• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.121-133
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• 2023

The demand for cement and limestone crushed materials has increased many folds due to the tremendous increase in construction activities in Pakistan during the past few decades. The number of cement production industries has increased correspondingly, and so the rock-blasting operations at the limestone quarry sites. However, the safety procedures warranted at these sites for the blast-induced ground vibrations (BIGV) have not been adequately developed and/or implemented. Proper prediction and monitoring of BIGV are necessary to ensure the safety of structures in the vicinity of these quarry sites. In this paper, an attempt has been made to predict BIGV using artificial neural network (ANN) at three selected limestone quarries of Pakistan. The ANN has been developed in Python using Keras with sequential model and dense layers. The hyper parameters and neurons in each of the activation layers has been optimized using randomized and grid search method. The input parameters for the model include distance, a maximum charge per delay (MCPD), depth of hole, burden, spacing, and number of blast holes, whereas, peak particle velocity (PPV) is taken as the only output parameter. A total of 110 blast vibrations datasets were recorded from three different limestone quarries. The dataset has been divided into 85% for neural network training, and 15% for testing of the network. A five-layer ANN is trained with Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) activation function, Adam optimization algorithm with a learning rate of 0.001, and batch size of 32 with the topology of 6-32-32-256-1. The blast datasets were utilized to compare the performance of ANN, multivariate regression analysis (MVRA), and empirical predictors. The performance was evaluated using the coefficient of determination (R²), mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and root mean squared error (RMSE)for predicted and measured PPV. To determine the relative influence of each parameter on the PPV, sensitivity analyses were performed for all input parameters. The analyses reveal that ANN performs superior than MVRA and other empirical predictors, andthat83% PPV is affected by distance and MCPD while hole depth, number of blast holes, burden and spacing contribute for the remaining 17%. This research provides valuable insights into improving safety measures and ensuring the structural integrity of buildings near limestone quarry sites.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.233-257
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• 2023

Asbestos minerals are found at rocks and soils of the Hongseong and Bibong serpentine mines, western part of Chungnam. The area consists of and metasediment, and Mesozoic igneous intrusives with minor age-known gneiss complexes and Mesozoic sediments. With detailed geological investigations, rock samples for the serpentinite and amphibolite areas are collected at sites containing asbestos. Representative asbestos and rock samples are analysed by PLM, XRD, SEM and EPMA. Serpentinites are found as steeply dipping faults with adjacent gneiss complex to the NNE direction. Repeated alteration, including serpenitization and talcification, is found at the emplacement direction for the serpentinite body. Amphibollites occur as intrusives and stratiforms within the Precambrian gneiss complex. Serpentinite and amphibolite (or amphibole schist) contain amphiboles either as asbestiform or non-asbestiform. Varying amounts of asbestos minerals, including chrysotile, tremolite asbestos and actinolite asbestos, are found within the serpentinites. The asbestos minerals are found near the cracks or fractures and along the bedding plane. They occur as cross fiber, slip fiber and mass fiber types. Varying amounts of amphibole asbestos minerals, such as tremolite and actinolite asbestos, are found within amphibolites and as a mass fiber type. Overall results suggest that rocks of the serpentine mines contain serpentine and amphibole type asbestos minerals originated from the hydrothermal alteration. Considering construction nearby the mines and environmental risks by the asbestos, additional land management plans are required.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.209-223
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• 2024

In the context of the fourth industrial revolution, data-driven decision-making has increasingly become pivotal. However, the integrity of data analysis is compromised if data quality is not adequately ensured, potentially leading to biased interpretations. This is particularly critical for water level data, essential for water resource management, which often encounters quality issues such as missing values, spikes, and noise. This study addresses the challenge of noise-induced data quality deterioration, which complicates trend analysis and may produce anomalous outliers. To mitigate this issue, we propose a noise removal strategy employing Wavelet Transform, a technique renowned for its efficacy in signal processing and noise elimination. The advantage of Wavelet Transform lies in its operational efficiency - it reduces both time and costs as it obviates the need for acquiring the true values of collected data. This study conducted a comparative performance evaluation between our Wavelet Transform-based approach and the Denoising Autoencoder, a prominent machine learning method for noise reduction.. The findings demonstrate that the Coiflets wavelet function outperforms the Denoising Autoencoder across various metrics, including Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and Mean Squared Error (MSE). The superiority of the Coiflets function suggests that selecting an appropriate wavelet function tailored to the specific application environment can effectively address data quality issues caused by noise. This study underscores the potential of Wavelet Transform as a robust tool for enhancing the quality of water level data, thereby contributing to the reliability of water resource management decisions.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

This study proposes a multi-scale template matching technique with image pyramids (TMI) to measure structural dynamic displacement using a vision sensor under atmospheric turbulence conditions and evaluates its displacement measurement performance. To evaluate displacement measurement performance according to distance, the three-story shear structure was designed, and an FHD camera was prepared to measure structural response. The initial measurement distance was set at 10m, and increased with an increment of 10m up to 40m. The atmospheric disturbance was generated using a heating plate under indoor illuminance condition, and the image was distorted by the optical turbulence. Through preliminary experiments, the feasibility of displacement measurement of the feature point-based displacement measurement method and the proposed method during atmospheric disturbances were compared and verified, and the verification results showed a low measurement error rate of the proposed method. As a result of evaluating displacement measurement performance in an atmospheric disturbance environment, there was no significant difference in displacement measurement performance for TMI using an artificial target depending on the presence or absence of atmospheric disturbance. However, when natural targets were used, RMSE increased significantly at shooting distances of 20 m or more, showing the operating limitations of the proposed technique. This indicates that the resolution of the natural target decreases as the shooting distance increases, and image distortion due to atmospheric disturbance causes errors in template image estimation, resulting in a high displacement measurement error.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.74-82
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• 2024

In this study, feature point detection and displacement measurement performance depending on feature extraction algorithms were compared and analyzed according to environmental changes and target types in the feature point-based displacement measurement algorithm. A three-story frame structure was designed for performance evaluation, and the displacement response of the structure was digitized into FHD (1920×1080) resolution. For performance analysis, the initial measurement distance was set to 10m, and increased up to 40m with an increment of 10m. During the experiments, illuminance was fixed to 450lux or 120lux. The artificial and natural targets mounted on the structure were set as regions of interest and used for feature point detection. Various feature detection algorithms were implemented for performance comparisons. As a result of the feature point detection performance analysis, the Shi-Tomasi corner and KAZE algorithm were found that they were robust to the target type, illuminance change, and increase in measurement distance. The displacement measurement accuracy using those two algorithms was also the highest. However, when using natural targets, the displacement measurement accuracy is lower than that of artificial targets. This indicated the limitation in extracting feature points as the resolution of the natural target decreased as the measurement distance increased.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.329-338
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• 2024

Purpose: This study verified the safety of the improved box-type girder behavior by comparing and evaluating the bending behavior results of a full-scale specimen based on the analytical behavior of the splice element PSC U-shaped girder with integrated tensioning systems. Method: Based on the results of the service and strength limit state design using the bridge design standard(limit state design method), the applied load of a 40m full-scale specimen was calculated and a static loading experiment using the four-point loading method was performed. Result: When the design load, crack load, and ultimate load were applied, the specimen deflection occurred at 97.1%, 98.5%, and 79.0% of the analytical deflection value. When the design load, crack load, and ultimate load were applied, the crack gauge was measured at 0.009~0.035mm, 0.014~0.050mm, and 6.383~5.522mm at each connection. Conclusion: The specimen behaved linear-elastically until the crack load was applied, and after cracks occurred, it showed strainhardening up to the ultimate load, and it was confirmed that the resistance of bending behavior was clearly displayed against the applied load. The cracks in the dry joints were less than 25% of grade B based on the evaluation of facility condition standard. The final residual deformation after removing the ultimate load was 0.114mm, confirming the stable behavior of the segment connection.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.369-378
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• 2024

Purpose: This study aims to verify structural stability by manufacturing a 40m full-scale specimen composed of a segmental U-shaped PSC girder with integrated tensioning systems and a concrete slab, proceeding dynamic behavior tests, and compare the results of the tests with the results of numerical analysis. Method: Dynamic behavior tests were conducted on a full-scale, undamaged specimen using an impact hammer, and the natural frequency and damping ratio were measured and compared with numerical analysis techniques and the general damping ratio of the facilities. Result: The natural frequency of the numerical analysis model consisting of a girder and slab composite section was calculated to be 2.561Hz, the natural frequency of the full-scale specimen was measured to be 2.670Hz, and the damping ratio was calculated to be 0.42~0.68%. Conclusion: The natural frequency of the full-scale specimen was found to be 4.3% larger than that of the numerical analysis model. Since the masses of the full-scale specimen and the numerical analysis model are the same as 99.97%, it can be derived that the stiffness of the full-scale specimen has secured structural safety and stability. As a result, the dynamic behavior stability of the specimen was verified. The measured damping ratio of 0.42~0.68% was found to be a stable dynamic behavior compared to the PSC structures damping ratio of 0.5~1.0% in the elastic region.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.861-874
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• 2012

To fulfill applicability of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, it is important that this model passes through a careful calibration and uncertainty analysis. In recent years, many researchers have come up with various uncertainty analysis techniques for SWAT model. To determine the differences and similarities of typical techniques, we applied three uncertainty analysis procedures to Chungju Dam watershed (6,581.1 $km^2$) of South Korea included in SWAT-Calibration Uncertainty Program (SWAT-CUP): Sequential Uncertainty FItting algorithm ver.2 (SUFI2), Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE), Parameter Solution (ParaSol). As a result, there was no significant difference in the objective function values between SUFI2 and GLUE algorithms. However, ParaSol algorithm shows the worst objective functions, and considerable divergence was also showed in 95PPU bands with each other. The p-factor and r-factor appeared from 0.02 to 0.79 and 0.03 to 0.52 differences in streamflow respectively. In general, the ParaSol algorithm showed the lowest p-factor and r-factor, SUFI2 algorithm was the highest in the p-factor and r-factor. Therefore, in the SWAT model calibration and uncertainty analysis of the automatic methods, we suggest the calibration methods considering p-factor and r-factor. The p-factor means the percentage of observations covered by 95PPU (95 Percent Prediction Uncertainty) band, and r-factor is the average thickness of the 95PPU band.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.52-69
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• 2016

The fishing port was once the foothold of production as well as the stronghold of communities but with the declining of the fishing industry, ports became abandoned space. Jeju Special Self-Governing Province has continued its effort to vitalize marine tourism since 2010. Shinyang Port in particular is designated as a Prearranged Marina Port Development Zone, and planning for the Jeju Ocean Marina City project is underway. Nevertheless, fishing port remodeling projects implemented on Jeju so far have focused only on civil engineering such as renovating old facilities. In addition, most Marina Port Development Projects have been irrelevant to local communities. Leading projects by the local government mostly suffer from a lack of funding, which results in the renovation of old facilities and improper maintenance, while private sector investment projects do not lead to benefit sharing with the community. Shinyang Port, also renovated in 2008, ended up with outer breakwater extension construction that neither solved the fundamental problem of the site nor gave benefits to residents. To arrange a way to solve problems for civil engineering focused development project, improper maintenance, and benefit sharing with community, first, this study proposes a development plan that connects with the outlying areas near the ports. The plan reflects existing topography, Jeju traditional stonewalls, narrow paths on the master plan and programs by reading the regional context. In this way, this paper suggests a space development plan reflecting the local landscape and characteristic factors. Second, it satisfies various needs by using existing and new Marine Tourism Resources. Third, it examines sustainable operation and management measures through residents' participation. The proposal is significant in two key ways: it is a fresh attempt at connecting the fishing port with its outlying areas from a landscape perspective; and it considers environmental, social, economic issues, and suggests participation for local communities. Thus, the model can be used in future fishing-port remodeling plans for revitalizing unused space, including invaluable traditional landscapes, and for boosting the marine-leisure industry.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.6B
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• pp.565-575
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the expression of both multi-metric qualitative habitat evaluation index (QHEI) and biological integrity index (IBI) for artificial structures eco-artificial fish reef (EAFR) for fishes asylum and habitat. Especially, both experimental evaluation and biological verification were performed in Water and Environmental Center's outdoor test-bed of Korea Institute of Construction Technology located in Andong-city, Gyeongsangbuk-do. The experimental conditions reflecting the situation of domestic river include the flow rate (e.g., $0.0{\sim}1.5m\;s^{-1}$), the width (e.g., 1.0~3.0 m), the depth (e.g., 0.05~0.70 m), and variable bed materials. Both QHEI and IBI were monitored for 8 months from May to December 2010. Whereas QHEI values were highest at experimental points of the E~F with an average of 83.1, those were lowest at B~C with an average of 78.1. However, QHEI values inside EAFR were more than 98.9, regardelss of space and time, and indicated more than the highest good of the state (Good) in the habitat. Overally, IBI values showed similar trend with QHEI, but were 44.2 in the winter dry season, compared to 32.8 of QHEI values. IBI values Also, IBI values inside EAFR were greater than those at the experimental channel by 5.7 to 11.4% and 18.7 to 34.8% in flow and stagnant conditions, respectively, indicating that EAFR can secure asylum and habitat for fish during the dry season. For comprehensive aquatic ecosystem assessment, the experimental channel showed generally fair conditions (Fair~Good), whereas EAFR showed good conditions (Good), suggesting that EAFR can be applied to aquatic ecosystem restoration and improvement.