• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.46 no.5
• /
• pp.569-580
• /
• 2014

Seismic isolation is a viable strategy for protecting safety-related nuclear structures from the effects of moderate to severe earthquake shaking. Although seismic isolation has been deployed in nuclear structures in France and South Africa, it has not seen widespread use because of limited new build nuclear construction in the past 30 years and a lack of guidelines, codes and standards for the analysis, design and construction of isolation systems specific to nuclear structures. The funding by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission of a research project to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and MCEER/University at Buffalo facilitated the writing of a soon-to-be-published NUREG on seismic isolation. Funding of MCEER by the National Science Foundation led to research products that provide the technical basis for a new section in ASCE Standard 4 on the seismic isolation of safety-related nuclear facilities. The performance expectations identified in the NUREG and ASCE 4 for seismic isolation systems, and superstructures and substructures are described in the paper. Robust numerical models capable of capturing isolator behaviors under extreme loadings, which have been verified and validated following ASME protocols, and implemented in the open source code OpenSees, are introduced.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.415-428
• /
• 2023

Low-cost techniques with seismic isolation performance and excellent resilience need to be explored in the case of rural low-rise buildings because of the limited buying power of rural residents. As an inexpensive and eco-friendly isolation bearing, scrap tire pads (STPs) have the issue of poor resilience. Thus, a seismic isolation system under a column (SISC) integrated with STP needs to be designed for the seismic protection of low-rise rural buildings. The SISC, which is based on a simple exterior design, maintains excellent seismic performance, while the mechanical behavior of the internal STP provides elastic resilience. The horizontal behaviors of the SISC are studied through load tests, and its mechanical properties and the intrinsic mechanism of the reset ability are discussed. Results indicate that the average residual displacement ratio was 24.59%, and the reset capability was enhanced. Comparative experimental and finite element analysis results also show that the load-displacement relationship of the SISC was essentially consistent. The dynamic characteristics of isolated and fixed-base buildings were compared by numerical assessment of the response control effects, and the SISC was found to have great seismic isolation performance. SISC can be used as a low-cost base isolation device for rural buildings in developing countries.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.303-316
• /
• 2023

With the development and utilization of urban underground space, the artificial ground freezing technology has been widely used in the construction of underground engineering in soft soil areas. The mechanical properties of soft clay changed greatly after freezing and thawing, which affected the seismic performance of underground structures. In this paper, a series of triaxial tests were carried out to study the dynamic response of the freezing-thawing clay under the seismic load considering different dynamic stress amplitudes and different confining pressures. The reduction factor of dynamic shear stress was determined to correct the amplitude of the seismic load. The deformation development mode, the stress-strain relationship and the energy dissipation behavior of the soft clay under the seismic load were analyzed. An empirical model for predicting accumulative plastic strain was proposed and validated considering the loading times, the confining pressures and the dynamic stress amplitudes. The relevant research results can provide a theoretical reference to the seismic design of underground structures in soft clay areas.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 2000.04b
• /
• pp.347-354
• /
• 2000

The seismic behaviors of a bridge system with several simple spans are examined to see the effects of the longitudinal stiffness degradation due to abutment-soil interaction. The abutment-backfill system is modeled as one degree-of-freedom-system with nonlinear spring and linear damper. various soil-conditions surrounding the abutment such as loose sand, medium dense sand, and dense sand are considered in the bridge seismic analysis. The idealized mechanical model for the whole bridge system is modeled by adopting the multiple-degree-of-freedom system, which can consider components such as pounding phenomena, friction at the movable supports, rotational and translational motions of foundations, and the nonlinear pier motions. The stiffness of the abutment is found to be rapidly reduced at the beginning of the earthquakes, and to be converged to constant values shortly after the displacement approaches to the Predefined critical values. It is observed that the maximum relative distanced an maximum relative displacements are generally Increased as the relative density of a soil decreases As the peak ground acceleration increases, the response ratio of the case considering stiffness degradation to the case considering constant stiffness decreases.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.23-37
• /
• 2018

In this paper, seismic provisions related to built-up special concentrically braced frames (BSCBFs) are investigated under cyclic loading using non-linear finite element analysis of a single-bay single-story frame. These braces, which contain double angle and double channel brace sections, are considered in two types of single diagonal and X-braced frames. The results of this study show that current seismic provisions such as observing the 0.4 ratio for slenderness ratio of individual elements between stitch connectors are conservative in BSCBFs, and can be increased according to the type of braces. Furthermore, such increments will lead to decreasing or remaining the current middle protected zone requirements of each BSCBFs. Failure results of BSCBFs, which are related to the plastic equivalent strain growth of members and ductility capacity of the models, show that the behaviors of double channel back-to-back diagonal braces are more desirable than those of similar face-to-face ones. Also, for double angle diagonal braces, results show that the failure of back-to-back BSCBFs occurs faster in comparison with face-to-face similar braces. In X-braced frames, cyclic and failure behaviors of built-up face-to-face models are more desirable than similar back-to-back braces in general.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.641-652
• /
• 2021

Digging well foundation has been widely used in railway bridges due to its good economy and reliability. In other instances, bridges with digging well foundation still have damage risks during earthquakes. In this study, a new type of digging well foundation with prefabricated roots was proposed to reduce earthquake damage of these bridges. Quasi-static tests were conducted to investigate the failure mechanism of the root digging well foundation, and then to analyze seismic behaviors of the new type well foundation. The testing results indicated that these prefabricated roots could effectively limit the rotation and uplift of the digging well foundation and increase the lateral bearing capacity of the digging well foundation. The elastic critical load and ultimate load can be increased by 69% and 36% if prefabricated roots were added in the digging well foundation. The prefabricated roots drived more soil around the foundation to participate in working, the stiffness of the bridge pier with root digging well foundation was improved. Moreover, the root participation could improve the energy dissipation capacity of soil-foundation-pier interaction system. The conclusions obtained in this paper had important guiding significance for the popularization and application of the digging well foundation with prefabricated roots in earthquake-prone zones.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.39-48
• /
• 2022

The energy dissipation of inverted V-type eccentric steel braced frames can be achieved through the yielding of a slit link, through yielding of a number of strips between slits when the frame is subjected to inelastic cyclic deformation. On the other hand, the development of seismic resistance system without residual deformation is obtained by applying the superelasdtic shape memory alloy (SMA) material into the brace and link elements. This paper presents results from a systematic three-dimensional nonlinear finite element analysis on the structural behavior of the eccentric bracing systems subjected to cyclic loadings. A wide scope of structural behaviors explains the horizontal stiffness, hysteretic behaviors, and failure modes of the recentering eccentric bracing system. The accurate results presented here serve as benchmark data for comparison with results obtained using modern experimental testing and alternative theoretical approaches.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2001.04a
• /
• pp.353-360
• /
• 2001

An analysis procedure of 2-dimensional bridge dynamics has been developed by using force-deformation model, which simulates the pier motion under biaxial bending due to the bi-directional input seismic excitations. A three-dimensional mechanical model is utilized, which can consider the other major phenomena such as pounding, rotation of the superstructure, abutment stiffness degradation, and motions of the foundation motions. The bi-directional dynamic behaviors of the bridge are then examined by investigating the relative displacements of each oscillator to the ground. It is found that the nonlinearity of the pier due to biaxial bending affects the pier motions, but the global bridge behaviors are greatly governed by the pounding phenomena and stiffness degradation of the abutment-backfill system. Especially, the relative displacement of the abutment system (A2) with movable supports to the ground is increased about 30% due to the abutment stiffness degradation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.321-330
• /
• 2011

Long-term properties of concrete affect structures in many respects, not excepting dynamic behaviors. This paper investigates the influence of concrete creep on the dynamic behaviors of concrete filled steel tube (CFT) arch bridges, by means of combining the analytical method for the creep of axially compressed CFT members, which is based on Model B3 for concrete creep, with the finite element model of CFT arch bridges. By this approach, the changes of the stress and strain of each element in the bridge with time can be obtained and then transformed into damping and stiffness matrices in the dynamic equation involved in the finite element model at different times. A numerical example of a long-span half-through CFT arch bridge shows that creep influences the natural vibration characteristics and seismic responses of the bridge considerably, especially in the early age. In addition, parameter analysis demonstrates that concrete composition, compressive strength and steel ratio have an obvious effect on the seismic response of the CFT arch bridge.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1998.10a
• /
• pp.128-135
• /
• 1998

In this study, the unseating failure of the bridge spans under seismic excitations is examined by investigation the nonlinear response behaviors of the bridge system with reinforced concrete piers. To reduce the computational effort and to consider the effect of the foundation motions, a simplified 3 degree-of-freedom model is proposed, which retains the dynamic characteristics of the original bridge motions in concern. To imply the nonlinear behaviors of the RC piers to the system. a hysteresis model is utilized from the calculated force-deformation curve for the piers. The statistical characteristics of the maximum response displacements are obtained from the simulation results of 1000 time history analysis.