• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.291-315
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• 2019

Fatigue cracks are inevitable in circumstances in which the cyclic loading exists. Therefore, many of mechanical components are in a risk of being in exposure to fatigue cracks. On the other hand, renewing the facilities or infrastructures is not always possible. Therefore, retrofitting the structures by means of the available methods, such as crack arrest methods is logical and in some cases inevitable. In this regard, this paper considers three popular crack arrest methods (e.g., drilling stop-hole, steel welded patch, and carbon fiber reinforced (CFRP) patch), which have been compared by using extended finite element method (XFEM). In addition, effects in terms of the width and thickness of patches and the configuration of drilling stop holes have been evaluated. Test results indicated that among the considered methods, CFRP patches were the most effective means for arresting cracks. Besides, in the case of arresting by means of drilling stop holes, drilling two holes next to the crack-tip was more effective than blunting the crack-tip by drilling one hole. In other words, the results indicated that the use of symmetric welded metal patches could lead to a 21% increase in fatigue life, as compared to symmetric stop holes. Symmetric CFRP patches enhanced the fatigue life of cracked specimen up to 77%, as compared to drilling symmetric stop holes. In addition, in all cases, symmetric configurations were far better than asymmetric ones.

• 한국전산구조공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산구조공학회 2010년도 정기 학술대회
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• pp.476-479
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• 2010

In recent years, the deterioration of infrastructures is especially considered. In prestress concrete bridges, one of the important mechanisms of deterioration is the corrosion of the post-tensioned tendon due to environmental agents. In this study, the reliability analysis is performed for a prestress concrete box girder bridge under the pitting corrosion attack with considering the inspection and failure cost. The variation of life-time performance depending on inspection methods have to be quantified. The inspection methods with different accuracy of corrosion detection are presented and applied for model of reliability analysis. The computer program for analysis reliability index of the structure as well as updating process is obtained. An existing bridge is applied for illustrating the influence of inspection cost on the behaviors of structure. Subsequently, the benefit of inspection has shown to predict the time to failure of structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.523-532
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• 2019

Different types of gas reservoir such as Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) are among the strategic infrastructures, and have great importance for any government or their private owners. To keep the tank and its contents safe during earthquakes especially if the contents are of hazardous or flammable materials; using seismic protection systems such as base isolator can be considered as an effective solution. However, the major deficiency of this system can be the large deformation in the isolation level which may lead to the failure of bearing system. In this paper, as a solution, the efficacy of an optimally designed combined vibration control system, the combined laminated rubber isolator and rotational friction damper, is investigated to evaluate the enhancement of an existing metal tank response under both far- and near-field earthquakes. Responses like impulsive and convective accelerations, base shear, and sloshing height are studied herein. The probabilistic framework is used to consider the uncertainties in the structural modeling, as well as record-to-record variability. Due to the high calculation cost of probabilistic methods, a simplified structural model is used. By using the Mont-Carlo simulation approach, it is revealed that this combined isolation system is a highly reliable system which provides considerable enhancement in the performance of reservoir, not only leads to the reduction of probability of catastrophic failure of the tank but also decrease the reservoir damage during the earthquake. Moreover, the relative displacement of the isolation level is controlled very well by this combined system.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제43권2호
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• pp.201-219
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• 2022

This paper firstly proposed high performance composite columns for cold-region infrastructures using ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) and ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) Q960E. Then, 24 square UHPC-filled UHSS tubes (UHSTCs) at low temperatures of -80, -60, -30, and 30℃ were performed under axial loads. The key influencing parameters on axial compression performance of UHSS were studied, i.e., temperature level and UHSS-tube wall thickness (t). In addition, mechanical properties of Q960E at low temperatures were also studied. Test results revealed low temperatures improved the yield/ultimate strength of Q960E. Axial compression tests on UHSTCs revealed that the dropping environmental temperature increased the compression strength and stiffness, but compromised the ductility of UHSTCs; increasing t significantly increased the strength, stiffness, and ductility of UHSTCs. This study developed numerical and theoretical models to reproduce axial compression performances of UHSTCs at low temperatures. Validations against 24 tests proved that both two methods provided reasonable simulations on axial compression performance of UHSTCs. Finally, simplified theoretical models (STMs) and modified prediction equations in AISC 360, ACI 318, and Eurocode 4 were developed to estimate the axial load capacity of UHSTCs at low temperatures.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제32권5호
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• pp.523-540
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• 2023

The failure of slope can cause remarkable damage to either human life or infrastructures. Stabilizing piles are widely utilized to reinforce slope as a slip-resistance structure. The workability of pile-stabilized slopes is affected by various parameters. In this study, the performance of earth slope reinforced with piles and the behavior of piles under static load, by shear reduction strength method using the finite difference software (FLAC^3D) has been investigated. Parametric studies were conducted to investigate the role of pile length (L), different pile distances from each other (S/D), pile head conditions (free and fixed head condition), the effect of sand density (loose, medium, and high-density soil) on the pile behavior, and the performance of pile-stabilized slopes. The performance of the stabilized slopes was analyzed by evaluating the factor of safety, lateral displacement and bending moment of piles, and critical slip mechanism. The results depict that as L increased and S/D reduced, the performance of slopes stabilized with pile gets better by raising the soil density. The greater the amount of bending moment at the shallow depths of the pile in the fixed pile head indicates the effect of the inertial force due to the structure on the pile performance.

• 국제학술발표논문집
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• The 3th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• pp.1166-1169
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• 2009

Bridges are exposed to very severe environment and experience, as service life increased, elevated traffic load and traffic flow, in addition to natural disasters. In comparing to other road structures, bridges may cause more significant damage, such as human-involved accidents, to the society in the event of collapse. A certain level of service shall be necessarily secured to assure the minimum safety of users. The cost for manage and preserve bridges will increase gradually and more restrictions will be loaded to efficiently distribute the limited resources, such as monetary budget and human resource etc. In order to enhance performance and serviceability of bridges with the limited resource, asset management technique has been applied into the bridge management system, which capitalizes the road infrastructures including bridges and assess them in accordance with the government finance report. In the application of asset management, there must be a tool for assess the performance of bridges and this study introduces the basic information on the definition and role of performance measures for asset management for bridges. This research suggests future development direction of performance measure for asset management for bridges in Korea.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제32권3호
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• pp.293-305
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• 2023

To ensure the safety of underground infrastructures, ground can sometimes be first treated by cement slurry and then stabilized using artificial ground freezing (AGF) technique before excavation. The hydration heat produced by cement slurry increases the soil temperature before freezing and results in an extension of the active freezing time (AFT), especially when the Metro Jet System (MJS) treatment is adopted due to a high cement-soil ratio. In this paper, by taking advantage of an on-going project, a case study was performed to evaluate the influence of MJS and AGF on the ground temperature variation through on-site measurement and numerical simulation. Both on-site measurement and simulation results reveal that MJS resulted in a significant increase in the soil temperature after treatment. The ground temperature gradually decreases and then stabilized after completion of MJS. The initiation of AGF resulted in a quick decrease in ground temperature. The ground temperature then slowly decreased and stabilized at later freezing. A slight difference in ground temperature exists between the on-site measurements and simulation results due to limitations of numerical simulation. For the AGF system, numerical simulation is still strongly recommended because it is proven to be cost-effective for predicting the ground temperature variation with reasonable accuracy.

• 유통과학연구
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.23-31
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the Safety and Logistical Distribution Management system in Thailand's Highway Work Zone based on data from Logistics drivers. Accidents in highway construction zones have caused enormous casualties in Thailand yearly. Statistical data shows evidence of correlation between numbers of accidents and drivers' recklessness. Research design, data, and methodology: In this study, we conducted an in- depth interview with 414 logistics drivers and highway construction workers in Khon Kaen province, Thailand. The data was collected based on 63 questionnaires aiming at capturing factors contributing to the risk of safety and cause of accidents in logistic infrastructures such as Highway work zone. Results: The result reveals two significant factors affecting safety in highway work zone, which includes construction environment and safety management system. Moreover, the result shows that feeling of afraid and confused while driving within the construction zones significantly affecting driver's risk of having an accident. Conclusions: The findings of this study offer that a strategic planning and evaluation of the logistics drivers' satisfaction and construction workers' participation to mitigate highway accidents at construction zones and that drivers' knowledge and perception toward construction safety management plays a significant role in preventing highway accidents at the construction areas.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.301-309
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• 2023

Tilt is a key indicator of structural safety. Real-time monitoring of tilt responses helps to evaluate structural condition, enable cost-effective maintenance, and enhance lifetime resilience. This paper presents a prototype wireless sensing system for structural tilt measurement. Long range (LoRa) technology is adopted by the sensing system to offer long-range wireless communication with low power consumption. The sensor integrates a gyroscope and an accelerometer as the sensing module. Although tilt can be estimated from the gyroscope or the accelerometer measurements, these estimates suffer from either drift issue or high noise. To address this challenging issue and obtain more reliable tilt results, two sensor fusion algorithms, the complementary filter and the Kalman filter, are investigated to fully exploit the advantages of both gyroscope and accelerometer measurements. Numerical simulation is carried out to validate and compare the sensor fusion algorithms. Laboratory experiment is conducted on a simply supported beam under moving vehicle load to further investigate the performance of the proposed wireless tilt sensing system.

• 한국농공학회논문집
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• 제59권4호
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• pp.97-107
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• 2017

This study is to determine the coefficients of regression equations and to select the optimal regression equation in the LOADEST model after classifying the whole study period into 5 flow conditions for 16 watersheds located in the Nakdonggang waterbody. The optimized coefficients of regression equations were derived using the gradient descent method as a learning method in Tensorflow which is the engine of machine-learning method. In South Korea, the variability of streamflow is relatively high, and rainfall is concentrated in summer that can significantly affect the characteristic analysis of pollutant loads. Thus, unlike the previous application of the LOADEST model (adjusting whole study period), the study period was classified into 5 flow conditions to estimate the optimized coefficients and regression equations in the LOADEST model. As shown in the results, the equation #9 which has 7 coefficients related to flow and seasonal characteristics was selected for each flow condition in the study watersheds. When compared the simulated load (SS) to observed load, the simulation showed a similar pattern to the observation for the high flow condition due to the flow parameters related to precipitation directly. On the other hand, although the simulated load showed a similar pattern to observation in several watersheds, most of study watersheds showed large differences for the low flow conditions. This is because the pollutant load during low flow conditions might be significantly affected by baseflow or point-source pollutant load. Thus, based on the results of this study, it can be found that to estimate the continuous pollutant load properly the regression equations need to be determined with proper coefficients based on various flow conditions in watersheds. Furthermore, the machine-learning method can be useful to estimate the coefficients of regression equations in the LOADEST model.