• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.125-144
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• 2015

This paper presents the probabilistic seismic microzonation of densely populated Kolkata city, situated on the world's largest delta island with very soft alluvial soil deposit. At first probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of Kolkata city was carried out at bedrock level and then ground motion amplification due to sedimentary deposit was computed using one dimensional (1D) wave propagation analysis SHAKE2000. Different maps like fundamental frequency, amplification at fundamental frequency, peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), peak ground displacement (PGD), maximum response spectral acceleration at different time period bands are developed for variety of end users, structural and geotechnical engineers, land use planners, emergency managers and awareness of general public. The probabilistically predicted PGA at bedrock level is 0.12 g for 50% exceedance in 50 years and maximum PGA at surface level it varies from 0.095 g to 0.18 g for same probability of exceedance. The scenario of simulated ground motion revealed that Kolkata city is very much prone to damage during earthquake.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.227-234
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• 2015

In this study, the theoretical review was carried out on the concepts regarding the continuity of operation plan and business continuity management plan, international standard ISO22301 and common required functions for disaster response, and the business continuity guideline of local governments in Japan and establishment cases were analyzed to draw matters to be reflected for establishing the business continuity plan of local governments according to the occurrence of earthquake and tsunami. In conclusion, the standard guideline of central government should be prepared for establishing the business continuity plan of local governments and the foundation to establish the plan smoothly based on such guideline should be provided. Also, the business continuity plan should be prepared based on the previous established safety management plans by reflecting the regional characteristics of local governments. And, in order to establish the business continuity plan that fits the region, proper investigations can be carried out to examine the characteristics of each organizations, resources, facilities and environments. Lastly, detailed scenario on the scale of earthquake and tsunami occurrence and damages is prepared to establish the business continuity plan of local governments and conditions for prompt countermeasures according to the scale.

• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.71-92
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• 2024

The world we live in is becoming more convenient thanks to the inventions of science and technology. Still, the world is also becoming more and more unpredictable with the current situation of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity). The Covid-19 pandemic brought the biggest global disaster ever with 774,631,444 infected people and 7,031,216 deaths (WHO on February 11, 2024) but it seems that humanity is gradually forgetting this disaster. Meanwhile the economic stimulus packages worth trillions of dollars from governments after the pandemic have further caused the world debt bubble to swell. The bubble burst scenario is something that many economic experts fear. Apparently, in the transitional period of the early decades of the 21st century, the world's economic, cultural, political, social, natural, and environmental aspects have undergone profound transformations: from the real estate and finance crises in the United States since 2008; through the melting of the Arctic ice over the past several decades; to the double disaster of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011. Especially, in the context of the world economic crisis after the COVID-19 pandemic, the human achievements of the past thousands of years are in jeopardy of being wiped out in an instant. Many people are predicting a bad scenario for a chain collapse. Facing the signals of an imminent economic catastrophe based on the appearance of "the Gray Rhino, Black Swan and White Elephant," many drawn in by Eschatological thought declare that Doomsday will occur shortly. This is the time for many other people to hope for the incoming Messiah. The Messiah is said to appear when people feel despair or suffer a great disaster because faith in the Savior can help them overcome adversity mentally. This research will find out how adherents of Buddhism view and deal with civilizational crises by examining history via symbols associated with Maitreya as based upon the Buddhist Messiah, Maitreya.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.195-215
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• 2016

Rehabilitation of historical unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings is a priority in many parts of the world, since those buildings are a living part of history and a testament of human achievement of the era of their construction. Many of these buildings are still operational; comprising brittle materials with no reinforcements, with spatially distributed mass and stiffness, they are not encompassed by current seismic assessment procedures that have been developed for other structural types. To facilitate the difficult task of selecting a proper rehabilitation strategy - often restricted by international treaties for non-invasiveness and reversibility of the intervention - and given the practical requirements for the buildings' intended reuse, this paper presents a practical procedure for assessment of seismic demands of URM buildings - mainly historical constructions that lack a well-defined diaphragm action. A key ingredient of the method is approximation of the spatial shape of lateral translation, ${\Phi}$, that the building assumes when subjected to a uniform field of lateral acceleration. Using ${\Phi}$ as a 3-D shape function, the dynamic response of the system is evaluated, using the concepts of SDOF approximation of continuous systems. This enables determination of the envelope of the developed deformations and the tendency for deformation and damage localization throughout the examined building for a given design earthquake scenario. Deformation demands are specified in terms of relative drift ratios referring to the in-plane and the out-of-plane seismic response of the building's structural elements. Drift ratio demands are compared with drift capacities associated with predefined performance limits. The accuracy of the introduced procedure is evaluated through (a) comparison of the response profiles with those obtained from detailed time-history dynamic analysis using a suite of ten strong ground motion records, five of which with near-field characteristics, and (b) evaluation of the performance assessment results with observations reported in reconnaissance reports of the field performance of two neoclassical torsionally-sensitive historical buildings, located in Thessaloniki, Greece, which survived a major earthquake in the past.

• 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.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.53-58
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• 2021

Nuclear power plant's safety against seismic events is evaluated as risk values by probabilistic seismic safety assessment. The risk values vary by the seismic failure correlation between the structures, systems, and components (SSCs). However, most probabilistic seismic safety assessments idealized the seismic failure correlation between the SSCs as entirely dependent or independent. Such a consideration results in an inaccurate assessment result not reflecting real physical phenomenon. A nuclear power plant's seismic risk should be calculated with the appropriate seismic failure correlation coefficient between the SSCs for a reasonable outcome. An accident scenario that has an enormous impact on a nuclear power plant's seismic risk was selected. Moreover, the probabilistic seismic response analyses of a nuclear power plant were performed to derive appropriate seismic failure correlations between SSCs. Based on the analysis results, the seismic failure correlation coefficient between SSCs was derived, and the seismic fragility curve and core damage frequency of the loss of essential power event were calculated. Results were compared with the seismic fragility and core damage frequency of assuming the seismic failure correlations between SSCs were independent and entirely dependent.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.80-86
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• 2024

Large-scale earthquakes are occurring globally, especially in the South Asian crust, which is experiencing a state of tension in the aftermath of the 2011 East Japan Earthquake. Uncertainty and fear regarding the possibility of further seismic activity in the near future have been on the rise in the region. The National Disaster Management Research Institute has previously studied and analyzed the overflow characteristics of a tsunami and the rate of flood forecasting through tsunami numerical simulations of the East Sea of South Korea. However, there is currently a significant lack of research on the Southern Coast tsunamis compared to the East Coast. On the Southern Coast, the tidal difference is between 1~4 m, and the impact of the tides is hard to ignore. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the impact of the tide propagation characteristics on the tsunami. Occurrence regions that may cradle tsunamis that affect the southern coast region are the Ryukyu Island and Nankai Trough, which are active seafloor fault zones. The Southern Coast has not experienced direct damage from tsunamis before, but since the possibility is always present, further research is required to prepare precautionary measures in the face of a potential event. Therefore, this study numerically simulated a hypothetical tsunami scenario that could impact the southern coast of South Korea. In addition, the tidal wave propagation characteristics that emerge at the shore due to tide and tsunami interactions will be analyzed. This study will be used to prepare for tsunamis that might occur on the southern coast through tsunami hazard and risk analysis.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.103-109
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• 2009

The probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) calculates the probability of exceedance of a certain ground motion parameter within a finite period at a site of interest. PSHA is very robust in that it can account for the uncertainties in seismic source, wave passage effect, and seismic site effects and hence, it is the most widely used method in quantifying the future earthquake induced ground vibration. This paper evaluates the applicability of a new PSHA that is alleged to be able to reproduce the results of a conventional PSHA method, but generates a series of earthquake scenarios and corresponding ground motion time histories that are compatible with the scenarios. In the application, a 40,000 year period is simulated, during which 16,738 virtual earthquakes have occurred. The seismic hazard maps are generated from the outputs of the new PSHA. Comparisons with the maps generated by the conventional PSHA method demonstrated that the new PSHA can successfully reproduce the results of a conventional PSHA. The new PSHA may not be very meaningful in itself. However, the real advantage of the method is that it can be used to develop probabilisitic seismic site coefficients. The suite of generated ground motion time histories are used to develop probabilistic site coefficients in the companion paper.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.268-277
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• 2019

Severe damages will result in human society, when several different critical natural phenomena coincide. One example relates to the resting cysts of Alexandrium species (dinoflagellates that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning), which are preserved in surface sediments throughout Osaka Bay, Japan. These cysts have been found to accumulate particularly densely in shallow areas in the inner parts of Osaka Bay, where a tsunami caused by an earthquake could occur any time. Damage by a tsunami could cause a change of the coastal ecosystems at Osaka Bay including the resuspension of surface sediments containing resting Alexandrium tamarense cysts and the subsequent redistribution of the cysts in newly deposited sediment. Under certain environmental conditions, these cysts could germinate and form dense blooms, leading to paralytic shellfish poisoning. Such a scenario could also affect other coastal areas, including the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.47-66
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• 2008

The present work utilizes system identification technique for health monitoring of shear building, wherein Parametric State Space modeling has been adopted. The method requires input excitation to the structure and also output acceleration responses of both undamaged and damaged structure obtained from numerically simulated model. Modal parameters like eigen frequencies and eigen vectors have been extracted from the State Space model after introducing appropriate transformation. Least square technique has been utilized for the evaluation of the stiffness matrix after having obtained the modal matrix for the entire structure. Highly accurate values of stiffness of the structure could be evaluated corresponding to both the undamaged as well as damaged state of a structure, while considering noise in the simulated output response analogous to real time scenario. The damaged floor could also be located very conveniently and accurately by this adopted strategy. This method of damage detection can be applied in case of output acceleration responses recorded by sensors from the actual structure. Further, in case of even limited availability of sensors along the height of a multi-storeyed building, the methodology could yield very accurate information related to structural stiffness.