• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.251-265
• /
• 2021

It seems a common sense that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a key driver to attain business sustainability. Nevertheless, there has been little research on the performance of socially responsible activities, including economic and environmental responsibility activities in internationally diversified firms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of CSR activities on management performance. For this evaluation, an empirical analysis was conducted with a total of 2,520 cases, selected from companies listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index market for six years from 2013 to 2018. As proxies for management performance, financial date such as a total asset net profit ratio and a total asset-operating ratio were used. A multivariate regression analysis was conducted to test hypotheses. The results of this analysis indicated that firms in the CSR outstanding group are significantly higher than other groups in management performances. In addition, CSR activities of internationally diversified firms positively influence their total asset net profit ratio and total asset-operating ratio. The results suggested that CSR activities of these firms can play a significant role in enhancing management performances amid the economic status of Korea, where a degree of export dependency is high.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.86-91
• /
• 2021

In order to save the energy in vehicles using renewable energy, it is necessary to reduce the weight of parts with polymer matrix composites. Carbon nanotube (CNT) is the nano-scale reinforcement used to increase the interlaminar strength of fiber reinforced composites or enhance the fracture toughness of polymer. However, since the degree of improvement in mechanical properties varies according to the various experimental conditions such as shape of reinforcement, types of matrix and dispersion of reinforcement, research to find the optimal conditions is essentially needed. In this study, CNT/epoxy composites with different CNT concentration were fabricated under the same conditions, and the optimal CNT content (2 wt%) was found through Mode 1 fracture toughness test. Furthermore, through optical microscopy, it was confirmed that the fracture toughness was rather decreased due to the CNT aggregation when the CNT content exceeded 2 wt%.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.386-391
• /
• 2022

The gas insulation switchgear, which is a device for protecting a power system, cannot be supported by the insulation gas itself in a charge unit stored in a metal container. Therefore, molding technology is required to manufacture a gas insulation switch spacer. The APG method injection molding simulation was performed by applying the variables obtained through the physical properties of an epoxy composite used for manufacturing an insulating spacer to a moldflow software. After varying the temperature conditions of heater in the simulation, the thermal characteristics and the degree of hardening of the spacer were analyzed, based on which the optimum process conditions are presented.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2022

The activated carbon is a very good choice for using as supercapacitor electrode materials. Herein, the flower of Shorea robusta, a bio-waste material was successfully used to synthesize the activated carbons for application as supercapacitor electrode materials. The activated carbon was synthesized through chemical activation process followed by thermal treatment at 700℃ in presence of N₂ atmosphere using KOH, ZnCl₂ and H₃PO₄ as the activating agents. The physicochemical analyses demonstrate that the obtained activated carbons are graphitic in nature and the degree of disorder of the graphitic carbons is changed with the activating agents. The activated carbon obtained from Shorea robusta flower (ACSF-K) electrode shows the specific capacitance of ~610 F g^-1 at 2 A g^-1 current density, which is higher than ACSF-Z (560 F g^-1) and ACSF-H (470 F g^-1) electrode material under the identical current density. The synthesized graphitic carbons also demonstrated good rate capability and high electrochemical stability as supercapacitor electrode.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.44 no.3
• /
• pp.407-421
• /
• 2022

Prefabricated hybrid wind turbine towers (WTTs) are promising due to height increase. This study proposes the use of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) to develop a new type of WTT without the need to use reinforcement. It is demonstrated that the UHPC WTT structure without reinforcing bars could achieve performance similar to that of reinforced concrete WTTs. To simplify the design of WTT, a design approach for the calculation of stresses at the horizontal joints of a WTT is proposed. The stress distribution near the region of the horizontal joint of the WTT structure under normal operating conditions and different load actions is studied using the proposed approach, which is validated by the finite element method. A further parametric study shows that the degree of prestressing and the bending moment both significantly affect the principal stress. The shear-to-torsion ratio also shows a significant influence on the principal tensile stress.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.229-240
• /
• 2022

The main objective of this work is presenting a mathematical model for the concrete slab with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) layer under the impact load. Impacts are assumed to occur normally over the top slab and the interaction between the impactor and the structure is simulated using a new equivalent three-degree-of-freedom (TDOF) spring-mass-damper (SMD) model. The structure is assumed viscoelastic based on Kelvin-Voigt model. Based on the sinusoidal shear deformation theory (SSDT), energy method and Hamilton's principle, the motion equations are derived. Applying DQM, the dynamic deflection and contact force of the structure is calculated numerically so that the effects of mass, velocity and height of impactor, boundary conditions, FRP layer, structural damping and geometrical parameters of structure are shown on the dynamic deflection and contact force of system. Results show that considering structural damping leads to lower dynamic deflection and contact force. In addition, increasing the impact velocity of impactor yields to increases in the maximum contact force and deflection while the contact duration is decreased. The result shows that the contact force and the central deflection of the structure decreases and the contact time decreases with assuming FRP layer.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.41 no.5
• /
• pp.713-730
• /
• 2021

The seismic performance of rigid steel frames is widely investigated, but that of semi-rigid (SR) steel frames are not studied extensively, especially for near-field earthquakes. In this paper, the performances of five and ten-story steel SR frames having different degrees of semi-rigidity are evaluated at four performance points in the four different deformation states, namely, the elastic, elasto-plastic, plastic, and near collapse states. The performances of the SR frames are measured by the response parameters including the maximum values of the top floor displacement, base shear, inter-story drift ratio, number of plastic hinges, and SRSS of plastic hinge rotations. These response parameters are obtained by the capacity spectrum method (CSM) using pushover analysis. The validity of the response parameters determined by the CSM is evaluated by the results of the nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) for both near and far-field earthquakes at different PGA levels, which are consistent with the performance points. Results of the study show that the plastic hinges of SR frame significantly increase in the range of plastic to near-collapse states for both near and far-field earthquakes. The effect of the degree of semi-rigidity is pronounced only at higher degrees of semi-rigidity. The predictions of the CSM are fairly well in comparison to the NLTHA.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.48 no.6
• /
• pp.611-623
• /
• 2023

This work considered an optimal control formulation in the sense of Caputo derivatives. The optimality of the fractional optimal control problem. The tumor immune interaction in fractional form provides an excellent tool for the description of memory and hereditary properties of inter and intra cells. So the interaction between effector-cells, tumor cells and are modeled by using the definition of Caputo fractional order derivative that provides the system with long-time memory and gives extra degree of freedom. In addiltion, existence and local stability of fixed points are investigated for discrete model. Moreover, in order to achieve more efficient computational results of fractional-order system, a discretization process is performed to obtain its discrete counterpart. Our technique likewise allows the advancement of results, such as return time to baseline that are unrealistic with current model solvers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.33-50
• /
• 2022

Purpose: This pilot study aims to conceptualize a new green marketing mix for retail consumers based on Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model. Moreover, it also aims to conceptualize a testable research model of new green marketing mix with consumers' green purchasing behavior, and to validate the measurement model with traditional as well as modern suggested validating techniques. Research design, data and methodology: A pilot test data from 75 respondents of retail buyers of energy-efficient electric appliances in Pakistan were tested for the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) by examining a measurement model of the construct through different validation techniques (like Composite Reliability, McDonald's Omega (ω), rho (ρA), HTMT, etc.) as heretofore these scales were not validated through these modern methods. Results: The results revealed that the instrument has a certain degree of reliability and validity through different validating techniques. All the measurement items reach the suggested threshold values. Conclusions: Therefore, this study conceptualized an integrated framework of all the three stakeholders of the environment (government, companies, and public or consumers) to achieve environmental sustainability. Hence, future studies can extend these findings and conduct a full-scale study to establish an empirical relationship between the 5G's of green marketing for retailing businesses and consumers' green purchase behavior.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.44 no.5
• /
• pp.651-676
• /
• 2022

Most of the experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies on the stability of functionally graded composites are deterministic, while there are full of complex interactions of variables with an inherently probabilistic nature, this paper presents a non-intrusive framework to investigate the stochastic nonlinear buckling behaviors of porous functionally graded cylindrical shells exposed to inevitable source-uncertainties. Euler-Lagrange equations are theoretically derived based on the three variable refined shear deformation theory. Closed-form solutions for the shell buckling loads are achieved by solving the deterministic eigenvalue problems. The analytical results are verified with numerical results obtained from finite element analyses that are conducted in the commercial software ABAQUS. The non-intrusive framework is completed by integrating the Monte Carlo simulation with the verified closed-form solutions. The convergence studies are performed to determine the effective pseudorandom draws of the simulation. The accuracy and efficiency of the framework are verified with statistical results that are obtained from the first and second-order perturbation techniques. Eleven cases of individual and compound uncertainties are investigated. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to figure out the five cases that have profound perturbative effects on the shell buckling loads. Complete probability distributions of the first three critical buckling loads are completely presented for each profound uncertainty case. The effects of the shell thickness, volume fraction index, and stochasticity degree on the shell buckling load under compound uncertainties are studied. There is a high probability that the shell has non-unique buckling modes in stochastic environments, which should be known for reliable analysis and design of engineering structures.