The electric power transmission network is a crucial lifeline in modern society, and it needs to be protected against extreme loading conditions such as in an earthquake. The seismic fragility curves of high voltage transmission towers in South Korea are developed based on the limit states that are defined in terms of yielding and buckling of the structural members of the towers. The finite element models of the representative transmission towers in South Korea are developed based on the assumption of linear elastic behavior, and a series of time history analyses are performed using a set of 20 recorded ground motions. The maximum likelihood estimation method is used to develop fragility curves from numerous simulations. It is concluded that the transmission towers are safe under a design level earthquake in South Korea. When a strong earthquake occurs, buckling of the members is more likely to occur before yielding in the axial direction in the case of the 765 kV and 345 kV transmission towers, while the opposite is observed for the 154 kV transmission tower.

Kim, D.C., Kim, K.O., Pelinovsky, E., Didenkulova, I. and Choi, B.H., 2013. Three-dimensional tsunami runup simulation for the port of Koborinai on the Sanriku coast of Japan. The huge tsunami generated by the earthquake that occurred off the Pacific coast of Japan at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday, 11 March 2011 produced a maximum runup of 40 m on the east coast of Japan. The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves up to 37.9 m in height that struck Japan minutes after the quake. Koborinai is a tiny fishery port located north of Miyako City in the Iwate Prefecture. A survey team from the University of Tokyo Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) found high water marks and other evidence of a gigantic wave at the port of Koborinai. The port is on low land sandwiched between two mountains. A joint survey team from ERI-Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) and Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute (KORDI) visited again and surveyed the site in detail. The 3D Princeton Ocean Model was...

A fully integral bridge that is restrained at both ends by the abutments has been proposed to form a monolithic rigid frame structure. Thus, the feasible horizontal force effect due to an earthquake or vehicle braking is mainly prevented by the end‐restraining abutments. In a recent study, a fully integral bridge with appropriate end‐restraining abutment stiffness was derived for a multispan continuous railroad bridge based on linear elastic behavior. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the nonlinear behavior and seismic capacity of the fully integral bridge and then to assess the appropriate stiffness of the end‐restraining abutment to sufficiently resist design earthquake loadings through a rigorous parametric study. The finite element modeling and analyses are performed using OpenSees. In order to obtain the force‐deflection curves of the models, nonlinear static pushover analysis is performed. It is confirmed that the fully integral bridge prototype in the study meets the seismic performance criteria specified by Caltrans. The nonlinear static pushover analysis results reveal that, due to the end‐restraining effect of the abutment, the lateral displacement of the fully integral bridge is reduced, and the intermediate piers sustain less lateral force and displacement. Then, the sectional member forces are well controlled in the intermediate piers by a proper application of the end‐restraining abutments.