• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.323-335
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• 2017

A simplified framework for the probabilistic estimation of economic losses induced by the structural vulnerability in single-story and single-bay precast industrial buildings is presented. The simplifications introduced in the framework are oriented to the definition of an expeditious procedure adoptable by government agencies and insurance companies for preliminary risk assessment. The economic losses are evaluated considering seismic hazard, structural response, damage resulting from the structural vulnerability and only structural-vulnerability-induced e]conomic losses, i.e., structural repair or reconstruction costs (stock and flow costs) and content losses induced by structural collapse. The uncertainties associated with each step are accounted for via Monte Carlo simulations. The estimation results in a probabilistic description of the seismic risk of portal-like industrial buildings, expressed in terms of economic losses for each occurrence (i.e., seismic event) that owners (i.e., insured) and stakeholders can use to make risk management decisions. The outcome may also be useful for the definition of the insurance premiums and the evaluation of the risks and costs for the owner corresponding to the insurance industrial costs. A prototype of a precast concrete industrial building located in Mirandola, Italy, hit by the 2012 Emilia earthquake, is used as an example of the application of the procedure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.3100-3111
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• 2021

Numerical modeling for the safety-related equipment used in a nuclear power plant (i.e., cabinet facilities) plays an essential role in seismic risk assessment. A full finite element model is often time-consuming for nonlinear time history analysis due to its computational modeling complexity. Thus, this study aims to generate a simplified model that can capture the nonlinear behavior of the electrical cabinet. Accordingly, the distributed plasticity approach was utilized to examine the stiffness-degradation effect caused by the local buckling of the structure. The inherent dynamic characteristics of the numerical model were validated against the experimental test. The outcomes indicate that the proposed model can adequately represent the significant behavior of the structure, and it is preferred in practice to perform the nonlinear analysis of the cabinet. Further investigations were carried out to evaluate the seismic behavior of the cabinet under the influence of the constitutive law of material models. Three available models in OpenSees (i.e., linear, bilinear, and Giuffre-Menegotto-Pinto (GMP) model) were considered to provide an enhanced understating of the seismic responses of the cabinet. It was found that the material nonlinearity, which is the function of its smoothness, is the most effective parameter for the structural analysis of the cabinet. Also, it showed that implementing nonlinear models reduces the seismic response of the cabinet considerably in comparison with the linear model.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.293-303
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• 2021

Seismic fragility functions for unreinforced masonry buildings were derived based on the incremental dynamic analysis of eight representative inelastic numerical models for application to Korea's earthquake damage estimation system. The effects of panel zones formed between piers and spandrels around openings were taken into account explicitly or implicitly regarding stiffness and inelastic deformation capacity. The site response of ground motion records measured at the rock site was used as input ground motion. Limit states were proposed based on the fraction of structural components that do not meet the required performance from the nonlinear static analysis of each model. In addition to the randomness of ground motion considered in the incremental dynamic analysis explicitly, supplementary standard deviation due to uncertainty that was not reflected in the fragility assessment procedure was added. The proposed seismic fragility functions were verified by applying them to the damage estimation of masonry buildings located around the epicenter of the 2017 Pohang earthquake and comparing the result with actual damage statistics.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.375-388
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• 2022

Nibellen structural system is a novel resilient bracing system based on the application of Bellville disks and Nitinol rods. The cyclic behavior of Nibellen assembly was obtained, and the design equations were developed based on the available literature. Seismic performance of the system was then studied analytically. Two groups of buildings with different lateral force resisting systems were designed and studied: one group with the Nibellen system, and the other with the special concentrically braced frame system. Each building group consisted of 5-, 10-, and 15-story buildings. The Design-Base-Event (DBE) and Maximum Considered Event (MCE) were considered as the seismic hazard, and a suite of seven ground motions were scaled accordingly for response history analyses. Finally, the resiliency of the buildings was studied by obtaining the functionality curve of the buildings before and after the seismic event. The construction cost of the 5-story building with Nibellen bracing system increased but the post-earthquake cost decreased significantly. The application of Nibellen system in the 10- and 15-story buildings reduced both the construction and repair costs, considerably. Resiliency of all the buildings was improved when Nibellen system was used as the lateral force resisting system.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2009

The site effects relating to the amplification of ground motion under earthquake loading are strongly influenced by both the subsurface soil condition and geologic structure. In this study, the site effects at the Hongseong area in Korea were examined by both the site investigation including borehole drilling and in-situ seismic tests and the site visit for acquiring geologic information of ground surface. Subsurface of Hongseong area with a major instrumental earthquake event in 1978 is composed of weathered layers of a maximum of 45 m thickness overlying bedrock. A geotechnical information system based on GIS framework was implemented to effectively find out spatial geologic structure of study area and it indicated Hongseong is a shallow and wide shaped basin. Two-dimensional finite element (FE) analyses for a representative cross-section of the Hongseong area were performed to evaluate seismic site responses. From the results of seismic responses, it was observed that the ground motions were amplified during the propagation of shear waves through the soil layer overlying the bedrock and the duration of shaking near the basin edges was prolonged due to the surface waves generated by interactions of shear waves with basin geometry. Furthermore, one-dimensional FE seismic response analyses were additionally conducted for soil sites selected in the basin, and it gives similar results to the two-dimensional seismic responses at most locations in the basin with the exception of the locations near the basin edges, because the basin in this study is very shallow and wide.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.51-63
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• 2005

Concrete pavement may suffer from material deterioration or structural problems, which lead to surface cracks and deflection of a concrete pavement. Degraded concrete pavement, when it is still under operation, should be recovered by an urgent maintenance to avoid the discontinued service leading to the significant traffic problems and economic loss. Seismic techniques are good tools to assess the structural integrity of concrete runway. It is because seismic techniques can evaluate engineering properties nondestructively and quickly and the evaluation can be extended to subgrade. In this study, a series of numerical simulations of stress-wave propagation were performed to verify feasibility of seismic techniques as an assessment tool. Based on the results of the numerical simulation, a framework of using seismic techniques was presented fur the nondestructive integrated assessment fur structural integrity of concrete runway. And the presented framework was applied to $\bigcirc\bigcirc$ concrete runway with surface cracks, which required urgent maintenance, to identify the causes of the surface cracks. The results obtained from the structural integrity assessment were compared with the measurements of the cores collected from the same runway for verification of the presented framework.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.89-118
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• 2015

The geometric nonlinearity of off-diagonal bracing system (ODBS) could be a complementary system to covering and extending the nonlinearity of reinforced concrete material. Finite element modeling is performed for flexural frame, x-braced frame and the ODBS braced frame system at the initial phase. Then the different models are investigated along various analyses. According to the experimental results of flexural and x-braced frame, the verification is done. Analytical assessments are performed in according to three dimensional finite element modeling. Nonlinear static analysis is considered to obtain performance level and seismic behaviour, and then the response modification factors calculated from each model's pushover curve. In the next phase, the evaluation of cracks observed in the finite element models, especially for RC members of all three systems is performed. The finite element assessment is performed on engendered cracks in ODBS braced frame for various time steps. The nonlinear dynamic time history analysis accomplished in different stories models for three records of Elcentro, Naghan and Tabas earthquake accelerograms. Dynamic analysis is performed after scaling accelerogram on each type of flexural frame, x-braced frame and ODBS braced frame one by one. The base-point on RC frame is considered to investigate proportional displacement under each record. Hysteresis curves are assessed along continuing this study. The equivalent viscous damping for ODBS system is estimated in according to references. Results in each section show the ODBS system has an acceptable seismic behaviour and their conclusions have been converged when the ODBS system is utilized in reinforced concrete frame.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.1065-1094
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• 2014

Civil engineers always face the challenge of uncertainty in planning, building, and maintaining infrastructure. These works rely heavily on a variety of surveying and monitoring techniques. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are an effective approach to obtain information from an additional view, and potentially bring significant benefits to civil engineering. This paper gives an overview of the state of UAV developments and their possible applications in civil engineering. The paper begins with an introduction to UAV hardware, software, and control methodologies. It also reviews the latest developments in technologies related to UAVs, such as control theories, navigation methods, and image processing. Finally, the paper concludes with a summary of the potential applications of UAV to seismic risk assessment, transportation, disaster response, construction management, surveying and mapping, and flood monitoring and assessment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.894-903
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• 2019

An approach for collapse risk assessment is proposed to evaluate the vulnerability of electric cabinet in nuclear power plants. The lognormal approaches, namely maximum likelihood estimation and linear regression, are introduced to establish the fragility curves. These two fragility analyses are applied for the numerical models of cabinets considering various boundary conditions, which are expressed by representing restrained and anchored models at the base. The models have been built and verified using the system identification (SI) technique. The fundamental frequency of the electric cabinet is sensitive because of many attached devices. To bypass this complex problem, the average spectral acceleration $S_{\bar{a}}$ in the range of period that cover the first mode period is chosen as an intensity measure on the fragility function. The nonlinear time history analyses for cabinet are conducted using a suite of 40 ground motions. The obtained curves with different approaches are compared, and the variability of risk assessment is evaluated for restrained and anchored models. The fragility curves obtained for anchored model are found to be closer each other, compared to the fragility curves for restrained model. It is also found that the support boundary conditions played a significant role in acceleration response of cabinet.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.103-112
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• 1990

This study examines the characteristics of soil behavior which includes many uncertainties in seismic design, evaluates the dynamic soil properties and studies the soil-structure interaction to generalize the applicability and economy of the available sites. An example analysis is performed for soil-structure system response assuming a containment structure built on site which includes soil layers using both elastic halfspace analysis and FEM analysis against the seismic loads from the actual design. This exercise is performed as a part of the safety analysis and economic assessment of the nuclear power plant built on soils. It includes the preparation of computer program capable of incorporating large nonlinearity in the analysis, resonable evaluation procedures to determine input soil data. Nonlinear FEM analysis of Seed and Idriss model is found suitable for the accurate analysis of dynamic response of soils. Linear FEM analysis using dynamic soil properties at strain level obtained by one-dimensional seismic response, and elastic half-space analysis using dynamic soil properties at strain level under static loads are recommended to evaluate the dynamic soil properties.