• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.211-217
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• 2018

The Pohang earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 occurred on November 15, 2018. The epicenter of this earthquake located in south-east region of the Korean peninsula. Since instrumental recording for earthquake ground motions started in Korea, this earthquake caused the largest economic and life losses among past earthquakes. Korea is located in low-to moderate seismic region, so that strong motion records are very limited. Therefore, ground motions recorded during the Pohang earthquake could have valuable geological and seismological information, which are important inputs for seismic design. In this study, ground motions associated by the 2018 Pohang earthquake are generated using the point source model considering domestic geological parameters (magnitude, hypocentral distance, distance-frequency dependent decay parameter, stress drop) and site amplification calculated from ground motion data at each stations. A contour map for peak ground acceleration is constructed for ground motions generated by the Pohang earthquake using the proposed model.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.223-232
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• 2021

The spatial variation characteristics of seismic motions at the nuclear power plant's site and structures were analyzed using earthquake records obtained at the Fukushima nuclear power plant during the Great East Japan Earthquake. The ground responses amplified as they approached the soil surface from the lower rock surface, and the amplification occurred intensively at about 50 m near the ground. Due to the soil layer's nonlinear characteristics caused by the strong seismic motion, the ground's natural frequency derived from the response spectrum ratio appeared to be smaller than that calculated from the shear wave velocity profile. The spatial variation of the peak ground acceleration at the ground surface of the power plant site showed a significant difference of about 0.6 g at the maximum. As a result of comparing the response spectrums at the basement of the structure with the design response spectrum, there was a large variability by each power plant unit. The difference was more significant in the Fukushima Daiichi site record, which showed larger peak ground acceleration at the surface. The earthquake motions input to the basement of the structure amplified according to the structure's height. The natural frequency obtained from the recorded results was lower than that indicated in the previous research. Also, the floor response spectrum change according to the location at the same height was investigated. The vertical response on the foundation surface showed a significant difference in spectral acceleration depending on the location. The amplified response in the structure showed a different variability depending on the type of structure and the target frequency.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.247-256
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• 2015

This paper briefly introduces the design seismic loads in Korea (KBC 2009). Then, over 10,000 recorded earthquake ground accelerograms, with their magnitude ranging from 4.0 to 8.0 and their epicentral distance ranging from 0 to 200 km, were used to examine the appropriateness of seismic load defined in Korea known as a low-to-moderate seismicity region. The following conclusions are drawn based on the results: (1) The effective peak ground accelerations (EPA) of recorded earthquake accelerograms under $M{\leq}6.0$ and $R{\geq}15km$ appear to be less than that of MCE in Korea for all site conditions defined in KBC 2009. (2) The design spectrum (two-thirds of the intensity of MCE) in KBC 2009 is comparable to those of earthquake records in the magnitude 6 - 7 and the epicentral distance less than 50 km. Therefore, (3) the intensity of Korean design earthquake is considered to be overly high since the Korea peninsula is generally conceived to be a low-seismicity region.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.187-197
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• 2020

Ground motion records are commonly used for fragility curves (FCs) developing utilized in seismic loss estimating analysis for earthquake prone zones. These records could be 'real', say the recorded acceleration time series or 'simulated' records consistent with the regional seismicity and produced by use of alternative simulation methods. This study has focused on fragility curves developing for masonry buildings through computational 'simulated' ground motion records while evaluating the properness of these fragilities compared to the curves generated by the use of 'real' records. Assessing the dynamic responses of structures, nonlinear computational time history analyses through the equivalent single degree of freedom systems have been implemented on OpenSees platform. Accordingly, computational structural analyses of multi-story 3D frame structures with different stiffening members considering soil interaction have been carried out with finite element software according to (1992) Earthquake East-West component. The obtained results have been compared to each frame regarding soil interaction. Conclusion and recommendations with the discuss of obtaining findings are presented.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.209-217
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• 2013

In order to verify the reliability of numerical site response analysis program, both soil free-field and base rock input motions should be provided. Beside the field earthquake motion records, the most effective testing method for obtaining the above motions is the dynamic geotechnical centrifuge test. However, need is to verify if the motion recorded at the base of the soil model container in the centrifuge facility is the true base rock input motion or not. In this paper, the appropriate input motion measurement method for the verification of seismic response analysis is examined by dynamic geotechnical centrifuge test and using three-dimensional finite difference analysis results. From the results, it appears that the ESB (equivalent shear beam) model container distorts downward the propagating wave with larger magnitude of centrifugal acceleration and base rock input motion. Thus, the distortion makes the measurement of the base rock outcrop motion difficult which is essential for extracting the base rock incident motion. However, the base rock outcrop motion generated by using deconvolution method is free from the distortion effect of centrifugal acceleration.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.539-560
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• 2014

Shaking tables are devices for testing structures or structural components models with a wide range of synthetic ground motions or real recorded earthquakes. They are essential tools in earthquake engineering research since they simulate the effects of the true inertial forces on the test specimens. The destructive earthquakes that occurred at the north part of Algeria during the period of 1954-2003 resulted in an initiative from the Algerian authorities for the construction of a shaking simulator at the National Earthquake Engineering Research Center, CGS. The acceleration tracking performance and specifically the inability of the earthquake simulator to accurately replicate the input signal can be considered as the main challenge during shaking table test. The objective of this study is to validate the uni-axial sinusoidal performances curves and to assess the accuracy and fidelity in signal reproduction using the advanced adaptive control techniques incorporated into the MTS Digital controller and software of the CGS shaking table. A set of shake table tests using harmonic and earthquake acceleration records as reference/commanded signals were performed for four test configurations: bare table, 60 t rigid mass and two 20 t elastic specimens with natural frequencies of 5 Hz and 10 Hz.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.129-142
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• 2018

The current paper introduces a new approach for development of damage index to obtain the maximum damage in the reinforced concrete frames caused by as-recorded single and consecutive earthquakes. To do so, two sets of strong ground motions are selected based on maximum and approximately maximum peak ground acceleration (PGA) from "PEER" and "USGS" centers. Consecutive earthquakes in the first and second groups, not only occurred in similar directions and same stations, but also their real time gaps between successive shocks are less than 10 minutes and 10 days, respectively. In the following, a suite of six concrete moment resisting frames, including 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 and 15 stories, are designed in OpenSees software and analyzed for more than 850 times under two groups of as-recorded strong ground motion records with/without seismic sequences phenomena. The idealized multilayer artificial neural networks, with the least value of Mean Square Error (MSE) and maximum value of regression (R) between outputs and targets were then employed to generate the empirical charts and several correction equations for design utilization. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed damage index, calibration of the new approach to existing real data (the result of Park-Ang damage index 1985), were conducted. The obtained results show good precision of the developed ANNs-based model in predicting the maximum damage of regular reinforced concrete frames.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.205-214
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• 2004

This paper presents design concepts, specifications and performances of a newly developed Black Box, the reconstruction analysis tool with the records, and results of validation tests. The Black Box can detect crash accidents automatically, and record the vehicle's motion and driver's maneuvers during a pre-defined time period before and after the accident. The items of the Black Box included the acceleration, yaw-rate, vehicle speed, engine RPM, braking application, steering and several digital inputs for recording driver's maneuvers. To detect the accident-related-crash, it is important to understand characteristics of the crash signal, which are much different from those of normal driving. Therefore, analytical considerations should be taken in designing pre-filtering circuits and selecting appropriate parameters for identifying crash accidents. And, it is necessary to select proper combination of motion sensors and design proper pre-filtering circuits in order to describe the vehicle's motion. The analysis algorithms were developed and implemented which can perform accurate detection of crash accidents, simulating pre-crash trajectories, and calculating parameters for reconstruction analysis of crash accidents. The developed Black Box was installed on passenger cars and several types of validation tests were conducted. Through the tests, the accuracy of the recorded data and usefulness of the analysis tool for reconstruction have been validated.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.619-629
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• 2013

The objective of this study is to estimate shear wave velocity of earth dam materials using artificially generated vibration from blasting events and to verify its applicability. In this study, the artificial blasting and vibration monitoring were carried out at the site adjacent to Seongdeok dam, which is the first blasting test for an existing dam in Korea. The vibrations were induced by 4 different types of blasting with various depths of blasting boreholes and explosive charge weights. During the tests, the acceleration time histories were recorded at the bedrock adjacent to the explosion and the crest of the dam. From frequency analyses of acceleration histories measured at the crest, the fundamental frequency of the target dam could be evaluated. Numerical analyses varying shear moduli of earth fill zone were carried out using the acceleration histories measured at the bedrock as input ground motions. From the comparison between the fundamental frequencies calculated by numerical analyses and measured records, the shear wave velocities with depth, which are closely related to shear moduli, could be determined. It is found that the effect of different blasting types on shear wave velocity estimation for the target dam materials is negligible and the shear wave velocity can be consistently evaluated. Furthermore, comparing the shear wave velocity with the previous researchers' empirical relationships, the applicability of suggested method is verified. Therefore, in case that the earthquake record is not available, the shear wave velocity of earth dam materials can be reasonably evaluated if blasting vibration test is allowed at the site adjacent to the dam.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.453-462
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• 2018

Damages to buildings affected by a near-fault strong ground motion are largely attributed to the vertical component of the earthquake resulting in column failures, which could lead to disproportionate building catastrophic collapse in a progressive fashion. Recently, considerable interests are awakening to study effects of earthquake vertical components on structural responses. In this study, detailed modeling and time-history analyses of a 12-story code-conforming reinforced concrete moment frame building carrying the gravity loads, and exposed to once only the horizontal component of, and second time simultaneously the horizontal and vertical components of an ensemble of far-field and near-field earthquakes are conducted. Structural responses inclusive of tension, compression and its fluctuations in columns, the ratio of shear demand to capacity in columns and peak mid-span moment demand in beams are compared with and without the presence of the vertical component of earthquake records. The influences of the existence of earthquake vertical component in both exterior and interior spans are separately studied. Thereafter, the correlation between the increase of demands induced by the vertical component of the earthquake and the ratio of a set of earthquake record characteristic parameters is investigated. It is shown that uplift initiation and the magnitude of tensile forces developed in corner columns are relatively more critical. Presence of vertical component of earthquake leads to a drop in minimum compressive force and initiation of tension in columns. The magnitude of this reduction in the most critical case is recorded on average 84% under near-fault ground motions. Besides, the presence of earthquake vertical components increases the shear capacity required in columns, which is at most 31%. In the best case, a direct correlation of 95% between the increase of the maximum compressive force and the ratio of vertical to horizontal 'effective peak acceleration (EPA)' is observed.