• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.49-71
• /
• 2015

The present paper aims at evaluating damage and collapse behavior of low-rise buildings with unidirectional mass irregularities in plan (torsional buildings). In previous earthquake events, such buildings have been exposed to extensive damages and even total collapse in some cases. To investigate the performance and collapse behavior of such buildings from probabilistic points of view, three-dimensional three and six-story reinforced concrete models with unidirectional mass eccentricities ranging from 0% to 30% and designed with modern seismic design code provisions specific to intermediate ductility class were subjected to nonlinear static as well as extensive nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) under a set of far-field real ground motions containing 21 two-component records. Performance of each model was then examined by means of calculating conventional seismic design parameters including the response reduction (R), structural overstrength (${\Omega}$) and structural ductility (${\mu}$) factors, calculation of probability distribution of maximum inter-story drift responses in two orthogonal directions and calculation collapse margin ratio (CMR) as an indicator of performance. Results demonstrate that substantial differences exist between the behavior of regular and irregular buildings in terms of lateral load capacity and collapse margin ratio. Also, results indicate that current seismic design parameters could be non-conservative for buildings with high levels of plan eccentricity and such structures do not meet the target "life safety" performance level based on safety margin against collapse. The adverse effects of plan irregularity on collapse safety of structures are more pronounced as the number of stories increases.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.122-129
• /
• 2020

To conduct probabilistic seismic fragility analysis for nuclear power plants, it is very important to define the failure modes and criteria that can represent actual serious accidents. The seismic design criteria for piping systems, however, cannot fully reflect serious accidents because they are based on plastic collapse and cannot express leakage, which is the actual limit state. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly define the limit state for reliable probabilistic seismic fragility analysis. Therefore, in this study, the limit state of the SCH80 3-inch steel pipe elbow, the vulnerable part of piping systems, was defined as leakage, and the in-plane cyclic loading test was conducted. Moreover, an attempt was made to quantify the failure criteria for the steel pipe elbow using the damage index, which was based on the dissipated energy that used the moment-deformation angle relationship.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.589-602
• /
• 2020

As can be seen in many earthquakes, liquefaction causes differential settlement, which sometimes produces serious damages such as building destruction and ground subsidence. There are many possible active faults near the Busan city and the Yangsan, Dongrae, and Ilgwang faults among them pass through the city. The Busan city is also located within the influence of recent earthquakes, which occurred in the Gyeongju, Pohang, and Kumamoto (Japan). Along the wide fault valleys in the city, the Quaternary unconsolidated alluvial sediments are thickly accumulated, and the reclaimed lands with beach sediments are widely distributed in the coastal area. A large earthquake near or in the Busan city is thus expected to cause major damage due to liquefaction in urban areas. This study conducted an assessment of the liquefaction hazard according to seismic recurrence intervals across the Busan city. As a result, although there are slight differences in degree depending on seismic recurrence intervals, it is predicted that the liquefaction potential is very high in the areas of the Nakdonggang Estuary, Busan Bay, Suyeong Bay, and Songjeong Station. In addition, it is shown that the shorter the seismic recurrence interval, the greater difference the liquefaction potential depending on site periods.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.217-228
• /
• 2019

In this study, a seismic vulnerability map of Gyeongju city, where the 9.12 Gyeongju earthquake occurred, was produced and evaluated using analytic hierarchy process(AHP) and geographic information system (GIS). Geotechnical, physical, social, structural, and capacity factors were selected as the main indicators and 18 sub-indicators to construct a spatial database. Weights derived using the AHP were applied to the 18 sub-indicators, which generated a vulnerability map of the five main indicators. After weighting the five generated maps, we created seismic vulnerability maps by overlaying each of the five maps. The seismic vulnerability map was classified into five zones, i.e., very high, high, moderate, low, and safe. For seismic vulnerability, the results indicated that 3% of Gyeongju area is characterized as having very high vulnerability, while 19% was characterized as safe. Based on district standards, Jungbu-dong, Hwangoh-dong, Hwangseong-dong, Seonggeon-dong, and Dongcheon-dong were high-risk areas, and Bodeok-dong, Gangdong-myeon, Yangbuk-myeon, Yangnam-myeon, and Oedong-eup were characterized as safe areas. The seismic vulnerability map produced in this study could possibly be used to minimize damage caused by earthquakes and could be used as a reference when establishing policies.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.95-102
• /
• 2020

Population concentration in urban areas has led traffic management a central issue. To mitigate traffic congestions, the government has planned to construct large-cross-section tunnels deep underground. This study focuses on estimating the damage caused to frame structures owing to tunnel excavation. When constructing a tunnel network deep underground, it is necessary to divide the main tunnel and connect the divergence tunnel to the ground surface. Ground settlement is caused by excavation of the adjacent divergence tunnel. Therefore, predicting ground settlement using diverse variables is necessary before performing damage estimation. We used the volume loss and cover-tunnel diameter ratio as the variables in this study. Applying the ground settlement values to the settlement induction device, we measured the extent of damage to frame structures due to displacement at specific points. The vertical and horizontal displacements that occur at these points were measured using preattached LVDT (Linear variable differential transformer), and the lateral strain and angular distortion were calculated using these displacements. The lateral strain and angular distortion are key parameters for structural damage estimation. A damage assessment chart comprises the "Negligible", "Very Slight Damage", "Slight Damage", "Moderate to Severe Damage", and "Severe to Very Severe Damage" categories was developed. This table was applied to steel frame and concrete frame structures for comparison.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.52 no.4
• /
• pp.701-721
• /
• 2014

In the assessment of existing RC buildings, the reliable appraisal of the compressive strength of in-situ concrete is a fundamental step. Unfortunately, the data that can be obtained by the available testing methods are typically affected by a high level of uncertainty. Moreover, in order to derive indications about the degradation and ageing of the materials by on site tests, it is necessary to have the proper terms of comparison, that is to say, to know the reference data measured during the construction phases, that are often unavailable when the building is old. In the cases when such a comparison can be done, the in situ strength values typically turn out to be lower than the reference strength values (tests performed on taken samples during the construction). At this point, it is crucial to discern and quantify the specific effect induced by different factors: ageing of the materials; poor quality of the placement, consolidation or cure of the concrete during the construction phases; damage due to drilling. This paper presents a procedure for correlating the destructive compressive tests and non-destructive tests (ultrasonic pulse velocity tests) with the data documenting the compressive strength tested during the construction phases. The research work is aimed at identifying the factors that induce the difference between the in-situ strength and cubes taken from the concrete casting, and providing, so, useful information for the assessment procedure of the building.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.64 no.6
• /
• pp.765-781
• /
• 2017

The out-of-plane response of infill walls has recently gained a growing attention and has been recognised fundamental in the damage assessment of reinforced concrete and steel framed buildings subjected to seismic loads. The observation of damage after earthquakes highlighted that out-of-plane collapse of masonry infills may occur even during seismic events of low or moderate intensity, causing both casualty risks and unfavourable situations affecting the overall structural response. Even though studies concerning the out-of-plane behaviour of infills are not as many as those focused on the in-plane response, in the last decades, a substantial number of researches have been carried out on the out-of-plane behaviour of infills. In this study, the out-of-plane response is investigated considering different aspects. First, damages observed after past earthquakes are examined, with the aim of identifying the main parameters involved and the most critical configurations. Secondly, the response recorded in about 150 experimental tests is deeply examined, focusing on the influence of geometrical characteristics, boundary conditions, prior in-plane damage, presence of reinforcing elements and openings. Finally, different theoretical capacity models and code provisions are discussed and compared, giving specific attention to those based on the arching theory. The reliability of some of these models is herein tested with reference to experimental results. The comparison between analytically predicted and experimental values allows to appreciate the extent of approximation of such methods.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.101-111
• /
• 2023

Structural health monitoring (SHM) covers a range of damage detection strategies for buildings. In real-time, SHM provides a basis for rapid decision making to optimise the speed and economic efficiency of post-event response. Previous work introduced an SHM method based on identifying structural nonlinear hysteretic parameters and their evolution from structural force-deformation hysteresis loops in real-time. This research extends and generalises this method to investigate the impact of a wide range of flag-shaped or pinching shape nonlinear hysteretic response and its impact on the SHM accuracy. A particular focus is plastic stiffness (K_p), where accurate identification of this parameter enables accurate identification of net and total plastic deformation and plastic energy dissipated, all of which are directly related to damage and infrequently assessed in SHM. A sensitivity study using a realistic seismic case study with known ground truth values investigates the impact of hysteresis loop shape, as well as added noise, on SHM accuracy using a suite of 20 ground motions from the PEER database. Monte Carlo analysis over 22,000 simulations with different hysteresis loops and added noise resulted in absolute percentage identification error (median, (IQR)) in K_p of 1.88% (0.79, 4.94)%. Errors were larger where five events (Earthquakes #1, 6, 9, 14) have very large errors over 100% for resulted K_p as an almost entirely linear response yielded only negligible plastic response, increasing identification error. The sensitivity analysis shows accuracy is reduces to within 3% when plastic drift is induced. This method shows clear potential to provide accurate, real-time metrics of non-linear stiffness and deformation to assist rapid damage assessment and decision making, utilising algorithms significantly simpler than previous non-linear structural model-based parameter identification SHM methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.74 no.6
• /
• pp.789-807
• /
• 2020

Multiple earthquakes that occur during short seismic intervals affect the inelastic behavior of the structures. Sequential ground motions against the single earthquake event cause the building structure to face loss in stiffness and its strength. Although, numerous research studies had been conducted in this research area but still significant limitations exist such as: 1) use of traditional design procedure which usually considers single seismic excitation; 2) selecting a seismic excitation data based on earthquake events occurred at another place and time. Therefore, it is important to study the effects of successive ground motions on the framed structures. The objective of this study is to overcome the aforementioned limitations through testing a two storey RC building structural model scaled down to 1/10 ratio through a similitude relation. The scaled model is examined using a shaking table. Thereafter, the experimental model results are validated with simulated results using ETABS software. The test framed specimen is subjected to sequential five artificial and four real-time earthquake motions. Dynamic response history analysis has been conducted to investigate the i) observed response and crack pattern; ii) maximum displacement; iii) residual displacement; iv) Interstorey drift ratio and damage limitation. The results of the study conclude that the low-rise building model has ability to resist successive artificial ground motion from its strength. Sequential artificial ground motions cause the framed structure to displace each storey twice in correlation with vary first artificial seismic vibration. The displacement parameters showed that real-time successive ground motions have a limited impact on the low-rise reinforced concrete model. The finding shows that traditional seismic design EC8 requires to reconsider the traditional design procedure.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.88-97
• /
• 2012

The objective of this research is to investigate the seismic performance and flexure-shear behavior of square reinforced concrete bridge piers with solid and hollow cross section. Test specimens were nonseismically designed with the aspect ratio 4.5 Two reinforced concrete columns were tested under constant axial load while subjected to lateral load reversals with increasing drift levels. Longitudinal steel ratio was 2.217 percent. The transverse reinforcement ratio As/($s{\cdot}h$), corresponding to 58 percent of the minimum lateral reinforcement required by Korean Bridge Design Specifications for seismic detailing, which represent existing columns not designed by the current seismic design specifications or designed by limited ductility concept. This study are to provide quantitative reference data for the limited ductility design concept and tendency for performance or damage assessment based on the performance levels such as cracking, yielding, collapse, etc. Failure behavior, ultimate displacement/drift ratio, displacement ductility, response modification factor, equivalent viscous damping ratio, residual deformation, effective stiffness, plastic hinge length, strain of reinforcements and nonlinear analysis are investigated and discussed in this paper.