• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.5 no.6
• /
• pp.733-751
• /
• 2013

Near field ground motions have caused several structural damages in recent decades. As a result, seismic codes are being updated with related requirements. In this paper a comparative study on the seismic behavior of concentrically braced frames (CBFs) designed based on different seismic codes is performed. Reliability of various frames with different heights and bracing types are analyzed based on the results of "Incremental Dynamic Analysis" (IDA) under near field ground motions. Fragility curves corresponding to IO (Immediate Occupancy) and CP (Collapse Prevention) limit states are extracted based on IDA curves. Results imply that, frames designed based on the near field seismic design criteria of UBC-97 are more reliable under near field ground motions and their failure probability is less comparing to others.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 2004.10a
• /
• pp.484-491
• /
• 2004

In this study, the effect of the Near Fault Ground Motion which hasn't been considered at the domestic seismic design is demonstrated through the seismic response analysis of suspension bridge. After selecting the typical Near and Far Fault Ground Motion, the response characteristics are analysed by conducting the seismic response analysis about the long period suspension bridge which is expected to suffer the effect of Near Fault Ground Motions more largely. According to the results of this study, the Near Fault Ground Motions affect the suspension bridge more considerably than the Far Fault Ground Motions.

• 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.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.177-186
• /
• 2016

Along the subduction-zone of the western Japanese islands, large earthquakes are expected occur around the middle of this century, and long-period ground motions will reach major urban areas, shaking high-rise buildings violently. Since some old high-rise buildings were designed without considering long-period ground motions, reinforcing such buildings is an important issue. An effective method to reinforce existing high-rise buildings is installing additional dampers. However, a problem with ordinary dampers is that they require reinforcement of surrounding columns and girders to support large reaction forces generated during earthquake ground motion. To solve this problem, a deformation-dependent oil damper was developed. The most attractive feature of this damper is to reduce the damping force at the moment when the frame deformation comes close to its maximum value. Due to this feature, the reinforcement of columns, girders, and foundations are no longer required. The authors applied seismic retrofitting with a deformation-dependent oil damper to an existing 54-story office building (Shinjuku Center Building) located in Shinjuku ward, Tokyo, in 2009 to suppress vibration under the long period earthquake ground motions. The seismic responses were observed in the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, and it is clarified that the damping ratio was higher and the response lower by 20% as compared to the building without dampers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.10 no.5
• /
• pp.1213-1232
• /
• 2016

This paper investigates the response of nonstructural components in the presence of nonlinear behavior of the primary structure considering the near-fault pulse-like ground motions. A database of 81 near-fault pulse-like ground motions is used to examine the effect of these ground motions on the response of nonstructural components. For comparison, a database of 573 non-pulse-like ground motions selected from the PEER database is also employed. The effects of peak ground velocity (PGV), maximum incremental velocity (MIV), primary structural degrading behavior and damping of nonstructural components are evaluated and discussed statistically. Results are presented in terms of amplification factor which quantifies the effect of inelastic deformations of the primary structure on subsystem responses. The results indicate that the near-fault pulse-like ground motions can significantly increase the amplification factors of nonstructural components with primary structural period and the magnitude of increase can reach 17%. The effect of PGV and MIV on amplification factors tends to increase with the increase of primary structural ductility. The near-fault pulse-like ground motions are more dangerous to components supported by structures with strength and stiffness degrading behavior than ordinary ground motions. A new simplified formulation is proposed for the application of amplification factors for design of nonstructural components for near-fault pulse-like ground motions.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2008

In seismic response analysis of building structures, the input ground accelerations have considerable effect on the nonlinear response characteristics of structures. The characteristics of soil and the locality of the site where those ground motions were recorded affect on the contents of earthquake waves. Therefore, it is difficult to select appropriate input ground motions for seismic response analysis. This study describes a generation of artificial earthquake wave compatible with seismic design spectrum, and also evaluates the seismic response values of multistory reinforced concrete structures by the simulated earthquake motions. The artificial earthquake wave are generated according to the previously recorded earthquake waves in past major earthquake events. The artificial wave have identical phase angles to the recorded earthquake wave, and their overall response spectra are compatible with seismic design spectrum with 5% critical viscous damping. The input ground motions applied to this study have identical elastic acceleration response spectra, but have different phase angles. The purpose of this study is to investigate their validity as input ground motion for nonlinear seismic response analysis. As expected, the response quantifies by simulated earthquake waves present better stable than those by real recording of ground motion. It was concluded that the artificial earthquake waves generated in this paper are applicable as input ground motions for a seismic response analysis of building structures. It was also found that strength of input ground motions for seismic analysis are suitable to be normalize as elastic acceleration spectra.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.46 no.5
• /
• pp.699-706
• /
• 2014

The probabilistic seismic performance of a standard Korean nuclear power plant (NPP) with an idealized isolation is investigated in the present work. A probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) of the Wolsong site on the Korean peninsula is performed by considering peak ground acceleration (PGA) as an earthquake intensity measure. A procedure is reported on the categorization and selection of two sets of ground motions of the Tohoku earthquake, i.e. long-period and common as Set A and Set B respectively, for the nonlinear time history response analysis of the base-isolated NPP. Limit state values as multiples of the displacement responses of the NPP base isolation are considered for the fragility estimation. The seismic risk of the NPP is further assessed by incorporation of the rate of frequency exceedance and conditional failure probability curves. Furthermore, this framework attempts to show the unacceptable performance of the isolated NPP in terms of the probabilistic distribution and annual probability of limit states. The comparative results for long and common ground motions are discussed to contribute to the future safety of nuclear facilities against drastic events like Tohoku.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.76 no.2
• /
• pp.223-237
• /
• 2020

Transmission towers have come to represent one of the most important infrastructures in today's society, which may suffer severe earthquakes during their service lives. However, in the conventional seismic analyses of transmission towers, the towers are normally assumed to be fixed on the ground without considering the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) on the pile-supported transmission tower. This assumption may lead to inaccurate seismic performance estimations of transmission towers. In the present study, the seismic response and failure analyses of pile-supported transmission towers considering SSI are comprehensively performed based on the finite element method. Specifically, two detailed finite element (FE) models of the employed pile-supported transmission tower with and without consideration of SSI effects are established in ABAQUS analysis platform, in which SSI is simulated by the classical p-y approach. A simulation method is developed to stochastically synthesize the earthquake ground motions at different soil depths (i.e. depth-varying ground motions, DVGMs). The impacts of SSI on the dynamic characteristic, seismic response and failure modes are investigated and discussed by using the generated FE models and ground motions. Numerical results show that the vibration mode shapes of the pile-supported transmission towers with and without SSI are basically same; however, SSI can significantly affect the dynamic characteristic by altering the vibration frequencies of different modes. Neglecting the SSI and the variability of earthquake motions at different depths may cause an underestimate and overestimate on the seismic responses, respectively. Moreover, the seismic failure mode of pile-supported transmission towers is also significantly impacted by the SSI and DVGMs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.49 no.4
• /
• pp.825-837
• /
• 2017

Due to the severe impacts of recent earthquakes, the use of seismic isolation is paramount for the safety of nuclear structures. The diversity observed in seismic events demands ongoing research to analyze the devastating attributes involved, and hence to enhance the sustainability of base-isolated nuclear power plants. This study reports the seismic performance of a seismically-isolated nuclear reactor containment building (NRCB) under strong short-period ground motions (SPGMs) and long-period ground motions (LPGMs). The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission-based design response spectrum for the seismic design of nuclear power plants is stipulated as the reference spectrum for ground motion selection. Within the period range(s) of interest, the spectral matching of selected records with the target spectrum is ensured using the spectral-compatibility approach. NRC-compliant SPGMs and LPGMs from the mega-thrust Tohoku earthquake are used to obtain the structural response of the base-isolated NRCB. To account for the lack of earthquakes in low-to-moderate seismicity zones and the gap in the artificial synthesis of long-period records, wavelet-decomposition based autoregressive moving average modeling for artificial generation of real ground motions is performed. Based on analysis results from real and simulated SPGMs versus LPGMs, the performance of NRCBs is discussed with suggestions for future research and seismic provisions.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.233-240
• /
• 2021

The stochastic method is applied to simulate strong ground motions at seismic stations of seven metropolises in South Korea, creating an earthquake scenario based on the causative fault of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake. Input parameters are established according to what has been revealed so far for the causative fault of the Gyeongju earthquake, while the ratio of differences in response spectra between observed and simulated strong ground motions is assumed to be an adjustment factor. The calculations confirm the applicability and reproducibility of strong ground motion simulations based on the relatively small bias in response spectra between observed and simulated strong ground motions. Based on this result, strong ground motions by a scenario earthquake on the causative fault of the Gyeongju earthquake with moment magnitude 6.5 are simulated, assuming that the ratios of its fault length to width are 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1. The results are similar to those of the empirical Green's function method. Although actual site response factors of seismic stations should be supplemented later, the simulated strong ground motions can be used as input data for developing ground motion prediction equations and input data for calculating the design response spectra of major facilities in South Korea.