• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.2
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• pp.153-166
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• 2022

Structural pounding due to strong seismic excitations can result in severe damage or even collapse of colliding structures. Many researchers focused on studying the mutual pounding between two adjacent structures while very few researches were concerned with the pounding of a series of structures. This paper aims to study the pounding effect on a series of four buildings having different natural frequencies. The paper also investigates the effect of different arrangements of the four buildings on their pounding response. For this, a mathematical model was constructed using Matlab code where, pounding was modeled using a contact force-based approach. A Non-Linear viscoelastic (Hertzdamp) contact element was used and activated only during the approach period of collision. The mathematical model was validated by comparing its prediction versus experimental results on three adjacent buildings. Then the model was used to study the pounding between four adjacent structures arranged in different sequences according to their natural frequencies. The results revealed that increasing the gap distance generally led to decrease the peak responses of the towers. Such response is somehow different from that predicted earlier by the authors for the case of three adjacent buildings. Moreover, the arrangement of towers has a significant effect on their pounding response. Significant difference between the natural frequencies of adjacent structures increases the pounding forces especially when the more flexible buildings are located at the outer edge of the series. The study points out the need for further researches on buildings in series to gain a better understanding of such complex phenomena.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.515-530
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• 2021

In a tall reinforced concrete (RC) core wall system subjected to strong ground motions, inelastic behavior near the base as well as mid-height of the wall is possible. Generally, the formation of plastic hinge in a core wall system may lead to extensive damage and significant repairing cost. A new configuration of core structures consisting of buckling restrained braced frames (BRBFs) and RC walls is an interesting idea in tall building seismic design. This concept can be used in the plan configuration of tall core wall systems. In this study, tall buildings with different configurations of combined core systems were designed and analyzed. Nonlinear time history analysis at severe earthquake level was performed and the results were compared for different configurations. The results demonstrate that using enough BRBFs can reduce the large curvature ductility demand at the base and mid-height of RC core wall systems and also can reduce the maximum inter-story drift ratio. For a better investigation of the structural behavior, the probabilistic approach can lead to in-depth insight. Therefore, incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) curves were calculated to assess the performance. Fragility curves at different limit states were then extracted and compared. Mean IDA curves demonstrate better behavior for a combined system, compared with conventional RC core wall systems. Collapse margin ratio for a RC core wall only system and RC core with enough BRBFs were almost 1.05 and 1.92 respectively. Therefore, it appears that using one RC core wall combined with enough BRBF core is an effective idea to achieve more confidence against tall building collapse and the results demonstrated the potential of the proposed system.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.475-498
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• 2024

The prediction of the susceptibility of soil to liquefaction using a limited set of parameters, particularly when dealing with highly unbalanced databases is a challenging problem. The current study focuses on different ensemble learning classification algorithms using highly unbalanced databases of results from in-situ tests; standard penetration test (SPT), shear wave velocity (V_s) test, and cone penetration test (CPT). The input parameters for these datasets consist of earthquake intensity parameters, strong ground motion parameters, and in-situ soil testing parameters. liquefaction index serving as the binary output parameter. After a rigorous comparison with existing literature, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), bagging, and random forest (RF) emerge as the most efficient models for liquefaction instance classification across different datasets. Notably, for SPT and V_s-based models, XGBoost exhibits superior performance, followed by Light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) and Bagging, while for CPT-based models, Bagging ranks highest, followed by Gradient boosting and random forest, with CPT-based models demonstrating lower G_mean(error), rendering them preferable for soil liquefaction susceptibility prediction. Key parameters influencing model performance include internal friction angle of soil (ϕ) and percentage of fines less than 75 µ (F₇₅) for SPT and V_s data and normalized average cone tip resistance (q_c) and peak horizontal ground acceleration (a_max) for CPT data. It was also observed that the addition of V_s measurement to SPT data increased the efficiency of the prediction in comparison to only SPT data. Furthermore, to enhance usability, a graphical user interface (GUI) for seamless classification operations based on provided input parameters was proposed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.762-774
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate misconceptions about plate tectonics which spread widely among freshmen at high school with drawing. For this, we chose 6 conceptions about plate tectonics by analysis of 7th curriculum and of 11 kinds of science textbooks. Questionnaire of drawing about plate tectonics were developed depending on them. Data was collected from 134 students who was freshmen at high school in Daegu. The result of this study was as follows. First, In structure of plate, 'upper mantle type' and 'crust type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Second, In distribution of plate, 'cracked earthquake zone type' and 'earthquake frequency type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Third, In formation of ocean ridge at oceanic crust- oceanic crust divergent plate boundary, 'divergence type' and 'collision type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Fourth, In formation of mountain ridge at continental crust- continental crust convergent plate boundary, 'collision type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Fifih, In formation of mountain ridge at oceanic crust- continental crust convergent plate boundary, 'subduction type' and 'fault type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Sixth, In transform-fault at oceanic crust- oceanic crust transform-fault boundary, 'direction type' and 'section type' misconceptions were almost half of the respondents. In this study, students' drawings about plate tectonics showed similar misconceptions. This imply that drawing conceptions can be used by the strong evidence of misconceptions which spread widely among students. Furthermore, this study has a significance that this conclusion is useful to teachers as basic teaching-teaming materials of plate tectonics.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2017

We present a 3D SH-wave velocity model of the crust and uppermost mantle and seismic radial anisotropy beneath East Asia. The SH-wave velocity structure model was built using Love-wave group-velocity dispersion data from earthquake data recorded at broadband seismic networks of Korea, Japan, and China. Love-wave group-velocity dispersion curves were obtained by using the multiple filtering technique in the period range of 3 to 150 s for 3,369 event-station pairs. The inverted model using these data sets provides a crust and upper mantle SH-wave velocity structure down to 100 km depth. At 10 ~ 40 km depths SH-wave velocity beneath the East Sea is higher than beneath the Japanese island region. We estimated the Moho beneath the East Sea to be between 10 ~ 20 km depth, while Moho beneath the Korean Peninsula at around 35 km based on the depth where high-velocity anomalies are detected. We estimated the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath the East Sea to be at around 50 km based on the depth where strong low-velocity anomalies are observed. Widespread low-velocity anomalies are found between 50 ~ 100 km depth in the study region. Positive radial anisotropy ($V_{SV}$ > $V _{SH}$) is observed down to 35 km depth, while negative radial anisotropy ($V_{SV}$ > $V _{SH}$) is observed for deeper depth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.86-95
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• 2006

Brillouin backscatter is a type of reflection that occurs when light is shone into an optical fibre. Brillouin reflections are very sensitive to changes in the fibre arising from external effects, such as temperature, strain and pressure. We report here several case studies on the measurement of strain using Brillouin reflections. A mechanical bending test of an I beam, deployed with both fiber optic sensors and conventional strain gauge rosettes, was performed with the aim of evaluating: (1) the capability and technical limit of the DTSS technology for strain profile sensing; (2) the reliability of strain measurement using fiber optic sensor. The average values of strains obtained from both DTSS and strain gauges (corresponding to the deflection of I beam) showed a linear relationship and an excellent one-to-one match. A practical application of DTSS technology as an early warning system for land sliding or subsidence was examined through a field test at a hillside. Extremely strong, lightweight, rugged, survivable tight-buffered cables, designed for optimal strain transfer to the fibre, were used and clamped on the subsurface at a depth of about 50cm. It was proved that DTSS measurements could detect the exact position and the progress of strain changes induced by land sliding and subsidence. We also carried out the first ever distributed dynamic strain measurement (10Hz) on the Korean Train eXpress(KTX) railway track in Daejeon, Korea. The aim was to analyse the integrity of a section of track that had recently been repaired. The Sensornet DTSS was used to monitor this 85m section of track while a KTX train passed over. In the repaired section the strain increases to levels of 90 microstrain, whereas in the section of regular track the strain is in the region of 30-50 microstrain. The results were excellent since they demonstrate that the DTSS is able to measure small, dynamic changes in strain in rails during normal operating conditions. The current 10km range of the DTSS creates a potential to monitor the integrity of large lengths of track, and especially higher risk sections such as bridges, repaired track and areas at risk of subsidence.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.88-98
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• 2011

Masonry structure is a style of building which has been widely applied as residential facilities of low and middle stories, commercial and public facilities etc. But it is possible to destroy by loss of adhesive strength or sliding when lateral forces, such as earthquake, occurs. This study proposes a seismic retrofit method for masonry structure and its seismic performance is demonstrated by shaking table test. Two specimens per each shaking direction were made, having out-of-plane(weak axis) and in-plane(strong axis) direction. External load of 1 ton was also applied for each specimen during the test, to model the behavior of reinforced masonry wall. As a result of shaking table tests, it is shown that the specimen applying the proposed seismic retrofit method showed acceptable behaviors in both of Korea building design criteria(0.14g) and USA seismic criteria suggested by IBC(0.4g). However, it was observed that stiffness of the specimen toward out-of-plane was rapidly decreasing when seismic excitations over 0.14g were loaded. In comparison of relative displacements, maximum relative displacement of specimens which were accelerated toward out-of-plane with 0.4g at once was 29~31% of maximum relative displacement when specimens were gradually accelerated from 0.08g to 0.4g, while the maximum relative displacement of specimens accelerated toward in-plane has similar value in both cases. Therefore, it is concluded that the wall accelerated toward out-of-plane is more affected by hair crack or possible fatigues caused by seismic excitation.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.113-125
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• 2017

In spite of bulk literature about the tuning of TMD, the effectiveness of TMD in reducing the seismic response of engineering structures is still in a row. This paper deals with the optimum tuning parameters of a passive TMD and simulated on MATLAB with a ten-story numerical shear building. A weighted multi-objective optimization method based on computer experiment consisting of coupled with central composite design(CCD) central composite design and response surface methodology(RSM) was applied to find out the optimum tuning parameters of TMD. After the optimization, the so-conceived TMD turns out to be optimal with respect to the specific seismic event, hence allowing for an optimum reduction in seismic response. The method was employed on above structure by assuming first the El Centro seismic input as a sort of benchmark excitation, and then additional recent strong-motion earthquakes. It is found that the RSM based weighted multi-objective optimized damper improves frequency responses and root mean square displacements of the structure without TMD by 31.6% and 82.3% under El Centro earthquake, respectively, and has an equal or higher performance than the conventionally designed dampers with respect to frequency responses and root mean square displacements and when applied to earthquakes.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.139-156
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• 1995

A set of field investigations was performed to estimate accurately the predominant periods of seismic 8round motions and the attenuation characteristics of the seismic ground vibration. Predominant periods of ground motions were estimated from the measurement of the continuous microseismic vibratins of certain periods, inherent in the ground and in the buildings, utilizing the high sensitivity digital velocity seismometer consisting of 3-component geophones and a digital seismograph. Estimated predominant periods of microseismic vibraion of the ground(measured on'the ground surface) and the building (measured on the second floor) were in the range of 0.18~0.235 sec. and 0.26~0.31 sec. respectively. The subsurface structure of the site ground was surveyed by the seismic refraction method utilizing the digital seismicwave probing system. The ground structure was found to be a two-layered system : an upper top soil layer of 7m in thickness with the P-wave velocity of 662m1sec and a lower layer of silty-clayey soils with the P -wave velocity of 2210m1 sec. The attenuation characteristics of the seismic ground vibrations were determined by the amplitude decay measurement method us;ng the Seisgun, which produces strong artificial seismic energy. Measured spatial attenuation coefficients of the ground vibration in vertical(Z) longitudinal(X), transverse(Y) direction were 0.1137, 0.0025, and 0.0290 respectively. Estimated Spartial QP's (inverse of the specific dissipation constant w.r.t. shear waved of X, Y, and Z directions were in the range of 5.913~7.575, 32.371~41.452, 2.794~3.579 re spectively. This indicates that aseimic design of the structures on the site should take stronger consideration regarding the earthquake resistance characteristics of the structures against longitudinal ground motion.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.517-524
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• 2014

The ultimate goal of seismic design is to reduce the probable losses or damages occurred during an expected earthquake event. To achieve this goal, this study represents a procedure that can estimate annual loss probability of a structure damaged by strong ground motion. First of all, probabilistic seismic performance assessment should be performed using seismic fragility analyses that are presented by a cumulative distribution function of the probability in each exceedance structural damage state. A seismic hazard curve is then derived from an annual frequency of exccedance per each ground motion intensity. An annual loss probability function is combined with seismic fragility analysis results and seismic hazard curves. In this paper, annual loss probabilities are estimated by the structural fragility curve of steel moment-resisting frames(SMRFs) in San Francisco Bay, USA, and are compared with loss estimation results obtained from the HAZUS methodology. It is investigated from the comparison that seismic losses of the SMRFs calculated from the HAZUS method are conservatively estimated. The procedure presented in this study could be effectively used for future studies related with structural seismic performance assessment and annual loss probability estimation.