• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.203-218
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• 2010

The site categorization and corresponding site amplification factors in the current Korean seismic design guideline are based on provisions for the western United States (US), although the site effects resulting in the amplification of earthquake ground motions are directly dependent on the regional and local site characteristic conditions. In these seismic codes, two amplification factors called site coefficients, $F_a$ and $F_v$, for the short-period band and midperiod band, respectively, are listed according to a criterion, mean shear wave velocity ($V_S$) to a depth of 30 m, into five classes composed of A to E. To suggest a site classification system reflecting Korean site conditions, in this study, systematic site characterization was carried out at four regional areas, Gyeongju, Hongsung, Haemi and Sacheon, to obtain the $V_S$ profiles from surface to bedrock in field and the non-linear soil properties in laboratory. The soil deposits in Korea, which were shallower and stiffer than those in the western US, were examined, and thus the site period in Korea was distributed in the low and narrow band comparing with those in western US. Based on the geotechnical characteristic properties obtained in the field and laboratory, various site-specific seismic response analyses were conducted for total 75 sites by adopting both equivalent-linear and non-linear methods. The analysis results showed that the site coefficients specified in the current Korean provision underestimate the ground motion in the short-period range and overestimate in the mid-period range. These differences can be explained by the differences in the local site characteristics including the depth to bedrock between Korea and western US. Based on the analysis results in this study and the prior research results for the Korean peninsula, new site classification system was developed by introducing the site period as representative criterion and the mean $V_S$ to a depth of shallower than 30 m as additional criterion, to reliably determine the ground motions and the corresponding design spectra taking into account the regional site characteristics in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.417-428
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• 2011

Depending on the plastic deformation capacity required, structural steel design under the current codes can be classified into three categories: elastic, plastic, and seismic design. Most of the current steel codes explicitly forbid the use of a steel material with a yield strength higher than 450 MPa in the plastic design because of the concerns about its low plastic deformation capacity as well as the lack of test data on local and lateral torsional buckling behavior. In this study, flexural tests on full-scale H-shape members built with SM490A (ordinary steel or benchmark material) and HSB800 (high-strength steel) were carried out. The primary objective was to investigate the appropriateness of extrapolating the local buckling criterion of the current codes, which was originally developed for normal-strength steel, to the case of high-strength steel. All the SM490A specimens performed consistently with the current code criteria and exhibited sufficient strength and ductility. The performance of the HSB800 specimens was also very satisfactory from the strength perspective; even the specimens with a noncompact and slender flange developed the plastic moment capacity. The HSB800 specimens, however, showed an inferior plastic rotation capacity due to the premature tensile fracture of the beam bottom flange beneath the vertical stiffener at the loading point. The plastic rotation capacity that was achieved was less than 3 (or the minimum level required for a plastic design). Although the test results in this study indicate that the extrapolation of the current flange local-buckling criterion to the case of high-strength steel is conservative from the elastic design perspective, further testing together with an associated analytical study is required to identify the causes of the tensile fracture and to establish a flange slenderness criterion that is more appropriate for high-strength steel.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.35-45
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• 2012

Pseudo static analysis using the Mononobe-Okabe method and numerical analysis considering a small strain nonlinearity from the soil were performed to determine the bearing pressure changes of the inverted T-type retaining wall subjected to earthquake motions. In many cases, an inverted 'T' type retaining wall of more than 10 m shows bearing capacity failure under earthquake conditions, despite showing sufficient bearing capacity during normal conditions. The most important reason for this is the change of the effective base area during an earthquake. In this paper, the change of the effective base area of an inverted 'T' type wall is analyzed by using finite difference element code (FLAC). In addition, the effect of dynamic bearing capacity coefficients (which has been suggested by several researchers but not adopted in current design codes and procedures) was verified.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.269-282
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• 2015

Civil structures should be designed with the lowest cost and longest lifetime possible and without service failure. The efficient and sustainable use of materials in building design and construction has always been at the forefront for civil engineers and environmentalists. Timber is one of the best contenders for these purposes particularly in terms of aesthetics; fire protection; strength-to-weight ratio; acoustic properties and seismic resistance. In recent years, timber has been used in commercial and taller buildings due to these significant advantages. It should be noted that, since the launch of the modern building standards and codes, a number of different structural systems have been developed to stabilise steel or concrete multistorey buildings, however, structural analysis of high-rise and multi-storey timber frame buildings subjected to lateral loads has not yet been fully understood. Additionally, timber degradation can occur as a result of biological decay of the elements and overloading that can result in structural damage. In such structures, the deficient members and joints require strengthening in order to satisfy new code requirements; determine acceptable level of safety; and avoid brittle failure following earthquake actions. This paper investigates performance assessment and damage assessment of older multi-storey timber buildings. One approach is to retrofit the beams in order to increase the ductility of the frame. Experimental studies indicate that Sprayed Fibre Reinforced Polymer (SFRP) repairing/retrofitting not only updates the integrity of the joint, but also increases its strength; stiffness; and ductility in such a way that the joint remains elastic. Non-linear finite element analysis ('pushover') is carried out to study the behaviour of the structure subjected to simulated gravity and lateral loads. A new global index is re-assessed for damage assessment of the plain and SFRP-retrofitted frames using capacity curves obtained from pushover analysis. This study shows that the proposed method is suitable for structural damage assessment of aged timber buildings. Also SFRP retrofitting can potentially improve the performance and load carrying capacity of the structure.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.601-612
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• 2013

In the construction of nuclear power plants using massive walls, the use of high-strength re-bars for shear design is necessary to enhance the constructability and economy. In this study, low-rise walls (aspect ratio of 1.0) with grade 550 MPa bars were tested under cyclic loading to investigate the shear capacity and deformation capacity. The test parameters were the grade of horizontal re-bars (550 MPa, 420 MPa), strength of concrete compressive strength (46 MPa, 70 MPa), horizontal/vertical reinforcement ratio, use of lateral confinement hoops, shape of cross section, and failure modes (shear failure before or after flexural yielding). The test results were compared with those of walls with grade 420 MPa bars and predicted strength by current design codes. The results showed that the shear strength of the walls with 550 MPa bars was comparable to that of the walls with 420 MPa bars though the safe margin slightly decreased. ACI 349 provides underestimated shear strength for the walls with 550 MPa bars. In case of the wall with flexural yielding, a large deformation capacity was achieved. This result indicates that the ACI 349 provisions can be safely applied to seismic design of the low-rise walls (aspect ratio of 1.0) with grade 550 MPa bars.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.5 s.45
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• pp.75-86
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• 2005

In performance-based design methods, it is clear that the evaluation of the nonlinear response is required. Analysis methods available to the design engineer today are nonlinear time history analyses, or monotonic static nonlinear analyses, or equivalent static analyses with simulated inelastic influences. The nonlinear time analysis is the most accurate method in computing the nonlinear response of structures, but it is time-consuming and necessitate more efforts. Some codes proposed the capacity spectrum method based on the nonlinear static analysis to determine earthquake-induced demand. The nonlinear direct spectrum method is proposed and studied to evaluate nonlinear response of structures, without iterative computations, given by the structural linear vibration period and yield strength from pushover analysis. The purpose of this paper is to compare the accuracy and the reliability of approximate nonlinear methods with respect to shear buildings and various earthquakes. The conclusions of this study are summarized as follows: 1) Linear capacity spectrum method may fail to find a convergent answer or make a divergence. Even if a convergent answer is found, it has a large error in some cases and the error varies greatly depending on earthquakes. 2) Although nonlinear capacity spectrum method need much less calculation than capacity spectrum method and find an answer in any case, it may be difficult to obtain an accurate answer and generally large error occurs. 3) The nonlinear direct spectrum method is thought to have good applicability because it produce relatively correct answer than other methods directly from pushover curves and nonlinear response spectrums without additional and iterative calculations.