• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.223-236
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• 2017

Seismic assessment and rehabilitation of Monumental Buildings constitute an important issue in many regions around the world to preserve cultural heritage. On the contrary, many recent earthquakes have demonstrated the high vulnerability of this type of structures. The high nonlinear masonry behaviour requires ad hoc refined finite element numerical models, whose complexity and computational costs are generally unsuitable for practical applications. For these reasons, several authors proposed simplified numerical strategies to be used in engineering practice. However, most of these alternative methods are oversimplified being based on the assumption of in-plane behaviour of masonry walls. Moreover, they cannot be used for modelling the monumental structures for which the interaction between plane and out-plane behaviour governs the structural response. Recently, an innovative discrete-modelling approach for the simulation of both in-plane and out of-plane response of masonry structures was proposed and applied to study several typologies of historic structures. In this paper the latter model is applied with reference to a real case study, and numerically compared with an advanced finite element modelling. The method is applied to the St.Venerio church in Reggiolo (Italy), damaged during the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake and numerically investigated in the literature.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.611-625
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• 2014

This paper presents a simple methodology that integrates an improved storey shear modelling, Incremental Dynamic Analysis and Monte Carlo Simulation in order to carryout vulnerability analysis towards development of fragility curves for Unreinforced Brick Masonry buildings. The methodology is demonstrated by developing fragility curves of a single storey Unreinforced Brick Masonry building for which results of experiment under lateral load is available in the literature. In the study presented, both uncertainties in mechanical properties of masonry and uncertainties in the characteristics of earthquake ground motion are included. The research significance of the methodology proposed is that, it accommodates a new method of damage grade classification which is based on 'structural performance characteristics' instead of 'fixed limiting values'. The usefulness of such definition is discussed as against the existing practice.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.435-448
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• 2018

In order to make reliable earthquake-resistant design of civil engineering structures, one of the most important considerations in a region with high seismicity is to pay attention to the local soil condition of regions. It is aimed in the current study at specifying dynamic soil characteristics of Kirikkale city center conducting the 1-D equivalent linear and non-linear site response analyses. Due to high vulnerability and seismicity of the city center of Kirikkale surrounded by active many faults, such as the North Anatolian Fault (NAF), the city of Kirikkale is classified as highly earthquake-prone city. The first effort to determine critical site response parameter is to perform the seismic hazard analyses of the region through the earthquake record catalogues. The moment magnitude of the city center is obtained as $M_w=7.0$ according to the recorded probability of exceedance of 10% in the last 50 years. Using the data from site tests, the 1-D equivalent linear (EL) and nonlinear site response analyses (NL) are performed with respect to the shear modulus reduction and damping ratio models proposed in literature. The important engineering parameters of the amplification ratio, predominant site period, peak ground acceleration (PGA) and spectral acceleration values are predicted. Except for the periods between the period of T=0.2-1.0 s, the results from the NL are obtained to be similar to the EL results. Lower spectral acceleration values are estimated in the locations of the city where the higher amplification ratio is attained or vice-versa. Construction of high-rise buildings with modal periods higher than T=1.0 s are obtained to be suitable for the city of Kirikkale. The buildings at the city center are recommended to be assessed with street survey rapid structural evaluation methods so as to mitigate seismic damages. The obtained contour maps in this study are estimated to be effective for visually characterizing the city in terms of the considered parameters.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.503-529
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• 2015

Traditionally, multi-story buildings are designed to provide stiffer structural support to withstand lateral earthquake loading. Introducing flexible elements at the base of a structure and providing sufficient damping is an alternative way to mitigate seismic hazards. These features can be achieved with a device known as an isolator. This paper covers the design of base isolators for multi-story buildings in medium-risk seismicity regions and evaluates the structural responses of such isolators. The well-known tower building for police personnel built in Dhaka, Bangladesh by the Public Works Department (PWD) has been used as a case study to justify the viability of incorporating base isolators. The objective of this research was to establish a simplified model of the building that can be effectively used for dynamic analysis, to evaluate the structural status, and to suggest an alternative option to handle the lateral seismic load. A finite element model was incorporated to understand the structural responses. Rubber-steel bearing (RSB) isolators such as Lead rubber bearing (LRB) and high damping rubber bearing (HDRB) were used in the model to insert an isolator link element in the structural base. The nonlinearities of rubber-steel bearings were considered in detail. Linear static, linear dynamic, and nonlinear dynamic analyses were performed for both fixed-based (FB) and base isolated (BI) buildings considering the earthquake accelerograms, histories, and response spectra of the geological sites. Both the time-domain and frequency-domain approaches were used for dynamic solutions. The results indicated that for existing multi-story buildings, RSB diminishes the muscular amount of structural response compared to conventional non-isolated structures. The device also allows for higher horizontal displacement and greater structural flexibility. The suggested isolation technique is able to mitigate the structural hazard under even strong earthquake vulnerability.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.183-191
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• 2024

Accurate seismic vulnerability assessment requires high quality and large amounts of ground motion data. Ground motion data generated from time series contains not only the seismic waves but also the background noise. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the high-pass cut-off frequency to reduce the background noise. Traditional methods for determining the high-pass filter frequency are based on human inspection, such as comparing the noise and the signal Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (FAS), f² trend line fitting, and inspection of the displacement curve after filtering. However, these methods are subject to human error and unsuitable for automating the process. This study used a deep learning approach to determine the high-pass filter frequency. We used the Mel-spectrogram for feature extraction and mixup technique to overcome the lack of data. We selected convolutional neural network (CNN) models such as ResNet, DenseNet, and EfficientNet for transfer learning. Additionally, we chose ViT and DeiT for transformer-based models. The results showed that ResNet had the highest performance with R² (the coefficient of determination) at 0.977 and the lowest mean absolute error (MAE) and RMSE (root mean square error) at 0.006 and 0.074, respectively. When applied to a seismic event and compared to the traditional methods, the determination of the high-pass filter frequency through the deep learning method showed a difference of 0.1 Hz, which demonstrates that it can be used as a replacement for traditional methods. We anticipate that this study will pave the way for automating ground motion processing, which could be applied to the system to handle large amounts of data efficiently.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.159-165
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• 2023

While the frequency of seismic occurrence has been increasing recently, the domestic seismic response system is weak, the objective of this research is to compare and analyze the seismic vulnerability of buildings using statistical analysis and machine learning techniques. As the result of using statistical technique, the prediction accuracy of the developed model through the optimal scaling method showed about 87%. As the result of using machine learning technique, because the accuracy of Random Forest method is 94% in case of Train Set, 76.7% in case of Test Set, which is the highest accuracy among the 4 analyzed methods, Random Forest method was finally chosen. Therefore, Random Forest method was derived as the final machine learning technique. Accordingly, the statistical analysis technique showed higher accuracy of about 87%, whereas the machine learning technique showed the accuracy of about 76.7%. As the final result, among the 22,296 analyzed building data, the seismic vulnerabilities of 1,627(0.1%) buildings are expected as more dangerous when the statistical analysis technique is used, 10,146(49%) buildings showed the same rate, and the remaining 10,523(50%) buildings are expected as more dangerous when the machine learning technique is used. As the comparison of the results of using advanced machine learning techniques in addition to the existing statistical analysis techniques, in spatial analysis decisions, it is hoped that this research results help to prepare more reliable seismic countermeasures.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1A
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• pp.155-162
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• 2006

This study presents the seismic risk assesment for an extradosed bridge with seismic isolators of lead rubber bearings(LRB). First, the seismic vulnerability of a structure and then the seismic hazard of the site are evaluated using earthquake data set and seismic hazard map in Korea, and then the seismic risk of the structure is assessed. The nonlinear seismic analyses are carried out to consider plastic hinges of bridge columns and nonlinear characteristics of soil foundation. The ductility demand is adopted to describe the nonlinear behavior of a column, and the moment-curvature curve of a column is assumed to be bilinear hysterestic. The fragility curves are represented as a log-normal distribution function for column damage, movement of superstructure, and cable yielding. And seismic hazard is estimated using the available seismic hazard maps. The results show that the effectiveness of the seismic isolators for the columns is more noticeable than those for cables and girders, in seismic isolated extradosed bridges under earthquakes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2018

Seismic fragility curves of concrete cylindrical tanks are determined using the finite element method. Vulnerabilities including sloshing of contents, tensile cracking and compression failure of the tank wall due to bending are accounted for. Effects of wall flexibility, fixity at the base, and height-diameter ratio on the response are investigated. Tall, medium and squat tanks are considered. The dynamic analysis is implemented using the horizontal components of consistent earthquakes. The study shows that generally taller tanks are more vulnerable to all of the failure modes considered. Among the modes of failure, the bending capacity of wall was shown to be the critical design parameter.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.1
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• pp.85-92
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• 2023

This article examines the seismic vulnerability of soil nail wall structures. Detailed information regarding finite element modeling has been provided. The fragility function evaluates the relationship between ground motion intensities and the probability of surpassing a specific level of damage. The use of incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) has been applied to the soil nail wall against low to severe ground motions. In the nonlinear dynamic analysis of the soil nail wall, a set of twenty seismic ground motions with varying PGA ranges are used. The numerical results demonstrate that the soil-nailed wall reaction is extremely sensitive to earthquake ground vibrations under different intensity measures (IM). In addition, the analytical fragility curve is provided for various intensity values.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.13-23
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• 2022

The ground-structure interaction of the bridge foundation has been pointed out as a major factor influencing the behavior of the bridge during earthquakes. In this study, the effect of characteristics of ground and bridge foundation on the earthquake vulnerability is investigated. From the pseudo-static analysis, it is confirmed that non-linearity becomes lesser and horizontal load becomes greater when surcharge is considered. It is also found that as the ground worsens and the size of foundation decreases, horizontal load reduces. To derive reasonable structural model for bridge foundation, fragility curve is obtained considering four conditions (fixed condition, equivalent linear condition, non-linear without surchage condition, non-linear with surcharge condition) and compared. Seismic analysis is performed on single pier with Opensees. From the earthquake vulnerability analysis, it is found that shallow foundation can be assumed as fixed condition. In conservative approach, stiffness of spring can be obtained based on Korean highway bridge design code for pile foundation which can consider the ground condition.