• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.207-232
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• 2011

The development of reliable earthquake mitigation plans and seismic risk management procedures can only be based on the establishment of comprehensive earthquake hazard and loss scenarios. Two cities, Grevena (Greece) and D$\ddot{u}$zce (Turkey), were used as case studies in order to apply a comprehensive methodology for the vulnerability and loss assessment of lifelines. The methodology has the following distinctive phases: detailed inventory, identification of the typology of each component and system, evaluation of the probabilistic seismic hazard, geotechnical zonation, ground response analysis and estimation of the spatial distribution of seismic motion for different seismic scenarios, vulnerability analysis of the exposed elements at risk. Estimating adequate earthquake scenarios for different mean return periods, and selecting appropriate vulnerability functions, expected damages of the water and waste water systems in D$\ddot{u}$zce and of the roadway network and waste water system of Grevena are estimated and discussed; comparisons with observed earthquake damages are also made in the case of D$\ddot{u}$zce, proving the reliability and the efficiency of the proposed methodology. The results of the present study constitute a sound basis for the development of efficient loss scenarios for lifelines and infrastructure facilities in seismic prone areas. The first part of this paper, concerning the estimation of the seismic ground motions, has been utilized in the companion paper by Kappos et al. (2010) in the same journal.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.873-885
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• 2016

Determination of earthquake-safety of existing buildings requires a rather long and challenging process both in terms of time and expertise. In order to prevent such a tedious process, rather rapid methods for evaluating buildings were developed. The purpose of these rapid methods is to determine the buildings that have priority in terms of risk and accordingly to minimize the number of buildings to be inspected. In these rapid evaluation methods detailed information and inspection are not required. Among these methods the Canadian Seismic scanning method and the first stage evaluation method included in the principles concerning the determination of risk-bearing buildings promulgated by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization in Turkey are used in the present study. Within the scope of this study, six reinforced concrete buildings damaged in Van earthquakes in Turkey are selected. The performance scores of these buildings are calculated separately with the mentioned two methods, and then compared. The purpose of the study is to provide information on these two methods and to set forth the relation they have between them in order to manifest the international validity.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.115-132
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• 2015

This paper presents a new method for seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings with reference to their operational limit state. The importance of this kind of evaluation arises from the civil protection necessity that some buildings, considered strategic for seismic emergency management, should retain their functionality also after a destructive earthquake. The method is based on the identification of experimental modal parameters from ambient vibrations measurements. The knowledge of the experimental modes allows to perform a linear spectral analysis computing the maximum structural drifts of the building caused by an assigned earthquake. Operational condition is then evaluated by comparing the maximum building drifts with the reference value assigned by the Italian Technical Code for the operational limit state. The uncertainty about the actual building seismic frequencies, typically significantly lower than the ambient ones, is explicitly taken into account through a probabilistic approach that allows to define for the building the Operational Index together with the Operational Probability Curve. The method is validated with experimental seismic data from a permanently monitored public building: by comparing the probabilistic prediction and the building experimental drifts, resulting from three weak earthquakes, the reliability of the method is confirmed. Finally an application of the method to a strategic building in Italy is presented: all the procedure, from ambient vibrations measurement, to seismic input definition, up to the computation of the Operational Probability Curve is illustrated.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.367-392
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• 2020

The specific characteristics of near-field earthquake records can lead to different dynamic responses of bridges compared to far-field records. However, the effect of near-field strong ground motion has often been neglected in the seismic performance assessment of the bridges. Furthermore, damage to horizontally curved multi-frame RC box-girder bridges in the past earthquakes has intensified the potential of seismic vulnerability of these structures due to their distinctive dynamic behavior. Based on the nonlinear time history analyses in OpenSEES, this article, assesses the effects of near-field versus far-field earthquakes on the seismic performance of horizontally curved multi-frame RC box-girder bridges by accounting the vertical component of the earthquake records. Analytical seismic fragility curves have been derived thru considering uncertainties in the earthquake records, material and geometric properties of bridges. The findings indicate that near-field effects reasonably increase the seismic vulnerability in this bridge sub-class. The results pave the way for future regional risk assessments regarding the importance of either including or excluding near-field effects on the seismic performance of horizontally curved bridges.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.615-626
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• 2018

The seismic vulnerability of Turkey is relatively high due to its active fault systems with potential to create destructive earthquakes. Thus, reducing the loss of life and property, the number of the earthquake-prone buildings and their retrofit requirements are considerably significant key issues under the scenario earthquakes. The street survey based rapid assessment (SSRA) method can be considered as a powerful tool to determine the seismic vulnerability of building stock of an earthquake-prone city/state. In this study, the seismic vulnerability of the building stock of the Kirikkale province in Turkey is aimed to be estimated adopting the street survey based rapid assessment method (SSRA). For this purpose, central 2074 existing reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings were structurally surveyed with rapid visual site screening and disadvantages such as, the existence of short-column, soft-story, heavy overhangs, pounding effect and local soil conditions were determined for obtaining the structural performance score of each. The results obtained from the study demonstrate that 11-25% of the surveyed buildings in the study region needs to be investigated through more advanced assessment methods. Besides, higher correlation between increasing story number and unsafe/safe building ratio is obtained for the buildings with soft-story parameter than that for those with heavy overhangs and short-column parameters. The conformity of the results of the current study with the previous documented cases of rapid assessment efforts in the recent earthquakes in Turkey shows that the SSRA method for the Kirikkale province performed well, and thus this methodology can be reliably used for similar settlement areas.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.249-259
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• 2018

This paper aims to assess the seismic risk of a plane moment-resisting frames (MRFs) consisting of concrete-filled double skin steel tube (CFDST) columns and I-section steel beams. Firstly, three typical limit performance levels of CFDST structures are determined in accordance with the cyclic tests of seven CFDST joint specimens with 1/2-scaled and the limits stipulated in FEMA 356. Then, finite element (FE) models of the test specimens are built by considering with material degradation, nonlinear behavior of beam-column connections and panel zones. The mechanical behavior of the concrete material are modeled in compression stressed condition in trip-direction based on unified strength theory, and such numerical model were verified by tests. Besides, numerical models on 3, 6 and 9-story CFDST frames are established. Furthermore, the seismic responses of these models to earthquake excitations are investigated using nonlinear time-history analyses (NTHA), and the limits capacities are determined from incremental dynamic analyses (IDA). In addition, fragility curves are developed for these models associated with 10%/50yr and 2%/50yr events as defined in SAC project for the region on Los Angeles in the Unite State. Lastly, the annual probabilities of each limits and the collapse probabilities in 50 years for these models are calculated and compared. Such results provide risk information for the CFDST-MRFs based on the probabilistic risk assessment method.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.39-46
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• 2019

The liquefaction is a phenomenon that the effective stress becomes zero due to the rapidly accumulated excess pore water pressure when a strong load acts on the ground for a short period of time, such as an earthquake or pile driving, resulting in the loss of the shear strength of the ground. Since the Geongju and Pohang earthquake, liquefaction brought increasing domestic attention. This liquefaction can be assessed mainly through the semi-empirical procedures proposed by Seed and Idriss (1982) and the liquefaction risk based on the penetration resistance obtained from borehole DB and SPT. However, the geotechnical information data obtained by the in-situ tests or boring information fundamentally have an issue of the representative of the target area. Therefore, this study sought to construct a ground information database by classifying and reviewing the ground information required for liquefaction assessment, and tried to solve the representative problem of the soil layer that is subject to liquefaction evaluation by performing spatial interpolation using GIS.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.967-973
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• 2021

In 2011, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing simultaneous accidents in several reactors. This accident shows us that if there are several reactors on site, the seismic risk to multiple units is important to consider, in addition to that to single units in isolation. When a seismic event occurs, a seismic-failure correlation exists between the nuclear power plant's structures, systems, and components (SSCs) due to their seismic-response and seismic-capacity correlations. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the multi-unit seismic risk by considering the SSCs' seismic-failure-correlation effect. In this study, a methodology is proposed to obtain the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs to calculate the risk to multi-unit facilities. This coefficient is calculated from a probabilistic multi-unit seismic-response analysis. The seismic-response and seismic-failure-correlation coefficients of the emergency diesel generators installed within the units are successfully derived via the proposed method. In addition, the distribution of the seismic-response-correlation coefficient was observed as a function of the distance between SSCs of various dynamic characteristics. It is demonstrated that the proposed methodology can reasonably derive the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs, which is the input data for multi-unit seismic probabilistic safety assessment.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.261-280
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• 2014

In many parts of the world, reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, designed and built in accordance with older codes, have suffered severe damage or even collapse as a result of recent near-fault earthquakes. This is particularly due to the deficiencies of most of the older (and even some of the recent) codes in dealing with near fault events. In this study, a tested three-storey frame designed for gravity loads only was selected to represent those deficient buildings. Nonlinear time history analyses were performed, followed by damage assessment procedures. The results were compared with experimental observation of the same frame showing a good match. Damage and fragility analyses of the frame subjected to 204 pulse-type motions were then performed using a selected damage model and inter-storey drifts. The results showed that the frame located in near-fault regions is extremely vulnerable to ground motions. The results also showed that the damage model better captures the damage distribution in the frame than inter-storey drifts. The first storey was identified as the most fragile and the inner columns of the first storey suffered most damage as indicated by the damage index. The findings would be helpful in the decision making process prior to the strengthening of buildings in near-fault regions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.455-464
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• 2024

Seismic movements have varying effects on structures based on characteristics of local site. During an earthquake, weak soils are susceptible to damage due to amplified wave amplitudes. Soil-structure interaction issue has garnered increased attention in Türkiye, after devastating earthquakes in Kocaeli Gölcük (1999), Izmir (2020), Kahramanmaraş Pazarcık and Elbistan (2023). Consequently, liquefaction potential has been investigated in detail for different regions of Türkiye, mainly with available field test results. Çankırı, a city located close to North Anatolian Fault, is mainly built on alluvium, which is prone to liquefaction. However, no study on liquefaction hazard has been conducted thus far. In this study, groundwater level map, SPT map, and liquefaction risk map have been generated using Geographical Information System (GIS) for the Buğday Pazarı District of Çankırı province. Site investigations studies previously performed for 47 parcels (76 boreholes) were used within the scope of this study. The liquefaction assessment was conducted using Seed and Idriss's (1971) simplified method and the visualization of areas susceptible to liquefaction risk has been accomplished. The results of this study have been compared with the City Council's precautionary map which is currently in use. As a result of this study, it is recommended that minimum depth of boreholes in the region should be at least 30m and adequate number of laboratory tests particularly in liquefiable areas should be performed. Another important recommendation for the region is that detailed investigation should be performed by local authorities since findings of this study differ from currently used precautionary map.