• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.113-119
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• 2018

The probabilistic seismic safety assessment is one of the methodology to evaluate the seismic safety of the nuclear power plants. The site characteristics of the nuclear power plant should be reflected when evaluating the seismic safety of the nuclear power plant. The Korea seismic characteristics are strong in high frequency region and may be different from NRC Regulatory Guide 1.60, which is the design spectrum of nuclear power plants. In this study, seismic response of a nuclear power plant structure by Pohang earthquake (2017.11.15. (KST)) is investigated. The Pohang earthquake measured at the Cheongsong seismic observation station (CHS) is scaled to the peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 0.2 g and the seismic acceleration time history curve corresponding to the design spectrum is created. A nuclear power plant of the containment building and the auxiliary buildings are modeled using OPENSEES to analyze the seismic response of the Pohang earthquake. The seismic behavior of the nuclear power plant due to the Pohang earthquake is investigated. And the seismic performances of the equipment of a nuclear power plant are evaluated by the HCLPF. As a result, the seismic safety evaluation of nuclear power plants should be evaluated based on site-specific characteristics of nuclear power plants.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.297-316
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• 2015

The use of fragility curves in the design of bridges is becoming common these days. In this study, experimental data have been used to develop fragility curves for the potential of girder unseating of a three-segment bridge and a bridge-abutment system including the influence of spatially varying ground motions, pounding, and abutment movement. The ground excitations were simulated based on the design spectra for different soil conditions. The Newmarket Viaduct replacement bridge in Auckland was used as the prototype bridge. These fragility curves were also applied to the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. The study showed that for bridges with similar characteristics as the chosen prototype and with similar fundamental frequencies, pounding could increase the probability of girder unseating by up to 35% and 30% based on the AASHTO and NZTA seating length requirements, respectively. The assumption of uniform ground excitations in many design practices, such as the NZTA requirements, could potentially be disastrous as girders might have a very good chance of unseating (as much as 53% higher chances when considering spatial variation of ground motions) even when they are designed not to. In the case of superstructures with dissimilar frequencies, the assumption of fixed abutments could significantly overestimate the girder unseating potential when pounding was ignored and underestimate the chances when pounding was considered. Bridges subjected to spatially varying ground excitations simulated based on the New Zealand design spectra for soft soil conditions with weak correlation shows the highest chances of girders falling off, of up to 65% greater than for shallow soil excitations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2011

This study investigates the feasibility of detecting structural damage using the HHT method. A damage detection index, the ratio of bandwidth (RB) is proposed. This index is highly correlated or approximately equal to the change of equivalent damping ratio for an intact structure incurring damage from strong ground motions. Based on an analysis of shaking table test data from benchmark models subjected to adjusted Kobe and El Centro earthquakes, the damage detection index is evaluated using the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) and the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) methods, respectively. Results indicate that, when the response of the structure is in the elastic region, the RB value only slightly changes in both the HHT and the FFT spectra. Additionally, RB values estimated from the HHT spectra vs. the PGA values change incrementally when the structure response is nonlinear i.e., member yielding occurs, but not in the RB curve from the FFT spectra. Moreover, the RB value of the top floor changes more than those from the other floors. Furthermore, structural damage is detected only when using the acceleration response data from the top floor. Therefore, the ratio of bandwidth RB estimated from the smoothed HHT spectra is an effective and sensitive damage index for detecting structural damage. Results of this study also demonstrate that the HHT is a powerful method in analyzing the nonlinear responses of steel structures to strong ground motions.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.26-37
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• 2020

This study intends to present a fragility analysis method suitable for concrete cable-stayed bridges by performing an analysis reflecting design criteria and material characteristics from the results of inelastic time-history analysis. In order to obtain the fragility curve of the cable-stayed bridge, the limit state of the main component of the cable-stayed bridge is determined, and the damage state is classified by comparing it with the response value based on inelastic time history analysis. The seismic fragility curve of the cable-stayed bridge was made by obtaining the probability of damage to PGA that the dynamic response of the vulnerable parts to input ground motion would exceed the limit state of each structural member. According to the pylon's fragility curve, the probability of moderate damage at 0.5g is 32% for the longitudinal direction, while 7% for the transversal direction, indicating that the probability of damage in the longitudinal direction is higher in the same PGA than in the transversal direction. The seismic fragility curve of the connections showed a very high probability of damage, meaning that damage to the connections caused by earthquakes is very sensitive compared to damage to the pylon and cables. The cable's seismic fragility curve also showed that the probability of complete damage state after moderate damage state gradually decreased, resulting in less than 30% probability of complete damage at 2.0g.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2017

Modern seismic codes rely on performance-based seismic design methodology which requires that the structures withstand inelastic deformation. Many studies have focused on the inelastic deformation ratio evaluation (ratio between the inelastic and elastic maximum lateral displacement demands) for various inelastic spectra. This paper investigates the inelastic response spectra through the ductility demand ${\mu}$, the yield strength reduction factor $R_y$, and the inelastic deformation ratio. They depend on the vibration period T, the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio ${\alpha}$, the peak ground acceleration (PGA), and the normalized yield strength coefficient ${\eta}$ (ratio of yield strength coefficient divided by the PGA). A new inelastic deformation ratio $C_{\eta}$ is defined; it is related to the capacity curve (pushover curve) through the coefficient (${\eta}$) and the ratio (${\alpha}$) that are used as control parameters. A set of 140 real ground motions is selected. The structures are bilinear inelastic single degree of freedom systems (SDOF). The sensitivity of the resulting inelastic deformation ratio mean values is discussed for different levels of normalized yield strength coefficient. The influence of vibration period T, post-to-preyield stiffness ratio ${\alpha}$, normalized yield strength coefficient ${\eta}$, earthquake magnitude, ruptures distance (i.e., to fault rupture) and site conditions is also investigated. A regression analysis leads to simplified expressions of this inelastic deformation ratio. These simplified equations estimate the inelastic deformation ratio for structures, which is a key parameter for design or evaluation. The results show that, for a given level of normalized yield strength coefficient, these inelastic displacement ratios become non sensitive to none of the rupture distance, the earthquake magnitude or the site class. Furthermore, they show that the post-to-preyield stiffness has a negligible effect on the inelastic deformation ratio if the normalized yield strength coefficient is greater than unity.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.3 s.49
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• pp.77-84
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• 2006

Unlike homogeneous material structure, the behavior of masonry structure is not perfectly elastic even in the range of small deformations because it is a non-homogeneous and anisotropic composite structural material, consisting of masonry units, mortar, and grout. This paper proposes a simplified way of investigating the evolution of the deformation and damage of the structure subjected to a series of successive ground motions with varying shaking. Especially, the most simple but useful algorithm of Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) has been adopted to investigate the evolution of the deformation and damage of the structure tested on the shaking table. Moreover, the development of a hi-linear curve for an equivalent SDOF system which is obtained by exploiting the frequency and stiffness relationship was discussed. Finally, some important findings related to inelastic properties of the URM are summarized.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.5-13
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• 2022

In this study, dynamic characteristics and liquefaction resistance characteristics of silica sand which is used to simulate sandy layer were conducted using the cyclic triaxial test according to the relative density difference. The difference in liquefaction resistance with the relative density was confirmed through the test results, which the relative density conditions were changed to 40%, 60%, and 80%, and the cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) curve of the silica sand was obtained. In addition, in order to examine the validity of the liquefaction resistance ratio (CRR) curve, artificial silica sand ground was created, and liquefaction potential was evaluated through the simple assessment method and the detailed assessment method, and the safety factors of each were compared.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.37-49
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• 2018

Since the observation of ground motions in South Korea, liquefaction manifestation was the first to be observed in Pohang earthquake in 2017 with $M_L$ 5.4. Because liquefaction causes ground settlement and lateral spread damaging in-ground or super structures, various researchers have been analyzing the Pohang liquefaction case history to better understand and predict liquefaction consequence and to prevent future disasters. In prior research at the 2018 EESK conference, a map of Liquefaction Potential Index (LPI), indicating the severity of liquefaction, in Pohang was created and compared with damage observations. The LPI correlated well with the observations, but the severity categorized by LPI range was significantly higher than the actual observations in most regions. The prior LPI map was created evaluating ground motions using the simplified approach. In this research, we perform the effective site response analyses with porewater pressure generation model for the detailed evaluation of liquefaction on the liquefied sites in Pohang. We found that the simplified approach for LPI evaluation can overestimate the severity.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.69-80
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• 2008

In this study, improved capacity spectrum method (CSM) is proposed. The method can account for higher mode contribution to the seismic response of MDOF systems. The CSM has been conveniently used for determining maximum roof displacement using both demand spectrum and capacity curve of equivalent SDOF system. Unlike the conventional CSM, the maximum roof displacement is determined without iteration using inelastic displacement ratio and R factor calculated from demand spectrum and capacity curve. Three moment resisting steel frames of 3-, 9- and 20-stories are considered to test the accuracy of the proposed method. Nonlinear response history analysis (NL-RHA) for three frames is also conducted, which is considered as an exact solution. SAC LA 10/50 and 2/50 sets of ground motions are used. Moreover, this study estimates maximum story drift ratios (IDR) using ATC-40 CSM and N2-method and compared with those from the proposed method and NL-RHA. It shows that the proposed CSM estimates the maximum IDR accurately better than the previous methods.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1195-1211
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• 2016

In this study, seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete buildings using the pushover and incremental dynamic analysis method was investigated. A numerical study was performed for a reinforced concrete frame building. Pushover analysis according to uniform and triangular load shapes and incremental dynamic analyses were performed for selected building. For the nonlinear analysis, three ground motion records were selected to ensure compatibility with the design spectrum defined in the Turkish Seismic Code. The maximum response, dynamic pushover curve, capacity curves, interstorey drifts and moment rotation curves for various element ends of the selected building were obtained. Results were compared each other and good correlation was obtained between the dynamic analyses envelope with static pushover curves for the building.