• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.2
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• pp.211-227
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• 2020

The contribution of infill wall is generally not considered in the structural analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) structures due to the lack of knowledge of the complex behavior of the infilled frame of RC structures. However, one of the significant factors affecting structural behavior and earthquake performance of RC structures is the infill wall. Considering structural and architectural features of RC structures, any infill wall may have openings with different amounts and aspect ratios. In the present study, the influence of infill walls with different opening rates on the structural behaviors and earthquake performance of existing RC structures were evaluated. Therefore, the change in the opening ratio in the infill wall has been investigated for monitoring the change in structural behavior and performance of the RC structures. The earthquake performance levels of existing RC structures with different structural properties were determined by detecting the damage levels of load-carrying components. The results of the analyzes indicate that the infill wall can completely change the distribution of column and beam damage level. It was observed that the openings in the walls had serious impact on the parameters affecting the behavior and earthquake performance of the RC structures. The infill walls have a beneficial effect on the earthquake performance of RC structures, provided they are placed regularly and there are appropriate openings rate throughout the RC structures and they do not cause structural irregularities.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.341-349
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• 2016

Currently, researches are being actively conducted in assessing seismic performance of nuclear facilities in USA and Europe. In particular, applying this technique of assessing seismic performance to design of isolation systems in nuclear power plants is being performed and then ASCE 4 Draft (2013) is being revised accordingly in the United States. In order to satisfy the probabilistic performance objectives described by seismic responses with certain confidence levels (ASCE 43, 2005), the probability distributions of these responses have to be defined. What is the minimum number of input ground-motions to obtain the probability distribution precise enough to represent the unknown actual distribution? Theoretical basis, for how to determine the minimum number of input ground-motions for given a logarithmic standard deviation to approximate the unknown actual median of the log-normal distribution within a range of error at a certain level of confidence, is introduced by Huang et al. (2008). However, the relationship between the level of confidence and the range of error is not stated in the previous study. In this paper, based on careful reviews on the previous work, the relationship between the level of confidence and the range of error is logically and explicitly stated. Furthermore, this relationship is also applied to derive the minimum number of input ground-motions in order to approximate the unknown actual logarithmic standard deviation. Several recommendations are made for determining the minimum number of input ground-motions in probabilistic assessment on seismic performance of facilities in nuclear power plants.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.3 s.43
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• pp.23-32
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• 2005

Torsional behavior of eccentric structure under seismic leading may cause the stress and/or deformation concentration, which arouse the failure of the structure in an unexpected manner. This study suggests D-R relationship which shows the overall displacement and rotation of the system based on the ultimate displacement capacity of the each lateral load resistant member. Using the suggested D-R relationship and displacement spectrum, the seismic assessment is conducted and verified in comparison with the time history analysis result. Multi-level seismic assessment Is considered which takes multiple seismic hazard levels and respective performance levels into account. Finally, based on the seismic assessment result, seismic rehabilitation process is presented. In this research, two rehabilitation methods are considered. One is done by means of stiffening/strengthening the seismic resistant members, and the other is based on the member ductility. Especially, in the first method, to optimize the rehabilitation result, the rehabilitation problem is modeled as an optimization problem, and solved using BFGS quasi-Newton optimization method.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1508-1524
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• 2018

Hysteretic energy dissipating devices (HEDDs) have been increasingly applied to building construction to improve the seismic performance. The seismic responses of such damped structures are significantly affected by HEDD's structural properties. An accurate investigation on the propagation of HEDD's structural properties is required for reasonable evaluation of the seismic performance of a structure. This study aims to develop simplified methods that can estimate the collective uncertainty-propagation to the seismic response of damped structures employing HEDDs. To achieve this, three- and six-story steel moment-resisting frames were selected and the propagations of the individual HEDD's property-uncertainties were evaluated when they are subjected to various levels of seismic demand. Based on the result of individual uncertainty-propagations, a simplified method is proposed to evaluate the variation of seismic response collectively propagated by HEDD's property-uncertainties and is verified by comparing with the exact collective uncertainty-propagation calculated using the Monte Carlo simulation method. The proposed method, called as a modified SRSS method in this study, is established from a conventional square root of the sum of the squares (SRSS) method with the relative contributions of the individual HEDD's property-uncertainty propagations. This study shows that the modified SRSS method provides a better estimation than the conventional SRSS method and can significantly reduce computational time with reasonable accuracy compared with the Monte Carlo simulation method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.91 no.3
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• pp.279-289
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to represent a useful alternative for the preliminary seismic vulnerability assessment of existing reinforced concrete buildings by introducing a statistical approach employing the binary logistic regression technique. Two different predictive statistical models, namely full and reduced models, were generated utilizing building characteristics obtained from the damage database compiled after 1999 Düzce earthquake. Among the inspected building parameters, number of stories, overhang ratio, priority index, soft story index, normalized redundancy ratio and normalized lateral stiffness index were specifically selected as the predictor variables for vulnerability classification. As a result, normalized redundancy ratio and soft story index were identified as the most significant predictors affecting seismic vulnerability in terms of life safety performance level. In conclusion, it is revealed that both models are capable of classifying the set of buildings being severely damaged or collapsed with a balanced accuracy of 73%, hence, both are able to filter out high-priority buildings for life safety performance assessment. Thus, in this study, having the same high accuracy as the full model, the reduced model using fewer predictors is proposed as a simple and viable classifier for determining life safety levels of reinforced concrete buildings in the preliminary seismic risk assessment.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.301-310
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• 2017

For further development of passive control systems to dissipate larger seismic energy and prevent the structures from earthquake losses, this paper proposes an innovative two-level control system to improve behavior of chevron braced steel frames. Combining two Knee Braces, KB, and a Vertical Link Beam, VLB, in a chevron braced frame, this system can reliably sustain main shock and aftershocks in steel structures. The performance of this two-level system is examined through a finite element analysis and quasi-static cyclic loading test. The cyclic performances of VLB and KBs alone in chevron braced frames are compared with that of the presented two-level control system. The results show appropriate performance of the proposed system in terms of ductility and energy dissipation in two different excitation levels. The maximum load capacity of the presented system is about 30% and 17% higher than those of the chevron braced frames with KB and VLB alone, respectively. In addition, the maximum energy dissipation of the proposed system is about 78% and 150% higher than those of chevron braced frames with VLB and KB respectively under two separate levels of lateral forces caused by different probable seismic excitations. Finally, high performance under different earthquake levels with competitive cost and quick installation work for the control system can be found as main advantages of the presented system.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.201-209
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• 2016

Damages of large embankment dams by recent strong earthquakes in the world highlight the importance of seismic security of dams. Some of recent dam construction projects for water storage and hydropower are located in highly seismic zone, hence the seismic performance evaluation is an important issue. While state-of-the-art numerical analysis technology is generally utilized in practice for seismic performance evaluation of large dams, physical modeling is also carried out where new construction technology is involved or numerical analysis technology cannot simulate the behavior appropriately. Geotechnical centrifuge modeling is widely adopted in earthquake engineering to simulate the seismic behavior of large earth structures, but sometimes it can't be applied for large embankment dams due to various limitations. This study proposes a dynamic centrifuge testing method for large embankment dams and evaluated its applicability. Scaling relations for a case which model scale and g-level are different could be derived considering the stress conditions and predominant period of the structure, which is equivalent to previously suggested scaling relations. The scaling principles and testing method could be verified by modified modeling of models using a model at different acceleration levels. Finally, its applicability was examined by centrifuge tests for an embankment dam in Korea.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.249-263
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• 2024

This article presents a comparative analysis of seismic behavior in steel-beam reinforced concrete column (RCS) frames versus steel and reinforced concrete frames. The study evaluates the seismic response and collapse behavior of RCS frames of varying heights through nonlinear modeling. RCS, steel, and reinforced concrete special moment frames are considered in three height categories: 5, 10, and 20 stories. Two-dimensional frames are extracted from the three-dimensional structures, and nonlinear static analyses are conducted in the OpenSEES software to evaluate seismic response in post-yield regions. Incremental dynamic analysis is then performed on models, and collapse conditions are compared using fragility curves. Research findings indicate that the seismic intensity index in steel frames is 1.35 times greater than in RCS frames and 1.14 times greater than in reinforced concrete frames. As the number of stories increases, RCS frames exhibit more favorable collapse behavior compared to reinforced concrete frames. RCS frames demonstrate stable behavior and maintain capacity at high displacement levels, with uniform drift curves and lower damage levels compared to steel and reinforced concrete frames. Steel frames show superior strength and ductility, particularly in taller structures. RCS frames outperform reinforced concrete frames, displaying improved collapse behavior and higher capacity. Incremental Dynamic Analysis results confirm satisfactory collapse capacity for RCS frames. Steel frames collapse at higher intensity levels but perform better overall. RCS frames have a higher collapse capacity than reinforced concrete frames. Fragility curves show a lower likelihood of collapse for steel structures, while RCS frames perform better with an increase in the number of stories.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2010

The target performance of a current seismic design code is to achieve collapse-prevention in order to minimize casualties. Existing structures are also being retrofitted to meet this target performance. This seismic performance seems to have been achieved in recent great overseas earthquakes, but the accompanying enormous economic loss is pointed out as a new problem. A new seismic design concept over the current target performance is required to reduce economic loss, in which a target performance is determined by the damage probability in order to control the damage levels of structures. In this study, the seismic behavior of bridges having different characteristics was investigated by nonlinear seismic analyses, and fragility curves with respect to a reference damage level were derived. Based on these results, the characteristics of target ductilities satisfying a target damage probability were investigated.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.165-176
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• 2024

In this study, a direct Lagrangian-based three-dimensional computational procedure is developed to evaluate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete liquid-containing circular tanks (RC-LCT). In this approach, fluid-structure interaction (FSI), material nonlinearity, and liquid-structure large deformations are formulated realistically. Liquid is modeled using Mie-Grüneisen equation of state (EOS) in compressible form considering the convective and impulsive motions of fluid. The developed numerical framework is validated based on a previous study. Further, nonlinear analyses are carried out to assess the seismic performance of RC-LCT with various diameter-to-liquid height ratios ranging from 2.5 to 4.0. Based on observations, semi-deep tanks (i.e., D/H_l=2.5) show low collapse ductility due to their shear failure mode while shallow tanks (i.e., D/H_l=4.0) behave in a more ductile manner due to their dominant wall membrane action. Furthermore, the semi-deep tanks provide the least over-strength and ductility due to their catastrophic failure with little energy dissipation. This study shows that LCTs can be categorized as between immediately operational and life safety levels and therefore a drift limiting criterion is necessary to prevent probable damages during earthquakes.