• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2017

Historical earthquakes have shown that successive seismic events may occur in regions of high seismicity. Such a sequence of earthquakes has the potential to increase the damage level of the structures, since any rehabilitation between the successive ground motions is practically impossible due to lack of time. Few studies about this issue can be found in literature, most of which focused their attention on the seismic response of SDOF systems or planar frame structures. The aim of the present study is to examine the impact of seismic sequences on the damage level of 3D multistorey R/C buildings with various structural systems. For the purposes of the above investigation a comprehensive assessment is conducted using three double-symmetric and three asymmetric in plan medium-rise R/C buildings, which are designed on the basis of the current seismic codes. The buildings are analyzed by nonlinear time response analysis using 80 bidirectional seismic sequences. In order to account for the variable orientation of the seismic motion, the two horizontal accelerograms of each earthquake record are applied along horizontal orthogonal axes forming 12 different angles with the structural axes. The assessment of the results revealed that successive ground motions can lead to significant increase of the structural damage compared to the damage caused by the corresponding single seismic events. Furthermore, the incident angle can radically alter the successive earthquake phenomenon depending on the special characteristics of the structure, the number of the sequential earthquakes, as well as the distance of the record from the fault.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.111-119
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• 2020

Recently, some of the most destructive earthquakes have occurred in South Korea since earthquake observations began in 1978. In particular, the soil liquefactions have been reported in Pohang as a result of the ML 5.4 earthquake that occurred in November 2017. Liquefaction-induced ground deformations can cause significant damage to a wide range of buildings and infrastructures. Therefore, it is necessary to take practical steps to ensure safety during an earthquake. In the current seismic design in South Korea, the Hachinohe earthquake and Ofunato earthquake recorded in Japan, along with artificial earthquakes, have been generally used for input motions in dynamic analyses. However, such strong ground motions are only from Japan, and artificial earthquake ground motions are different from real ground motions. In this study, seven ground motions are selected, including those recorded in South Korea, while others are compatible to the current design spectra of South Korea. The effects of the newly selected ground motions on site response analyses and liquefaction analyses are evaluated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2010

The KIER's Korean historical earthquake catalog was revised for MMI${\geq}$VI events recorded from the years 27 A.D. to 1904. the magnitude of each event was directly determined from the criteria suggested by Seo. The criteria incorporated the damage phenomena of the Japanese historical earthquake catalog, recent seismological studies, and the results of tests performed on ancient structures in Korea. Thus, the uncertainty of the magnitudes of the Korean historical earthquakes can be reduced. Also, the Gutenberg-Richter parameter values were estimated based on the revised catalog of this study. It was determined that the magnitudes of a maximum inland and minimum offshore event were approximately 6.3 and 6.5, respectively. The Gutenberg-Richter parameter pairs of the historical earthquake catalog were estimated to be a=5.32${\pm}$0.21, b=0.95${\pm}$0.19, which were somewhat lower than those obtained from recent complete instrumental earthquakes. No apparent change in the Gutenberg-Richter parameter is observed for the $16^{th}-17^{th}$ centuries of the seismically active period.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.541-561
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• 2014

This paper approaches the issue of seismic vulnerability assessment strategies for facade walls of traditional masonry buildings through the development of a methodology and its subsequent application to over 600 building facades from the old building stock of the historic city centre of Coimbra. Using the post-earthquake damage assessment of masonry buildings in L'Aquila, Italy, an analytical function was developed and calibrated to estimate the mean damage grade for masonry facade walls. Having defined the vulnerability function for facade walls, damage scenarios were calculated and subsequently used in the development of an emergency planning tool and in the elaboration of an access route proposal for the case study of the historic city centre of Coimbra. Finally, the methodology was pre-validated through the comparison of a set of results obtained from its application and also resourcing to a widely accepted mechanical method on the description of the out-of-plane behaviour of facade walls.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7_spc
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• pp.473-483
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• 2016

In this paper, seismic performance assessment has been examined for a mid-rise RC building subjected to 2016 Gyeongju earthquake occurred in Korea. For the purpose of the paper, 2D external and internal frames in each direction of the building have been employed in the present comparative analyses. Nonlinear static pushover analyses have been conducted to estimate frame capacities. Nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses have also been carried out to examine demands for the frames subjected to ground motions recorded at stations in near of Gyeongju and a previous earthquake ground motion. Analytical predictions demonstrate that maximum demands are significantly affected by characteristics of both spectral acceleration response and spectrum intensity over a wide range of periods. Further damage potential of the frames has been evaluated in terms of fragility analyses using the same ground motions. Fragility results reveal that the ground motion characteristics of the Gyeongju earthquake have little influence on the seismic demand and fragility of frames.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.215-244
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• 2004

There is an ever-increasing demand for assessment of earthquake effects on transportation structures, emphasised by the crippling consequences of recent earthquakes hitting developed countries reliant on road transportation. In this work, vulnerability functions for RC bridges are derived analytically using advanced material characterisation, high quality earthquake records and adaptive inelastic dynamic analysis techniques. Four limit states are employed, all based on deformational quantities, in line with recent development of deformation-based seismic assessment. The analytically-derived vulnerability functions are then compared to a data set comprising observational damage data from the Northridge (California 1994) and Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe 1995) earthquakes. The good agreement gives some confidence in the derived formulation that is recommended for use in seismic risk assessment. Furthermore, by varying the dimensions of the prototype bridge used in the study, and the span lengths supported by piers, three more bridges are obtained with different overstrength ratios (ratio of design-to-available base shear). The process of derivation of vulnerability functions is repeated and the ensuing relationships compared. The results point towards the feasibility of deriving scaling factors that may be used to obtain the set of vulnerability functions for a bridge with the knowledge of a 'generic' function and the overstrength ratio. It is demonstrated that this simple procedure gives satisfactory results for the case considered and may be used in the future to facilitate the process of deriving analytical vulnerability functions for classes of bridges once a generic relationship is established.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.79-90
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• 2020

4- and 8-storey reinforced-concrete frame buildings are analyzed under the suites of the near-fault pulse-like, and the corresponding spectrally equivalent far-fault ground-motion records. Seismic fragility curves for the slight, moderate, extensive, and complete damage states are developed, and the damage probability matrices, and the mean loss ratios corresponding to the Design Basis Earthquake and the Maximum Considered Earthquake hazard levels are compared, for the investigated buildings and sets of ground-motion records. It is observed that the spectrally equivalent far-fault ground-motion records result in comparable estimates of the fragility curve parameters, as that of the near-fault pulse-like ground-motion records. As a result, the derived damage probability matrices and mean loss ratios using two suites of ground-motion records differ only marginally (of the order of ~10%) for the investigated levels of seismic hazard, thus, implying the potential for application of the spectrally equivalent ground-motion records, for seismic fragility and risk assessment at the near-fault sites.

• 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.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.867-891
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• 2016

This paper addresses numerically the behavior of steel structures under Fire-after-Earthquake (FAE) loading. The study is focused on a four-storey library building and takes into account the damage that is induced in structural members due to earthquake. The basic objective is the assessment of both the fire-behavior and the fire-resistance of the structure in the case where the structure is damaged due to earthquake. The combined FAE scenarios involve two different stages: during the first stage, the structure is subjected to the ground motion record, while in the second stage the fire occurs. Different time-acceleration records are examined, each scaled to multiple levels of the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) in order to represent more severe earthquakes with lower probability of occurrence. In order to study in a systematic manner the behavior of the structure for the various FAE scenarios, a two-dimensional beam finite element model is developed, using the non-linear finite element analysis code MSC-MARC. The fire resistance of the structure is determined using rotational limits based on the ductility of structural members that are subjected to fire. These limits are temperature dependent and take into account the level of the structural damage at the end of the earthquake and the effect of geometric initial imperfections of structural members.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.9-17
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• 2001

This paper focuses on the earthquake hazard delineation and physical loss estimation for lifelines and utilities. Emphasis is given to geographic information systems(GIS) and their application to pipeline networks in evaluating the spatial characteristics of earthquake effects. The paper examines the GIS databases for water supply performance obtained for the 1994 northridge. Relationships among buried lifeline damage and various seismic parameters are examined, and the parameters that are statistically most significant are identified. Using GIS data from the Northridge earthquake, the relationships among pipeline repair rate, type of pipe, diameter, and various seismic parameters are assessed.