• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.89-95
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• 2016

Lately, the high-strength concrete is often used to increase the lifespan of bridges. The benefits of using the high-strength concrete are that it increases the durability and strength. On the contrary, it reduces the cross-section of the bridges. This study conducted structural performance tests of the bridge deck slabs applying high-strength concrete. As result of the tests, specimens of bridge deck slabs were destroyed through punching shear. Moreover, the tests exposed that the high-strength concrete bridge deck slabs satisfy the flexural strength and the punching shear strength at ultimate limit state(ULS). Also, limiting deflection of the concrete fulfilled serviceability limit state(SLS) criteria. These results indicated that the bridge deck slabs designed by high-strength concrete were enough to secure the safety factor despite of its low thickness.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.43-50
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• 2022

Even though the structural safety is confirmed in the design stage, the structural safety is not guaranteed in the construction stage because the structural system is not completed. In addition, since the construction period is shorter than the period of use of the building after completion, it is excessive to apply the same seismic load to the construction stage as in the design stage. ASCE 37-14 presents the concept of seismic load reduction factor during construction, but does not provide a clear application method. Therefore, in this study, the seismic load reduced according to the return period was applied to the example model of a residential middle-rise RC building. The construction stage of the example model was divided into five-story units, and seismic load with the change of the return period was applied to the construction stage models to analyze the change of seismic load during construction and to check the sectional performances of structural members. By comparing the design strength ratio of the shear wall at the design stage and the construction stage, the range of seismic load magnitudes that can assure the safety during construction of a residential middle-rise RC building was analyzed in terms of the return period.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.515-537
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• 2014

Current seismic codes (e.g. the NTC08 Italian code and the EC8 European code) adopt a performance-based approach for both the design of new buildings and the assessment of existing ones. Different limit states are considered by verifying structural members as well as non structural elements and facilities which have generally been neglected in practice. The key role of non structural elements on building performance has been shown by recent earthquakes (e.g. L'Aquila 2009) where, due to the extensive damage suffered by infills, partitions and ceilings, a lot of private and public buildings became unusable with consequent significant socio-economic effects. Furthermore, the collapse of infill panels, particularly in the case of out-of-plane failure, represented a serious source of risk to life safety. This paper puts forward an infill model capable of accounting for the effects arising from prior in-plane damage on the out-of-plane capacity of infill panels. It permits an assessment of the seismic performance of existing RC buildings with reference to both structural and non structural elements, as well as of their mutual interaction. The model is applied to a building type with RC framed structure designed only to vertical loads and representative of typical Italian buildings. The influence of infill on building performance and the role of the out-of-plane response on structural response are also discussed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.511-539
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• 2015

The main objective of this study is to analytically investigate the effectiveness of different strengthening solutions in upgrading the seismic performance of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Nepal. For this, four building models with different structural configurations and detailing were considered. Three possible rehabilitation solutions were studied, namely: (a) RC shear wall, (b) steel bracing, and (c) RC jacketing for all of the studied buildings. A numerical analysis was conducted with adaptive pushover and dynamic time history analysis. Seismic performance enhancement of the studied buildings was evaluated in terms of demand capacity ratio of the RC elements, capacity curve, inter-storey drift, energy dissipation capacity and moment curvature demand of the structures. Finally, the seismic safety assessment was performed based on standard drift limits, showing that retrofitting solutions significantly improved the seismic performance of existing buildings in Nepal.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.66-74
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• 2017

Masonry walls which are commonly used for partitions in low-rise reinforced concrete (RC) structures, can be easily exposed to high risks under strong earthquakes. Since the strength degradations cannot be protected under the ground motions, their applications cannot be recommended for building structures which are designed to possess high seismic performances. However, masonry-infilled walls are typically considered as non-structural elements in evaluating the seismic performance of building structures. In order to figure out this problem, this study performed experiments using two specimens-only RC frame and RC frame infilled with masonry walls- under static loading. Also, the study established analytical models representing fully infilled frames and bare frame, and compared their structural behavior with test results. In addition, analytical model representing partially infilled frames was established and analyzed. Test results indicated that strength and energy dissipating capacity were increased for IW-RN(fully infilled frames) compared to the NW(bare frame). The nonlinear static analysis of the three specimens was also conducted using the inelastic plastic hinge frame element and diagonal strut models, and the analytical results successfully simulated the nonlinear behaviour of the specimens in accordance with the test results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.66-73
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• 2009

Since the school buildings are generally used as public shelters when the natural disasters such as flood and earthquake occur, it must be designed to show enough structural performance when subject to earthquake. Major failure mode of the school buildings observed in past earthquakes were shear failure of column of which length is shortened by infilled masonry blocks. In this study, the seismic risk of the reinforced concrete school building structure was evaluated by using the seismic performance evaluation methods of low-story RC structures developed in Japan and the required seismic performance index which is obtained according to the KBC2008 seismic hazard map and soil types. In this paper, the seismic performance of the school building is evaluated by considering this short-column effects, building shape and deterioration.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.261-291
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• 2016

This paper deals with the seismic assessment of a real RC frame building located in Italy, designed according to the current Italian seismic code. The first part of the paper deals with the calibration of the structural model of the investigated building. The results of an in-situ dynamic identification test are employed in a sensitivity and parametric study in order to find the best fit model in terms of frequencies and modal shapes. In the second part, the safety of the structure is evaluated by means of nonlinear static analyses, taking into account the results of the previous dynamic study. In order to investigate the influence of the infills on the seismic response of the structure, the nonlinear static analyses are performed both neglecting and taking into account the infill panels. The infill panels differently change the behavior of the structure in terms of strength and stiffness at different seismic intensity levels. The assessment study also verifies the absence of brittle failures in structural elements, which could be caused by either the local interaction with infills or the failure of the strength hierarchy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.38-45
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• 2018

Bridges are structures where safety must be ensured. Generally, the destruction mechanism of bridge deck shows punching shear. Lately, the high-strength concrete is often used to increase the lifespan of bridges. The benefits of using the high-strength concrete are that it increases the durability and strength. On the contrary, it reduces the cross-section of the bridges. This study suggested the optimal thickness of bridge deck with application of high-strength concrete and the study evaluated its structural performance experimentally. The evaluation result shows that 180 mm and 190 mm of thickness are optimal for 100 MPa and 120 MPa high-strength concrete bridge deck respectively.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.4
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• pp.481-494
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• 2020

In this paper, a probability-based procedure to evaluate the performance of existing RC structures exposed to seismic and fire actions is presented. The procedure is demonstrated with reference to an existing old school building, located in Italy. The vulnerability assessment of the building highlights deficiencies under both static and seismic loads. Retrofit operations are designed to achieve the seismic safety. The idea of the work consists in assessing the performance of the existing and retrofitted building in terms of both the seismic and fire resistance. The seismic retrofit and fire resistance upgrading follow different paths, depending on the specific configuration of the building. A good seismic retrofit does not entail an improving of the fire resistance and vice versa. The goal of the current work is to study the variation of response due to the uncertainties considered in records/fire curves selection and to carry out the assessment of the studied RC structure by obtaining fragility curves under the effect of different records/temperature. The results show the fragility curves before and after retrofit operations and both in terms of seismic performance and fire resistance performance, measuring the percent improving for the different limit states.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.74-81
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• 2009

In this study, the seismic performance of RC school buildings which were not designed according to earthquake-resistance design code were evaluated by using response spectrum and push-over analyses. The torsional amplification effect due to plan irregularity is considered and then the efficiency of seismic retrofitting methods such as RC shear wall, steel frame, RC frame and PC wing wall was investigated. The analysis result indicate that the inter-story drift concentrated in the first floor and most plastic hinge forms at the column of the first story. Among the retrofitting methods, the PC wing wall has the highest seismic performance in strength and story drift aspect. Especially, it can make building ductile behavior due to the concentrated inter-story drift at the first column hinge is distributed overall stories. The axial force, shear force and moment magnitude of existing elements significantly decreased after retrofitting. However, the axial and shear force of the elements connected to the additional retrofitting elements increased, and especially the boundary columns at the end of the retrofitting shear wall should be reinforced for assuring the enhancement of seismic performance.