• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.99-105
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• 2006

This paper is to investigate feasibility on quantitative aging state of epoxy coating on concrete wall in containment structure under operation of nuclear power plants. For evaluating the physical characteristics of the epoxy coating, adhesion strengths of two kinds of degraded epoxy coating systems on both steel surfaces and concrete surfaces were measured via accelerated aging. Comparatively impedance data taken by ultrasonic test were also taken to relate with adhesion data. After aging, in case of concrete, from half of specimens, aging of epoxy coating was developed. As for steel, on $4^{th}$ inspection day, adhesion force was failed. To improve reliability on quality degradation of epoxy, relationship between adhesion and impedance was analyzed. By tracing to co-respond to these data, it was possible to Fig. out physical state of as-built epoxy coating. The possibility to develop new methodology of time - dependent aging state on epoxy coating was found and discussed.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 2001

The prestressed concrete containment is one of the most important structures in nuclear power plants, which is required to prevent release of radioactive or hazardous effluents to the environment even in the case of a severe accident. Numerical analyses are carried out by using the ABAQUS finite element program to assess the ultimate pressure capacity of the Y prestressed concrete containment with light water reactor at design criteria condition and aging condition considering varied properties of time-dependant materials respectively. From the results, it is verified that the structural capacity of the Y prestressed concrete containment building under the present, aging condition is still robust. In addition, the parameter studies for the reduction of the ultimate pressure capacity of containment building according to the degradation levels of the main structural materials are carried out. The results show that when the degradations of each materials are considered as individual and combined forms, the influence is large in the order of tendon, rebar and concrete degradation, and tendon-rebar, tendon-concrete and rebar-concrete degradation respectively.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.649-673
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• 2012

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of accounting for aging and deterioration of bridges when estimating their seismic vulnerability. Effects of structural degradation of multiple bridge components, variations in bridge geometry, and comparison of different environmental exposure conditions have traditionally been ignored in the development of seismic fragility curves for aging concrete highway bridges. This study focuses on the degradation of multiple bridge components of a geometrically varying bridge class, as opposed to a single bridge sample, to arrive at time-dependent seismic bridge fragility curves. The effects of different exposure conditions are also explored to assess the impact of severity of the environment on bridge seismic vulnerability. The proposed methodology is demonstrated on a representative class of aging multi-span reinforced concrete girder bridges typical of the Central and Southeastern United States. The results reveal the importance of considering multiple deterioration mechanisms, including the significance of degrading elastomeric bearings along with the corroding reinforced concrete columns, in fragility modeling of aging bridge classes. Additionally, assessment of the relative severity of exposure to marine atmospheric, marine sea-splash and deicing salts, and shows 5%, 9% and 44% reduction, respectively, in the median value bridge fragility for the complete damage state relative to the as-built pristine structure.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.805-810
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to predict long-term structural safety on the Yonggwang Unit 3 prestressed concrete containment building. The aging-related degradations of its main structural materials are investigated and the effects of the property variation of time-dependent materials on the structural behavior of containment building are also assessed through the analysis on the ultimate pressure capacity. The nonlinear finite element analyses for both the design criteria condition a the present aging condition are conducted to assess the present structural capacity of the containment building As a result, it is verified that the structural capacity of the Yonggwang Unit 3 containment building under the present aging condition is judged to be still rugged. n addition, the sensitivity of the ultimate pressrue capacity of containment building according to th degradation levels of the structural materials are assessed. Finally, it is showed that the sensitivity levels are in the order of the tendon, rebar and concrete in case of individual material degradations, and the tendon-rebar, tendon-concrete and rebar-concrete in case of coupled material degradations.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.53-71
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• 2014

Accurate prognoses of the durability of concrete structures require a detailed description of the continuously running aging processes and a consideration of the complete load history. Therefore, in the framework of continuous porous media mechanics a model is developed, which allows a detailed analysis of the most important aging processes of concrete as well as a flexible coupling of different processes. An overview of the prediction model and the balance equations is given. The material dependent model equations, the consequences of coupling different processes and the solution scheme are discussed. In two case studies the aging of concrete due to hydration and chloride penetration are presented, which illustrate the capabilities and the characteristics of the developed model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2014

An epoxy coating applied to the concrete surface of a containment building deteriorates in hazardous environments such as those containing radiation, heat, and moisture. Unlike metals, the epoxy coating on a concrete liner absorbs and discharges moisture during the degradations process, so it has a different density and volume during service. In this study, acoustic impedance was adopted for characterizing the degradation of a glass-reinforced epoxy coating using the acoustic reflection coefficient (reflectance) on a rough epoxy coating. For estimating the acoustic reflectance on a wavy epoxy coating surface, a probabilistic model was developed to represent the multiple irregular reflections of the acoustic wave from the wavy surface on the basis of the simulated annealing technique. A number of epoxy-coated concrete specimens were prepared and exposed to accelerated aging conditions to induce an artificial aging degradation in them. The acoustic impedance of the degraded epoxy coating was estimated successfully by minimizing the error between a waveform calculated from the mathematical model and a waveform measured from the surface of the rough coating.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2024

Machine learning is widely applied to various engineering fields. In structural engineering area, machine learning is generally used to predict structural responses of building structures. The aging deterioration of reinforced concrete structure affects its structural behavior. Therefore, the aging deterioration of R.C. structure should be consider to exactly predict seismic responses of the structure. In this study, the machine learning based seismic response prediction model was developed. To this end, four machine learning algorithms were employed and prediction performance of each algorithm was compared. A 3-story coupled shear wall structure was selected as an example structure for numerical simulation. Artificial ground motions were generated based on domestic site characteristics. Elastic modulus, damping ratio and density were changed to considering concrete degradation due to chloride penetration and carbonation, etc. Various intensity measures were used input parameters of the training database. Performance evaluation was performed using metrics like root mean square error, mean square error, mean absolute error, and coefficient of determination. The optimization of hyperparameters was achieved through k-fold cross-validation and grid search techniques. The analysis results show that neural networks and extreme gradient boosting algorithms present good prediction performance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.297-310
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• 2012

Aging-related degradation of nuclear power plant components is an important aspect to consider in securing the long term safety of the plant, especially the seismic safety, since the degradation of the components affects not only their seismic capacity but their response. This can cause a change in the seismic margin of a component and the overall seismic safety of a system. To better understand the status and characteristics of degradation of components in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), the degradation occurrences of components in the U.S. NPPs were identified by reviewing recent publicly available information sources and the characteristics of these occurrences were evaluated and compared to observations from the past. Ten categories of components that are of high risk significance in Korean NPPs were identified, comprising anchorage, concrete, containment, exchanger, filter, piping systems, reactor pressure vessels, structural steel, tanks, and vessels. Software tools were developed to expedite the review process. Results from this review effort were compared to previous data in the literature to characterize the overall degradation trends.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.391-398
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• 2011

After a concrete is poured, reinforced concrete structures were distressed by physical and chemical factor over time. It is in need to define important variables related to structural behavior for effectively conducting seismic analysis of structures with age-related degradation. In this study, a sensibility analysis using the first-order second moment method was performed to analyze an important variables for the reinforced concrete shear wall with age-related degradation. Because the seismic capacity of aging structures without a concrete hardening effect can be underestimated, the sensibility of analysis variables was analyzed according to the concrete hardening. Important variables for RC shear wall with age-related degradation was presented by using the tornado diagram.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2003

The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively investigate aging state of epoxy coating on containment structure at nuclear power plant. In order to evaluate an physical bonding of the epoxy coating, adhesion test was performed on a degraded epoxy coating on concrete specimens fabricated by accelerated aging experiment. In addition, impedance data by ultrasonic test were measured to compare with adhesion data. From almost 50 % of the specimens, aging phenomena of epoxy coating such as pin hole, blistering was discovered. To improve reliability on quality degradation of epoxy, co-relation between two kinds of different data was analyzed. By tracing co-related these data, it was possible to figure out physical state of as-built epoxy coating. The possibility to develop new methodology of time - dependent aging state on epoxy coating was found and discussed.