The analysis of the optimal scalar and vector intensity measurements for seismic performance assessment of deep-buried hydraulic arched tunnels

The selection of optimal intensity measures(IMs)has been recommended for generating the seismic demand models with different probabilities by researchers since the seismic IMs are closely associated with earthquake risks and structural safety.However,the seismic design code(mainly for aboveground structures)and dynamic analysis of underground structures conventionally employ the peak ground acceleration(PGA)as an optimal IM.In this paper,the research is to identify the optimal scalar and vector IMs in the fragility investigation of deep-buried hydraulic arched tunnels using the finite element method.A refinement process was performed to determine the optimal scalar IMs by comprehensively comparing their correlation,efficiency,practicality,proficiency,and sufficiency among the examined IMs.Furtherly,the optimum vector IMs were also developed,followed by the three different scalar IMs.Eventually,the dif-ferences between the fragility curves of the tunnel produced using the optimal scalar and vector IM were compared.The generated vector fragility surface can be used to estimate the seismic fragility of identical hydraulic tunnels in an approximative manner.

Use of acoustic intensity measurements in underwater acoustics (Modern state and prospects)

This paper discusses scalar and vector characteristics of underwater ambient noise which were explored by the authors and their colleagues in different regions of the Earth Ocean.The measurements presented were performed in 6 Hz - 1000 Hz band, at depths up to 1000 m and wind speeds less than 15 m/s. The following questions are addressed: ratio between edsotropic (coherent) and isotropic (diffusive) parts of ambient noise; noise energy transport and its cotmection with surface waves propagation direction; noise energy flow cancenation by opposite energy flow of signal; signal-to-noise ratio for combined receiver in dynamic noise field. It follows from the results presellted, that further development of underwater intensity measurements opens new opportunities for investigations in the fields of underwater acoustics and oceanology.

Seismic fragility analysis of clay-pile-pier systems considering the optimization of ground motion intensity measures

The performance of clay-pile-pier system under earthquake shaking was comprehensively examined via three-dimensional finite element analyses,in which the complex stress-strain relationships of a clay and piled pier system were depicted by a hyperbolic-hysteretic and an equivalent elastoplastic model,respectively.One hundred twenty ground motions with varying peak accelerations were considered,along with the variations in bridge superstructure mass and pile flexural rigidity.Comprehensive comparison studies suggested that peak pile-cap acceleration and peak pile-cap velocity are the optimal ground motion intensity measures for seismic responses of the pier and the pile,respectively.Furthermore,based on two optimal ground motion intensity measures and using curvature ductility to quantify different damage states,seismic fragility analyses were performed.The pier generally had no evident damage except when the bridge girder mass was equal to 960 t,which seemed to be comparatively insensitive to the varying pile flexural rigidity.In comparison,the pile was found to be more vulnerable to seismic damage and its failure probabilities tended to clearly reduce with the increment of pile flexural rigidity,while the influence of the bridge girder mass was relatively minor.

A fast emittance measurement unit for high intensity DC beam

A combined unit, which has the ability to measure the current and emittance of the high intensity direct current（DC）ion beam, is developed at Peking University（PKU）. It is a multi-slit single-wire（MSSW）-type beam emittance meter combined with a water-cooled Faraday Cup, named high intensity beam emittance measurement unit-6（HIBEMU-6）. It takes about 15 seconds to complete one measurement of the beam current and its emittance. The emittance of a 50-mA@50-kV DC proton beam is measured.

Vector-intensity measure based seismic vulnerability analysis of bridge structures

This paper presents a method for seismic vulnerability analysis of bridge structures based on vector-valued intensity measure （viM）, which predicts the limit-state capacities efficiently with multi-intensity measures of seismic event. Accounting for the uncertainties of the bridge model, ten single-bent overpass bridge structures are taken as samples statistically using Latin hypercube sampling approach. 200 earthquake records are chosen randomly for the uncertainties of ground motions according to the site condition of the bridges. The uncertainties of structural capacity and seismic demand are evaluated with the ratios of demand to capacity in different damage state. By comparing the relative importance of different intensity measures, Sa（T1） and Sa（T2） are chosen as viM. Then, the vector-valued fragility functions of different bridge components are developed. Finally, the system-level vulnerability of the bridge based on viM is studied with Duunett- Sobel class correlation matrix which can consider the correlation effects of different bridge components. The study indicates that an increment IMs from a scalar IM to viM results in a significant reduction in the dispersion of fragility functions and in the uncertainties in evaluating earthquake risk. The feasibility and validity of the proposed vulnerability analysis method is validated and the bridge is more vulnerable than any components.

Optimal vector-valued intensity measure for seismic collapse assessment of structures

The present study is aimed to investigate the ability of different intensity measures （IMs）, including response spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of the structure, Sa（T1）, as a common scalar IM and twelve vector-valued IMs for seismic collapse assessment of structures. The vector-valued IMs consist of two components, with S（T1） as the first component and different parameters that are ratios of scalar IMs, as well as the spectral shape proxies εSa and N, as the second component. After investigating the properties of an optimal IM, a new vector-valued IM that includes the ratio of Sa（T1） to the displacement spectrum intensity （DSI） as the second component is proposed. The new IM is more efficient than other IMs for predicting the collapse capacity of structures. It is also sufficient with respect to magnitude, source-to-site distance, and scale factor for collapse capacity prediction of structures. To satisfy the predictability criterion, a ground motion prediction equation （GMPE） is determined for Sa（T1）/DSI by using the existing GMPEs. Furthermore, an empirical equation is proposed for obtaining the correlation between the components of the proposed IM. The results of this study show that using the new vector-valued IM leads to a more reliable seismic collapse assessment of structures.

The effect of different intensity measures and earthquake directions on the seismic assessment of skewed highway bridges

In this study the probable seismic behavior of skewed bridges with continuous decks under earthquake excitations from different directions is investigated. A 45° skewed bridge is studied. A suite of 20 records is used to perform an Incremental Dynamic Analysis （IDA） for fragility curves. Four different earthquake directions have been considered： -45°, 0°, 22.5, 45°. A sensitivity analysis on different spectral intensity measures is presented; efficiency and practicality of different intensity measures have been studied. The fragility curves obtained indicate that the critical direction for skewed bridges is the skew direction as well as the longitudinal direction. The study shows the importance of finding the most critical earthquake in understanding and predicting the behavior of skewed bridges.

Some considerations on the physical mea-sure of seismic intensity

The study on seismic intensity can be traced prior to the time that modern seismology was established. In its early stage the seismic intensity was designed to serve as a measure in scaling the severity of earthquake damage to civil engineering and environmental structures. Also the seismic intensity is usually assigned by engineers and seismologists with one or two characteristic parameters of earthquake ground motions to reflect earthquake damage potential so as to be able to serve as an input earthquake load for seismic design of structures. So choosing a proper parameter to reflect the action of seismic intensity is the main objective of the research on physical measure of seismic intensity. However, since various kinds of structures have quite different damage mechanisms, there will exist great differences in damages to different structures located at the same area during the same earthquake. Particularly, in some cases, quite different damages have happened even to the structures of same kind due to many other factors such as different construction materials, different configurations or on the different types of sites where structures located. In addition, the ground motion parameters, which result in damage to structures, are not the single peak value of ground motion. Hence, this paper emphasizes that the research on new physical measure of seismic intensity should not only consider the structural characteristics but also take into account other parameters such as duration, energy of ground motion and so on. In particular, as the physical measures of intensity, different ground motion parameter should be adopted for different structures.

Estimation of Aleatory Randomness by S_(a)(T_(1))-Based Intensity Measures in Fragility Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Frame Structures

Based on the multiple stripes analysis method,an investigation of the estimation of aleatory randomness by S_(a)(T_(1))-based intensity measures(IMs)in the fragility analysis is carried out for two typical low-and mediumrise reinforced concrete(RC)frame structures with 4 and 8 stories,respectively.The sensitivity of the aleatory randomness estimated in fragility curves to various S_(a)(T_(1))-based IMs is analyzed at three damage limit states,i.e.,immediate occupancy,life safety,and collapse prevention.In addition,the effect of characterization methods of bidirectional ground motion intensity on the record-to-record variability is investigated.It is found that the damage limit state of the structure has an important influence on the applicability of the ground motion IM.The S_(a)(T_(1))-based IMs,considering the effect of softened period,can maintain lower record-to-record variability in the three limit states,and the S_(a)(T_(1))-based IMs,considering the effect of higher modes,do not show their advantage over S_(a)(T_(1)).Furthermore,the optimal multiplier C and exponentαin the dual-parameter ground motion IM are proposed to obtain a lower record-to-record variability in the fragility analysis of different damage limit state.Finally,the improved dual-parameter ground motion IM is applied in the risk assessment of the 8-story frame structure.

Correlation study between ground motion intensity measure parameters and deformation demands for bilinear SDOF systems

The correlation between ground motion intensity measures （IM） and single-degree-of-freedom （SDOF） deformation demands is described in this study. Peak ground acceleration （APG）, peak ground velocity （VPG）, peak ground displacement （DPG）, spectral acceleration at the first-mode period of vibration [As（T1）] and ratio of VPG to APG are used as IM parameters, and the correlation is characterized by correlation coefficients p. The numerical results obtained by nonlinear dynamic analyses have shown good correlation between As（T1） or VPG and deformation demands. Furthermore, the effect of As（T1） and VPG as IM on the dispersion of the mean value of deformation demands is also investigated for SDOF systems with three different periods T=0.3 s, 1.0 s, 3.0 s respectively.

Multi-Energy Gamma-Ray Attenuations for Non-Destructive Detection of Hazardous Materials

We present a non-destructive method (NDM) to identify minute quantities of high atomic number (Z) elements in containers such as passenger baggage, goods carrying transport trucks, and environmental samples. This method relies on the fact that photon attenuation varies with its energy and properties of the absorbing medium. Low-energy gamma-ray intensity loss is sensitive to the atomic number of the absorbing medium, while that of higher-energies vary with the density of the medium. To verify the usefulness of this feature for NDM, we carried out simultaneous measurements of intensities of multiple gamma rays of energies 81 to 1408 keV emitted by sources 133Ba (half-life = 10.55 y) and 152Eu (half-life = 13.52 y). By this arrangement, we could detect minute quantities of lead and copper in a bulk medium from energy dependent gamma-ray attenuations. It seems that this method will offer a reliable, low-cost, low-maintenance alternative to X-ray or accelerator-based techniques for the NDM of high-Z materials such as mercury, lead, uranium, and transuranic elements etc.

Earthquake-induced landslide displacement attenuation models and application in probabilistic seismic landslide displacement analysis

A landslide displacement (DLL) attenuation model has been developed using spectral intensity and a ratio of critical acceleration coefficient to ground acceleration coefficient. In the development of the model,a New Zealand earthquake record data set with magnitudes ranging from 5.0 to 7.2 within a source distance of 175 km is used. The model can be used to carry out deterministic landslide displacement analysis,and readily extended to carry out probabilistic seismic landslide displacement analysis. DLL attenuation models have also been developed by using earthquake source terms,such as magnitude and source distance,that account for the effects of earthquake faulttype,source type,and site conditions. Sensitivity analyses show that the predicted DLL values from the new models are close to those from the Romeo model that was developed from an Italian earthquake record data set. The proposed models are also applied to an analysis of landslide displacements in the Wenchuan earthquake,and a comparison between the predicted and the observed results shows that the proposed models are reliable,and can be confidently used in mapping landslide potential.

Fragility analysis for vehicle derailment on railway bridges under earthquakes

With the rapid development of high-speed railways around the globe,the safety of vehicles running on bridges during earthquakes has been paid more attention to.In the design of railway bridges,in addition to ensuring the safety of the bridge structure in earthquake,the vehicle safety should also be ensured.Previous studies have focused on the detailed analysis of vehicle derailment on bridges,proposing complex numerical algorithms for wheel-rail contact analysis as well as for parametric analysis,but they are inconvenient for designers.Intensity measure(IM)used in performance-based earthquake engineering is introduced in this study.A method to evaluate the vehicle safety on bridges under earthquakes is proposed with respect to the optimal IM.Then,the vehicle derailment case of the Kumamoto earthquake in Japan verifies the decoupling method of vehicle-bridge interaction model.In the assessment of vehicle derailments,eight IMs are systematically compared:the IMs of bridge deck motion are generally better than those of ground motion;the variation coefficient of spectral intensity of the bridge deck is the smallest at different frequencies.Finally,the derailment fragility cloud map is presented to evaluate the vehicle safety on bridges during earthquakes.

Error analysis and calibration for underwater sound intensity measuring system

Based on measuring the cross-spectrum density of sound pressure between two hydrophones, the facility for underwater sound intensity measurement is investigated and designed. According to the principle of two-hydrophone method for intensity measurement, the error analysis is carried out. Given the method of sound intensity measurement calibration for this underwater sound intensity measurement facility, the uncertainty of intensity measurement by this facility is evaluated. It is shown that the analysis and evaluation are agreeable to the experimental results.

Efficiency of scalar and vector intensity measures for seismic slope displacements

Ground motion intensity measures are usually used to predict the earthquake-induced displacements in earth dams,soil slopes and soil structures.In this study,the efficiency of various single ground motion intensity measures(scalar IMs)or a combination of them(vector IMs)are investigated using the PEER-NGA strong motion database and an equivalent-linear sliding-mass model.Although no single intensity measure is efficient enough for all slope conditions,the spectral acceleration at 1.5 times of the initial slope period and Arias intensity of the input motion are found to be the most efficient scalar IMs for flexible slopes and stiff slopes respectively.Vector IMs can incorporate different characteristics of the ground motion and thus significantly improve the efficiency over a wide range of slope conditions.Among various vector IMs considered,the spectral accelerations at multiple spectral periods achieve high efficiency for a wide range of slope conditions.This study provides usefiul guidance to the development of more efficient empirical prediction models as well as the ground motion selection criteria for time domain analysis of seismic slope displacements.