• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.119-131
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• 2024

Pulse-like ground motion can cause greater damage to structures than nonpulse-like ground motion. Currently, much research is being conducted to determine the presence or absence of velocity pulses and to quantify them from seismic-acceleration records. Existing ground motion is divided into far-field (FF) and near-fault ground motion, based on the distance of the measurement point from the fault. Near-fault ground motion is further classified into near-fault pulse-like (NFP) and near-fault nonpulse-like (NFNP) ground motion by quantifying the presence or absence of velocity pulses. For each ground motion group, 40 FF, 40 NFP, and 40 NFNP ground motions are selected; thus, 120 ground motions are used in the seismic analysis to assess the seismic fragility of sample bridges. Probabilistic seismic demand models (PSDMs) are created by evaluating the seismic responses of two types of sample bridges with lead-rubber and elastomeric rubber bearings using three groups of ground motions. Seismic fragility analysis is performed using the PSDM, and from these results, the effect of the presence or absence of seismic velocity pulses on the seismic fragility is evaluated. From the comparison results of the seismic fragility curve, the seismic fragility of NFP ground motion appears to be approximately three to five times greater than that of NFNP ground motion, according to the presence or absence of a velocity pulse of seismic waves. This means that the damage to the bridge is greater in the case of NFP ground motion than that in the case of NFNP ground motion.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.91-110
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• 2019

In the present study, the effects of six different ground motion scaling methods on inelastic response of nonlinear steel moment frames (SMFs) are studied. The frames were designed using energy-based PBPD approach with the design concept using pre-selected target drift and yield mechanism as performance limit state. Two target spectrums are considered: maximum credible earthquake spectrum (MCE) and design response spectrum (DRS). In order to investigate the effects of ground motion scaling methods on the response of the structures, totally 3216 nonlinear models including three frames with 4, 8 and 16 stories are designed using PBPD approach and then they are subjected to ensembles of ground motions including 42 far-fault and 90 near-fault pulse-type records which were scaled using the six different scaling methods in accordance to the two aforementioned target spectrums. The distributions of maximum inter-story drift over the height of the structures are computed and compared. Finally, the efficiency and reliability of each ground motion scaling method to estimate the maximum nonlinear inter-story drift of special steel moment frames designed by energy-based PBPD approach are statistically investigated, and the most suitable scaling methods with the lowest dispersion for two groups of earthquake ground motions are introduced.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2012

In an effort to further exploit the peak ground-motion acceleration (PGA) information per second available in real time by the enacted law, bracketed summations of the PGA per second ($BSPGA_k$) for 30 seconds based on the records with a rate of 100 samples were compared with the cumulative absolute velocity (CAV) and earthquake intensities based on a worldwide database of records from small-to-large earthquakes. The CAV, currently in use as an earthquake damage indicator for nuclear power plants due to its strong correlation with the earthquake intensity, has the disadvantage of requiring a massive amount of digital data with a rate of more than 100 samples per second. The comparative study shows that the $BSPGA_k$ is well correlated with the CAV over the wide range of strong ground-motion levels, which suggests that the $BSPGA_k$ is one of the new promising ground-motion parameters especially useful for rapid earthquake alert notifications through an earthquake monitoring network. Based on the domestic database of records from small-to-moderate earthquakes with felt reports, it is also observed that the $BSPGA_k$ is comparable to the CAV and better than the PGA in predicting the intensity by using the correlation relation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.629-647
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• 2012

Multiple acceleration sequences of earthquake ground motions have been observed in many regions of the world. Such ground motions can cause large damage to the structures due to accumulation of inelastic deformation from the repeated sequences. The dynamic analysis of inelastic structures under repeated acceleration sequences generated from simulated and recorded accelerograms without sequences has been recently studied. However, the characteristics of recorded earthquake ground motions of multiple sequences have not been studied yet. This paper investigates the gross characteristics of earthquake records of multiple sequences from an engineering perspective. The definition of the effective number of acceleration sequences of the ground shaking is introduced. The implication of the acceleration sequences on the structural response and damage of inelastic structures is also studied. A set of sixty accelerograms is used to demonstrate the general properties of repeated acceleration sequences and to investigate the associated structural inelastic response.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.457-471
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• 2021

This study aims at providing a simple and effective methodology to define a meaningful characteristic period for special class of earthquake records named "pulse-like ground motions". In the proposed method, continuous wavelet transform is employed to extract the large pulse of ground motions. Then, Fourier amplitude spectra obtained from the original ground motion and the residual motion is simply compared. This comparison permits to define a threshold pulse-period (Tp∗) as the threshold period above which the pulse component has negligible contributions to the Fourier amplitude spectrum. The effect of pulse on frequency content of motions was discussed on the light of this definition. The advantage and superior features of the new definition were related to the inelastic displacement ratio (IDR) for single-degree-of-freedom systems with period equal to one half of the threshold period. Analyses performed for the proposed period at three ductility levels u=2,4,6 were compared with the results obtained at half of pulse period derived from wavelet analysis, peak-point method and the peak of product of the velocity and the displacement response spectra (Sv x Sd). According to the results, pulse effects on inelastic displacement ratio seem to be more important when $\frac{T_p^*}{T}=2$ (T is the fundamental vibration period of system). The results showed that utilizing of the proposed definition could facilitate an enhanced understanding of pulse-like records features.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.83-100
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• 2005

This paper presents results from a study to extend a performance-based shearwall selection procedure to take into account the contributions of nonstructural finish materials (such as stucco and gypsum wallboard), construction quality issues, and their effects on the displacement performance of engineered wood shearwalls subject to seismic loading. Shearwall performance is evaluated in terms of peak displacements under seismic loading (characterized by a suite of ordinary ground motion records) considering different combinations of performance levels (drift limits) and seismic hazard. Shearwalls are analyzed using nonlinear dynamic time-history analysis with global assembly hysteretic parameters determined by fitting to actual shearwall test data. Peak displacement distributions, determined from sets of analyses using each of the ground motion records taken to characterize the seismic hazard, are postprocessed into performance curves, design charts, and fragility curves which can be used for risk-based design and assessment applications.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.369-378
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• 2016

The design spectrum for Korea, which is known to belong to an intra-plate region, is developed from the ground motion records of the earthquakes occurred in Korea and overseas intra-plate regions. The horizontal spectrum is defined as geometric mean spectrum, GMRotI50. From the statistical analysis of the geometric mean spectra, a mean plus one standard deviation spectrum in lognormal distribution is obtained. Regression analysis is performed on this curve to determine the shape of spectrum including transition periods. The developed design spectrum is valid for the estimation both spectral acceleration and displacement.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.6
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• pp.751-763
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• 2020

Available records of recent earthquakes show that near-field earthquakes have different characteristics than far-field earthquakes. In general, most of these unique characteristics of near-fault records can be attributed to their forward directivity. This phenomenon causes the records of ground motion normal to the fault to entail pulses with long periods in the velocity time history. The energy of the earthquake is almost accumulated in these pulses causing large displacements and, accordingly, severe damages in the building. Damage to structures caused by past earthquakes raises the need to assess the chance of future earthquake damage. There are a variety of methods to evaluate building seismic vulnerabilities with different computational cost and accuracy. In the meantime, fragility curves, which defines the possibility of structural damage as a function of ground motion characteristics and design parameters, are more common. These curves express the percentage of probability that the structural response will exceed the allowable performance limit at different seismic intensities. This study aims to obtain the fragility curve for low- and mid-rise structures of reinforced concrete moment frames by incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). These frames were exposed to an ensemble of 18 ground motions (nine records near-faults and nine records far-faults). Finally, after the analysis, their fragility curves are obtained using the limit states provided by HAZUS-MH 2.1. The result shows the near-fault earthquakes can drastically influence the fragility curves of the 6-story building while it has a minimal impact on those of the 3-story building.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.435-454
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• 2007

In this study, we demonstrated the characteristics of the near-fault ground motion thatwas not considered in the domestic seismic design code and how the effect of the near-fault ground motion affects the response of cable-stayed bridges. Afterselecting the actual measurement records of the typical near- and far-fault ground motion, the characteristics of ground motion is analyzed using the elastic and inelastic response spectrum. Analyzing the response regarding the earthquake's characteristics on cable-stayed bridges by the typical three-type cable-stayed bridges and the actual cable-stayed bridge, the characteristics of responses about main members are compared and analyzed. Moreover,reliability analysis is accomplished using the results of the seismic response analysis, and the seismic safety of the cable-stayed bridges is evaluated quantitatively as a reliability index and probability of failure. According to the results of the response spectrum, the earthquake response analysis and the reliability analysis, because the effect of the near fault ground motion against the response of cable-stayed bridges is different from the effect of the existing far-fault ground motion, it should be considered as an important factor when designing cable-stayed bridges.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.877-893
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• 2011

Response spectra of earthquake ground motions are important in the earthquake-resistant design and reliability analysis of structures. The formulation of the response spectrum in the frequency domain efficiently computes and evaluates the stochastic response spectrum. The frequency information of the excitation can be described using different functional forms. The shapes of the calculated response spectra of the excitation show strong magnitude and site dependency, but weak distance dependency. In this paper, to compare the effect of the earthquake ground motion variables, the contribution of these sources of variability to the response spectrum's uncertainty is calculated by using a stochastic analysis. The analytical results show that earthquake source factors and soil condition variables are the main sources of uncertainty in the response spectra, while path variables, such as distance, anelastic attenuation and upper crust attenuation, have relatively little effect. The presented formulation of dynamic structural response in frequency domain based only on the frequency information of the excitation can provide an important basis for the structural analysis in some location that lacks strong motion records.