• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.145-150
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• 1994

Seismic isolation in ordinary buildings has been successively adapted to provide flexibility for the reduction of base shear forces and its concept is accepting wide agreement in lengthening the natural, period to lessen the spectral acceleration transmitted into the structure. However, one of difficulties in implementing the innovative concept to nuclear structures is due to more severe requirements in both understanding and predicting the characteristics of isolators and the behavior of cushioned structures, Stochastic analysis has been carried out to investigate the response of base isolated nuclear containers to the random earthquake ground motion.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.191-204
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• 2019

Near-field earthquake records including long-period high-amplitude velocity pulses can cause large isolation system displacements leading to buckling or rupture of isolators. In such cases, providing supplemental damping in the isolation system has been proposed as a solution. However, it is known that linear viscous dampers can reduce base displacements in case of near-field earthquakes but at the potential expense of increased superstructure response in case of far-field earthquakes. But can non-linear dampers with different levels of non-linearity offer a superior seismic performance? In order to answer this question, the effectiveness of non-linear viscous dampers in reducing isolator displacements and its effects on the superstructure response are investigated. A comparison with linear viscous dampers via time history analysis is done using a base-isolated benchmark building model under historical near-field and far-field earthquake records for a wide range of different levels of non-linearity and supplemental damping. The results show that the non-linearity level and the amount of supplemental damping play important roles in reducing base displacements effectively. Although use of non-linear supplemental dampers may cause superstructure response amplification in case of far-field earthquakes, this negative effect may be avoided or even reduced by using appropriate combinations of non-linearity level and supplemental damping.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.87-100
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• 2022

Limiting the displacement of seismic isolators causes a pounding phenomenon under severe earthquakes. Therefore, the ASCE 7-16 has provided minimum criteria for the design of the isolated building. In this research the seismic response of isolated buildings by Triple Friction Pendulum Isolator (TFPI) under the impact, expected, and unexpected mass eccentricity was evaluated. Also, the effect of different design parameters on the seismic behavior of structural and nonstructural elements was found. For this, a special steel moment frame structure with a surrounding moat wall was designed according to the criteria, by considering different response modification coefficients (RI), and 20% mass eccentricity in one direction. Then, different values of these parameters and the damping of the base isolation were evaluated. The results show that the structural elements have acceptable behavior after impact, but the nonstructural components are placed in a moderate damage range after impact and the used improved methods could not ameliorate the level of damage. The reduction in the RI and the enhancement of the isolator's damping are beneficial up to a certain point for improving the seismic response after impact. The moat wall reduces torque and maximum absolute acceleration (MAA) due to unexpected enhancement of mass eccentricity. However, drifts of some stories increase. Also, the difference between the response of story drift by expected and unexpected mass eccentricity is less. This indicates that the minimum requirement displacement according to ASCE 7-16 criteria lead to acceptable results under the unexpected enhancement of mass eccentricity.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.377-388
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• 2016

This study is aimed to evaluate the embedment effect of foundation as compared to the surface foundation on the response of a base-isolated nuclear power plant structure. For this purpose, the boundary reaction method (BRM), which is a two-step frequency domain and time domain technique, is used for the nonlinear SSI analysis considering nonlinear behavior of base isolators. The numerical model of the BRM is verified by comparing the numerical results obtained by the BRM and the conventional frequency-domain SSI analysis for an equivalent linear SSI system. Finally, the displacement response of the base isolation and the horizontal response of the structure obtained by the nonlinear SSI analysis using the moat foundation model are compared with those using the surface foundation model. The comparison showed that the displacement response of the base isolation can be reduced by considering the embedment effect of foundation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.295-307
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• 2021

The gap provided between adjacent structures in the metropolitan cities is mostly narrow due to architectural and financial issues. Consequently, structural pounding occurs between adjacent structures during earthquakes. It causes damages, ranging from minor local to more severe ones, especially in the case of seismically isolated buildings, due to their higher displacements. However, due to the increased flexibility of isolated buildings, the problem could become more detrimental to such structures. The effect of the seismic pounding of moat walls on the response of buildings isolated by Triple Friction Pendulum Bearing (TFPB) is investigated in this paper. To this propose, two symmetric three-dimensional models, including single-story and five-story buildings, are modeled in Opensees. Nonlinear Time History Analyses (NTHA) are performed for seismic evaluation. Also, five different sizes with four different sets of friction coefficients are considered for base isolators to cover a whole range of base isolation systems with various geometry configurations and fundamental period. The results are investigated in terms of base shear, buildings' drift, and roof acceleration. Results indicated a profound effect of poundings against moat walls. In situations of potential pounding, in some cases, the influence of impact on seismic responses of multistory buildings was more remarkable.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.1 s.41
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• pp.61-70
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• 2005

Shaking table tests are carried out on a single-degree-of-freedom mass that is equipped with a hybrid base isolation system. The isolator consists of a set of four specially-designed friction pendulum systems (FPS) and a magnetorheological (MR) damper. The structure and its hybrid isolation system are subjected to various intensities of near- and far-fault earthquakes on a large shake table. The proposed fuzzy controller uses feedback from displacement or acceleration transducers attached to the structure to modulate resistance of the semi-active damper to motion. Results from several types of passive and semi-active control strategies are summarized and compared. The study shows that a combination of FPS isolators and an adjustable MR damper can effectively provide robust control of vibration for a large full-scale structure undergoing a wide variety of seismic loads.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.82-86
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• 2010

In this paper, a power amplifier module for WCDMA base-station applications is designed and implemented using GaN field-effect transistors (FETs), which uses an envelope tracking bias system. The designed module consists of an high gain MMIC amplifier, a driver amplifier, a power amplifier, and bias circuits for envelope tracking applications. Especially, a FET bias sequencing circuit and two isolators are integrated for stable RF operations. All circuits are assembled within a single housing, so its dimension is just $17.8{\times}9.8{\times}2.0\;cm3$. Measured results show that the developed power amplifier module has good envelope tracking capability: the power-added efficiency of 35% at the output power range from 30dBm to 40dBm over a wide range of drain bias.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.169-180
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• 2012

The performance of pure friction isolation system with respect to the frequency bandwidth of excitation and the predominant frequency is investigated. A set of earthquake ground motions (artificial as well as recorded [with different combinations of magnitude-distance and local site geology]) is considered for investigating effectiveness of pure friction isolators. The results indicate the performance of pure friction base isolated system does not only depend upon coefficient of friction and mass ratio but the stick-slip behaviour depends upon the frequency content of the excitation as well. Slippage prevails if the excitation frequency lies in a suitable frequency range. This range widens with increasing mass ratio. For larger mass ratios, the sliding effect is more pronounced and the maximum acceleration response is further reduced in the neighbourhood of frequency ratio (${\omega}/{\omega}_n$) of unity. The pure friction isolation system is effective in the case of broadband excitations only and that too, in the acceleration sensitive range of periods. The pure friction system is not effective for protection against narrow band motions for which the system response is quasi-periodic.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2022

The seismic behaviors of the arch structure vary according to the rise-span ratio of the arch structure. In this study, the rise-span ratio (H/L) of the example arch structure was set to 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8. And the installation angle of the seismic isolator was set to 15°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°. The installation angles of the seismic isolator were set by analyzing the horizontal and vertical reaction forces according to the rise-span ratio of the arch structure. Due to the geometrical and dynamic characteristics of the arch structure, the lower the rise-span ratio, the greater the horizontal reaction force of the static load, but the smaller the horizontal reaction force of the dynamic load. And if the seismic isolator is installed in the direction of the resultant force of the reaction forces caused by the seismic load, the horizontal seismic response becomes small. Also, as the installation angle of the seismic isolator increases, the hysteresis behavior of the seismic isolator shows a plastic behavior, and residual deformation appears even after the seismic load is removed. In the design of seismic isolators for seismic response control of large space structures such as arch structures, horizontal and vertical reaction forces should be considered.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.18-20
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• 2000

At 1:47 a.m, local time on September 21, 1999, a strong earthquake measured 7.3 on the Richter scale struck central Taiwan evoking another two earthquakes a few seconds late to wake up unprepared people of this small island. It caused 2,465 people killed 11,305 injured about 10,000 buildings collapsed and around 41,000 severely damaged, The major concerns after the earthquake are how to have learned from this natural disaster and how to rebuild earthquake-proof buildings without rendering up safety within reasonable costs. Inevitable actions for redrafting the building codes have been taken to re-strengthen the existing and new structures. Structural analysis tools and computer programs adopted by most practicing engineers have been re-examined to take into account the effects of the vertical component of ground shakings on structural responses. Most private structures were repaired by traditional methods without considering upgrading seismic resistibility because of economical reasons. Buildings open to the public are under consideration possibly enforced by making regulations to be upgraded to satisfy revised building codes. In addition new rehabilitation technologies such as structural control have been moving much faster than before and have become accepted by the public due to frequent reports by media and specialists. Building codes related to base isolators and energy absorption systems are still under legislation and expected to be published soon. Most of the new structures under construction designed by the building codes promulgated before the earthquake have been reconsidered to comply with the new codes even though it is not compulsory. Efforts have been made by the government engineering and research communities and universities in an attempt to reduce structural damage for future earthquakes and to construct if possible Taiwan as an earthquake-proof island.