• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.249-271
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• 2014

This paper presents a unique study of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for the maintenance decision making about a real life movable bridge. The mechanical components of movable bridges are maintained on a scheduled basis. However, it is desired to have a condition-based maintenance by taking advantage of SHM. The main objective is to track the operation of a gearbox and a rack-pinion/open gear assembly, which are critical parts of bascule type movable bridges. Maintenance needs that may lead to major damage to these components needs to be identified and diagnosed timely since an early detection of faults may help avoid unexpected bridge closures or costly repairs. The fault prediction of the gearbox and rack-pinion/open gear is carried out using two types of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs): 1) Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Networks (MLP-NNs) and 2) Fuzzy Neural Networks (FNNs). Monitoring data is collected during regular opening and closing of the bridge as well as during artificially induced reversible damage conditions. Several statistical parameters are extracted from the time-domain vibration signals as characteristic features to be fed to the ANNs for constructing the MLP-NNs and FNNs independently. The required training and testing sets are obtained by processing the acceleration data for both damaged and undamaged condition of the aforementioned mechanical components. The performances of the developed ANNs are first evaluated using unseen test sets. Second, the selected networks are used for long-term condition evaluation of the rack-pinion/open gear of the movable bridge. It is shown that the vibration monitoring data with selected statistical parameters and particular network architectures give successful results to predict the undamaged and damaged condition of the bridge. It is also observed that the MLP-NNs performed better than the FNNs in the presented case. The successful results indicate that ANNs are promising tools for maintenance monitoring of movable bridge components and it is also shown that the ANN results can be employed in simple approach for day-to-day operation and maintenance of movable bridges.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.761-771
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• 2008

When the crossing frequency of a train meets the natural frequency of a railway bridge, the bridge is bound to become resonant. There are few available time response samples involving a train that passes a bridge at high speed. Very effective modal-parameter extraction techniques for such special high-speed railway bridge conditions are introduced in this paper. Utilizing the cross-correlations of the free-vibration responses after the train passes, mode shapes and the temporal modal parameters (e.g., natural frequency and damping ratio) are extracted using the TDD and SI techniques, respectively. This approach has been applied to a two-span steel composite bridge in the Kyung-Bu high-speed railway system. The estimation results were compared with those obtained using the existing methods. The results fully coincide with those that were extracted using the existing aforementioned technique.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.229-237
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• 2023

Background: We aimed to demonstrate the advances we have achieved in pectus excavatum surgery over the last 10 years, with a particular focus on the refinement of pectus bar stabilization techniques and devices. Methods: In total, 1,526 patients who underwent minimally invasive repair of pectus excavatum surgery from 2013 to 2022 were enrolled and analyzed. We have pursued a new paradigm of crane-powered remodeling of the entire chest wall. The method of bar stabilization has changed from claw fixators to hinge plates and, finally, to bridge plate connections. We also evaluated the effectiveness of the hinge plate (group H) and the bridge plate (group B). Results: The bar displacement rates were 0.1% (n=2) for the claw fixator, 0% for the hinge plate (n=0), and 0% for the bridge plate (n=0). We stopped using the claw fixator in 2022 and the hinge plate in 2019. Since 2022, when we shifted to a multiple-bar technique for all patients, the bridge plate has replaced both the claw fixator and the hinge plate. No bar displacement occurred in either group. Group H had more pleural effusion, wound problems (p<0.05), and longer stays (5.5 vs. 6.2 days, p=0.034) than group B. Conclusion: We have made significant progress in pectus repair surgery over the last decade, particularly in stabilizing the pectus bar and reducing perioperative complications. Our current strategy is the multiple-bar approach with bridge stabilization. Since the bridge-only technique resulted in no bar displacement, we could eliminate the invasive claw fixator or hinge plate.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.949-954
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• 2003

In this paper, simplified modeling approach describing the hysteretic behavior of reinforced concrete columns is discussed. The inelastic response of a reinforced concrete column or pier subjected to cyclic deformation reversals or earthquake ground motion is evaluated by use of lumped hysteretic representation. For this purpose, the hystertic model under axial force variation is developed and implemented into a nonlinear finite element analysis program. The analytical predictions obtained with the new formulation are compared with test results and reveal accuracy and applicability in terms of strength and stiffness. In addition, comparison between results with and without axial force variation stresses the importance of the proposed approach.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.368-371
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• 2000

Two-stage power factor correction (PFC) converter with a single PWM controller is proposed. It consists of a power factor pre-regulator cascaded by an isolated DC/DC converter as in a conventional two-stage approach. However, a single PWM controller is used as in a single-stage, single-switch PFC approach. This converter gives the goof power factor correction, low line current harmonic distortions, and tight output voltage regulations. This converter also has a high efficiency by employing an soft switching method. The proposed approach has advantages such as high performance over the single-stage approach and low cost over two-stage approach. The experimental results obtained on a 300W (30V/10A) prototype PFC converter are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.202-210
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• 2005

This paper presents a new neural network control for nonlinear bridge systems with earthquake excitation. We design multi-layer neural network controllers with a single hidden layer. The selection of an optimal number of neurons in the hidden layer is an important design step for control performance. To select an optimal number of hidden neurons, we progressively add one hidden neuron and observe the change in a performance measure given by the weighted sum of the system error and the control force. The number of hidden neurons which minimizes the performance measure is selected for implementation. A neural network was trained for mitigating vibrations of bridge systems caused by El Centro earthquake. We applied the proposed control approach to a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) and a two-degree-of-freedom (TDOF) bridge system. We assessed the robustness of the control system using randomly generated earthquake excitations which were not used in training the neural network. Our results show that the neural network controller drastically mitigates the effect of the disturbance.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.707-716
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• 2011

It has been applied using cranes or insertion methods to install heavy structures to strengthen existing railway bridges. These methods are uneconomical because of two reasons. The first one is it is required to construct approach roads for heavy equipment and/or working yard. The second one is the electric lines shall be cutoff during construction. Both require additional construction cost and duration. In this study, new transport equipment was developed which can be applied to heavy structures up to 100 ton. Using this method, the heavy structure can be loaded into the new transport equipment at working yard and transported to the working site. This method can be applied, but not limited to railway bridge or roadbed rehabilitation. It was found that the precious construction can be achieved to install heavy structure using this method. The experimental construction to make non-ballast girder bridge composite with new pc deck slab using this method was carried out for Jewon bridge. The example bridge is in extreme condition because it locates above national road #38 within extreme transition curve and has 10 ‰ slope and skew. The experimental construction results were satisfactory both for safety and construction precision.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.169-181
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• 2020

Sensor placement is a crucial aspect of bridge health monitoring (BHM) dedicated to accurately estimate and locate structural damages. In addressing this goal, a sensor placement framework based on the deflection influence line (DIL) analysis is here proposed, for the optimal design of damage detection-oriented BHM system. In order to improve damage detection accuracy, we explore the change of global stiffness matrix, damage coefficient matrix and DIL vector caused by structural damage, and thus develop a novel sensor placement framework based on the Fisher information matrix. Our approach seeks to determine the contribution of each sensing node to damage detection, and adopts a distance correction coefficient to eliminate the information redundancy among sensors. The proposed damage detection-oriented optimal sensor placement (OSP) method is verified by two examples: (1) a numerically simulated three-span continuous beam, and (2) the Pinghu bridge which has existing real damage conditions. These two examples verify the performance of the distance corrected damage sensitivity of influence line (DSIL) method in significantly higher contribution to damage detection and lower information redundancy, and demonstrate the proposed OSP framework can be potentially employed in BHM practices.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.90-97
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• 2016

Purpose: Majority of bridges and roads in Gangwon Province have been carrying loads associated with heavy materials such as rocks, mining products, and cement. This location-specific live loads have contributed to the present situation of overloading, compared to other provinces in Korea. However, the bridges in Gangwon province are designed by national bridge design specification, without considering the location-specific live load characteristics. Therefore, this study focuses on the real traffic data accumulated on regional weighing station to verify the live load characteristics, including actual live load gross vehicle weight, axle weight axle spacings, and number of trucks. Methods: In order to take into account the location specific live load, a governmental weigh station (38th national highway Miro) have been selected and the passing truck data are processed. Based on the truck survey, trucks are categorized into 3 different shapes, and each shape has been idealized into normal distribution. Then, the resulting survey data are processed to predict the target maximum live load values, including the axle loads and gross vehicle weights in 75 years service life span. Results: The results are compared to the nationally used DB-24 live loads, and the results show that nationally recognized DB-24 live load does not sufficiently represent real traffic in mountaineous region in Gangwon province. Conclusion: The comparison results in the recommendation of location-specific live load that should be taken into account for bridge design and evaluation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.201-211
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• 2017

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of yield strength of reinforcing bars and stirrups on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) circular piers. Reversed cyclic loading tests of nine-large scale specimens with longitudinal and transverse reinforcement of different yield strengths (varying between HRB335, HRB500E and HRB600 rebars) were conducted. The test parameters include the yield strength and amount of longitudinal and transverse reinforcement. The results indicate that the adoption of high-strength steel (HSS) reinforcement HRB500E and HRB600 (to replace HRB335) as longitudinal bars without reducing the steel area (i.e., equal volume replacement) is found to increase the moment resistance (as expected) and the total deformation capacity while reducing the residual displacement, ductility and energy dissipation capacity to some extent. Higher strength stirrups enhance the ductility and energy dissipation capacity of RC bridge piers. While the product of steel yield strength and reinforcement ratio ($f_y{\rho}_s$) is kept constant (i.e., equal strength replacement), the piers with higher yield strength longitudinal bars are found to achieve as good seismic performance as when lower strength bars are used. When higher yield strength transverse reinforcement is to be used to maintain equal strength, reducing bar diameter is found to be a better approach than increasing the tie spacing.