• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.341-346
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• 2001

Near source earthquakes can be characterized not only by strong horizontal but also by strong vertical ground motions with broad range of dominant frequencies. The inelastic horizontal response of thin-walled L-shaped steel bridge piers, which are popularly used as highway bridge supports, subjected to simultaneous horizontal and vertical ground excitations of near source earthquakes is investigated. A comprehensive damage index and an evolutionary-degrading hysteretic model are applied. Numerical analysis reveals that the strong vertical excitation of a near source earthquake exerts considerable influences on the damage development and horizontal response of thin-walled L-shaped steel bridge piers.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.111-119
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• 2020

Recently, some of the most destructive earthquakes have occurred in South Korea since earthquake observations began in 1978. In particular, the soil liquefactions have been reported in Pohang as a result of the ML 5.4 earthquake that occurred in November 2017. Liquefaction-induced ground deformations can cause significant damage to a wide range of buildings and infrastructures. Therefore, it is necessary to take practical steps to ensure safety during an earthquake. In the current seismic design in South Korea, the Hachinohe earthquake and Ofunato earthquake recorded in Japan, along with artificial earthquakes, have been generally used for input motions in dynamic analyses. However, such strong ground motions are only from Japan, and artificial earthquake ground motions are different from real ground motions. In this study, seven ground motions are selected, including those recorded in South Korea, while others are compatible to the current design spectra of South Korea. The effects of the newly selected ground motions on site response analyses and liquefaction analyses are evaluated.

• 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.1 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 1997

Amplication factor spectrum, using the observed strong ground motions database, has been obtained and compared with Standard Response Spectrum. The observed ground motions from the Miramichi, Nohanni, Sagueray and New Madrid Earthquake (19 vertical components, 36 horizontal components), which are estimated to represent domestic seismotectonic characteristics such as seismic sources, attenuation, and site effect, are used for the analysis of amplification factor spectrum. Amplication factors have been calculated by comparing the observed peak ground motions with results form responses to the observed horizontal and vertical ground motions. The comparison shows that the amplification factors resultant from this study exceed those of Standard Response Spectrum of relatively higher frequencies. The result implles that the characteristics of the seismic strong ground motion, which may represent the domestic seismotectonic characteristics differ from of standard Response Spectrum, especillay of higher frequencies.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.09a
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• pp.19-27
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• 2001

Seismic parameters fur computation of ground motions in Southern Korea are obtained from recently recorded data, and site-independent regional and site-dependent local strong ground motions are predicted using efficient computational techniques. For the computation of ground motions, we devised an efficient procedure to compute site-independent $x_{q}$ and dependent $x_{s}$ values separately. The first step of this procedure is to use the coda normalization method far computation of site independent Q or corresponding $x_{q}$ value. The next step is the computation of $x_{s}$, values fur each site separately using the given $x_{q}$ value. For computation of ground motions the empirical Green's function (EGF) is modified to account fur the depth and distance variations of subevents on a finite fault plane using the theoritical Green's function. It is computed using wavenumber integration technique in layered media. The site dependent ground motions at seismic stations in southeastern local area were properly simulated using the modified empirical Green's function method in layered medium. The proposed method and procedures fur estimation of site dependent seismic parameters and ground motions could be efficiently used in the low and moderate seismicity regions.ons.s.ons.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.25-31
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• 2007

For areas such as the Korean Peninsula, which have moderate seismic activity but no available records of strong ground motion, synthetic seismograms can be used to evaluate ground motion without waiting for a strong earthquake. Such seismograms represent the estimated ground motions expected from a set of possible earthquake scenarios. Local site effects are especially important in assessing the seismic hazard and possible ground motion scenarios for a specific fault. The earthquake source and rupture dynamics can be described as a two-step process of rupture initiation and front propagation controlled by a frictional sliding mechanism. The seismic wavefield propagates through heterogeneous geological media and finally undergoes near-surface modulations such as amplification or deamplification. This is a complex system in which various scales of physical phenomena are integrated. A unified approach incorporates multi-scale problems of dynamic rupture, radiated wave propagation, and site effects into an all-in-one model using a three-dimensional, fourth-order, staggered-grid, finite-difference method. The method explains strong ground motions as products of complex systems that can be modified according to a variety of fine-scale rupture scenarios and friction models. A series of such deterministic earthquake scenarios can shed light on the kind of damage that would result and where it would be located.

• 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.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.231-248
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• 2012

In this study, a systematic investigation is carried out on the seismic behaviour of plane moment resisting steel frames (MRF) to repeated strong ground motions. Such a sequence of earthquakes results in a significant damage accumulation in a structure because any rehabilitation action between any two successive seismic motions cannot be practically materialised due to lack of time. In this work, thirty-six MRF which have been designed for seismic and vertical loads according to European codes are first subjected to five real seismic sequences which are recorded at the same station, in the same direction and in a short period of time, up to three days. Furthermore, the examined frames are also subjected to sixty artificial seismic sequences. This investigation shows that the sequences of ground motions have a significant effect on the response and, hence, on the design of MRF. Additionally, it is concluded that ductility demands, behaviour factor and seismic damage of the repeated ground motions can be satisfactorily estimated using appropriate combinations of the corresponding demands of single ground motions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.15-39
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• 2013

The sensitivities of a structural response due to variation of its design parameters are prerequisite in the majority of the algorithms used for fundamental problems in engineering as system uncertainties, identification and probabilistic assessments etc. The paper presents the concept of probabilistic sensitivity of suspension bridges with respect to near-fault ground motion. In near field earthquake ground motions, large amplitude spectral accelerations can occur at long periods where many suspension bridges have significant structural response modes. Two different types of suspension bridges, which are Bosporus and Humber bridges, are selected to investigate the near-fault ground motion effects on suspension bridges random response sensitivity analysis. The modulus of elasticity is selected as random design variable. Strong ground motion records of Kocaeli, Northridge and Erzincan earthquakes are selected for the analyses. The stochastic sensitivity displacements and internal forces are determined by using the stochastic sensitivity finite element method and Monte Carlo simulation method. The stochastic sensitivity displacements and responses obtained from the two different suspension bridges subjected to these near-fault strong-ground motions are compared with each other. It is seen from the results that near-fault ground motions have different impacts stochastic sensitivity responses of suspension bridges. The stochastic sensitivity information provides a deeper insight into the structural design and it can be used as a basis for decision-making.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.159-164
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• 2024

Recent earthquakes in Korea, like Gyeongju and Pohang, have highlighted the need for accurate seismic hazard assessment. The lack of substantial ground motion data necessitates stochastic simulation methods, traditionally used with a simplistic point-source assumption. However, as earthquake magnitude increases, the influence of finite faults grows, demanding the adoption of finite faults in simulations for accurate ground motion estimates. We analyzed variations in simulated ground motions with and without the finite fault method for earthquakes with magnitude (Mw) ranging from 5.0 to 7.0, comparing pseudo-spectral acceleration. We also studied how slip distribution and hypocenter location affect simulations for a virtual earthquake that mimics the Gyeongju earthquake with Mw 5.4. Our findings reveal that finite fault effects become significant at magnitudes above Mw 5.8, particularly at high frequencies. Notably, near the hypocenter, the virtual earthquake's ground motion significantly changes using a finite fault model, especially with heterogeneous slip distribution. Therefore, applying finite fault models is crucial for simulating ground motions of large earthquakes (Mw ≥ 5.8 magnitude). Moreover, for accurate simulations of actual earthquakes with complex rupture processes having strong localized slips, incorporating finite faults is essential even for more minor earthquakes.