Seismic risk assessment of liquid storage tanks via a nonlinear surrogate model

A performance‐based earthquake engineering approach is developed for the seismic risk assessment of fixed‐roof atmospheric steel liquid storage tanks. The proposed method is based on a surrogate single‐mass model that consists of elastic beam‐column elements and nonlinear springs. Appropriate component and system‐level damage states are defined, following the identification of commonly observed modes of failure that may occur during an earthquake. Incremental dynamic analysis and simplified cloud are offered as potential approaches to derive the distribution of response parameters given the seismic intensity. A parametric investigation that engages the aforementioned analysis methods is conducted on 3 tanks of varying geometry, considering both anchored and unanchored support conditions. Special attention is paid to the elephant's foot buckling formation, by offering extensive information on its capacity and demand representation within the seismic risk assessment process. Seismic fragility curves are initially extracted for the component‐level damage states, to compare the effect of each analysis approach on the estimated performance. The subsequent generation of system‐level fragility curves reveals the issue of nonsequential damage states, whereby significant damage may abruptly appear without precursory lighter damage states.     

Numerical simulation and seismic performance evaluation of buried pipelines rehabilitated with cured‐in‐place‐pipe liner under seismic wave propagation

The cured‐in‐place‐pipe (CIPP) liner technology involves installation of flexible polymeric composite liners coated with thermosetting resin to the inner surfaces of existing buried pipelines. This innovative technology provides an efficient, economic, and environmentally friendly alternative for rehabilitation of structurally compromised underground pipelines without expensive and disruptive excavation. However, the lack of analytical/numerical procedures to quantify the seismic performance of CIPP liner reinforced pipelines remains a barrier to the seismic design and rehabilitation of underground pipelines. This paper first develops an experimentally validated hysteretic model of ductile iron push‐on joints, reinforced with one particular type of CIPP liner under repeated axial loading. A numerical procedure is then proposed to systematically assess the seismic performance and fragility of straight buried pipelines incorporating push‐on joints and subjected to transient ground deformations. The numerical results indicate that CIPP liner‐reinforced pipelines exhibit favorable robust seismic performance with limited joint damage under high‐intensity transient ground deformations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Methodology for the development of bridge‐specific fragility curves

A new methodology for the development of bridge‐specific fragility curves is proposed with a view to improving the reliability of loss assessment in road networks and prioritising retrofit of the bridge stock. The key features of the proposed methodology are the explicit definition of critical limit state thresholds for individual bridge components, with consideration of the effect of varying geometry, material properties, reinforcement and loading patterns on the component capacity; the methodology also includes the quantification of uncertainty in capacity, demand and damage state definition. Advanced analysis methods and tools (nonlinear static analysis and incremental dynamic response history analysis) are used for bridge component capacity and demand estimation, while reduced sampling techniques are used for uncertainty treatment. Whereas uncertainty in both capacity and demand is estimated from nonlinear analysis of detailed inelastic models, in practical application to bridge stocks, the demand is estimated through a standard response spectrum analysis of a simplified elastic model of the bridge. The simplified methodology can be efficiently applied to a large number of bridges (with different characteristics) within a road network, by means of an ad hoc developed software involving the use of a generic (elastic) bridge model, which derives bridge‐specific fragility curves. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic fragilities of single-column highway bridges with rocking column-footing

Rocking isolation has been increasingly studied as a promising design concept to limit the earthquake damage of civil structures. Despite the difficulties and uncertainties of predicting the rocking response under individual earthquake excitations (due to negative rotational stiffness and complex impact energy loss), in a statistical sense, the seismic performance of rocking structures has been shown to be generally consistent with the experimental outcomes. To this end, this study assesses, in a probabilistic manner, the effectiveness of using rocking isolation as a retrofit strategy for single-column concrete box-girder highway bridges in California. Under earthquake excitation, the rocking bridge could experience multi-class responses (eg, full contacted or uplifting foundation) and multi-mode damage (eg, overturning, uplift impact, and column nonlinearity). A multi-step machine learning framework is developed to estimate the damage probability associated with each damage scenario. The framework consists of the dimensionally consistent generalized linear model for regression of seismic demand, the logistic regression for classification of distinct response classes, and the stepwise regression for feature selection of significant ground motion and structural parameters. Fragility curves are derived to predict the response class probabilities of rocking uplift and overturning, and the conditional damage probabilities such as column vibrational damage and rocking uplift impact damage. The fragility estimates of rocking bridges are compared with those for as-built bridges, indicating that rocking isolation is capable of reducing column damage potential. Additionally, there exists an optimal slenderness angle range that enables the studied bridges to experience much lower overturning tendencies and significantly reduced column damage probabilities at the same time.     

考虑主余震作用的近海桥墩时变地震易损性分析

基于OpenSEES平台,以某近海刚构桥桥墩为例,选取符合场地类型的地震波,并根据地震记录构造主余震序列。运用"能力需求比"分析方法建立不同服役时间节点桥墩控制截面在不同损伤状态条件下的地震易损性曲线,研究氯离子侵蚀和主余震序列对桥墩抗震性能的影响。结果表明:同一损伤状态的超越概率随着服役时间延长和PGA增大而不断变大,且随着损伤状态等级提高,超越概率逐渐降低。轻微损伤状态下,主余震序列对桥墩易损性影响较小;中等损伤、严重破坏和完全倒塌状态下,同一服役期,考虑主余震序列作用下桥墩的超越概率相比于仅考虑主震作用明显增大。     

2019年甘肃张掖M5.0地震余震序列重定位

本文使用祁连山主动源台网和甘肃省数字测震台网记录到的地震资料,应用双差定位方法和遗传算法对2019年甘肃张掖M5.0地震及其余震进行重定位,获得了30个地震事件的重定位结果,双差定位显示主震位置为38.502°N,100.254°E,震源深度14.7 km。重定位结果显示余震分布在昌马—俄博断裂,较为集中,震源深度主要分布在5～15 km范围内,余震序列沿SW—NE向空间分布。     

考虑残损的古建木结构地震易损性分析

现役古建木结构普遍存在残损现象,这将影响结构的抗震性能。本文以北京故宫的咸福宫西配殿为研究对象,通过简化其屋顶、斗拱、榫卯和柱脚节点建立结构的理想模型,并在此基础上考虑材料老化和节点性能降低等因素建立其残损现状模型。通过地震易损性分析,得到古建木结构的地震易损性曲线并进行理想和残损结构的震害等级及其发生概率对比。研究结果表明:残损现象降低了咸福宫西配殿的刚度和自振频率;相比于理想结构,咸福宫西配殿残损结构在小震作用下发生轻微损坏的概率增大21.1%,在中震作用下发生中等破坏的概率增大3.7%,大震作用下发生严重破坏的概率增大10.6%;咸福宫西配殿在大震作用下发生倒塌的概率很小,体现了木结构具有良好的抗震性能。     

Seismic performance evaluation of typical dampers designed by Chinese building code

Adding dampers is a commonly adopted seismic risk mitigation strategy for modern buildings, and the corresponding design procedure of dampers has been well established by the Chinese Building Code. Even though all types of dampers are designed by the same procedure, actual seismic performance of the building may differ from one to the others. In this study, a nine-story benchmark steel building is established, and three different and typical types of dampers are designed according to the Chinese Building Code to realize structural vibration control under strong earthquake excitation. The seismic response of the prototype building equipped with a viscoelastic damper, viscous damper and buckling-restrained brace(BRB) subjected to 10 earthquake records are calculated, and Incremental Dynamic Analysis(IDA) is performed to describe progressive damage of the structure under increasing earthquake intensity. In the perspective of fragility, it shows that the viscoelastic damper has the highest collapse margin ratio(CMR), and the viscous damper provides the best drift control. Both the BRB and viscoelastic dampers can effectively reduce the floor acceleration responses in the mid-rise building.     

A practical approach for seismic risk assessment of underground structures: A case study of Iranian subway tunnels

Active geological and young faulted zones have made Iran’s territory one of the most seismological active areas in the world according to recent historical earthquakes. Some of the deadliest earthquakes such as Gilan 1990 and Kermanshah 2018 caused tens of thousands fatalities. If such violent earthquakes affect strategical structures of a country, indirect losses would be more concerning than direct losses. Nowadays there is no doubt about the vital role of tunnels and underground structures in urban areas. These facilities serve as nonstop functional structures for human transportation, water and sewage systems and underground pedestrian ways. Any external hazard subjected to underground spaces, such as earthquake could directly affect passenger’s lives and significantly decrease whole system reliability of public transportation. Commonly two earthquake levels of intensities, Maximum Design Earthquake (MDE) and Operating Design Earthquake (ODE) were used in seismic design of underground structures. However, uncertain nature of earthquakes in terms of frequency content, duration of strong ground motion, and level of intensity indicate that only the two levels of earthquake (ODE and MDE) cannot cover the all range of possible seismic responses of structures during a probable earthquake. It is important to evaluate the behavior of tunnel under a wide range of earthquake intensities. For this purpose, a practical risk-based approach which is obtained using the total probability rule was used. This study illustrates a framework for evaluation seismic stability of tunnels. Urban railway tunnels of Tehran, Shiraz, Ahwaz, Mashhad, Isfahan and Tabriz were considered as study cases. Nominal value of seismic risk for three main damage states, including minor, moderate and major were calculated.     

Mainshock-consistent ground motion record selection for aftershock sequences

In recent years, the additional risk posed to the built environment due to aftershock sequences and triggered events has been brought to attention, and several efforts have been directed towards developing fragility functions for structures in damaged conditions. Despite this rise of interest, a rather fundamental component for such tasks, namely that of aftershock ground motion record selection, has remained under-scrutinized. Herein, we propose a pragmatic procedure that can be applied for the selection of mainshock-aftershock ground motion pairs using consistent causal parameters and accounting for the correlation between their spectral accelerations. In addition, a structural analysis strategy that can be employed for the analytical derivation of damage-dependent fragility functions is outlined and presented through a case study. A more conventional back-to-back IDA analysis is also carried out in order to compare the derived damage-dependent fragility functions with the ones obtained with the proposed procedure. The results indicate that record selection remains a crucial factor even when assessing the structural vulnerability of damaged buildings, and should thus be treated cautiously.