• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.141-161
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• 2014

This article presents a new generation of empirical ground motion models for the prediction of response spectral accelerations in soil conditions, specifically developed for the Vrancea intermediate-depth seismic source. The strong ground motion database from which the ground motion prediction model is derived consists of over 800 horizontal components of acceleration recorded from nine Vrancea intermediate-depth seismic events as well as from other seventeen intermediate-depth earthquakes produced in other seismically active regions in the world. Among the main features of the new ground motion model are the prediction of spectral ordinates values (besides the prediction of the peak ground acceleration), the extension of the magnitudes range applicability, the use of consistent metrics (epicentral distance) for this type of seismic source, the extension of the distance range applicability to 300 km, the partition of total standard deviation in intra- and inter-event standard deviations and the use of a national strong ground motion database more than two times larger than in the previous studies. The results suggest that this model is an improvement of the previous generation of ground motion prediction models and can be properly employed in the analysis of the seismic hazard of Romania.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2020

The stochastic point-source model has been widely used in generating artificial ground motions, which can be used to develop a ground motion prediction equation and to evaluate the seismic risk of structures. This model mainly consists of three different functions representing source, path, and site effects. The path effect is used to emulate decay in ground motion in accordance with distance from the source. In the stochastic point-source model, the path attenuation effect is taken into account by using the geometrical attenuation effect and the inelastic attenuation effect. The aim of this study is to develop accurate equations of ground motion attenuation in the Korean peninsula. In this study, attenuation was estimated and validated by using a stochastic point source model and observed ground motion recordings for the Korean peninsula.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2016

This study suggests a prediction model of ground motion spectral shape considering characteristics of earthquake records in Korea. Based on the Graizer and Kalkan's prediction procedure, a spectral shape model is defined as a continuous function of period in order to improve the complex problems of the conventional models. The approximate spectral shape function is then developed with parameters such as moment magnitude, fault distance, and average shear velocity of independent variables. This paper finally determines estimator coefficients of subfunctions which explain the corelation among the independent variables using the nonlinear optimization. As a result of generating the prediction model of ground motion spectral shape, the ground motion spectral shape well estimates the response spectrum of earthquake recordings in Korea.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2022

This study proposes an intelligent semi-active isolation system combining a variable-stiffness control device and ground motion characteristic prediction. To determine the optimal control parameter in real-time, a genetic algorithm (GA)-fuzzy control law was developed in this study. Data on various types of ground motions were collected, and the ground motion characteristics were quantified to derive a near-fault (NF) characteristic ratio by employing an on-site earthquake early warning system. On the basis of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) and the derived NF ratio, a fuzzy inference system (FIS) was developed. The control parameters were optimized using a GA. To support continuity under near-fault and far-field ground motions, the optimal control parameter was linked with the predicted PGA and NF ratio through the FIS. The GA-fuzzy law was then compared with other control laws to verify its effectiveness. The results revealed that the GA-fuzzy control law could reliably predict different ground motion characteristics for real-time control because of the high sensitivity of its control parameter to the ground motion characteristics. Even under near-fault and far-field ground motions, the GA-fuzzy control law outperformed the FPEEA control law in terms of controlling the isolation layer displacement and the superstructure acceleration.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.29-44
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• 2018

A ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE) for the Korean Peninsula, especially for South Korea, is developed based on synthetic ground motions generated using a ground motion model derived from instrumental records from 11 recent earthquakes of $M_L$>4.5 in Korea, including the Gyeongju earthquake of Sept. 12. 2016 ($M_L$5.8). PSAs of one standard deviation from the developed GMPE with $M_W$ 6.5 at hypocentral distances of 15 km and 25 km are compared to the design spectrum (soil condition, $S_B$) of the Korean Building Code 2016 (KBC), indicating that: (1) PSAs at short periods around 0.2 sec can be 1.5 times larger than the corresponding KBC PSA, and (2) SD's at periods longer than 2 sec do not exceed 8 cm. Although this comparison of the design spectrum with those of the GMPE developed herein intends to identify the characteristics of the scenario earthquake in a lower-seismicity region such as South Korea, it does not mean that the current design spectrum should be modified accordingly. To develop a design spectrum compatible with the Korean Peninsula, more systematic research using probabilistic seismic hazard analysis is necessary in the future.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.957-976
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• 2015

Recently, two energy-based response parameters, i.e., the absolute and the relative elastic input energy equivalent velocity, have been receiving a lot of research attention. Several studies, in fact, have demonstrated the potential of these intensity measures in the prediction of the seismic structural response. Although some ground motion prediction equations have been developed for these parameters, they only provide marginal distributions without information about the joint occurrence of the spectral values at different periods. In order to build new prediction models for the two equivalent velocities, a large set of ground motion records is used to calculate the correlation coefficients between the response spectral values corresponding to different periods and components of the ground motion. Then, functional forms adopted in models from the literature are calibrated to fit the obtained data. A new functional form is proposed to improve the predictions of the considered models from the literature. The components of the ground motion considered in this study are the two horizontal ones only. Potential uses of the proposed equations in addition to the prediction of the correlation coefficients of the equivalent velocity spectral values are shown, such as the prediction of derived intensity measures and the development of conditional mean spectra.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2014

The main focus of this paper is the analysis of the different components of the variability for strong ground motions recorded from earthquakes produced by the Vrancea subcrustal seismic source. The analysis is performed for two ground motion prediction equations: Youngs et al. (1997) and Zhao et al. (2006), recommended within the SHARE project for the Vrancea subcrustal seismic source and which are proposed in the work of Delavaud et al. (2012) and graded best in Vacareanu et al. (2013c). The first phase of the analysis procedure consists of a grading procedure. In the second phase, the single station sigma procedure is applied for both attenuation models in order to reduce some parts of ground motion models' variability produced by the ergodic assumption. The strong ground motion database which is used throughout the study consists of over 400 accelerograms recorded from 9 Vrancea intermediate-depth seismic events. The results of the single station sigma analysis show significant reduction of the standard deviations, especially in the case of the Youngs et al. (1997) attenuation model, which is also graded better than the other selected GMPE.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.111-118
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• 2023

The 2017 Pohang earthquake afflicted more significant economic losses than the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake, even if these earthquakes had a similar moment magnitude. This phenomenon could be due to local site conditions that amplify ground motions. Local site effects could be estimated from methods using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio, standard spectral ratio, and the generalized inversion technique. Since the generalized inversion method could estimate the site effect effectively, this study modeled the site effects in the Korean peninsula using the generalized inversion technique and the Fourier amplitude spectrum of ground motions. To validate the method, the site effects estimated for seismic stations were tested using recorded ground motions, and a ground motion prediction equation was developed without considering site effects.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.59-69
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• 2021

Historical records of earthquakes are generally used as a basis to extrapolate the instrumental earthquake catalog in time and space during the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). However, the historical catalogs' input parameters determined through historical descriptions rather than any quantitative measurements are accompanied by considerable uncertainty in PSHA. Therefore, quantitative assessment to verify the historical earthquake parameters is essential for refining the reliability of PSHA. This study presents an approach and its application to constrain reliable ranges of the magnitude and corresponding epicenter of historical earthquakes. First, ranges rather than specific values of ground motion intensities are estimated at multiple locations with distances between each other for selected historical earthquakes by reviewing observed co-seismic natural phenomena, structural damage levels, or felt areas described in their historical records. Based on specific objective criteria, this study selects only one earthquake (July 24, 1643), which is potentially one of the largest historical earthquakes. Then, ground motion simulations are performed for sufficiently broadly distributed epicenters, with a regular grid to prevent one from relying on strong assumptions. Calculated peak ground accelerations and velocities in areas with the historical descriptions on corresponding earthquakes are converted to intensities with an empirical ground motion-intensity conversion equation to compare them with historical descriptions. For the ground motion simulation, ground motion prediction equations and a frequency-wavenumber method are used to consider the effects of possible source mechanisms and stress drop. From these quantitative calculations, reliable ranges of epicenters and magnitudes and the trade-off between them are inferred for the earthquake that can conservatively match the upper and lower boundaries of intensity values from historical descriptions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.741-754
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• 2015

This study evaluates prediction models for three EDPs (engineering demand parameters) using data from three symmetrical structures with RC walls designed according to the currently enforced Romanian seismic design code P100-1/2013. The three analyzed EDPs are: the maximum interstorey drift, the maximum top displacement and the maximum shear force at the base of the RC walls. The strong ground motions used in this study consist of three pairs of recordings from the Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes of 1977, 1986 and 1990, as well as two other pairs of recordings from significant earthquakes in Turkey and Greece (Erzincan and Aigion). The five pairs of recordings are rotated in a clockwise direction and the values of the EDPs are recorded. Finally, the relation between various IMs (intensity measures) of the strong ground motion records and the EDPs is studied and two prediction models for EDPs are also evaluated using the analysis of residuals.