• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.71-87
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• 2014

Interaction between closely-spaced buildings subject to earthquake induced strong ground motions, termed in the literature as "seismic pounding", occurs commonly during major seismic events in contemporary congested urban environments. Seismic pounding is not taken into account by current codes of practice and is rarely considered in practice at the design stage of new buildings constructed "in contact" with existing ones. Thus far, limited research work has been devoted to quantify the influence of slab-to-slab pounding on the inelastic seismic demands at critical locations of structural members in adjacent structures that are not aligned in series. In this respect, this paper considers a typical case study of a "new" reinforced concrete (R/C) EC8-compliant, torsionally sensitive, 7-story corner building constructed within a block, in bi-lateral contact with two existing R/C 5-story structures with same height floors. A non-linear local plasticity numerical model is developed and a series of non-linear time-history analyses is undertaken considering the corner building "in isolation" from the existing ones (no-pounding case), and in combination with the existing ones (pounding case). Numerical results are reported in terms of averages of ratios of peak inelastic rotation demands at all structural elements (beams, columns, shear walls) at each storey. It is shown that seismic pounding reduces on average the inelastic demands of the structural members at the lower floors of the 7-story building. However, the discrepancy in structural response of the entire block due to torsion-induced, bi-directionally seismic pounding is substantial as a result of the complex nonlinear dynamics of the coupled building block system.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.545-553
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• 2017

A pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) can be considered as a passive device, which combines the merits of a traditional tuned mass damper (TMD) and a collision damper. A recent analytical study by the authors demonstrated that the PTMD base on the energy dissipation during impact is able to achieve better control effectiveness over the traditional TMD. In this paper, a PTMD prototype is manufactured and applied for seismic response reduction to examine its efficacy. A series of shaking table tests is conducted in a three-story building frame model under single-dimensional and two-dimensional broadband earthquake excitations with different excitation intensities. The ability of the PTMD to reduce the structural responses is experimentally investigated. The results show that the traditional TMD is sensitive to input excitations, while the PTMD mostly has improved control performance over the TMD to remarkably reduce both the peak and root-mean-square (RMS) structural responses under single-dimensional earthquake excitation. Unlike the TMD, the PTMD is found to have the merit of maintaining a stable performance when subjected to different earthquake loadings. In addition, it is also indicated that the performance of the PTMD can be enhanced by adjusting the initial gap value, and the control effectiveness improves with the increasing excitation intensity. Under two-dimensional earthquake inputs, the PTMD controls remain outperform the TMD controls; however, the oscillation of the added mass is observed during the test, which may induce torsional vibration modes of the structure, and hence, result in poor control performance especially after a strong earthquake period.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.15-26
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• 2019

The stability of the gravity quay wall against earthquakes is evaluated on the basis of the allowable displacement of the wall. To estimate the displacement caused by external forces, empirical equations based on the Newmark sliding block method or numerical analysis are widely used. In numerical analysis, it is possible to analyze precisely a complicated site and structure, but difficult to set the appropriate parameters and environments; there are limitations in obtaining reliable results, depending on one's level of expertise. The Newmark method, with only seismic motions, is widely used because it is simpler than numerical simulations when estimating permanent displacement. However, the empirical equations do not have any parameters for the response characteristics and sliding block of the structure, and sliding blocks being assumed as rigid bodies does not consider the nonlinear behavior of the soil and interaction with the structure. Therefore, in order to evaluate the seismic stability of the gravity quay wall, a newly-developed empirical equation is needed to overcome the above-mentioned limitations. In this study, numerical simulations are performed to analyze the response characteristics of the backfill of the structure, and to propose an optimal method of calculating the active area. For this purpose, finite element analyses were performed to analyze the response characteristics, and stress-strain relationships for various seismic motions. As a result, the response characteristics, sliding block, and failure surface of the backfill vary depending on the input seismic motions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.669-673
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• 2007

In this study, real-time hybrid test using a shaking table for the control performance evaluation of a U-shaped TLCD controlling the response of earthquake-excited building structure is experimentally implemented. In the test, the building structure is used as a numerical part, on which a U-shaped TLCD adopted as an experimental part was installed to reduceits response. At first, the force that is acting between a TLCD and building structure is measured from the load cell attached on shaking table and is fed-back to the computer to control the motion of shaking table. Then, the shaking table is so driven that the error between the interface acceleration computed from the numerical building structure with the excitations of earthquake and the fed-back interface force and that measured from the shaking table. The control efficiency of the TLCD used in this paper is experimentally confirmed by implementing this process of shaking table experiment on real-time.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.4
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• pp.445-458
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• 2019

This study mainly aims to assess the performance of soil-structure systems designed by direct displacement-based method coupled with strong column-weak beam design concept through various system identification techniques under strong ground motions. To this end, various system identification methods are employed to evaluate the dynamic characteristics of a structure (i.e., modal frequency, system damping, mode shapes, and plastic hinge formation pattern) under a strong seismic excitation considering soil-structure interaction for different site conditions as specified by ASCE 7-10. The scope of the study narrowed down to the code-complying low- to high-rise steel moment resisting frames with various heights (4, 8, 12, 16-story). The comparison of the result of soil-structure systems with fix-based support condition indicates that the modal frequencies of these systems are highly influenced by the structure heights, specifically for the softer soils. This trend is more significant for higher modes of the system which can considerably dominate the response of structures in which the higher modes have more contribution in dynamic response. Amongst all studied modes of the vibration, the damping ratio estimated for the first mode is relatively the closet to the initial assumed damping ratios. Moreover, it was found that fewer plastic hinges are developed in the structure of soil-structure systems with a softer soil which contradicts the general expectation of higher damageability of such structural systems.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.67-74
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• 2010

Because of the difference between the actual and computed eccentricity of buildings, symmetrical buildings will be affected by torsion. In provisions, accidental eccentricity is intended to cover the effect of several factors, such as unfavorable distributions of dead- and live-load masses and the rotational component of ground motion about a vertical axis. The torsional amplification factor is introduced to reduce the vulnerability of torsionally imbalanced buildings. The effect of the torsional amplification factor is observed for a symmetric rectangular building with various aspect ratios, where the seismic-force-resisting elements are positioned at a variable distance from the geometrical center in each direction. For verifying the torsional amplification factor in provisions, nonlinear reinforced concrete models with various eccentricities and aspect ratios are used in rock. The difference between the maximum displacements of the flexible edge obtained between using nonlinear static and time-history analysis is very small but the difference between the maximum torsional angles is large.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.1-10
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• 2008

A series of shaking table tests were conducted on a 1:12 scale model using scaled Taft N21E earthquake records to investigate the seismic performance of a 17-story high-rise reinforced concrete building structure with a high degree of torsional eccentricity and soft-story irregularities in the bottom two stories. The main characteristics of the behaviors were: (1) a sudden change of the predominant vibration mode from the mode of translation and torsion to the torsional mode after the flexible side underwent a substantial inelastic deformation; (2) an abrupt increase in the torsional stiffness during this change of modes; (3) a warping behavior of the wall in the torsional mode; and (4) a unilateral overturning moment in the transverse direction to the table excitations. In this study, efforts were made to simulate the above characteristics using a nonlinear analysis program, Perform3D. The advantages and limitations are presented with the nonlinear models available in this software, as they are related to the correlation between analysis and test results.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.121-136
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• 1991

The focal mechanism of the Hongsung Earthquake (1978. Oct. 7, M$_L$=5.0, Latitude 36.62N, Longitude 1 26.67E) was evaulated using the polarity distribution of the P-Waveforms. Through the non-linear computer process, the compatibility of polarity distributions of the 9 P-Waveforms observed at teleseismic distances from the Hongsung Earthquake epicenter was investigated to those of the focal mechanism determined from the varying strike, dip and rake angles. The resultant values for the strike and dip angle of the principal fault plane, which apparently matches very well the sunface lineament of the Hongsung region, are determined to be about 247 degree and 78 degree with uncertainties, respectively. However, the rake angle of the focal mechanism has wide range of 40 degree to 160 degree, which is mainly due to the poor coverage of the azimuthal angle of the observed seismic stations. Due to the consistency of principal stress axes, the resultant focal mechanism could support the current stress regime of that region, which may be caused by subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Eurasia Plate along the Japan Trench. It also provides information of seismic source characteristics of the part of the Korean Peninsula for aseismic design criteria such as Site Specific Response Spectrum and Strong Ground Motion Time History for the nuclear power plants and related nuclear waste disposal facility sites.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.989-1012
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• 2016

The structural dynamic behavior and yield strength considering both ductility and strain rate effects are analyzed in this article. For the single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system, the relationship between the relative velocity and the strain rate response is deduced and the strain rate spectrum is presented. The ductility factor can be incorporated into the strain rate spectrum conveniently based on the constant-ductility velocity response spectrum. With the application of strain rate spectrum, it is convenient to consider the ductility and strain rate effects in engineering practice. The modal combination method, i.e., square root of the sum of the squares (SRSS) method, is employed to calculate the maximum strain rate of the elastoplastic multiple-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) system under uniform excitation. Considering the spatially varying ground motions, a new response spectrum method is developed by incorporating the ductility factor and strain rate into the conventional response spectrum method. In order to further analyze the effects of strain rate and ductility on structural dynamic behavior and yield strength, the cantilever beam (one-dimensional) and the triangular element (two-dimensional) are taken as numerical examples to calculate their seismic responses in time domain. Numerical results show that the permanent displacements with and without considering the strain rate effect are significantly different from each other. It is not only necessary in theory but also significant in engineering practice to take the ductility and strain rate effects into consideration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.90-96
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• 2016

This study proposes a dynamic reliability analysis of control system as a method of quantitative evaluation of its performance in probabilistic terms. In this dynamic reliability analysis, the failure event is defined as an event that the dynamic response of the structural system exceeds a displacement limit, whereas the conventional reliability analysis method has limitations that do not properly assess the actual time history response of the structure subjected to dynamic loads, such as earthquakes and high winds, by taking the static response into account in the failure event. In this first paper, we discuss the control effect of the viscous damper on the seismic performance of the member-level failure where the failure event of the structural member consists of the union set of time-sequential member failures during the earthquake excitations and the failure probability of the earthquake-excited structural member is computed using system reliability approach to consider the statistical dependence of member failures between the subsequent time points. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed approach can present a reliable assessment of the control performance of the viscous damper system in comparison with MCS method. The most important advantage of the proposed approach can provide us more accurate estimate of failure probability of the structural control system by using the actual time-history responses obtained by dynamic response analysis.