For important structures such as nuclear power plants, In-Structure Response Spectrum (ISRS) analysis is essential because it evaluates the safety of equipment and components installed in the structure. Because most structures are asymmetric, the response can be affected by eccentricity. In the case of seismically isolated structures, this effect can be greater due to the difference between the center of mass of the structure and the center of rigidity of the isolator layer. Therefore, eccentricity effects must be considered when designing or evaluating the ISRS of seismically isolated structures. This study investigated the change of the ISRS of an isolated structure by assuming accidental eccentricity. The variables that affect the ISRS of the isolated structure were analyzed to see what additional impact they had due to eccentricity. The ISRS of the seismically isolated structure with eccentricity was amplified more than when there was non-eccentricity, and it was boosted more significantly in specific period ranges depending on the isolator’s initial stiffness and seismic intensity. Finally, whether the displacement requirement of isolators can be applied to the variation of the ISRS due to eccentricity in the design code was also examined.

The seismic behaviors of the arch structure vary according to the rise-span ratio of the arch structure. In this study, the rise-span ratio (H/L) of the example arch structure was set to 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8. And the installation angle of the seismic isolator was set to 15°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°. The installation angles of the seismic isolator were set by analyzing the horizontal and vertical reaction forces according to the rise-span ratio of the arch structure. Due to the geometrical and dynamic characteristics of the arch structure, the lower the rise-span ratio, the greater the horizontal reaction force of the static load, but the smaller the horizontal reaction force of the dynamic load. And if the seismic isolator is installed in the direction of the resultant force of the reaction forces caused by the seismic load, the horizontal seismic response becomes small. Also, as the installation angle of the seismic isolator increases, the hysteresis behavior of the seismic isolator shows a plastic behavior, and residual deformation appears even after the seismic load is removed. In the design of seismic isolators for seismic response control of large space structures such as arch structures, horizontal and vertical reaction forces should be considered.

In order to evaluate the earthquake safety of equipment in structures, it is essential to analyze the In-Structure Response Spectrum (ISRS). The ISRS has a peak value at the frequency corresponding to the structural vibration mode, but the frequency and amplitude at the peak can vary because of many uncertain parameters. There are several seismic design criteria for ISRS peak-broadening for fixed base structures. However, there are no suggested criteria for constructing the design ISRS of seismically isolated structures. The ISRS of isolated structures may change due to the major uncertainty parameter of the isolator, which is the shear stiffness of the isolator and the several uncertainty parameters caused by the nonlinear behavior of isolators. This study evaluated the effects on the ISRS due to the initial stiffness of the bi-linear curve of isolators and the variation of effective stiffness by the input ground motion intensity and intense motion duration. Analyzing a simplified structural model for isolated base structure confirmed that the ISRS at the frequency of structural mode was amplified and shifted. It was found that the uncertainty of the initial stiffness of isolators significantly affects the shape of ISRS. The variation caused by the intensity and duration of input ground motions was also evaluated. These results suggested several considerations for generating ISRS for seismically isolated structures.

When an unexpected excessive seismic load is applied to the base isolation of arch structure, the seismic displacement of the base isolation may be very large beyond the limit displacement of base isolation. These excessive displacement of the base isolation causes a large displacement in the upper structure and large displacement of upper structure causes structural damage. Therefore, in order to limit the seismic displacement response of the base isolation, it is necessary to install an additional device such as an anti-uplift device to the base isolation. In this study, the installation direction of the base isolation and the control performance of the base isolation installed anti-uplift device were investigated. The installation direction of the base isolation of the arch structure is determined by considering the horizontal and vertical reaction forces of the arch structure. In addition, the separation distance of the anti-uplift device is determined in consideration of the design displacement of the base isolation and the displacement of the arch structure.

If an excessive displacement occurs in the base isolation system, the structure will be damaged due to overturning of the upper structure. In this study, we analyze the behavior of base isolation by applying earthquake to base isolation with anti-uplift device. In the case of structures that generate horizontal reaction forces such as arch structures, horizontal reaction forces must be considered in the design of the base isolation and structural members. And anti-uplift device for preventing the excessive displacement of the base isolation system is needed.

Spatial structure does not have columns and walls installed inside, so they have a large space. There are upper structure and substructure supporting them. The response of seismic loads to the upper structure may be increased or decreased due to the effects of the substructure. Therefore, in this study, the seismic response of the upper structure and the floor response spectrum of the substructure were compared and analyzed according to the height of the substructure in the spatial structure where the LRB was installed. As a result, the possibility of amplification of response was confirmed as seismic waves passed though the substructure, which is likely to increase the response of the upper structures.

A seismic isolation system is one of the most effective control devices used for mitigating the structural responses due to earthquake loads. This system is generally used as a type of base isolation system for low- and mid-rise building structures. If the base isolation technique is applied to high-rise buildings, a lot of problems may be induced such as the movement of isolation bearings during severe wind loads, the stability problem of bearings under large compression forces. Therefore, a mid-story isolation system was proposed for seismic protection of high-rise buildings. Residence-commerce complex buildings in Korea have vertical irregularity because shear wall type and frame type structures are vertically connected. This problem can be also solved by the mid-story isolation system. An effective analytical method using super elements and substructures was proposed in this study. This method was used to investigate control performance of mid-story isolation system for residence-commerce complex buildings subjected to seismic loads. Based on numerical analyses, it was shown that the mid-story isolation system can effectively reduce seismic responses of residence-commerce complex tall buildings.

In this study, the seismic response is investigated by using a relatively low-rise building under torsion-prone conditions and three seismic loads with change of the location of the seismic isolation system. LRB (Lead Rubber Bearing) was used for the seismic isolator applied to the analytical model. Fixed model without seismic isolation system was set as a basic model and LB models using seismic isolation system were compared. The maximum story drift ratio and the maximum torsional angle were evaluated by using the position of the seismic layer as a variable. It was confirmed that the isolation device is effective for torsional control of planar irregular structures. Also, it was shown that the applicability of the midstory seismic isolation system. Numerical analyses results presented that an isolator installed in the lower layer provided good control performance for the maximum story drift ratio and the maximum torsional angle simultaneously.

In order to increase the seismic safety of nuclear power plant (NPP) structures, a technique to reduce the seismic load transmitted to the NPP structure by using a seismic isolation device such as a lead-rubber bearing has recently been actively researched. In seismic design of NPP structures, three directional (two horizontal and one vertical directions) artificial synthetic earthquakes (G0 group) corresponding to the standard design spectrum are generally used. In this study, seismic analysis was performed by using three directional artificial synthetic earthquakes (M0 group) corresponding to the maximum-minimum spectrum reflecting uncertainty of incident direction of earthquake load. The design basis earthquake (DBE) and the beyond design basis earthquakes (BDBEs are equal to 150%, 167%, and 200% DBE) of G0 and M0 earthquake groups were respectively generated for 30 sets and used for the seismic analysis. The purpose of this study is to compare seismic responses and seismic fragility curves of seismically isolated NPP structures subjected to DBE and BDBE. From the seismic fragility curves, the probability of failure of the seismic isolation system when the peak ground acceleration (PGA) is 0.5 g is about 5% for the M0 earthquake group and about 3% for the G0 earthquake group.

In order to reduce the seismic response of the spatial structure, a seismic isolation system with sufficient flexibility is used. The natural period of structure with seismic isolation system got be long to avoid prominent period. In this study, The seismic response of the truss-arch structure, which is modeled in three types according to the rise-span ratio is analyzed on El-centro, Northridge and Artificial Earthquake and compared with the seismic response of the truss-arch structure with lead rubber bearing(LRB). When seismic load is applied to the truss arch with isolation system, the horizontal acceleration response of the truss arch is reduced and vertical seismic response is also reduced. The application of the seismic isolation system is effective in controlling the seismic response.

The seismically isolated nuclear power plants shall be designed for design basis earthquake (DBE) and considered to ensure safety against beyond design basis earthquake (BDBE). In order to limit the excessive displacement of the seismic isolation system of the seismically isolated structure, the moat is installed at a certain distance from the upper mat supporting the superstructure. This certain distance is called clearance to stop (CS) and is calculated from the 90th percentile displacement of seismic isolation system subjected to BDBE. For design purposes, the CS can be obtained simply by multiplying the median displacement of the seismic isolation system against DBE by scale factor with a value of 3. The DBE and BDBE used in this study were generated by using 30 sets of artificial earthquakes corresponding to the nuclear standard design spectrum. In addition, latin hyper cube sampling was applied to generate 30 sets of artificial earthquakes corresponding to maximum - minimum spectra. For the DBE, the median displacement and the 99th percentile displacement of the seismic isolation system were calculated. For the BDBE, the suitability of the scale factor was assessed after calculating the 90th percentile displacement of the seismic isolation system.

In order to improve the seismic performance of structures, friction pendulum system (FPS) is the most commonly used seismic isolation device in addition to lead rubber bearing (LRB) in high seismicity area. In a nuclear power plant (NPP) with a large self weight, it is necessary to install a large number of seismic isolation devices, and the position of the center of rigidity varies depending on the arrangement of the seismic isolation devices. Due to the increase in the eccentricity, which is the difference between the center of gravity of the nuclear structure and the center of stiffness of the seismic isolators, an excessive seismic response may occur which could not be considered at the design stage. Three different types of eccentricity models (CASE 1, CASE 2, and CASE 3) were used for seismic response evaluation of seismically isolated NPP due to the increase of eccentricity (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%). The analytical model of the seismic isolation system was compared using the equivalent linear model and the bilinear model. From the results of the seismic response of the seismically isolated NPP with increasing eccentricity, it can be observed that the effect of eccentricity on the seismic response for the equivalent linear model is larger than that for the bilinear model.

In order to modeling seismic isolation system such as lead-rubber bearing (LRB), bilinear model is widely used by many researchers. In general, an actual force-displacement relationship for LRB has a smooth hysteretic shape. So, Bouc-Wen model with smooth hysteretic shape represents more accurately actual hysteretic shape than bilinear model. In this study, seismic responses for seismically isolated nuclear power plant (NPP) with LRB modelled by Bouc-Wen and bilinear models are compared with those of NPP without seismic isolation system. To evaluate effect of earthquake characteristics for seismic responses of NPP isolated by LRB, 5 different site class earthquakes distinguished by Geomatrix 3rd Letter Site Classification and artificially generated earthquakes corresponding to standard design spectrum by Reg. Guide 1.60 are used as input earthquakes. From the seismic response results of seismically isolated NPP, it can be observed that maximum displacements of seismic isolation modelled by Bouc-Wen model are larger than those by bilinear model. Seismic responses of NPP with LRB is significantly reduced than those without LRB. This reduction effect for seismic responses of NPP subjected to Site A (rock) earthquakes is larger than that to Site E (soft soil) earthquakes.

The seismic isolation system reduces the seismic vibration that is transmitted from foundation to upper structure. This seismic isolation system can be classified into base isolation and mid-story isolation by the installation location. In this study, the seismic behavior of dome structure with mid-story isolation is analyzed to verify the effect of seismic isolation. Mid-story isolation is more effective than base isolation to reduce the seismic responses of roof structure. Also, this isolation would be excellent in structural characteristics and construction.

The Gyeong-Ju earthquake in the magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scaleoccurred in September 12, 2016. Because there are many nuclear power plants (NPP) near the epicenter of the Gyeong-Ju earthquake, the seismic stability of nuclear power plants is becoming a social problem. In order to evaluate the safety of seismically isolated NPP, the seismic response of a NPP subjected to the Gyeong-Ju earthquake was compared with those of 30 sets of artificial earthquakes corresponding to the nuclear standard design spectrum (NSDS). A 2-node model and a simple beam-stick model were used for the seismic analysis of seismically isolated NPP structures. Using 2-node model, the effect of internal temperature rise, decrease of shear stiffness, increase of lateral displacement and decrease of vertical stiffness according to nonlinear behavior of lead-rubber bearing (LRB) were evaluated. The displacement response, the acceleration response, and the shear force response of the seismically isolated nuclear containment structure were evaluated using the simple beam-stick model. It can be observed that the seismic responses of the isolated nuclear structure subjected to Gyeong-Ju earthquake is significantly less than those to the artificial earthquakes corresponding to NSDS.

This study intends to evaluate the conservativeness of the fixed-base analysis as compared to the soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis for the seismically isolated model of a nuclear power plant in Korea. To that goal, the boundary reaction method (BRM), combining frequency-domain and time-domain analyses in a twofold process, is adopted for the SSI analysis considering the nonlinearity of the seismic base isolation. The program KIESSI-3D is used for computing the reaction forces in the frequency domain and the program MIDAS/Civil is applied for the nonlinear time-domain analysis. The BRM numerical model is verified by comparing the results of the frequency-domain analysis and time-domain analysis for the soil-structure system with an equivalent linear base isolation model. Moreover, the displacement response of the base isolation and the horizontal response at the top of the structure obtained by the nonlinear SSI analysis using BRM are compared with those obtained by the fixed-base analysis. The comparison reveals that the fixed-base analysis provides conservative peak deformation for the base isolation but is not particularly conservative in term of the floor response spectrum of the superstructure.

이 연구는 기초의 묻힘이 면진 원전구조물의 응답에 미치는 효과를 지표기초와 비교하여 평가하였다. 면진장치의 비선형 성을 고려한 비선형 SSI 해석은 진동수영역해석과 시간영역해석의 복합법인 경계반력법(BRM)을 이용하여 수행하였다. BRM 해석모델은 BRM을 이용한 등가선형 SSI 해석결과를 재래의 주파수영역 SSI 해석결과와 비교함으로 검증하였다. 마 지막으로 비선형 SSI해석에 의한 묻힌기초 모델의 면진장치의 변위 및 구조물 응답을 지표기초의 해석결과와 비교하였다. 비교결과, 면진장치의 변위응답은 묻힌기초효과를 고려할 경우 감소할 수 있음을 알 수 있었다.

The Eradi Quake System (EQS) is a seismic isolation bearing system designed to minimize forces and displacements experienced by structures subjected to ground motion. The EQS dissipates seismic energy through friction of Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (PTFE) disk pad. In general, a force-displacement relationship of EQS has post yield stiffness hardening during large inelastic displacement. In this study, seismic responses of seismically isolated nuclear power plant (NPP) subjected to design basis earthquake (DBE) and beyond design basis earthquakes (150% DBE and 167% DBE) are compared considering the post yield stiffness hardening effect of EQS. From the results, it can be observed that if the post-yield stiffness hardening effect of EQS is increased, the displacement response of EQS is reduced, and the acceleration and shear responses of containment structures of NPP is increased.

In order to improve seismic safety of nuclear power plant (NPP) structures in high seismicity area, seismic isolation system can be adapted. In this study, friction pendulum system (FPS) is used as the seismic isolation system. According to Coulomb‘s friction theory, friction coefficient is constant regardless of bearing pressure and sliding velocity. However, friction coefficient under actual situation can be changed according to bearing pressure, sliding velocity and temperature. Seismic responses of friction pendulum system with constant friction and various velocity-dependent friction are compared. The velocity-dependent friction coefficients of FPS are varied between lowand fast-velocity friction coefficients according to sliding velocity. From the results of seismic analysis of FPS with various cases of friction coefficient, it can be observed that the yield force of FPS becomes larger as the fast-velocity friction coefficient becomes larger. Also, the displacement response of FPS becomes smaller as the fast-velocity coefficient becomes larger.

ASCE 4 requires that a hard stop be built around the seismic isolation system in nuclear power plants. In order to maintain the function of the isolation system, this hard stop is required to have clearance-to-stop, which should be no less than the 90th-percentile displacements for 150% Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) shaking. Huang et al. calculated clearance-to-stop by using a Latin Hypercube Sampling technique, without considering the rocking behavior of the isolated structure. This paper investigates the effects on estimation of clearance-to-stop due to 1) rocking behavior of the isolated structure and 2) sampling technique for considering the uncertainties of isolation system. This paper explains the simplified analysis model to consider the rocking behavior of the isolated structure, and the input earthquakes recorded at Diablo Canyon in the western United States. In order to more accurately approximate the distribution tail of the horizontal displacement in the isolated structure, a modified Latin Hypercube Sampling technique is proposed, and then this technique was applied to consider the uncertainty of the isolation system. Through the use of this technique, it was found that rocking behavior has no significant effect on horizontal displacement (and thus clearance-to-stop) of the isolated structure, and the modified Latin Hypercube Sampling technique more accurately approximates the distribution tail of the horizontal displacement than the existing Latin Hypercube Sampling technique.