• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.147-162
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• 2020

This paper presents a novel precast energy dissipation shear wall (PEDSW) structure system that using mild steel dampers as dry connectors at the vertical joints to connect adjacent wall panels. Analytical studies are systematically conducted to investigate the seismic performance of the proposed PEDSW under sequence-type ground motions. During earthquake events, earthquake sequences have the potential to cause severe damage to structures and threaten life safety. To date, the damage probability of engineering structures under earthquake sequence has not been included in structural design codes. In this study, numerical simulations on single-story PEDSW are carried out to validate the feasibility and reliability of using mild steel dampers to connect the precast shear walls. The seismic responses of the PEDSW and cast-in-place shear wall (CIPSW) are comparatively studied based on nonlinear time-history analyses, and the effectiveness of the proposed high-rise PEDSW is demonstrated. Next, the foreshock-mainshock-aftershock type earthquake sequences are constructed, and the seismic response and fragility curves of the PEDSW under single mainshock and earthquake sequences are analyzed and compared. Finally, the fragility analysis of PEDSW structure under earthquake sequences is performed. The influences of scaling factor of the aftershocks (foreshocks) to the mainshocks on the fragility of the PEDSW structure under different damage states are investigated. The numerical results reveal that neglecting the effect of earthquake sequence can lead to underestimated seismic responses and fragilities, which may result in unsafe design schemes of PEDSW structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.6 no.2 s.21
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• pp.25-35
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• 2006

Recently seismic fragility analysis method has been widely used for the seismic probabilistic risk assessment of infrastructures such as nuclear power plants, buildings and bridges because of its probabilistic characteristics. Furthermore, this technique has been applied to large-scale social systems consisted of each infrastructures by combing GIS. In this paper, the applicability of this technique to domestic infrastructural systems was studied. The transportation network was selected as one of these domestic infrastructural systems. Example studies were peformed about Changwon city. Nonlinear time history analysis, with a maximal likelihood approach were conducted to establish the fragility curves of each infrastrucures (bridges). GIS analysis was also applied to the analysis of whole infrastructural systems. The results show that it is very useful to predict seismic probabilistic risk assessment of this domestic transportation network. However, it also shows that further studies such as more suitable damage criterion to domestic structure and precise nonlinear analysis techniques should be developed to predict more precise results.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.91-102
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• 2007

Through lessons in recent earthquakes, the bridge engineering community recognizes the need for new seismic design methodologies based on the inelastic structural performance of RC bridge structures. This study represents results of performance-based fragility analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge. Monte carlo simulation is performed to study nonlinear dynamic responses of RC bridge. Two-parameter log-normal distribution function is used to represent the fragility curves. These two-parameters, referred to as fragility parameters, are estimated by the traditional maximum likelihood procedure, which is treated each event of RC bridge pier damage as a realization of Bernoulli experiment. In order to formulate the fragility curves, five different damage states are described by two practical factors: the displacement and curvature ductility, which are mostly influencing on the seismic behavior of RC bridge piers. Five damage states are quantitatively assessed in terms of these seismic ductilities on the basis of numerous experimental results of RC bridge piers. Thereby, the performance-based fragility curves of RC bridge pier are provided in this paper. This approach can be used in constructing the fragility curves of various bridge structures and be applied to construct the seismic hazard map.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.103-108
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• 2018

The fragility curves for CFRD dams are derived in this study for probabilistic damage estimation as a function of a ground motion intensity. The dam crest settlement, which is a widely used damage index, is used for minor, moderate, and extensive damage states. The settlement is calculated from nonlinear dynamic numerical simulations. The accuracy of the numerical model is validated through comparison with a centrifuge test. The fragility curve is represented as a log normal distribution function and presented as a function of the peak ground acceleration. The fragility curves developed in this study can be utilized for real time assessment of the damage of dams.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.6
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• pp.751-763
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• 2020

Available records of recent earthquakes show that near-field earthquakes have different characteristics than far-field earthquakes. In general, most of these unique characteristics of near-fault records can be attributed to their forward directivity. This phenomenon causes the records of ground motion normal to the fault to entail pulses with long periods in the velocity time history. The energy of the earthquake is almost accumulated in these pulses causing large displacements and, accordingly, severe damages in the building. Damage to structures caused by past earthquakes raises the need to assess the chance of future earthquake damage. There are a variety of methods to evaluate building seismic vulnerabilities with different computational cost and accuracy. In the meantime, fragility curves, which defines the possibility of structural damage as a function of ground motion characteristics and design parameters, are more common. These curves express the percentage of probability that the structural response will exceed the allowable performance limit at different seismic intensities. This study aims to obtain the fragility curve for low- and mid-rise structures of reinforced concrete moment frames by incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). These frames were exposed to an ensemble of 18 ground motions (nine records near-faults and nine records far-faults). Finally, after the analysis, their fragility curves are obtained using the limit states provided by HAZUS-MH 2.1. The result shows the near-fault earthquakes can drastically influence the fragility curves of the 6-story building while it has a minimal impact on those of the 3-story building.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2017

Displacement response and corresponding maximum response energy of structures are key parameters to assess the dynamic effect or even more destructive structural damage of the structures. By employing them, this research has compared the structural responses of jacket supported offshore wind turbine (OWT) subjected to seismic excitations apprehending earthquake incidence, when (a) soil-structure interaction (SSI) has been ignored and (b) SSI has been considered. The effect of earthquakes under arbitrary angle of excitation on the OWT has been investigated by means of the energy based wavelet transformation method. Displacement based fragility analysis is then utilized to convey the probability of exceedance of the OWT at different soil site conditions. The results show that the uncertainty arises due to multi-component seismic excitations along with the diminution trend of shear wave velocity of soil and it tends to reduce the efficiency of the OWT to stand against the ground motions.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.231-241
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• 2021

Although the deterioration of bridges may occur due to various causes, one of the representative causes is that the chloride used for deicing in the winter penetrates bridge members and results in corrosion. This study aims to quantify the ageing degree resulting from the corrosion of a bridge, apply it to the inelastic dynamic analysis model of the bridge, perform a seismic fragility analysis, and evaluate the relationship between the ageing degree and the seismic fragility curve. It is important to appropriately define the threshold values for each damage state in seismic fragility analyses considering the ageing degree. The damage state was defined using the results of existing experimental studies on the characteristics of the deterioration in the displacement ductility capacity of the pier, according to the ageing degree. Based on the seismic fragility analyses of six types of bridges divided by three types of bearing devices and two pier heights, it was found that the seismic vulnerability tends to increase with the ageing degree. The difference in seismic vulnerability with respect to the ageing degree exhibits a tendency to increase as the damage state progresses from slight to moderate, severe, and collapse.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.192-205
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• 2020

Seismic design practices and seismic response analyses of civil structures and nuclear power plants (NPPs) have conventionally used the peak ground acceleration (PGA) or spectral acceleration (S_a) as an intensity measure (IM) of an earthquake. However, there are many other earthquake IMs that were proposed by various researchers. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between seismic responses of NPP components and 23 earthquake IMs and identify the best IMs for correlating with damage of NPP structures. Particularly, low- and high-frequency ground motion records are separately accounted in correlation analyses. An advanced power reactor NPP in Korea, APR1400, is selected for numerical analyses where containment and auxiliary buildings are modeled using SAP2000. Floor displacements and accelerations are monitored for the non- and base-isolated NPP structures while shear deformations of the base isolator are additionally monitored for the base-isolated NPP. A series of Pearson's correlation coefficients are calculated to recognize the correlation between each of the 23 earthquake IMs and responses of NPP structures. The numerical results demonstrate that there is a significant difference in the correlation between earthquake IMs and seismic responses of non-isolated NPP structures considering low- and high-frequency ground motion groups. Meanwhile, a trivial discrepancy of the correlation is observed in the case of the base-isolated NPP subjected to the two groups of ground motions. Moreover, a selection of PGA or S_a for seismic response analyses of NPP structures in the high-frequency seismic regions may not be the best option. Additionally, a set of fragility curves are thereafter developed for the base-isolated NPP based on the shear deformation of lead rubber bearing (LRB) with respect to the strongly correlated IMs. The results reveal that the probability of damage to the structure is higher for low-frequency earthquakes compared with that of high-frequency ground motions.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.149-165
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• 2016

Floods have been known to be one of the main causes of bridge collapse. Contrary to earthquakes, flood events tend to occur repeatedly and more frequently in rainfall areas; flood-induced damage and collapse account for a significant portion of disasters in many countries. Nevertheless, in contrast to extensive research on the seismic fragility analysis for civil infrastructure, relatively little attention has been devoted to the flood-related fragility. The present study proposes a novel methodology for deriving flood fragility curves for bridges. Fragility curves are generally derived by means of structural reliability analysis, and structural failure modes are defined as excessive demands of the displacement ductility of a bridge under increased water pressure resulting from debris accumulation and structural deterioration, which are known to be the primary causes of bridge failures during flood events. Since these bridge failure modes need to be analyzed through sophisticated structural analysis, flood fragility curve derivation that would require repeated finite element analyses may take a long time. To calculate the probability of flood-induced failure of bridges efficiently, in the proposed framework, the first order reliability method (FORM) is employed for reducing the required number of finite element analyses. In addition, two software packages specialized for reliability analysis and finite element analysis, FERUM (Finite Element Reliability Using MATLAB) and ABAQUS, are coupled so that they can exchange their inputs and outputs during structural reliability analysis, and a Python-based interface for FERUM and ABAQUS is newly developed to effectively coordinate the fragility analysis. The proposed framework of flood fragility analysis is applied to an actual reinforced concrete bridge in South Korea to demonstrate the detailed procedure of the approach.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.489-499
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• 2017

The effects of past earthquakes have demonstrated the seismic vulnerability of confined masonry structures (CMSs) to earthquakes. The results of experimental analysis indicate that damage to these structures depends on lateral displacement applied to the walls. Seismic evaluation lacks an analytical approach because of the complexity of the behavior of this type of structure; an empirical approach is often used for this purpose. Seismic assessment and risk analysis of CMSs, especially in area have a large number of such buildings is difficult and could be riddled with error. The present study used analytical and numerical models to develop a simplified nonlinear displacement-based approach for seismic assessment of a CMS. The methodology is based on the concept of ESDOF and displacement demand and is compared with displacement capacity at the characteristic period of vibration according to performance level. Displacement demand was identified using the nonlinear displacement spectrum for a specified limit state. This approach is based on a macro model and nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis of a 3D prototype structure taking into account uncertainty of the mechanical properties and results in a simple, precise method for seismic assessment of a CMS. To validate the approach, a case study was considered in the form of an analytical fragility curve which was then compared with the precise method.