• Applied Microscopy
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.67-76
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• 2012

The biomimetic approach on the cuticular spinning nozzles of the major ampullate silk glands in the golden-web spider Nephila calvata has been attempted using various visualizing techniques of light and electron microscopes to improve the design of spinning nozzle for producing synthetic nanofibers spun from electrospinning apparatus. The major ampullate spigot which has the most effective nozzle system to produce nanofibers for dragline silk with high strength and elasticity is connected via the bullet type spigot on anterior spinneret with flexible terminal segment. The excretory duct which transports the liquid silk feedstock from ampulla to spigot is divided into 3 limbs by loops back on itself to form an S-shape morphology that is bundled in connective tissue. Final diameter of the nanofibers at nozzle was dramatically reduced by gradual narrowing of duct cuticle less than 10 times comparing to its original size of funnel region. Moreover, the funnel has a characteristic cuticular organization with porous microstructure which seems to be related to water removal from feedstock of silk precursors. High magnification electron micrographs also reveal the presence of the spiral grooves on the surface of the cuticular intima near the valve which presumed to reduce friction during rapid flow of liquid silk.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.104-113
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• 1997

This study aims to develop an analysis model using a commercial process simulator-ASPEN PLUS for an IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) system consisting a dry coal feeding, oxygen-blown entrained gasification process by Shell, a low temperature gas clean up process, a General Electric MS7001FA gas turbine, a three pressure, natural recirculation heat recovery steam generator, a regenerative, condensing steam turbine and a cryogenic air separation unit. The comparison between those results of this study and reference one done by other engineer at design conditions shows consistency which means the soundness of this model. The greater moisture contents in Illinois#6 coal causes decreasing gasifier temperature and the greater ash and sulfur content hurt system efficiency due to increased heat loss. As the results of sensitivity analysis using developed model for the parameters of gasifier operating pressure, steam/coal ratio and oxygen/coal ratio, the gasifier temperature increases while combustible gases (CO＋H2) decreases throughout the pressure going up. In the steam/coal ratio analysis, when the feeding steam increases the maximum combustible gas generation point moves to lower oxygen/coal ratio feeding condition. Finally, for the oxygen/coal ratio analysis, it shows oxygen/coal ratio 0.77 as a optimum operating condition at steam/coal feeding ratio 0.2.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.5-15
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• 2014

This study is to quantitatively evaluate the impact on surrounding groundwater of waterway tunnel excavation and cofferdam construction in which A-dam and B-dam, so prediction of groundwater fluctuation and tunnel lining installation was studied. As a result, drawdown of groundwater level during tunnel excavation and cofferdam construction occurred about 3.58 m in the tunnel shaft. The initial condition of groundwater level recovered by up to 90 % was simulated after the completed the construction of the tunnel and lining installation. Groundwater inflow in the tunnel evaluated was analyzed to have exceeding water design criteria of the tunnel. The groundwater inflow is reduced to maximum $0.006m^3/min/km$ after lining installation done in the tunnel, so effect of lining installation was evaluated as 93 % or more. Drawdown of about 0.04~0.31 m occurs in the houses and temples analysis of groundwater system of the surrounding area from construction. Drawdown has occurred nearly by considering annual groundwater level fluctuation of National Groundwater Observation Network.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.331-338
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• 2022

Successor representation (SR) is a model of human reinforcement learning (RL) mimicking the underlying mechanism of hippocampal cells constructing cognitive maps. SR utilizes these learned features to adaptively respond to the frequent reward changes. In this paper, we evaluated the performance of SR under the context where changes in latent variables of environments trigger the reward structure changes. For a benchmark test, we adopted SR-Dyna, an integration of SR into goal-driven Dyna RL algorithm in the 2-stage Markov Decision Task (MDT) in which we can intentionally manipulate the latent variables - state transition uncertainty and goal-condition. To precisely investigate the characteristics of SR, we conducted the experiments while controlling each latent variable that affects the changes in reward structure. Evaluation results showed that SR-Dyna could learn to respond to the reward changes in relation to the changes in latent variables, but could not learn rapidly in that situation. This brings about the necessity to build more robust RL models that can rapidly learn to respond to the frequent changes in the environment in which latent variables and reward structure change at the same time.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.47-60
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• 2023

At present, in South Korea, there is a growing concern regarding solar power facilities installed on slopes because they are prone to damage caused by natural disasters, such as heavy rainfall and typhoons. Each year, these solar power facilities experience soil erosion due to heavy rainfall and foundation damage or detachment caused by strong wind loads. Despite these challenges, the interaction between the ground and structures is not adequately considered. Current analyses primarily focus on the structural stability under external loads; the overall facility site's stability-excluding the solar structures-in relation to its surrounding slopes is neglected. Therefore, in this study, we use finite-difference method analysis to simulate the behavior of the foundation and piles to assess changes in lateral displacement and bending stress in piles, as well as the safety factor of sloped terrains, in response to various influencing factors, such as pile diameter, spacing between piles, pile-embedding depth, wind loads, and dry and wet conditions. The analysis results indicate that pile spacing and wind loads significantly influence lateral displacement and bending stress in piles, whereas pile-embedding depth strongly influences the safety factor of sloped terrains. Moreover, we found that under certain conditions, the design criteria in domestic standards may not be met.