• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제77권3호
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• pp.407-416
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• 2021

Seismic isolation is one of the best-advanced methods for controlling seismic vibrations in buildings, bridges and nuclear facilities. A new Friction Multi-Layer Elastomeric Seismic Isolator (FMESI) has been modeled, analyzed and investigated by ABAQUS finite element analysis software and then, compared to real models. A number of friction cores have been used instead of the lead core therefore, some of the previous isolator problems have been almost resolved. Moreover, Studies show that the proposed isolator provides suitable initial stiffness and acceptable hysteresis behavior under different vertical and horizontal loading conditions and also internal stresses in different layers are acceptable. Also, as a result, the initial stiffness and overall area of the curves increase, as friction coefficients of the cores increase, although the frictional coefficients must be within a certain range.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권5호
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• pp.1237-1251
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• 2016

Although the horizontal component of an earthquake response can be significantly reduced through the use of conventional seismic isolators, the vertical component of excitation is still transmitted directly into the structure. Records from instrumented structures, and some recent tests and analyses have actually seen increases in vertical responses in base isolated structures under the combined effects of horizontal and vertical ground motions. This issue becomes a great concern to facilities such as a Nuclear Power Plants (NPP), with specialized equipment and machinery that is not only expensive, but critical to safe operation. As such, there is considerable interest worldwide in vertical and three-dimensional (3D) isolation systems. This paper examines several vertical and 3D isolation systems that have been proposed and their potential application to modern nuclear facilities. In particular, a series of case study analyses of a modern NPP model are performed to examine the benefits and challenges associated with 3D isolation compared with horizontal isolation. It was found that compared with the general horizontal isolators, isolators that have vertical frequencies of no more than 3 Hz can effectively reduce the vertical in-structure responses for the studied NPP model. Among the studied cases, the case that has a vertical isolation frequency of 3 Hz is the one that can keep the horizontal period of the isolators as the first period while having the most flexible vertical isolator properties. When the vertical frequency of isolators reduces to 1 Hz, the rocking effect is obvious and rocking restraining devices are necessary.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.265-275
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• 2017

In order to improve the seismic performance of structures, friction pendulum system (FPS) is the most commonly used seismic isolation device in addition to lead rubber bearing (LRB) in high seismicity area. In a nuclear power plant (NPP) with a large self weight, it is necessary to install a large number of seismic isolation devices, and the position of the center of rigidity varies depending on the arrangement of the seismic isolation devices. Due to the increase in the eccentricity, which is the difference between the center of gravity of the nuclear structure and the center of stiffness of the seismic isolators, an excessive seismic response may occur which could not be considered at the design stage. Three different types of eccentricity models (CASE 1, CASE 2, and CASE 3) were used for seismic response evaluation of seismically isolated NPP due to the increase of eccentricity (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%). The analytical model of the seismic isolation system was compared using the equivalent linear model and the bilinear model. From the results of the seismic response of the seismically isolated NPP with increasing eccentricity, it can be observed that the effect of eccentricity on the seismic response for the equivalent linear model is larger than that for the bilinear model.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제11권6호
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• pp.1077-1099
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• 2016

One of the main shortcomings in the current passive base isolation system is lack of adaptability. The recent research and development of a novel adaptive seismic isolator based on magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) material has created an opportunity to add adaptability to base isolation systems for civil structures. The new MRE based base isolator is able to significantly alter its shear modulus or lateral stiffness with the applied magnetic field or electric current, which makes it a competitive candidate to develop an adaptive base isolation system. This paper aims at exploring suitable control algorithms for such adaptive base isolation system by developing a close-loop semi-active control system for a building structure equipped with MRE base isolators. The MRE base isolator is simulated by a numerical model derived from experimental characterization based on the Bouc-Wen Model, which is able to describe the force-displacement response of the device accurately. The parameters of Bouc-Wen Model such as the stiffness and the damping coefficients are described as functions of the applied current. The state-space model is built by analyzing the dynamic property of the structure embedded with MRE base isolators. A Lyapunov-based controller is designed to adaptively vary the current applied to MRE base isolator to suppress the quake-induced vibrations. The proposed control method is applied to a widely used benchmark base-isolated structure by numerical simulation. The performance of the adaptive base isolation system was evaluated through comparison with optimal passive base isolation system and a passive base isolation system with optimized base shear. It is concluded that the adaptive base isolation system with proposed Lyapunov-based semi-active control surpasses the performance of other two passive systems in protecting the civil structures under seismic events.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.217-235
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• 2023

Orthogonal pairs of rollers on concave beds (OPRCB) are a low-cost, low-tech rolling-based isolating system, whose high efficiency has been shown in a previous study. However, seismic performance of OPRCB isolators has only been studied in the two-dimensional (2D) state so far. This is while their performance in the three-dimensional (3D) state differs from that of the 2D state, mainly since the vertical accelerations due to rollers' motion in their beds, simultaneously in two orthogonal horizontal directions, are added up and resulting in bigger vertical inertia forces and higher rolling resistance. In this study, first, Lagrange equations were used to derive the governing equations of motion of the OPRCB-isolated buildings in 3D. Then, some regular shear-type OPRCB-isolated buildings were considered subjected to three-component excitations of far- and near-source earthquakes, and their responses were compared to those of their fixed-base counterparts. Finally, the effects of more realistic modeling and analysis were examined by comparing the responses of isolated buildings in 2D and 3D states. Response histories were obtained by the fourth-order Runge-Kutta-Nystrom method, considering the geometrical nonlinearity of isolators. Results reveal that utilizing the OPRCB isolators effectively reduces the acceleration response, however, depending on the system specifications and earthquake characteristics, the maximum responses of isolated buildings in the 3D state can be up to 40% higher than those in the 2D state.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.319-334
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• 2018

In this paper, an analytical study was carried out to propose an optimum base-isolated system for the design of steel structures equipped with lead rubber bearings (LRB). For this, 5 and 10-storey steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) were designed as Special Moment Frame (SMF). These two-dimensional and three-bay frames equipped with a set of isolation systems within a predefined range that minimizes the response of the base-isolated frames subjected to a series of earthquakes. In the design of LRB, two main parameters, namely, isolation period (T) and the ratio of strength to weight (Q/W) supported by isolators were considered as 2.25, 2.5, 2.75 and 3 s, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15, respectively. The Force-deformation behavior of the isolators was modelled by the bi-linear behavior which could reflect the nonlinear characteristics of the lead-plug bearings. The base-isolated frames were modelled using a finite element program and those performances were evaluated in the light of the nonlinear time history analyses by six natural accelerograms compatible with seismic hazard levels of 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years. The performance of the isolated frames was assessed in terms of roof displacement, relative displacement, interstorey drift, absolute acceleration, base shear and hysteretic curve.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.39-53
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• 2021

By means of installing sloped rolling-type seismic isolators (SRI), the horizontal acceleration transmitted to the to-be-protected object above can be effectively and significantly reduced under external disturbance. To prevent the maximum horizontal displacement response of SRI from reaching a threshold, designing large and conservative damping force for SRI might be required, which will also enlarge the transmitted acceleration response. In a word, when adopting seismic isolation, minimizing acceleration or displacement responses is always a trade-off. Therefore, this paper proposes that by exploiting the possible information provided by an earthquake early warning system, the damping force applied to SRI which can better control both acceleration and displacement responses might be determined in advance and accordingly adjusted in a semi-active control manner. By using a large number of ground motion records with peak ground acceleration not less than 80 gal, the numerical results present that the maximum horizontal displacement response of SRI is highly correlated with and proportional to some important parameters of input excitations, the velocity pulse energy rate and peak velocity in particular. A control law employing the basic form of hyperbolic tangent function and two objective functions are considered in this study for conceptually developing suitable control algorithms. Compared with the numerical results of simply designing a constant, large damping factor to prevent SRI from pounding, adopting the recommended control algorithms can have more than 60% reduction of acceleration responses in average under the excitations. More importantly, it is effective in reducing acceleration responses under approximately 98% of the excitations.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제25권6호
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• pp.241-249
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• 2021

Communication facilities play an essential role in disaster situations. Therefore, communication facilities need to have structural and functional safety during and after earthquakes. Recently, technology for partial seismic isolation has been increasing to protect data facilities and communication equipment installed in buildings from earthquakes. However, excessive displacement may occur in the seismic isolator during an earthquake due to the resonance between the building and the seismic isolator having long-period characteristics, which may cause overturning and separation of the installed equipment. In this study, analytical and experimental studies were conducted to evaluate the safety of seismic isolators installed in high-rise buildings. It was confirmed that damages might occur in buildings' seismic isolator, with resonance characteristics of less than 1 Hz.

• 한국구조물진단유지관리공학회 논문집
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.221-230
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• 2004

본 논문에서는 지진하중 작용시, 점탄성 감쇠기 및 면진장치를 설치한 다층 철골 모멘트 저항 골조의 동적응답을 해석적으로 규명하였다. 본 연구의 목적은 구조해석을 수행하여 최대 층간변위 및 최대응력법에 의해 효율적인 점탄성 감쇠기의 위치를 결정하는 것이다. 또한, 효율적인 진동 제어방법을 모색하기 위하여 점탄성 감쇠기 및 납삽입고무베어링형 면진장치에 의한 제어효과를 부재력, 조합응력, 그리고 구조물의 고유주기 등을 이용하여 상호 비교 분석하였다.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제26권2호
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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.