• 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.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.41-48
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• 2021

A smart tuned mass damper (TMD) is widely studied for seismic response reduction of various structures. Control algorithm is the most important factor for control performance of a smart TMD. This study used a Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) among reinforcement learning techniques to develop a control algorithm for a smart TMD. A magnetorheological (MR) damper was used to make the smart TMD. A single mass model with the smart TMD was employed to make a reinforcement learning environment. Time history analysis simulations of the example structure subject to artificial seismic load were performed in the reinforcement learning process. Critic of policy network and actor of value network for DDPG agent were constructed. The action of DDPG agent was selected as the command voltage sent to the MR damper. Reward for the DDPG action was calculated by using displacement and velocity responses of the main mass. Groundhook control algorithm was used as a comparative control algorithm. After 10,000 episode training of the DDPG agent model with proper hyper-parameters, the semi-active control algorithm for control of seismic responses of the example structure with the smart TMD was developed. The simulation results presented that the developed DDPG model can provide effective control algorithms for smart TMD for reduction of seismic responses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.369-385
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• 2002

Ductility capacity is comprehensively studied for steel moment-resisting frames. Local, story and global ductility are being considered. An appropriate measure of global ductility is suggested. A time domain nonlinear seismic response algorithm is used to evaluate several definitions of ductility. It is observed that for one-story structures, resembling a single degree of freedom (SDOF) system, all definitions of global ductility seem to give reasonable values. However, for complex structures it may give unreasonable values. It indicates that using SDOF systems to estimate the ductility capacity may be a very crude approximation. For multi degree of freedom (MDOF) systems some definitions may not be appropriate, even though they are used in the profession. Results also indicate that the structural global ductility of 4, commonly used for moment-resisting steel frames, cannot be justified based on this study. The ductility of MDOF structural systems and the corresponding equivalent SDOF systems is studied. The global ductility values are very different for the two representations. The ductility reduction factor $F_{\mu}$ is also estimated. For a given frame, the values of the $F_{\mu}$ parameter significantly vary from one earthquake to another, even though the maximum deformation in terms of the interstory displacement is roughly the same for all earthquakes. This is because the $F_{\mu}$ values depend on the amount of dissipated energy, which in turn depends on the plastic mechanism, formed in the frames as well as on the loading, unloading and reloading process at plastic hinges. Based on the results of this study, the Newmark and Hall procedure to relate the ductility reduction factor and the ductility parameter cannot be justified. The reason for this is that SDOF systems were used to model real frames in these studies. Higher mode effects were neglected and energy dissipation was not explicitly considered. In addition, it is not possible to observe the formation of a collapse mechanism in the equivalent SDOF systems. Therefore, the ductility parameter and the force reduction factor should be estimated by using the MDOF representation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.955-982
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• 2016

Recent studies integrating vibration control and structural health monitoring (SHM) use control devices and control algorithms to enable system identification and damage detection. In this study real-time SHM is used to enhance structural vibration control and reduce damage. A newly proposed control algorithm, including integrated real-time SHM and semi-active control strategy, is presented to mitigate both damage and seismic response of the main structure under strong seismic ground motion. The semi-active independently variable stiffness (SAIVS) device is used as semi-active control device in this investigation. The proper stiffness of SAIVS device is obtained using a new developed semi-active control algorithm based on real-time damage tracking of structure by damage detection algorithm based on identified system Markov parameters (DDA/ISMP) method. A three bay five story steel braced frame structure, which is equipped with one SAIVS device at each story, is employed to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The obtained results show that the proposed control algorithm could significantly decrease damage in most parts of the structure. Also, the dynamic response of the structure is effectively reduced by using the proposed control algorithm during four strong earthquakes. In comparison to passive on and off cases, the results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed control algorithm in decreasing both damage and dynamic responses of structure is significantly enhanced than the passive cases. Furthermore, from the energy consumption point of view the maximum and the cumulative control force in the proposed control algorithm is less than the passive-on case, considerably.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.3A
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• pp.473-484
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• 2006

The capacity spectrum method (CSM) can be used to simply estimate the maximum displacement response of the nonlinear structures. To evaluate seismic performance of multi-span bridges using the CSM, the representative response for structural system should be derived from the multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) responses by using the equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (ESDOF) method. The ESDOF method is used to calculate the capacity curve of the structural system from the pushover curves of all piers or structural members estimated by the pushover analysis. In order to evaluate an accuracy of ESDOF methods used in the CSM, the maximum displacements estimated by the CSM incorporating the several ESDOF methods are compared to those by the inelastic time-history analysis for several artificial earthquakes corresponding to the design spectrum.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.34-41
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• 2020

In recent years, magnitude and frequency of earthquakes have increased in Korea. Damage to a bridge, which is one of the main infrastructures, can directly lead to considerable loss of human lives. Therefore, engineers need to evaluate the seismic fragility of the structure and prepare for the possible seismic damage. In particular, the number of aging bridges over 30 years of service increases, and thus the seismic analysis and fragility requires accounting for the aging and retrofit effects on the bridge. In this study, the nonlinear static and dynamic analyses were performed to evaluate the effects of the aging and FRP retrofit on a PSC bridge. The aging and FRP retrofit were applied to piers that dominate the response of the bridge during earthquakes. The maximum displacement of the bridge increased due to the aging of the pier but decreased when FRP retrofit applied to the aged pier. In addition, seismic fragility analysis was performed to evaluate the seismic behavior of the bridge combined with the seismic performance of the pier. Compared with the aged bridge, the FRP retrofit bridge showed a decrease in the seismic fragility in all levels of damage. The reduction of the seismic fragility in the FRP bridge was prominent as the value of PGA and level of damage increased.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.511-518
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• 2006

In this study, seismic response mitigation effect of an MR damper generating response-dependent frictional force is investigated. It has been reported in previous studies that passively operated MR damper with constant input current doesn't show better control performance than semi-active MR damper with varying input current calculated by control algorithms such as linear quadratic regulator and sliding mode control. However, in order to operate the MR damper semi-actively, other control systems besides the damper itself such as sensors for measuring structural responses and controller for calculating optimal input current are necessary, which deteriorate the economical efficiency. This study presents a MR damper generating frictional force of which magnitude is controlled in accordance to the displacement and velocity transferred to the damper. Numerical analyses results indicate that the performance of the response dependent MR damper is closely related with the range of the friction force and it can be designed to short better control performance than the passive MR damper.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.2
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• pp.277-290
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• 2023

A supplementary reinforced concrete wall can be used to improve the seismic behavior of a buckling restrained braced frame as a mixed system. In such a novel system, the total lateral force is resisted by the combination of the RC wall system and the BRBF. There is not enough research on the response modification factor of such a mixed system. This paper investigates the response modification factor, and such relevant factors as ductility reduction factor and over strength factor for a system consisting of reinforced concrete wall and buckling restrained braced frame. To this purpose, nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis as well as static push over analysis are used for 6- to 14-story sample structures. The results show that for mixed considered systems, the mean value of response modification factor varies approximately from 7 to 9.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.99-117
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• 2015

The Stonecutters Bridge (SCB) in Hong Kong is the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in the world with a main span stretching 1,018 m between two 298 m high single-leg tapering composite towers. A Wind and Structural Health Monitoring System (WASHMS) is being implemented on SCB by the Highways Department of The Hong Kong SAR Government, and the SCB-WASHMS is composed of more than 1,300 sensors in 15 types. In order to establish a linkage between structural health monitoring and maintenance management, a Structural Health Rating System (SHRS) with relevant rating tools and indices is devised. On the basis of a 3D space frame finite element model (FEM) of SCB and model updating, this paper presents the development of an SHR-oriented 3D multi-scale FEM for the purpose of load-resistance analysis and damage evaluation in structural element level, including modeling, refinement and validation of the multi-scale FEM. The refined 3D structural segments at deck and towers are established in critical segment positions corresponding to maximum cable forces. The components in the critical segment region are modeled as a full 3D FEM and fitted into the 3D space frame FEM. The boundary conditions between beam and shell elements are performed conforming to equivalent stiffness, effective mass and compatibility of deformation. The 3D multi-scale FEM is verified by the in-situ measured dynamic characteristics and static response. A good agreement between the FEM and measurement results indicates that the 3D multi-scale FEM is precise and efficient for WASHMS and SHRS of SCB. In addition, stress distribution and concentration of the critical segments in the 3D multi-scale FEM under temperature loads, static wind loads and equivalent seismic loads are investigated. Stress concentration elements under equivalent seismic loads exist in the anchor zone in steel/concrete beam and the anchor plate edge in steel anchor box of the towers.