• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.217-222
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• 2007

An Emergency Diesel Generator (EDG) is one of the safety related equipments of a Nuclear Power Plant. The seismic capacity of an EDG in nuclear power plants influences the seismic safety of the plants significantly. A recent study showed that the increase of the seismic capacity of the EDG could reduce the core damage frequency (CDF) remarkably. It is known that the major failure mode of the EDG is a concrete coning failure due to a pulling out of the anchor bolts. The use of base isolators instead of anchor bolts can increase the seismic capacity of the EDG without any major problems. This study introduces a seismic risk analysis method and presents sample results about the seismically isolated and conventional EDG system.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.161-171
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• 2015

A series of tests was conducted for full-scale single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridges using a system of multiple shaking tables. The 2-span bridge length was 28 m, and the pylon height was 10.2 m. 4 different base conditions were considered: the fixed condition, RB (rubber bearings), LRB (lead rubber bearings), and HDRB (high damping rubber bearings). Based on investigation of the seismic response, the accelerations and displacements in the axial direction of the isolated bridge were increased compared to non-isolated case. However, the strain of the pylon was decreased, because the major mode of the structure was changed to translation for the axial direction due to the dynamic mass. The response of the cable bridge could differ from the desired response according to the locations and characteristics of the seismic isolator. Therefore, caution is required in the design and prediction in regard to the location and behavior of the seismic isolator.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.517-526
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• 2022

Previous studies have shown that pile-soil interactions have significant influences on the isolation efficiency of an isolated structure. However, most of the existing tests were carried out using a 1-g shaking table, which cannot reproduce the soil stresses resulting in distortion of the simulated pile-soil interactions. In this study, a centrifuge shaking table modelling of the seismic responses of a friction pendulum bearing isolated structure with a pile foundation under earthquakes were conducted. The pile foundation structure was designed and constructed with a scale factor of 1:100. Two layers of the foundation soil, i.e., the bottom layer was made of plaster and the upper layer was normal soil, were carefully prepared to meet the similitude requirement. Seismic responses, including strains, displacement, acceleration, and soil pressure were collected. The settlement of the soil, sliding of the isolator, dynamic amplification factor and bending moment of the piles were analysed to reveal the influence of the soil structure interaction on the seismic performance of the structure. It is found that the soil rotates significantly under earthquake motions and the peak rotation is about 0.021 degree under 24.0 g motions. The isolator cannot return to the initial position after the tests because of the unrecoverable deformation of the soil and the friction between the curved surface of the slider and the concave plate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.381-399
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• 2005

Base isolation technologies have been proven to be very efficient in protecting structures from seismic hazards during experimental and theoretical studies. In recent years, there have been more and more engineering applications using base isolators to upgrade the seismic resistibility of structures. Optimum design of the base isolator can lessen the undesirable seismic hazard with the most efficiency. Hence, tracing the nonlinear behavior of the base isolator with good accuracy is important in the engineering profession. In order to predict the nonlinear behavior of base isolated structures precisely, hundreds even thousands of degrees-of-freedom and iterative algorithm are required for nonlinear time history analysis. In view of this, a simple and feasible exact formulation without any iteration has been proposed in this study to calculate the seismic responses of structures with base isolators. Comparison between the experimental results from shaking table tests conducted at National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taiwan and the analytical results show that the proposed method can accurately simulate the seismic behavior of base isolated structures with elastomeric bearings. Furthermore, it is also shown that the proposed method can predict the nonlinear behavior of the VCFPS isolated structure with accuracy as compared to that from the nonlinear finite element program. Therefore, the proposed concept can be used as a simple and practical tool for engineering professions for designing the elastomeric bearing as well as sliding bearing.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.30-39
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• 2011

URANUS (Ubiquitous, Robust, Accident-forgiving, Non-proliferating, Ultra-lasting and Sustainer) has been developed with 35MWe (100MWth) operating without primary coolant pump, capitalizing on natural circulation capability of lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) for long-life small and robust power units. To ensure the structural integrity, the large safety margin against Safe Shutdown Earthquake, 0.3g, and furthermore the cost effectiveness for URANUS, three-dimensional seismic base isolation design has been developed. The analytical model has been developed and seismic time history analyses have been carried out. The advantage for using three-dimensional seismic base isolation for URANUS has been discussed.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.157-165
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• 2002

The seismic excitation test results of an isolated test structure for artificial time history excitation are summarized for structural modeling of the isolated structure and isolation bearing. Based on the actual dynamic behaviors and the seismic responses of the test model, linear and bilinear models for isolators are suggested. Seismic analyses are performed and compared with those of the seismic tests. The developed bilinear model is well applicable only to large shear strain area of isolators.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.61-84
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• 2010

Presented in this paper is the behaviour of asymmetric building isolated by the double variable frequency pendulum isolator (DVFPI). The DVFPI is an adoption of single variable frequency pendulum isolator (VFPI). The geometry and coefficient of friction of top and bottom sliding surfaces can be unequal. The governing equations of motion of the building-isolation system are derived and solved in incremental form. The analysis duly considers the interaction of frictional forces in the two principal directions developed at each sliding surface of the DVFPI. In order to investigate the behaviour of the base isolation using the DVFPI, the coupled lateral-torsional response is obtained under different parametric variations for a set of six far-fault earthquake ground motions and criterion to optimize its performance is proposed. Further, influences of the initial time period, coefficient of friction and frequency variation factors at the two sliding surfaces are investigated. The numerical results of the extensive parametric study help in understanding the torsional behaviour of the structure isolated with the double sliding surfaces as in the DVFPI. It is found that the performance of the DVFPI can be optimized by designing the top sliding surface initially softer and smoother relative to the bottom one.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2022

In order to evaluate the earthquake safety of equipment in structures, it is essential to analyze the In-Structure Response Spectrum (ISRS). The ISRS has a peak value at the frequency corresponding to the structural vibration mode, but the frequency and amplitude at the peak can vary because of many uncertain parameters. There are several seismic design criteria for ISRS peak-broadening for fixed base structures. However, there are no suggested criteria for constructing the design ISRS of seismically isolated structures. The ISRS of isolated structures may change due to the major uncertainty parameter of the isolator, which is the shear stiffness of the isolator and the several uncertainty parameters caused by the nonlinear behavior of isolators. This study evaluated the effects on the ISRS due to the initial stiffness of the bi-linear curve of isolators and the variation of effective stiffness by the input ground motion intensity and intense motion duration. Analyzing a simplified structural model for isolated base structure confirmed that the ISRS at the frequency of structural mode was amplified and shifted. It was found that the uncertainty of the initial stiffness of isolators significantly affects the shape of ISRS. The variation caused by the intensity and duration of input ground motions was also evaluated. These results suggested several considerations for generating ISRS for seismically isolated structures.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2024

For important structures such as nuclear power plants, In-Structure Response Spectrum (ISRS) analysis is essential because it evaluates the safety of equipment and components installed in the structure. Because most structures are asymmetric, the response can be affected by eccentricity. In the case of seismically isolated structures, this effect can be greater due to the difference between the center of mass of the structure and the center of rigidity of the isolator layer. Therefore, eccentricity effects must be considered when designing or evaluating the ISRS of seismically isolated structures. This study investigated the change of the ISRS of an isolated structure by assuming accidental eccentricity. The variables that affect the ISRS of the isolated structure were analyzed to see what additional impact they had due to eccentricity. The ISRS of the seismically isolated structure with eccentricity was amplified more than when there was non-eccentricity, and it was boosted more significantly in specific period ranges depending on the isolator's initial stiffness and seismic intensity. Finally, whether the displacement requirement of isolators can be applied to the variation of the ISRS due to eccentricity in the design code was also examined.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.689-707
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• 2008

This study presents a method to evaluate the seismic risk of an extradosed bridge with seismic isolators of lead rubber bearings (LRBs), and also to show the effectiveness of the LRB isolators on the extradosed bridge, which is one of the relatively flexible and lightly damped structures in terms of seismic risk. Initially, the seismic vulnerability of a structure is evaluated, and then the seismic hazard of a specific site is rated using an earthquake data set and seismic hazard maps in Korea. Then, the seismic risk of the structure is assessed. The nonlinear seismic analyses are carried out to consider plastic deformation of bridge columns and the nonlinear characteristics of soil foundation. To describe the nonlinear behaviour of a column, the ductility demand is adopted, and the moment-curvature relation of a column is assumed to be bilinear hysteretic. The fragility curves are represented as a log-normal distribution function for column damage, movement of superstructure, and cable yielding. And the seismic hazard at a specific site is estimated using the available seismic hazard maps. The results show that in seismically-isolated extradosed bridges under earthquakes, the effectiveness of the isolators is much more noticeable in the columns than the cables and girders.