• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.659-676
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• 2005

The novel form of composite walling system consists of two skins of profiled steel sheeting with an in-fill of concrete. The behaviour of such walling under in-plane shear is important in order to utilise this system as shear elements in a steel framed building. Steel sheet-concrete interface governs composite action, overall behaviour and failure modes of such walls. This paper describes the finite element (FE) modelling of the shear behaviour of walls with particular emphasis on the simulation of steel-concrete interface. The modelling of complex non-linear steel-concrete interaction in composite walls is conducted by using different FE models. Four FE models are developed and characterized by their approaches to simulate steel-concrete interface behaviour allowing either full or partial composite action. Non-linear interface or joint elements are introduced between steel and concrete to simulate partial composite action that allows steel-concrete in-plane slip or out of plane separation. The properties of such interface/joint elements are optimised through extensive parametric FE analysis using experimental results to achieve reliable and accurate simulation of actual steel-concrete interaction in a wall. The performance of developed FE models is validated through small-scale model tests. FE models are found to simulate strength, stiffness and strain characteristics reasonably well. The performance of a model with joint elements connecting steel and concrete layers is found better than full composite (without interface or joint elements) and other models with interface elements. The proposed FE model can be used to simulate the shear behaviour of composite walls in practical situation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.657-668
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• 2001

Fiber reinforced cementitious composites are nowadays widely applied in civil engineering. The postcracking performance of this material depends on the interaction between a steel fiber, which is obliquely across a crack, and its surrounding matrix. While the partly debonded steel fiber is subjected to pulling out from the matrix and simultaneously subjected to transverse force, it may be modelled as a Bernoulli-Euler beam partly supported on an elastic foundation with non-linearly varying modulus. The fiber bridging the crack may be cut into two parts to simplify the problem (Leung and Li 1992). To obtain the transverse displacement at the cut end of the fiber (Fig. 1), it is convenient to directly solve the corresponding differential equation. At the first glance, it is a classical beam on foundation problem. However, the differential equation is not analytically solvable due to the non-linear distribution of the foundation stiffness. Moreover, since the second order deformation effect is included, the boundary conditions become complex and hence conventional numerical tools such as the spline or difference methods may not be sufficient. In this study, moment equilibrium is the basis for formulation of the fundamental differential equation for the beam (Timoshenko 1956). For the cantilever part of the beam, direct integration is performed. For the non-linearly supported part, a transformation is carried out to reduce the higher order differential equation into one order simultaneous equations. The Runge-Kutta technique is employed for the solution within the boundary domain. Finally, multi-dimensional optimization approaches are carefully tested and applied to find the boundary values that are of interest. The numerical solution procedure is demonstrated to be stable and convergent.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.55-69
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• 2011

The importance of unsaturated state in various geo-engineering problems has led to the advance of mechanical constitutive model emulating behavior of unsaturated soils in response to thermo-hydro-mechanical loading. Elasto-plastic mechanical constitutive model for unsaturated soil is formulated based on Bishop's effective stress. Effective stress and temperature are main variables in constitutive equation, and incremental formulation of constitutive relationship is derived to compute stress update and stiffness tensor. Numerical simulations involving coupled THM processes are conducted to discuss numerical stability and applicability of developed constitutive model: one-dimensional test, tri-axial compression test, and clay-buffering at high level radioactive waste disposal. Numerical results demonstrated that developed model can predict very complex behavior of coupled THM phenomena and is applicable to geo-engineering problems under various environmental conditions, as well as interpret typical behavior of unsaturated soils.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2013

Smart material such as SMA (Shape Memory Alloy) has been studied in various ways because it can perform continuous, flexible, and complex actuation in simple structure. Smart soft composite (SSC) was developed to achieve large deformation of smart material. In this paper, a shell actuator using woven type SSC was developed to enhance stiffness of the structure while keeping its deformation capacity. The fabricated actuator consisted of a flexible polymer and woven structure which contains SMA wires and glass fibers. The actuator showed various actuation motions by controlling a pattern of applied electricity because the SMA wires are embedded in the structure as fibers. To verify the actuation ability, we measured its maximum end-edge bending angle, twisting angle, and actuating force, which were $103^{\circ}$, $10^{\circ}$, and 0.15 N, respectively.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.149-161
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• 2000

The stiffness of the subbase materials is represented by the resilient modulus, $M_R$, which are very important properties in the mechanistic design of flexible pavement system. However, the cyclic $M_R$ testing method is too complex, expensive, and time consuming to be applicable on a production basis. In this study, the alternative $M_R$ testing technique for subbase materials was developed using a free-free resonant column (FF-RC) test considering deformational characteristics of subbase materials. To estimate the deformational characteristics of subbase materials, effects of strain amplitude and mean effective stress on modulus of subbase materials were investigated. The $M_R$ values determined by alternative testing procedures matched well with those determined by standard $M_R$ test, showing the capability of the proposed methods being used in determining $M_R$ values.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.121-133
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• 1999

This study was based on the evaluation of 9 asphalts that were produced in five major Korean refineries. The study was concentrated to identify the problems of the current asphalt specification (KS M 2201) and to determine the ranges of visco-elastic asphalt behavior. As a conventional asphalt property. asphalt penetration, ring and ball(R&B) softening point, asphalt viscosity, and flash point of asphalt were measured. Also Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) were used to evaluate visco-elastic properties of asphalts in the $-20^{\circ}C$ through $30^{\circ}C$ temperature range. These properties before and after the short-term (RTFO) and long-term (PAV) aging were compared and analyzed to achieve the research objectives. The conclusion from this study can be summarized by the followings. The low temperature rheological behavior of all the straight asphalt from five major Korean refineries is similar regardless of asphalt grade. In the mean while, the rheological behavior at high and intermediate temperature of Korean straight asphalt varies depending on asphalt grade.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.3
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• pp.231-253
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• 2021

Pure bending loading conditions are not frequently occurred in practical engineering, but the flexural researches are important since it's the basis of mechanical property researches under complex loading. Hence, the objective of this paper is to investigate the flexural behavior of concrete-filled rectangular steel tube (CFRT) through combined experimental and numerical studies. Flexural tests were conducted to investigate the mechanical performance of CFRT under bending. The load vs. deflection curves during the loading process was analyzed in detail. All the specimens behaved in a very ductile manner. Besides, based on the experimental result, the composite action between the steel tube and core concrete was studies and examined. Furthermore, the feasibility and accuracy of the numerical method was verified by comparing the computed results with experimental observations. The full curves analysis on the moment vs. curvature curves was further conducted, where the development of the stress and strain redistribution in the steel tube and core concrete was clarified comprehensively. It should be noted that there existed bond slip between the core concrete and steel tube during the loading process. And then, an extensive parametric study, including the steel strength, concrete strength, steel ratio and aspect ratio, was performed. Finally, design formula to calculate the ultimate moment and flexural stiffness of CFRTs were presented. The predicted results showed satisfactory agreement with the experimental and FE results. Additionally, the difference between the experimental/FE and predicted results using the related design codes were illustrated.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.109-118
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• 2018

Two-row overlap pile wall, currently under development for use in deep excavations, is a novel retaining structure designed to perform itself as a cutoff wall as well as a high-stiffness wall by constructing four overlapping piles arranged in zigzag manner at a time using a tetra-axis auger. This wall has a relatively complex cross-section, compared with other types of pile wall, which would make it difficult to determine design parameters related to cross-section. In this study, a flexural rigidity equation has been derived by analyzing both theoretically and statistically various wall cross-sections with different pile diameters and overlap lengths. The flexural rigidity equation was found to show the maximum error rate of 3%.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.687-701
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• 2022

Inevitable response loss under complex operational conditions significantly affects the integrity and quality of measured data, leading the structural health monitoring (SHM) ineffective. To remedy the impact of data loss, a common way is to transfer the recorded response of available measure point to where the data loss occurred by establishing the response mapping from measured data. However, the current research has yet addressed the structural condition changes afterward and response mapping learning from a small sample. So, this paper proposes a novel data driven structural response reconstruction method based on a sophisticated designed generating adversarial network (UAGAN). Advanced deep learning techniques including U-shaped dense blocks, self-attention and a customized loss function are specialized and embedded in UAGAN to improve the universal and representative features extraction and generalized responses mapping establishment. In numerical validation, UAGAN efficiently and accurately captures the distinguished features of structural response from only 40 training samples of the intact structure. Besides, the established response mapping is universal, which effectively reconstructs responses of the structure suffered up to 10% random stiffness reduction or structural damage. In the experimental validation, UAGAN is trained with ambient response and applied to reconstruct response measured under earthquake. The reconstruction losses of response in the time and frequency domains reached 16% and 17%, that is better than the previous research, demonstrating the leading performance of the sophisticated designed network. In addition, the identified modal parameters from reconstructed and the corresponding true responses are highly consistent indicates that the proposed UAGAN is very potential to be applied to practical civil engineering.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.44-56
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• 2023

Additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing of metals has been drawing significant attention due to its reliability, usefulness, and low cost with rapid prototyping. Among the various AM technologies, fused deposition modeling (FDM) or fused filament fabrication is receiving much interest because of its simple manufacturing processing, low material waste, and cost-effective equipment. FDM technology uses metal-filled polymer filaments for 3D printing, followed by debinding and sintering to fabricate complex metal parts. An efficient binder is essential for producing polymer filaments and the thermal post-processing of printed objects. This study involved an in-depth investigation of and a fabrication route for a novel multi-component binder system with steel alloy powder (45 vol.%) ranging from filament fabrication and 3D printing to debinding and sintering. The binder system consisted of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a binder and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and polylactic acid (PLA) as a carrier. The PVP binder held the metal components tightly by maintaining their stoichiometry, and the TPU and PLA in the ratio of 9:1 provided flexibility, stiffness, and strength to the filament for 3D printing. The efficacy of the binder system was examined by fabricating 3D-printed cubic structures. The results revealed that the thermal debinding and sintering processes effectively removed the binder/carrier from the cubic structures, resulting in isotropic shrinkage of approximately 15.8% in all directions. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) patterns displayed the microstructure behavior, phase transition, and elemental composition of the 3D cubic structure.