• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.503-515
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• 2022

This paper presents the development of seismic fragility curves for a precast reinforced concrete bridge instrumented with a structural health monitoring (SHM) system. The bridge is located near an active seismic fault in the Dominican Republic (DR) and provides the only access to several local communities in the aftermath of a potential damaging earthquake; moreover, the sample bridge was designed with outdated building codes and uses structural detailing not adequate for structures in seismic regions. The bridge was instrumented with an SHM system to extract information about its state of structural integrity and estimate its seismic performance. The data obtained from the SHM system is integrated with structural models to develop a set of fragility curves to be used as a quantitative measure of the expected damage; the fragility curves provide an estimate of the probability that the structure will exceed different damage limit states as a function of an earthquake intensity measure. To obtain the fragility curves a digital twin of the bridge is developed combining a computational finite element model and the information extracted from the SHM system. The digital twin is used as a response prediction tool that minimizes modeling uncertainty, significantly improving the predicting capability of the model and the accuracy of the fragility curves. The digital twin was used to perform a nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) with selected ground motions that are consistent with the seismic fault and site characteristics. The fragility curves show that for the maximum expected acceleration (with a 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years) the structure has a 62% probability of undergoing extensive damage. This is the first study presenting fragility curves for civil infrastructure in the DR and the proposed methodology can be extended to other structures to support disaster mitigation and post-disaster decision-making strategies.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.551-562
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• 2021

In this study, the generalized intensity measure (IM) named I_Npg is analyzed. The recently proposed proxy of the spectral shape named N_pg is the base of this intensity measure, which is similar to the traditional N_p based on the spectral shape in terms of pseudo-acceleration; however, in this case the new generalized intensity measure can be defined through other types of spectral shapes such as those obtained with velocity, displacement, input energy, inelastic parameters and so on. It is shown that this IM is able to increase the efficiency in the prediction of nonlinear behavior of structures subjected to earthquake ground motions. For this work, the efficiency of two particular cases (based on acceleration and velocity) of the generalized I_Npg to predict the peak floor acceleration demands on steel frames under 30 earthquake ground motions with respect to the traditional spectral acceleration at first mode of vibration Sa(T₁) is compared. Additionally, a 3D reinforced concrete building and an irregular steel frame is used as a basis for comparison. It is concluded that the use of velocity and acceleration spectral shape increase the efficiency to predict peak floor accelerations in comparison with the traditional and most used around the world spectral acceleration at first mode of vibration.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.219-226
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• 2010

Current earthquake alert notification for immediate post-earthquake procedures for the critical facilities is exclusively dependent on the ground-motion intensity measures observed at the seismic station located within the site. This practice is prune to false notification due to a noise and problems of missing and poor quality records of the seismic station. The credibility of the earthquake alert notification can be enhanced by utilizing the multiple transformed records of the nearby seismic stations at other sites interconnected to the same earthquake monitoring system by a network. The time-domain transformation of the site-response between the seismic stations is implemented by convoluting the nearby records with a pair of forward and inverse FIR filters designed for the site response relative to a seismic basement. The transformed records from the nearby seismic stations can be used to estimate the ground-motion intensity measures missing at the site or to evaluate the data quality along with other various possible applications in the area of geoscience and earthquake engineering.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.4 no.3 s.11
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• pp.19-25
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• 2000

In order to prevent secondary disaster such as gas explosion which comes after a devastating magnitude earthquake, the seismic monitoring and transmission system for natural gas governor station was developed. To measure ground motions precisely and operate the seismic monitoring system efficiently, the position and method of accelerometer installation were recommended by the analysis of ground noise patterns of governor station. For making a decision on prompt shut-off of gas supplies in the event of a great earthquake, the real-time calculation algorithm of PGA(Peak Ground Acceleration) and SI(Spectrum Intensity) were developed and it has been implemented in the seismic monitoring and transmission system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.699-706
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• 2014

The probabilistic seismic performance of a standard Korean nuclear power plant (NPP) with an idealized isolation is investigated in the present work. A probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) of the Wolsong site on the Korean peninsula is performed by considering peak ground acceleration (PGA) as an earthquake intensity measure. A procedure is reported on the categorization and selection of two sets of ground motions of the Tohoku earthquake, i.e. long-period and common as Set A and Set B respectively, for the nonlinear time history response analysis of the base-isolated NPP. Limit state values as multiples of the displacement responses of the NPP base isolation are considered for the fragility estimation. The seismic risk of the NPP is further assessed by incorporation of the rate of frequency exceedance and conditional failure probability curves. Furthermore, this framework attempts to show the unacceptable performance of the isolated NPP in terms of the probabilistic distribution and annual probability of limit states. The comparative results for long and common ground motions are discussed to contribute to the future safety of nuclear facilities against drastic events like Tohoku.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1331-1344
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• 2021

This study is to evaluate the seismic capacity of the fire-damaged cabinet facility in a nuclear power plant (NPP). A prototype of an electrical cabinet is modeled using OpenSees for the numerical simulation. To capture the nonlinear behavior of the cabinet, the constitutive law of the material model under the fire environment is considered. The experimental record from the impact hammer test is extracted trough the frequency-domain decomposition (FDD) method, which is used to verify the effectiveness of the numerical model through modal assurance criteria (MAC). Assuming different temperatures, the nonlinear time history analysis is conducted using a set of fifty earthquakes and the seismic outputs are investigated by the fragility analysis. To get a threshold of intensity measure, the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) is adopted for uncertainty reduction purposes. Finally, a capacity estimation model has been proposed through the investigation, which will be helpful for the engineer or NPP operator to evaluate the fire-damaged cabinet strength under seismic excitation. This capacity model is presented in terms of the High Confidence of Low Probability of Failure (HCLPF) point. The results are validated by the proper judgment and can be used to analyze the influences of fire on the electrical cabinet.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.237-262
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• 2015

In this study, we try to compare different intensity measures for evaluating nonlinear response of bridge structure. This paper presents seismic analytic fragility of a three-span concrete girder highway bridge. A complete detail of bridge modeling parameters and also its verification has been presented. Fragility function considers the relationship of intensities of the ground motion and probability of exceeding certain state of damage. Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) has been subjected to the bridge from medium to strong ground motions. A suite of 20 earthquake ground motions with different range of PGAs are used in nonlinear dynamic analysis of the bridge. Complete sensitive analyses have been done on the response of bridge and also efficiency and practically of them are studied to obtain a proficient intensity measure for these types of structure by considering its sensitivity to the period of the bridge. Three dimensional finite element (FE) model of the bridge is developed and analyzed. The numerical results show that the bridge response is very sensitive to the earthquake ground motions when PGA and Sa (Ti, 5%) are used as intensity measure (IM) and also indicated that the failure probability of the bridge system is dominated by the bridge piers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.485-510
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• 2014

In performance-based seismic design procedures Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) and pseudo-Spectral acceleration ($S_a$) are commonly used to predict the response of structures to earthquake. Recently, research has been carried out to evaluate the predictive capability of these standard Intensity Measures (IMs) with respect to different types of structures and Engineering Demand Parameter (EDP) commonly used to measure damage. Efforts have been also spent to propose alternative IMs that are able to improve the results of the response predictions. However, most of these IMs are not usually employed in probabilistic seismic demand analyses because of the lack of reliable Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs). In order to define seismic hazard and thus to calculate demand hazard curves it is essential, in fact, to establish a GMPE for the earthquake intensity. In the light of this need, new GMPEs are proposed here for the elastic input energy spectra, energy-based intensity measures that have been shown to be good predictors of both structural and non-structural damage for many types of structures. The proposed GMPEs are developed using mixed-effects models by empirical regressions on a large number of strong-motions selected from the NGA database. Parametric analyses are carried out to show the effect of some properties variation, such as fault mechanism, type of soil, earthquake magnitude and distance, on the considered IMs. Results of comparisons between the proposed GMPEs and other from the literature are finally shown.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.2
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• pp.219-230
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• 2022

Due to the large number of railway bridges along China's high-speed railway (HSR) lines, which cover a wide area with many lines crossing the seismic zone, the possibility of a HSR train running over a bridge when an earthquake occurs is relatively high. Since the safety performance of the train will be threatened, it is necessary to study the safety of trains running over HSR bridges during earthquakes. However, ground motion (GM) is highly random and selecting the appropriate ground-motion intensity measures (IMs) for train running safety analysis is not trivial. To deal this problem, a model of a coupled train-bridge system under seismic excitation was established and 104 GM samples were selected to evaluate the correlation between 16 different IMs and train running safety over HSR bridges during earthquakes. The results show that spectral velocity (SvT₁) and displacement (SdT₁) at the fundamental period of the structure have good correlation with train running safety for medium-and long-period HSR bridges, and velocity spectrum intensity (VSI) and Housner intensity (HI) have good correlation for a wide range of structural periods. Overall, VSI and HI are the optimal IMs for safety analysis of trains running over HSR bridges during earthquakes. Finally, based on VSI and HI, the IM thresholds of an HSR bridge at different speed were analyzed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.93-107
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• 2016

Seismic fragility analysis is a probabilistic decision-making framework which is widely implemented for evaluating vulnerability of a building under earthquake loading. It requires ingredient named probabilistic model and commonly developed using statistics requiring collecting data in large quantities. Preparation of such a data-base is often costly and time-consuming. Therefore, in this paper, by developing generic seismic drift demand model for regular-multi-story steel moment resisting frames is tried to present a novel application of the probabilistic decision-making analysis to practical purposes. To this end, a demand model which is a linear function of intensity measure in logarithmic space is developed to predict overall maximum inter-story drift. Next, the model is coupled with a set of regression-based equations which are capable of directly estimating unknown statistical characteristics of the model parameters.To explicitly address uncertainties arise from randomness and lack of knowledge, the Bayesian regression inference is employed, when these relations are developed. The developed demand model is then employed in a Seismic Fragility Analysis (SFA) for two designed building. The accuracy of the results is also assessed by comparison with the results directly obtained from Incremental Dynamic analysis.