• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.20 no.7_spc
• /
• pp.509-516
• /
• 2016

Secure operation of hospitals during and right after earthquake is essential. Past lessons from earthquake damages have shown that most of the injured and the death occurred within 30 minutes after earthquake and the portion of nonstructural damage has become significant. However, hospital buildings in Korea have not prepared fully to address such rising issues. This paper is to study what type of damage patterns are related to hospital buildings and how to develop a preparedness plan to keep hospitals operational at all earthquakes if possible. This paper first reviews on past earthquake damages reported as critical to hospital buildings while classifying them into four groups: (1) structural element; (2) architectural-nostructural element; (3) medical equipments and contents; and (4) utility facility. Upon such classification, some detailed concerns can be specified under each group explicitly. Then a hierarchy for hospital building is also developed for the classified groups, which enables us to identify required things for the enhancement of seismic performance of hospital building that consists of heterogeneous elements. To upgrade the level of seismic performance for existing hospital buildings, the concept of performance-based approach can be adopted to address the heterogeneous problems in a systematic and stepwise manner. Finally a conceptual framework for the seismic risk assessment for hospital building is proposed toward the seismic enhancement of hospital buildings using performance-based approach.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.155-165
• /
• 2018

Methods based on nonlinear static analysis as simple tools could be used for the seismic analysis and assessment of structures. In the present study, capability of the N2 method as a well-known nonlinear analysis procedure examines for the estimation of the damage index of multi-storey reinforced concrete frames. In the implemented framework, equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) models are utilized for the global damage estimation of multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) systems. This method does not require high computational analysis and subsequently decreases the required time of seismic design and assessment process. To develop the methodology, RC frames with period range from 0.4 to 2.0 s under 40 records are studied. The effectiveness of proposed technique is evaluated through numerical study under near- and far-field earthquake ground motions. Finally, the results of developed models are compared with two other simplified schemes along with nonlinear time history analysis results of multi-storey frames. To improve the accuracy of damage estimation, a modified relation is presented based on the N2 method results for near- and far-field earthquakes.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.287-299
• /
• 2022

Rather than using smartphones as seismometers with designated locations and orientations, this study proposes to employ crowds' smartphones in buildings to perform fast safety assessment of buildings. The principal advantage of using crowds' smartphones is the potential to monitor the safety of millions of buildings without hardware costs, installation labor, and long-term maintenance. This study's goal is to measure the maximum interstory drift ratios during earthquake excitation using crowds' smartphones. Beacons inside the building are required to provide the location and relevant building information for the smartphones via Bluetooth. Wi-Fi Direct is employed between nearby smartphones to conduct peer-to-peer time synchronization and exchange the acceleration data measured. An algorithm to align the orientation between nearby smartphones is proposed, and the performance of the orientation alignment, interstory drift measurement, and damage level estimation are studied numerically. Finally, the proposed approach's performance is verified using large-scale shaking table tests of a scaled steel building. The results presented in this study illustrate the potential to use crowds' smartphones with the proposed approach to record building motions during earthquakes and use those data to estimate buildings' safety based on the interstory drift ratios measured.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.319-344
• /
• 2020

Inverse analysis of non-linear reinforced concrete bridge pier using recursive Gaussian filtering for in-situ condition assessment is the main theme of this work. For this purpose, minimum variance unbiased estimation using unscented sigma points is adopted here. The uniqueness of this inverse analysis lies in its approach for strain based updating of engineering demand parameters, where appropriate bound and constrained conditions are introduced to ensure numerical stability and convergence. In this analysis, seismic input is also identified, which is an added advantage for the structures having no dedicated sensors for earthquake measurement. First, the proposed strategy is tested with a simulated example whose hysteretic properties are obtained from the slow-cyclic test of a frame to investigate its efficiency and accuracy. Finally, the experimental test data of a full-scale bridge pier is used to study its in-situ condition in terms of Park & Ang damage index. Overall the study shows the ability of the augmented minimum variance unbiased estimation based recursive time-marching algorithm for non-linear system identification with the aim to estimate the engineering damage parameters that are the fundamental information necessary for any future decision making for retrofitting/rehabilitation.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.10 no.6 s.52
• /
• pp.57-65
• /
• 2006

This paper presents hybrid structural damage monitoring system which performs both global damage assessment of structure and damage detection of local structural joints. Hybrid damage monitoring system is composed of vibration-based technique and electro/mechanic impedance technique. Vibration-based technique detects global characteristic change ot structure using modal characteristic change of structure, and electro/mechanical impedance technique detects damage existence of local structural joints using impedance change of PZT sensor. For the verification of the proposed hybrid monitoring system, a series of damage scenarios are designed to loosened bolts situations of the structural joints, and acceleration response and impedance response signatures are measured. The proposed hybrid monitoring system is implemented to monitor global damage-state and local damages in structural joints.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.185-201
• /
• 2022

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is used to provide reliable information about the structure's integrity in near realtime following extreme incidents such as earthquakes, considering the inevitable aging and degradation that occurs in operating environments. This paper experimentally investigates an integrated wireless sensor network (Wi-SN) based monitoring technique for damage detection in concrete structures. An effective SHM technique can be used to detect potential structural damage based on post-earthquake data. Two novel methods are proposed for damage detection in reinforced concrete (RC) building structures including: (i) Jerk Energy Method (JEM), which is based on time-domain analysis, and (ii) Modal Contributing Parameter (MCP), which is based on frequency-domain analysis. Wireless accelerometer sensors are installed at each story level to monitor the dynamic responses from the building structure. Prior knowledge of the initial state (immediately after construction) of the structure is not required in these methods. Proposed methods only use responses recorded during ambient vibration state (i.e., operational state) to estimate the damage index. Herein, the experimental studies serve as an illustration of the procedures. In particular, (i) a 3-story shear-type steel frame model is analyzed for several damage scenarios and (ii) 2-story RC scaled down (at 1/6th) building models, simulated and verified under experimental tests on a shaking table. As a result, in addition to the usual benefits like system adaptability, and cost-effectiveness, the proposed sensing system does not require a cluster of sensors. The spatial information in the real-time recorded data is used in global damage identification stage of SHM. Whereas in next stage of SHM, the damage is detected at the story level. Experimental results also show the efficiency and superior performance of the proposed measuring techniques.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.207-230
• /
• 2012

Full-scale shake table seismic experiments and low-amplitude vibration tests on a masonry building are carried out to assess its seismic performance as well as study the effectiveness of a new multifunctional textile material for retrofitting masonry structures against earthquakes. The un-reinforced and the retrofitted with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) strips masonry building was subjected to a series of earthquake excitations of increasing magnitude in order to progressively induce various small, moderate and severe levels of damage to the masonry walls. The performance of the original and retrofitted building states is evaluated. Changes in the dynamic characteristics (lowest four modal frequencies and damping ratios) of the building are used to assess and quantify the damage states of the masonry walls. For this, the dynamic modal characteristics of the structure states after each earthquake event were estimated by performing low-amplitude impulse hammer and sine-sweep forced vibration tests. Comparisons between the modal results calculated using traditional accelerometers and those using Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors embedded in the reinforcing textile were carried on to investigate the reliability and accuracy of FBG sensors in tracking the dynamic behaviour of the building. The retrofitting actions restored the stiffness characteristics of the reinforced masonry structure to the levels of the original undamaged un-reinforced structure. The results show that despite a similar dynamic behavior identified, corresponding to reduction of the modal frequencies, the un-reinforced masonry building was severely damaged, while the reinforced masonry building was able to withstand, without visual damage, the induced strong seismic excitations. The applied GFRP reinforcement architecture for one storey buildings was experimentally proven reliable for the most severe earthquake accelerations. It was easily placed in a short time and it is a cost effective solution (covering only 20% of the external wall surfaces) when compared to the cost for full wall coverage by GFRPs.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.121-135
• /
• 2022

Many public buildings such as schools, hospitals, etc., where partial infill walls are present in reinforced concrete (RC) structures, have undergone undesirable damage/failure attributed to captive column effect during a moderate to severe earthquake shaking. Often, the situation gets worsened when these RC frames are non-ductile in nature, thus reducing the deformable capability of the frame. Also, in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, it is mandatory to use fly-ash bricks for construction so as to reduce the burden on the disposal of fly-ash produced at thermal power plants. In some scenario, when the non-ductile RC frame, partially infilled by fly-ash bricks, suffers major structural damage, the challenge remains on how to retrofit and restore it. Thus, in this study, two full-scale one-bay, one-story non-ductile RC frame models, namely, bare frame and RC partially infilled frame with fly-ash bricks in 50% of its opening area are considered. In the previous experiments, these models were subjected to slow-cyclic displacement-controlled loading to replicate damage due to a moderate earthquake. Now, in this study these damaged frames were retrofitted and an experimental investigation was performed on the retrofitted specimens to examine the effectiveness of the proposed retrofitting scheme. A hybrid retrofitting technique combining epoxy injection grouting with an innovative and easy-to-implement steel jacketing technique was proposed. This proposed retrofitting method has ensured proper confinement of damaged concrete. The retrofitted models were subjected to the same slow cyclic displacement-controlled loading which was used to damage the frames. The experimental study concluded that the hybrid retrofitting technique was quite effective in enhancing and regaining various seismic performance parameters such as, lateral strength and lateral stiffness of partially fly-ash brick infilled RC frame. Thus, the steel jacketing retrofitting scheme along with the epoxy injection grouting can be relied on for possible repair of the structural members which are damaged due to the captive column effect during the seismic shaking.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.331-337
• /
• 2023

Due to the aging of a building, 38.8% (about 2.82 million buildings) of the total buildings are old for more than 30 years after completion and are located in a blind spot for an inspection, except for buildings subject to regular legal inspection (about 3%). Such existing buildings require users to self-inspect themselves and make efforts to take preemptive risks. The scope of this study was defined as the general public's visual self-inspection of buildings and was limited to structural members that affect the structural stability of old buildings. This study categorized possible damage to reinforced concrete to check the structural safety of buildings and proposed a checklist to prevent the damage. A damage assessment methodology was presented during the inspection, and a self-inspection scenario was tested through a chatbot connection. It is believed that it can increase the accessibility and convenience of non-experts and induce equalized results when performing inspections, according to the chatbot guide.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.37-56
• /
• 2015

The Emilia, May-July 2012, earthquake has dramatically highlighted the only the hazards facing the people in insufficiently secured workplaces, but also the socio-economic consequences of interruption of production activities. After the event, in order to guarantee suitable safety levels, the Italian government asked for a generalized seismic retrofit of buildingsaffected by the earthquake under consideration. Considering that Emilia is one of the most industrialized Italian region, the number of the industrial buildings to be verified could however lead to not acceptable resumption of production time. So, with the aim to speed up the recovery, were leaved out from this request the buildings which had undergone a strong enoughshaking without any damage. In practice, the earthquakes were being used as a "test" to evaluate the seismic structural strength. Besides, the Italian government provision specifies also the zones, within which buildings that escaped evident damage are exempt from obligatory checks, and termed "exclusion zones", shall be individuated using the data provided by the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in the form of so-called "shakemaps". Obviously, the precision of such data greatly influences the determination of the exclusions zones and so all the economic issues related to them. Starting from these considerations, the present paper describes an evaluation of the reliability of the procedure of shakemap generation with specific regard to the seismic events that struck the Emilia region on May 20 and 29, 2012.