• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.251-257
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• 2017

Purpose: A chisel mounted on working implement, such as agricultural machinery used in irregular farming conditions, is subjected to highly variable fatigue loading during work. To ensure the safety of the chisel on a working implement for the duration of its service life, fatigue testing must be performed with the proper fatigue test load conditions. In this study, working loads for a chisel were developed by reconstructing loads from strain gage data collected during field tests and used to conduct fatigue tests on the chisel component. Methods: FE analysis with nCode software was utilized to select the proper quantity and locations of strain gages for load measurements. A fatigue test was performed to experimentally verify the fatigue strength of the chisel and to evaluate the validity of the load history developed with the load reconstruction technique. Results: A strain history for the chisel was obtained from data collected during field tests. The data was filtered for the 14-16 km/h speed range, connected, and merged. The chisel load history was developed using the load reconstruction technique. The resulting load history was expressed as a load spectrum using the rain-flow counting method. Conclusions: A fatigue test was conducted on a chisel under a constant load condition with an equivalent load amplitude and number of cycles, as calculated by Miner's Rule for linear damage accumulation. During the fatigue test, there were no cracks at any position. It is concluded that the fatigue test method proposed in this study can be utilized successfully as a durability evaluation method for the chisel.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.365-373
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• 2022

In order to investigate the damage evolution law of rock specimens under cyclic loading, cyclic loading tests under constant loads with different amplitudes were carried out on limestone specimens with high strength and brittleness values using acoustic emission (AE) technology and the energy evolution and AE characteristics were evaluated. Based on dissipated energy density and AE counts, the damage variable of specimen was characterized and two damage evolution processes were analyzed and compared. The obtained results showed that the change of AE counts was closely related to radial deformation. Higher cyclic loading values result in more significant radial strain of limestone specimen and larger accumulative AE counts of cyclic loading segment, which indicated Felicity effect. Regarding dissipated energy density, the damage of limestone specimen was defined without considering the influence of radial deformation, which made the damage value of cyclic loading segment higher at lower amplitude loads. The damage of cyclic loading segment was increased with the magnitude of load. When dissipated energy density was applied to define damage, the damage value at unloading segment was smaller than that of AE counts. Under higher cyclic loading values, rocks show obvious damage during both loading and unloading processes. Therefore, during deep rock excavation, the damages caused by the deformation recovery of unloading rocks could not be ignored when considering the damage caused by abutment pressure.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.91-99
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• 2024

Piping systems are crucial facilities used in various industries, particularly in areas related to daily life and safety. Piping systems are fixed to the main structures of buildings and facilities but do not support external loads and serve as non-structural elements performing specific functions. Piping systems are affected by relative displacements owing to phase differences arising from different behaviors between two support points under seismic loads; this can cause damage owing to the displacement-dominant cyclic behavior. Fittings and joints in piping systems are representative elements that are vulnerable to seismic loads. To evaluate the seismic performance and limit states of fittings and joints in piping systems, a high-stroke actuator is required to simulate relative displacements. However, this is challenging because only few facilities can conduct these experiments. Therefore, element-level experiments are required to evaluate the seismic performance and limit states of piping systems connected by fittings and joints. This study proposed a method to evaluate the seismic performance of an elbow specimen that includes fittings and joints that are vulnerable to seismic loads in vertical piping systems. The elbow specimen was created by connecting straight pipes to both ends of a 90° pipe elbow using flexible groove joints. The seismic performance of the elbow specimen was evaluated using a cyclic loading protocol based on deformation angles. To determine the margin of the evaluated seismic performance, the limit states were assessed by applying cyclic loading with a constant amplitude.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.30-39
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• 2022

Maintaining structural integrity of major apparatuses in a nuclear power plant, including piping system, is recognized as a critical safety issue. The integrity of piping system is also a critical matter related to the safety of a nuclear power plant. The actual failure mode of a piping system due to a seismic load is the leakage due to a fatigue crack, and the structural damage mechanism is the low-cycle fatigue due to large relative displacement that may cause plastic deformation. In this study, in-plane cyclic loading tests were conducted under various constant amplitudes using specimens composed of steel straight pipes and a steel pipe tee in the piping system of a nuclear power plant. The loading amplitude was increased to consider the relative displacement generated in the piping system under seismic loads, and the test was conducted until leakage, which is the limit state of the steel pipe tee, occurred due to fatigue cracks. The limit state of the steel pipe tee was expressed using a damage model based on the damage index that used the force-displacement relationship. As a result, it was confirmed that the limit state of the steel pipe tee can be quantitatively expressed using the damage index.