• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.77-86
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• 2018

This study develops an empirical prediction equation of spectral acceleration responses of earthquakes which can induce structural damages. Ground motion records representing hazards of low-to-moderate seismic regions were selected and organized with several influential factors affecting the response spectra. The empirical equation and estimator coefficients for acceleration response spectra were then proposed using a robust nonlinear optimization coupled with a regression analysis. For analytical verification of the prediction equation, response spectra used for low-to-moderate seismic regions were estimated and the predicted results were comparatively evaluated with measured response spectra. As a result, the predicted shapes of response spectra can simulate the graphical shapes of measured data with high accuracy and most of predicted results are distributed inside range of correlation of variation (COV) of 30% from perfectly correlated lines.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.629-647
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• 2012

Multiple acceleration sequences of earthquake ground motions have been observed in many regions of the world. Such ground motions can cause large damage to the structures due to accumulation of inelastic deformation from the repeated sequences. The dynamic analysis of inelastic structures under repeated acceleration sequences generated from simulated and recorded accelerograms without sequences has been recently studied. However, the characteristics of recorded earthquake ground motions of multiple sequences have not been studied yet. This paper investigates the gross characteristics of earthquake records of multiple sequences from an engineering perspective. The definition of the effective number of acceleration sequences of the ground shaking is introduced. The implication of the acceleration sequences on the structural response and damage of inelastic structures is also studied. A set of sixty accelerograms is used to demonstrate the general properties of repeated acceleration sequences and to investigate the associated structural inelastic response.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.369-378
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• 2016

The design spectrum for Korea, which is known to belong to an intra-plate region, is developed from the ground motion records of the earthquakes occurred in Korea and overseas intra-plate regions. The horizontal spectrum is defined as geometric mean spectrum, GMRotI50. From the statistical analysis of the geometric mean spectra, a mean plus one standard deviation spectrum in lognormal distribution is obtained. Regression analysis is performed on this curve to determine the shape of spectrum including transition periods. The developed design spectrum is valid for the estimation both spectral acceleration and displacement.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.1111-1133
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• 2015

Rebar corrosion in concrete is one of the main causes of reduction of service life of reinforced concrete buildings. This paper presents the influence of rebar corrosion on the structural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings subjected to strong earthquake ground motion. Different levels of rebar corrosion scenarios were applied on a typical four story RC frame. The deteriorated conditions as a result of these scenarios include loss in cross-sectional area and loss of mechanical properties of the reinforcement bars, loss in bond strength, and loss in concrete strength and its modulus of elasticity. Dynamic analyses of the frame with different corrosion scenarios are performed with selected strong earthquake ground motion records. The influences of degradation in both concrete and reinforcement on structural behavior are investigated by comparing the various parameters of the frame under different corrosion scenarios with respect to each other. The results show that the progressive deterioration of the frame due to rebar corrosion causes serious structural behavior changes such as change in failure mode. The intensity, propagation time, and extensity of rebar corrosion have very important effects on the level of degradation of steel and concrete, as well as on the earthquake behavior of the structure.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.503-510
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• 2006

Seismic control performance of MR dampers, which have severe nonlinearity, differs with respect to the dynamic characteristics of an earthquake such as magnitude, frequency and duration. In this study, the effects of excitation characteristics on the equivalent linear system of a building structure with an MR damper are investigated through numerical analysis for artificial ground motions generated from different response spectrums. The equivalent damping ratio of the structure with an MR damper is calculated using Newmark and Hall's equations for ground motion amplification factors. It is found that the equivalent damping ratio of the structure with the MR damper is dependent on the ratio of the maximum friction force of the MR damper over excitation magnitude. Frequency contents of the earthquake ground motion affects the equivalent damping ratio of long-period structures considerably. Also, additional damping effect caused by interaction between the viscousity and friction of the MR damper is observed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.389-408
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• 2016

Recently, seismic hazard analysis has become a very significant issue. New systems and available data have been also developed that could help scientists to explain the earthquakes phenomena and its physics. Scientists have begun to accept the role of uncertainty in earthquake issues and seismic hazard analysis. However, handling the existing uncertainty is still an important problem and lack of data causes difficulties in precisely quantifying uncertainty. Ground Motion Prediction Equation (GMPE) values are usually obtained in a statistical method: regression analysis. Each of these GMPEs uses the preliminary data of the selected earthquake. In this paper, a new fuzzy method was proposed to select suitable GMPE at every intensity (earthquake magnitude) and distance (site distance to fault) according to preliminary data aggregation in their area using ${\alpha}$ cut. The results showed that the use of this method as a GMPE could make a significant difference in probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) results instead of selecting one equation or using logic tree. Also, a practical example of this new method was described in Iran as one of the world's earthquake-prone areas.

• 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.11 no.3
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• pp.407-420
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• 2016

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of vertical ground motion (VGM) on seismic behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) regular frame with construction joints, and determine more proper modeling method for cast-in-situ RC frame. The four-story RC frames in the regions of 7, 8 and 9 earthquake intensity were analyzed with nonlinear dynamic time-history method. Two different methods of ground motion input, horizontal ground motion (HGM) input only, VGM and HGM input simultaneously were performed. Seismic responses in terms of the maximum vertex displacement, the maximum inter-story drift distribution and the plastic hinge distribution were analyzed. The results show that VGM might increase or decrease the horizontal maximum vertex displacement depending on the value of axial load ratio of column. And it will increase the maximum inter-story drift and change its distribution. Finally, proper modeling method is proposed according to the distribution of plastic hinges, which is in well agreement with the actual earthquake damage.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.245-255
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• 2013

According to natural frequency of soil, characteristics of earthquake responses of an isolated containment building in nuclear power plants are examined. For this, earthquake response analysis of seismically isolated containment buildings in nuclear power plants is carried out by strictly considering soil-structure interactions. The structure and near-field soil are modeled by the finite element method while far-field soil by consistent transmitting boundary. The equation of motion of a soil-structure interaction system under incident seismic wave is derived. The derived equations of motion are solved to carry out earthquake analysis of a seismically isolated soil-structure system. Generally, the results of this analysis show that seismic isolation significantly reduces the responses of the soil-structure system. However, if the natural frequency of the soil is similar to that of the soil-structure system, the responses of the containment buildings in nuclear power plants rather increases due to interactions in the system.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.09a
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• pp.36-43
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• 2001

In Korea, we are absolutely short of earthquake data in good quality from moderate and large earthquakes, which are needed fur the study of strong ground motion characteristics. This means that the best use of the available data is needed far the time being. In this respect, several methods are suggested in this paper, which can be applied in the process of data selection and analysis. First, it is shown that the calibration status of seismic stations can be easily checked by comparing the spectra from accelerometer and velocity sensor both of which are located at the same location. Secondly, it is recommended that S/N ratio in the frequency domain should be checked before discarding the data by only look of the data in time domain. Thirdly, the saturated earthquake data caused by ground motion level exceeding the detection limit of a seismograph are considered to see if such data can be used for spectrum analysis by performing numerical simulation. The result reveals that the saturated data can still be used within the dominant frequency range according to the levels of saturation. Finally, a technique to minimize the window effect that distorts the low frequency spectrum is suggested. This technique involves detrending in displacement domain once the displacement data are obtained by integration of low frequency components of the original data in time domain. Especially, the low frequency component can be separated by using discrete wavelet transform among many alternatives. All of these methods mentioned above may increase the available earthquake data and frequency range.