Korea is not considered to be one of the safe zones for earthquakes any more. According to the records of the historical records and recent earthquake events in Korea, the possibillty of disastrous seismic hazards cannot be ignored, Korea Earthquake Engineering Research Center (KEERC) and Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea(EESK) have been established by that consensus. In this paper, historical earthquake records and seismicity in Korea are reviewed. And the research activities and the research system for the earthquake hazards mitigation of KEERC are introduced and the efforts of ESSK to renovate seismic design code system and to optimize the protection levels against earthquake disasters is explained.
In view of the rapid development of economics and technology, perilous meteorological and geological conditions often cause natural disasters and result in severe loss of lives and properties in Taiwan. To promote multi-hazard mitigation strategies in an integrated a, pp.oach, the National Science Council established a National Science and Technology Program for Disaster Mitigation in January 1998. This program emphasizes on the implementation of research results in the National Disaster Management System. This paper describes the earthquake loss estimation methodology that is currently developed in Taiwan. Topics of potential earth science hazards (PESH) and building vulnerability analysis are described in detail.
Steel structures with added viscoelastic dampers are analysed to investigat their behavior under earthquake excitation. The direct integration method, which produces exact solution for the non-proportional or non-classical damping system, is used throughout the analysis. The results from modal strain energy method are also provided for comparison. Then a new analytical a, pp.oach, based on the rigid floor diaphragm assumption and matrix condensation technique, is introduced, and the results are compared with those obtained from direct integration method and modal strain energy method. The well known phenomenon, that the effectiveness of the viscoelastic dampers depends greatly on the location of the dampers, is once again confirmed in the analysis. It is also found that the modal strain energy method generaly underestimates the responses obtained from the direct integration method, especially when the dampers are placed in only a part of the building. The proposed method turns out to be very efficient with considerable saving in computation this and reasonably accurate considering the reduced degrees of freedom.
Research and a, pp.ication of earthquake protection system in Taiwan have become very active since about ten years ago. Many passive isolators, etc., have been studied extensively. These studies have resulted in a few practical a, pp.ications and proposals of two draft design provisions for seismic isolation design of bridges and buildings. In addition to the pass control, analytical studies on active semi-active control have also been very active and the experimental studies have scheduled in the near future. This paper summarise the progress on recent research and a, pp.ication of earthquake protection systems in Taiwan. The emphases are given to the control systems that have been a, pp.ied in practical a, pp.ications.
Base isolation is an innovative design strategy that provides a practical alternative for the seismic design of structures. Base isolators, mainly employed to isolate large structures subjected to earthquake ground excitations and to rehabilitate structures damaged by past earthquakes, deflect and absorb the seismic energy horizontally transmitted to the structures. This study demonstrated that the base isolation system may offer effective performance for bridges during severe seismic events through shaking table tests. Two base isolation systems using laminated rubber bearings with and without hydraulic dampers are tested. The test results strongly show that the laminate rubber bearings cause the natural period of the bridge structure increased considerably, which results in the deck acceleration and the shear forces on the deck acceleratino and the shear forces on the piers reduced significantly. The results also demonstrate that the hydraulic dampers enhance the system's capacity in dissipating energy to reduce the relative displacement between the bridge deck and the pier.
A performance-based seismic design method for reinforced concrete building structures being developed in Japan is outlined. Technical and scientific background of the performance-based design philosophy as well as recently developed seismic design guidelines are is presented, in which maximum displacement response to design earthquake motion is used as the limit-state design criteria. A method of estimating dynamic response displacement of the structures based on static nonlinear analysis is described. A theoretical estimation of nonlinear dynamic response considering the characteristics of energy input to the system is described in detail, which may be used as the standard method in the new performance-based code. A desing philosophy not only satisfying the criteria but also evaluating seismic capacity of the structures is also introduced.
In this paper, the necessity of developing effective nondestructive testing and monitoring techniques for the evaluation of structural integrity and performance is described. The evaluation of structural integrity and performance is especially important when the structures and subject to abrupt external forces such as earthquake. A prompt and extensive inspection is required over a large area of earthquake-damaged zone. This evaluation process is regarded as a part of performance-based design. In the paper, nondestructive testing and monitoring techniques particularly for concrete structures are presented as methods for the evaluation of structural integrity and performance. The concept of performance-based design is first defined in the paper followed by the role of evaluation of structures in the context of overall performance=based design concept. Among possible techniques for the evaluation, nondestructive testing methods for concrete structures using radar and a concept of using fiber sensor for continuous monitoring of structures are presented.
The results from the Individual Plant Examination of External Event of Yonggwyang nuclear power plants, unit 3 & 4, in Korea have shown that the high degree of diversities of the experts' opinions on seismicity and attenuation models is su, pp.sed to be generic cause of uncertainty of APEs(annual exceedance probability) in the PAHA(probabilistic seismic hazard analysis). This study investigated the sensitivity of the focal depth, which is one of the most uncertain seismicity parameters in Korea, Significant differences in resultant values of annual exceedance probabilities and much more symmetrical shape of the resultant PDFs(probability density functions), in case of consideration of focal depth, are found. These two results suggest that, even for the same seismic input data set including the seismicity models and ground motion attenuation models, to consider focal depth additionally for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis evaluation makes significant influence on the distributions of uncertainties and probabilities of exceedance per year for the whole ranges of seismic hazard levels. These facts suggest that it is necessary to derive focal depth parameter more effectively from the historical and instrumental documents on earthquake phenomena in Koran Peninsula for the future study of PSHA.
In this paper, the potential ground motion in terms of the peak ground accelerations(PGAs) due to long-distance Sumatra earthquakes is investigated for Singapore, following the probabilistic seismic hazard assessment a, pp.oach. The case investigated differs from a conventional one, in that few attenuation equations for long-distance major earthquakes are readily available. The attenuation relationships developed for other regions of the world are thus reviewed. It is found that the existing attenuation equations, when extrapolated to distant major earthquakes, tend to underestimate the PGAs. By comparing with the PGAs recorded over long distances at stations of the Japanese Meteorological Agency for major earthquakes in Japan, an attenuation equation is chosen for this study. With the chosen attenuation equation, the probability of PGAs exceeding selected levels for various exposure periods of time is then computed. The results show that at Singapore there is a 10% probability in 50 years for the PGA at rock sites to exceed 1.1% g. In view of the results and the associated uncertainties, a base shear coefficient of 1.5% is being recommended as the tentative seismic loading in Singapore. The tentative seismic loading reflects the design value of the notional horizontal load, equal to 1.5% of the characteristic building weigh as specified in the BS code, which usualy governs the design of most buildings in Singapors.
Korea is located in either low of moderate seismicity continental region. It is realized that the design codes and underlying design concept of high seismicity region may not be a, pp.opriate to low and moderate seismicity regions. The aim of this paper is to search seismic design concept that is deemed to be a, pp.opriate to low and moderate seismicity regions. To this end, the seismicity of Korea will be introduce first and important aspects of seismic design in moderate seismicity region will be discussed. The two-level code system that is going to be adopted in the future seismic regulations of Korea will be introduced.
This paper reports a part of research work on earthquake resistance consideration in regions of moderate seismicity, which is being carried out in the Department of Civil Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. The possible seismic hazard in Hong Kong, which is located in a region of moderate seismicity, is described. A case study is presented to compare the wind and earthquake effects on Hong Kong buildings and to assess whether seismic analysis and desing is necessary for building structure. Potential problems of reinforced concrete buildings under earthquake effects in regions of moderate seismicity are discussed.
For the seismic design of bridges in Korea classified as the low to moderate seismic zones, the design concepts provided in the Standard Specification for Highway Bridges, Division I-A: Seismic Design, are adopted, which is basically developed for the strong seismic zones by AASHITO. Accordingly, the design procedures provided for the low to moderate seismic zones are simplified too much to fulfill the purpose of the seismic design. In this paper the design procedures given for the low to moderate seismic zones in the Standard are summarized and discussed in view of the seismic design purpose. From the discussion results some revisions are proposed as conclusions for the reasonable a, pp.ication of the Standard for bridges located in the low to moderate seismic zones.