• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.29-37
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• 2021

Since many geotechnical structures are constructed on a weathered granite layer, it is important to evaluate their characteristics. As a seismic design is the more important nowadays, the demands to estimate a shear wave velocity (V_S) based on acceptable methods are increasing. In this study, an empirical equation predicting V_S of the weathered granite layer is suggested based on the nonlinear multiple variable regression analysis whose independent variables are both SPT (Standard penetration test)-N₆₀ and chemical weathering index. It is concluded that the accuracy of the empirical equation estimating V_S of the weathered granite layer increases when it considers the chemical weathering index as an additional independent variable compared to the result of simple regression analysis using only N₆₀.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.371-380
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• 2023

To calculate seismic fragility, it is important to select input earthquake ground motions that can properly express the characteristics of the target site. This study analyzed the seismic fragility of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model based on input earthquake ground motions in strong and low-to-moderate seismic regions. As a first step, a total of four sets of input earthquake ground motions were selected,: two sets measured near or far from overseas strong earthquake records and two sets exhibiting the characteristics of low-to-moderate earthquake regions in South Korea. A nonlinear SDOF model for three natural periods was applied to the target structure, and incremental dynamic analysis was used for fragility analysis. In addition, four damage states were defined, and seismic fragility results for each natural period of the nonlinear SDOF model for the four aforementioned input earthquake ground motion sets were obtained for each damage state.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.205-213
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• 1990

The regulation of neurotoxicants has usually been based upon setting reference doses by dividing a no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) by uncertainty factors that theoretically account for interspecies and intraspecies extraploation of experimental results in animals to humans. Recently, we have proposed a four-step alternative procedure which provides quantitative estimates of risk as a function of dose. The first step is to establish a mathematical relationship between a biological effect or biomarker and the dose of chemical administered. The second step is to determine the distribution (variability) of individual measurements of biological effects or their biomarkers about the dose response curve. The third step is to define an adverse or abnormal level of a biological effect or biomarker in an untreated population. The fourth and final step is to combine the information from the first three steps to estimate the risk (proportion of individuals exceeding on adverse or abnormal level of a biological effect or biomarker) as a function of dose. The primary purpose of this report is to enhance the certainty of the first step of this procedure by improving our understanding of the relationship between a biomarker and dose of administered chemical. Several factors which need to be considered include: 1) the pharmacokinetics of the parent chemical, 2) the target tissue concentrations of the parent chemical or its bioactivated proximate toxicant, 3) the uptake kinetics of the parent chemical or metabolite into the target cell(s) and/or membrane interactions, and 4) the interaction of the chemical or metabolite with presumed receptor site(s). Because these theoretical factors each contain a saturable step due to definitive amounts of required enzyme, reuptake or receptor site(s), a nonlinear, saturable dose-response curve would be predicted. In order to exemplify this process, effects of the neurotoxicant, methlenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), were reviewed and analyzed. Our results and those of others indicate that: 1) peak concentrations of MDMA and metabolites are ochieved in rat brain by 30 min and are negligible by 24 hr, 2) a metabolite of MDMA is probably responsible for its neurotoxic effects, and 3) pretreatment with monoamine uptake blockers prevents MDMA neurotoxicity. When data generated from rats administerde MDMA were plotted as bilolgical effect (decreases in hippocampal serotonin concentrations) versus dose, a saturation curve best described the observed relationship. These results support the hypothesis that at least one saturable step is involved in MDMA neurotoxicity. We conclude that the mathematical relationship between biological effect and dose of MDMA, the first step of our quantitative neurotoxicity risk assessment procedure, should reflect this biological model information generated from the whole of the dose-response curve.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.5-20
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• 2010

One-dimensional equivalent linear site response analysis is widely used in practice due to its simplicity, requiring only few input parameters, and low computational cost. The main limitation of the procedure is that it is essentially a linear method, in which the time dependent change in the soil properties cannot be modeled and constant values of shear modulus and damping is used throughout the duration of the analysis. Various forms of modified equivalent linear analyses have been developed to enhance the accuracy of the equivalent linear method by incorporating the dependence of the shear strain with the loading frequency. The methods are identical in that it uses the shear strain Fourier spectrum as the backbone of the analysis, but differ in the method in which the strain Fourier spectrum is smoothed. This study used two domestically measured soil profiles to perform a series of nonlinear, equivalent linear, and modified equivalent linear site response analyses to verify the accuracy of two modified procedures. The results of the analyses indicate that the modified equivalent linear analysis can highly overestimate the amplification of the high frequency components of the ground motion. The degree of overestimation is dependent on the characteristics of the input ground motion. Use of a motion rich in high frequency contents can result in unrealistic response.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.53-63
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• 2011

Selection or generation of appropriate input ground motion is very important in performing a dynamic analysis. In Korea, it is a common practice to use recorded strong ground motions or artificial motions. The recorded motions show non-stationary characteristics, which is a distinct property of all earthquake motions, but have the problem of not matching the design response spectrum. The artificial motions match the design spectrum, but show stationary characteristics. This study generated ground motions that preserve the non-stationary characteristics of a real earthquake motion, but also matches the design spectrum. In the process, an impulse function-based algorithm that adjusts a given time series in time domain such that it matches the target response spectrum is used. Application of the algorithm showed that it can successfully adjust any recorded motions to match the target spectrum and also preserve the non-stationary characteristics. The modified motions are used to perform a series of nonlinear site response analyses. It is shown that the results using the adjusted motions result in more reliable estimates of ground vibration. It is thus recommended that the newly adjusted motions be used in practice instead of original recorded motions.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.836-842
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• 2011

The lateral stability of bridge foundations against train moving load, emergency stopping load, earthquakes, and so on is very important for a railway bridge foundation. A borehole test is much more accurate than laboratory tests since it is possible to minimize the disturbance of ground conditions on the test site. The representative borehole test methods are Dilatometer, Pressuremeter and Lateral Load Tester, which usually provide force-resistance characteristics in elastic range. In order to estimate P-y curves using those methods, the non-linear characteristics of soil which is one of the most important characteristics of the soil cannot be obtained. Therefore, P-y curves are estimated usually using elastic modulus ($E_O$, $E_R$) of lateral pressure-deformation ratio obtained within the range of elastic behavior. Even though the pile foundation is designed using borehole tests in field to increase design accuracy, it is necessary to use a higher safety factor to improve the reliability of the design. A Large Displacement Borehole Testmeter(LDBT) is developed to measure nonlinear characteristics of the soil in this study. P-y curves can be directly achieved from the developed equipment. Comparisons between measured P-y curves the LDBT developed equipment, theoretical methods based on geotechnical investigations, and back-calculated P-y curves from field tests are shown in this paper. The research result shows that the measured P-y curves using LDBT can be properly matched with back-calculated P-y curves from filed tests by applying scale effects for sand and clay, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.299-308
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• 2011

In this study, we develop a pressure observer to measure the cylinder length of a harbor-construction robot. For the robot control, sensors are required to measure the length of a hydraulic cylinder. The cylinder-position sensor is relatively expensive when the operating environment prohibits external approaches for the measurement of the cylinder position. LVDT or linear scales are usually mounted on the outside of the cylinder, which causes poor durability on a construction site. We use a pressure sensor to indirectly estimate the length of the cylinder. The pressure sensor is mounted inside a hydraulic valve box so that it is protected by the box and easy to waterproof for an underwater robot. By treating oil as a compressible fluid, we derive the nonlinear pressure dynamics as a function of the cylinder position, velocity, and pressure. The recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm is applied to identify the dynamic parameters, and the pressure observer estimates the cylinder position through the pressure acting on the head and the rod of the hydraulic cylinder. The position accuracy is relatively low, but it is acceptable for a construction robot that handles large armor stones.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2005

Recent earthquakes over magnitude 5 in the eastern coast of Korea have aroused interests in the earthquake analyses and seismic design of breakwater structures. Most of earthquake analysis methods such as equivalent static analysis, response spectrum analysis, nonlinear analysis, and capacity analysis methods are deterministic and have been used for seismic design and performance evaluation of breakwater structures. However, deterministic methods are difficult to reflect one of the most important characteristics of earthquakes, i.e. the uncertainty of earthquakes. This paper presents results of probabilistic seismic risk assessment(PSRA) of an actual caisson type breakwater structure considering uncertainties of earthquake occurrences and soil properties. First the seismic vulnerability of a structure and the seismic hazard of the site are evaluated using earthquake sets and seismic hazard map, and then seismic risk of the structure is assessed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.517-538
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• 2016

This paper presents a probabilistic fragility analysis for two groups of bridges: simply supported and integral bridges. Comparisons are based on the seismic fragility of the bridges subjected to accelerograms of two seismic sources. Three-dimensional finite-element models of the bridges were created for each set of bridge samples, considering the nonlinear behaviour of critical bridge components. When the seismic hazard in the site is controlled by a few seismic sources, it is important to quantify separately the contribution of each fault to the structure vulnerability. In this study, seismic records come from earthquakes that originated in strike-slip and reverse faulting mechanisms. The influence of the earthquake mechanism on the seismic vulnerability of the bridges was analysed by considering the displacement ductility of the piers. An in-depth parametric study was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of the bridges' seismic responses to variations of structural parameters. The analysis showed that uncertainties related to the presence of lap splices in columns and superstructure type in terms of integral or simply supported spans should be considered in the fragility analysis of the bridge system. Finally, the fragility curves determine the conditional probabilities that a specific structural demand will reach or exceed the structural capacity by considering peak ground acceleration (PGA) and acceleration spectrum intensity (ASI). The results also show that the simply supported bridges perform consistently better from a seismic perspective than integral bridges and focal mechanism of the earthquakes plays an important role in the seismic fragility analysis of highway bridges.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.3 no.4 s.11
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• pp.119-129
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• 2003

Concrete and steel are essential structural materials in the construction. But, concrete, different from steel, consists of many materials and is affected by many factors such as properties of materials, site environmental situations, and skill of constructors. Concrete have two kinds of properties, immediately knowing properties such as slump, air contents and time dependent one like strength. Therefore, concrete mixes depend on experiences of experts. However, at point of time using High Performance Concrete, new method is wanted because of more ingredients like mineral and chemical admixtures and lack of data. Artificial Neural Networks(ANN) are a mimic models of human brain to solve a complex nonlinear problem. They are powerful pattern recognizers and classifiers, also their computing abilities have been proven in the fields of prediction, estimation and pattern recognition. Here, among them, the back propagation network and radial basis function network ate used. Compositions of high-performance concrete mixes are eight components(water, cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, fly ash, silica fume, superplasticizer and air-entrainer). Compressive strength, slump, and air contents are measured. The results show that neural networks are proper tools to minimize the uncertainties of the design of concrete mixtures.