• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.319-325
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• 2021

The 2011 East Japan Earthquake caused accidents at a number of nuclear power plants in Fukushima, highlighting the need for a study on the seismic safety of multiple NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) units. In the case of nuclear power plants built on a site that shows a similar seismic response, there is at least a correlation between the seismic damage of structures, systems, and components (SSCs) of nuclear power plants. In this study, a probabilistic seismic safety assessment was performed for the loss of essential power events of twin units. To derive an appropriate seismic damage correlation coefficient, a probabilistic seismic response analysis was performed. Using the external event mensuration system program, we analyzed the seismic fragility and seismic risk by composing a failure tree of multiple loss of essential power events. Additionally, a comparative analysis was performed considering the seismic damage correlation between SSCs as completely independent and completely dependent.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.215-230
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• 2010

The main objectives of this work were to investigate the effects of the nonlinear behavior of the isolation pads on the seismic response of bridges with rubber bearings, and to identify when base isolation improved their seismic performance. To achieve these objectives a parametric study was conducted designing a set of bridges for three different soil types and varying the number of spans, span lengths, and pier heights. The seismic responses (accelerations, displacements and pier seismic forces) were evaluated for three different structural models subjected to three earthquakes with different dynamic characteristics. The first represented bridges without base isolation; the second corresponded to the same bridges including now rubber bearings as an isolation system, with linear elastic behavior that shifted the natural period of the bridge by a factor of 2 to 4. In the third model the seismic response of bridges supported on lead-Rubber bearings was studied accounting for the nonlinear behavior of the lead. The results show clearly the importance of the nonlinear behavior on the seismic performance of the bridges.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.399-414
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• 1997

This paper presents an investigation into the seismic response characteristics of a proposed ligh-weight pedestrian cable-stayed bridge made entirely from Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics(GFRP). The study employs three dimensional finite element models to study and compare the dynamic characteristics and the seismic response of the GFRP bridge to a conventional Steel-Concrete (SC) cable-stayed bridge alternative. The two bridges were subjected to three synthetic earthquakes that differ in the frequency content characteristics. The performance of the GFRP bridge was compared to that of the SC bridge by normalizing the live load and the seismic internal forces with respect to the dead load internal forces. The normalized seismically induced internal forces were compared to the normalized live load internal forces for each design alternative. The study shows that the design alternatives have different dynamic characteristics. The light GFRP alternative has more flexible deck motion in the lateral direction than the heavier SC alternative. While the SC alternative has more vertical deck modes than the GFRP alternative, it has less lateral deck modes than the GFRP alternative in the studied frequency range. The GFRP towers are more flexible in the lateral direction than the SC towers. The GFRP bridge tower attracted less normalized base shear force than the SC bridge towers. However, earthquakes, with peak acceleration of only 0.1 g, and with a variety of frequency content could induce high enough seismic internal forces at the tower bases of the GFRP cable-stayed bridge to govern the structural design of such bridge. Careful seismic analysis, design, and detailing of the tower connections are required to achieve satisfactory seismic performance of GFRP long span bridges.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1577-1586
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• 2023

Safety qualification of a steam generator is a crucial issue related to faulted condition design loads, including earthquake loads, and it should be ensured that the structural integrity of a steam generator does not exceed its design load. Using data from the Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes, the two most powerful recorded seismic events in Korea, seismic analyses of a typical steam generator are conducted in this study. The modal characteristics are used to develop an input deck for these analyses. With a time history analysis, the responses of the steam generator in the event of an earthquake are obtained. In particular, the displacement, velocity, and acceleration responses are obtained in the time domain, with these outcomes then used for a detailed structural analysis as part of the ensuing assessment. The response spectra are also generated to determine the response characteristics in the frequency domain, focusing on the response comparisons between the Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes. Structural integrity can be ensured by performing additional analysis using results obtained from the time history analysis considering the input excitations of various earthquakes considered in the design.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2024

Machine learning is widely applied to various engineering fields. In structural engineering area, machine learning is generally used to predict structural responses of building structures. The aging deterioration of reinforced concrete structure affects its structural behavior. Therefore, the aging deterioration of R.C. structure should be consider to exactly predict seismic responses of the structure. In this study, the machine learning based seismic response prediction model was developed. To this end, four machine learning algorithms were employed and prediction performance of each algorithm was compared. A 3-story coupled shear wall structure was selected as an example structure for numerical simulation. Artificial ground motions were generated based on domestic site characteristics. Elastic modulus, damping ratio and density were changed to considering concrete degradation due to chloride penetration and carbonation, etc. Various intensity measures were used input parameters of the training database. Performance evaluation was performed using metrics like root mean square error, mean square error, mean absolute error, and coefficient of determination. The optimization of hyperparameters was achieved through k-fold cross-validation and grid search techniques. The analysis results show that neural networks and extreme gradient boosting algorithms present good prediction performance.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.117-124
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• 2019

Nonstructural elements are installed according to the function of a building, and refer to the elements other than a structural system that resists external loads. Although the nonstructural elements had the largest part of seismic loss of buildings, seismic design of buildings mainly focuses on structural system and the seismic design of nonstructural elements are rarely conducted. In this study, the seismic design provisions of nonstructural elements presented in Uniform Building Code (UBC) and International Building Code (IBC) were investigated in order to analyze the seismic design considerations of nonstructural elements presented in Korean Building Code (KBC). The results showed that the equivalent static load applied to seismic design of nonstructural elements was revised to take into consideration a total of five items such as effective ground acceleration, vertical amplification factor, response amplification factor, response modification factor, importance factor.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2023

The recent increase in earthquake activities has highlighted the importance of seismic performance evaluation for civil infrastructures. In particular, the container crane essential to maintaining the national logistics system with port operation requires an exact evaluation of its seismic response. Thus, this study aims to assess the seismic vulnerability of container cranes considering their seismic characteristics. The seismic response of the container crane should account for the structural members' yielding and buckling, as well as the crane wheel's uplifting derailment in operation. The crane's yielding and buckling limit states were defined using the stress of crane members based on the load and displacement curve obtained from nonlinear static analysis. The derailment limit state was based on the height of the rail, and nonlinear dynamic analysis was performed to obtain the seismic fragility curves considering defined limit states and seismic characteristics. The yield and derailment probabilities of the crane in the near-fault ground motion were approximately 1.5 to 4.7 and 2.8 to 6.8 times higher, respectively, than those in the far-fault ground motion.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 2024

The ductility of the system based on the capacity of each structural member constituting the seismic force-resisting system is a significant factor determining the structure's seismic performance. This study aims to provide a procedure to supplement the current seismic design criteria to secure the system's ductility and improve the seismic performance of the steel ordinary moment frames. For the study, a nonlinear analysis was performed on the 9- and 15-story model buildings, and the formation of collapse mechanisms and damage distribution for dynamic loads were analyzed. As a result of analyzing the nonlinear response and damage distribution of the steel ordinary moment frame, local collapse due to the concentration of structural damage was observed in the case where the influence of the higher mode was dominant. In this study, a procedure to improve the seismic performance and avoid inferior dynamic response was proposed by limiting the strength ratio of the column. The proposed procedure effectively improved the seismic performance of steel ordinary moment frames by reducing the probability of local collapse.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.109-117
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• 2019

In this study, a design procedure for the practical application of the dampers to building structures under earthquake loads was presented by using earthquake response spectrum. Nonlinear time history results using a 10 story building structure installed with damper verified the effectiveness of the proposed procedure by showing that the structural response could be reduced to the target performance level for seismic loads. Since the proposed design procedures are based on response spectrum seismic analysis result of the original structure, the capacity, location and the number of damper and the consequent response reduction effects can be preliminarily determined without performing the nonlinear time history analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2696-2707
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficiency of various structural modeling schemes for evaluating seismic performances and fragility of the reactor containment building (RCB) structure in the advanced power reactor 1400 (APR1400) nuclear power plant (NPP). Four structural modeling schemes, i.e. lumped-mass stick model (LMSM), solid-based finite element model (Solid FEM), multi-layer shell model (MLSM), and beam-truss model (BTM), are developed to simulate the seismic behaviors of the containment structure. A full three-dimensional finite element model (full 3D FEM) is additionally constructed to verify the previous numerical models. A set of input ground motions with response spectra matching to the US NRC 1.60 design spectrum is generated to perform linear and nonlinear time-history analyses. Floor response spectra (FRS) and floor displacements are obtained at the different elevations of the structure since they are critical outputs for evaluating the seismic vulnerability of RCB and secondary components. The results show that the difference in seismic responses between linear and nonlinear analyses gets larger as an earthquake intensity increases. It is observed that the linear analysis underestimates floor displacements while it overestimates floor accelerations. Moreover, a systematic assessment of the capability and efficiency of each structural model is presented thoroughly. MLSM can be an alternative approach to a full 3D FEM, which is complicated in modeling and extremely time-consuming in dynamic analyses. Specifically, BTM is recommended as the optimal model for evaluating the nonlinear seismic performance of NPP structures. Thereafter, linear and nonlinear BTM are employed in a series of time-history analyses to develop fragility curves of RCB for different damage states. It is shown that the linear analysis underestimates the probability of damage of RCB at a given earthquake intensity when compared to the nonlinear analysis. The nonlinear analysis approach is highly suggested for assessing the vulnerability of NPP structures.