will be discussed in Part II. It is shown that the composite-base isolator is much more effective than other isolators due to its high flexibility and strength combined. Moreover, the base isolators may decrease the maximum level pertaining to radial displacement.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.495-504
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• 2018

The possibility of earthquakes in vulnerable regions indicates that efficient technique is required for seismic protection of buildings. During the recent decades, the concept is moving towards the insertion of base isolation on seismic prone buildings. So, investigation of structural behavior is a burning topic for buildings to be isolated in base level by bearing device. This study deals with the incorporation of base isolation system and focuses the changes of structural responses for different types of Lead Rubber Bearing (LRB) isolators. A number of sixteen model buildings have been simulated selecting twelve types of bearing systems as well as conventional fixed-base (FB) scheme. The superstructures of the high-rise buildings are represented by finite element assemblage adopting multi-degree of freedoms. Static and dynamic analyses are carried out for FB and base isolated (BI) buildings. The dynamic analysis in finite element package has been performed by the nonlinear time history analysis (THA) based on the site-specific seismic excitation and compared employing eminent earthquakes. The influence of the model type and the alteration in superstructure behavior of the isolated buildings have been duly assessed. The results of the 3D multistory structures show that the lateral forces, displacement, inertia and story accelerations of the superstructure of the seismic prone buildings are significantly reduced due to bearing insertion. The nonlinear dynamic analysis shows 12 to 40% lessening in base shear when LRB is incorporated leading to substantial allowance of horizontal displacement. It is revealed that the LRB isolators might be potential options to diminish the respective floor accelerations, inertia, displacements and base shear whatever the condition coincides. The isolators with lower force intercept but higher isolation period is found to be better for decreasing base shear, floor acceleration and inertia force leading to reduction of structural and non-structural damage. However, LRB with lower isolator period seems to be more effective in dropping displacement at bearing interface aimed at reducing horizontal shift of building structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.397-412
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• 2011

In this paper, the seismic response of elevated broad and slender liquid storage tanks isolated by elastomeric or sliding bearings was investigated. The accuracy of predictions of SAP2000 vs. 3D-BASIS-ME programs was examined. A comparative study of the performance of base isolated tanks when isolation bearings are placed at the top or at the bottom of the supporting tower structure was conducted. It was found that base isolation is quite effective in reducing the earthquake response of elevated liquid storage tanks in which high reductions of base shear and shaft displacement were achieved. Modeling the isolated tanks in SAP2000 was very successful in producing results that are nearly identical to those of program 3D-BASIS-ME. Placing the isolators at the top of the shaft in elevated tanks proved to be much better than placing them at the bottom.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.371-385
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• 2013

Vibration isolators and anti-vibration mounts are ideal, for example, in creating floating floors for gymnasiums, or performance spaces. However, it is well-known that there are great difficulties on isolating vibration transmission in structural steel components, especially steel floors. Besides, the selection of inertia blocks, which are usually used by engineers as an effective vibration control measure, is usually based on crude methods or the experience of the engineers. Thus, no simple method or indices have been available for assessing the effect of inertia blocks on vibration isolation or stability of vibratory systems. Thus, the aims of this research are to provide further background description using a FE model and present and implement a modal approach, that was validated experimentally, the latter assisting in providing improved understanding of the vibration transmission phenomenon in steel buildings excited by a velocity-source type of excitation. A better visualization of the mean-square velocity distribution in the frequency domain is presented using the concept of modal expansion. Finally, the variation of the mean-square velocity with frequency, whilst varying mass and/or stiffness of the coupled system, is presented.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.1026-1031
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• 2008

We report on the design and experimental results of a large diameter faraday rotator for the high-power laser system(KLF: Kaeri laser facility) that was completed in late 2007s at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. The design involves modelling the magnetic field of cylindrical coil with large diameter(110 mm). Magnetic field generation coil is designed by 6 layers using a rectangular wire with cross-sectional area $3{\times}5[mm^2]$. We obtain an isolation ratio for optical feedback of 35 dB at 1064 nm and magnetic field strengths ${\sim}25kG$. We expect that the design can be widely used optical isolators in high-power laser system.