• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.485-496
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• 2004

Typical probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) results were used to estimate the performance indicator (PI) thresholds of unplanned reactor scram (URS) and safety system unavailability (SSU) for Korean nuclear power plants (NPPs). The changes in core damage frequency (${\Delta}$CDFs) of $10^{-6}/yr$, $10^{-5}/yr$, and $10^{-4}/yr$ were adopted as the risk criteria in setting up the PI thresholds. The PI thresholds for the URS were estimated using information pertaining to the initiating event frequencies, the CDF, and the CDF contribution of each initiating event. The PI thresholds of the SSU were estimated using information on the unavailability, the Fussell-Vesely importance, and the CDF.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.3
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• pp.305-315
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• 2019

Extremely long-span transmission tower-line system is an indispensable portion of an electricity transmission system, and its failures or collapse can impact on the entire electricity grid, affect the modern life, and cause great economic losses. It is therefore imperative to investigate the failure and safety of the transmission tower subjected to ground motions. In the present study, a detailed finite element (FE) model of a representative extremely long-span transmission tower-line system is established. A segmental damage indicator (SDI) is proposed to quantitatively assess the damage level of each segment of the transmission tower under earthquakes. Additionally, parametric studies are conducted to investigate the influence of different ground motions and incident angles on the ultimate capacity and weakest segment of the transmission tower. Finally, the collapse fragility curve in terms of the maximum SDI value and PGA is plotted for the exampled transmission tower. The results show that the proposed SDI can quantitatively assess the damage level of the segments, and thus determine the ultimate capacity and weakest segment of the transmission tower. Moreover, the different ground motions and incident angles have a significant influence on the SDI values of the transmission tower, and the collapse fragility curve is utilized to evaluate the collapse resistant capacity of the transmission tower subjected to ground motions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.327-336
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• 2018

In this study, an efficient damage index is proposed to identify multiple damage cases in structural systems using the concepts of frequency response function (FRF) matrix and strain energy of a structure. The index is defined based on the change of strain energy of an element due to damage. For obtaining the strain energy stored in elements, the columnar coefficients of the FRF matrix is used. The new indicator is named here as frequency response function strain energy based index (FRFSEBI). In order to assess the performance of the proposed index for structural damage detection, some benchmark structures having a number of damage scenarios are considered. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed index even with considering noise can accurately identify the actual location and approximate severity of the damage. In order to demonstrate the high efficiency of the proposed damage index, its performance is also compared with that of the flexibility strain energy based index (FSEBI) provided in the literature.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.411-425
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• 2014

This paper presents the processing of nonlinear features associated with a damage event by quadratic time-frequency distributions for damage identification in a frame structure. A time-frequency distribution is a function which distributes the total energy of a signal at a particular time and frequency point. As the occurrence of damage often gives rise to non-stationary, nonlinear structural behavior, simultaneous representation of the dynamic response in the time-frequency plane offers valuable insight for damage detection. The applicability of the bilinear time-frequency distributions of the Cohen class is examined for the damage assessment of a frame structure from the simulated acceleration data. It is shown that the changes in instantaneous energy of the dynamic response could be a good damage indicator. Presence and location of damage can be identified using Choi-Williams distribution when damping is ignored. However, in the presence of damping the Page distribution is more effective and offers better readability for structural damage detection.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1213-1220
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• 2011

This study aims at choosing indicators to measure the effect of utilizing biotop map, and analyzing its effect by an indicator from the perspective of performer. The Primary performance indicators are made through specialist survey using SMART. As a result, three indicators are chosen: "Discussion of the period of an environmental effects evaluation(reduced effect)", "Plan and execution of environment and ecology plan in an urban development site", "Minimizing ecological damage in an urban development." The result in each indicator is as follows. The indicator of discussion of the period of an environmental effects evaluation(reduced effect), the average reduction rate in statistically meaningful level reduced 6.08% and 11.64% respectively in 2004-2005. In this period, environment information system was established and the reduction effect is shown in this period by reinforcing environment effect estimation using biotop map. As to the indicator of utilizing biotop map in an urban development site, the Seongnam P site case shows that biotop map was used when they set up an development plan. In case of minimizing ecological damage in an urban development, the Gwangjingu G-dong case shows that it was used to appoint preservation sit, and mediate development restrict area. Accordingly, the biotop map utilizing effect is confirmed through core performance indicators and verification of the indicators using SMART. The further research is encouraged to find evaluate indicators and verify the effect quantitatively to increase the use of biotop map.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.75-90
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• 2013

In order to identify damage of highway bridges rapidly, a method for damage identification using dynamic response of bridge induced by moving vehicle and static test data is proposed. To locate damage of the structure, displacement energy damage index defined from the energy of the displacement response time history is adopted as the indicator. The displacement response time histories of bridge structure are obtained from simulation of vehicle-bridge coupled vibration analysis. The vehicle model is considered as a four-degree-of-freedom system, and the vibration equations of the vehicle model are deduced based on the D'Alembert principle. Finite element method is used to discretize bridge and finite element model is set up. According to the condition of displacement and force compatibility between vehicle and bridge, the vibration equations of the vehicle and bridge models are coupled. A Newmark-${\beta}$ algorithm based professional procedure VBAP is developed in MATLAB, and used to analyze the vehicle-bridge system coupled vibration. After damage is located by employing the displacement energy damage index, the damage extent is estimated through the least-square-method based model updating using static test data. At last, taking one simply supported bridge as an illustrative example, some damage scenarios are identified using the proposed damage identification methodology. The results indicate that the proposed method is efficient for damage localization and damage extent estimation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.445-466
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• 2008

This paper presents a novel structural damage detection method with a new damage index based on the statistical moments of dynamic responses of a structure under a random excitation. After a brief introduction to statistical moment theory, the principle of the new method is put forward in terms of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system. The sensitivity of statistical moment to structural damage is discussed for various types of structural responses and different orders of statistical moment. The formulae for statistical moment-based damage detection are derived. The effect of measurement noise on damage detection is ascertained. The new damage index and the proposed statistical moment-based damage detection method are then extended to multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) systems with resort to the leastsquares method. As numerical studies, the proposed method is applied to both single and multi-story shear buildings. Numerical results show that the fourth-order statistical moment of story drifts is a more sensitive indicator to structural stiffness reduction than the natural frequencies, the second order moment of story drift, and the fourth-order moments of velocity and acceleration responses of the shear building. The fourth-order statistical moment of story drifts can be used to accurately identify both location and severity of structural stiffness reduction of the shear building. Furthermore, a significant advantage of the proposed damage detection method lies in that it is insensitive to measurement noise.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.333-342
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• 2003

The objective of this paper is to present an algorithm to locate and size damage in a beam structure. The method uses the changes in the modal strain energy distribution. A damage index, utilized to identify possible location and corresponding severity of local damage, is formulated and expressed in terms of modal displacements that can be obtained from mode shapes of the undamaged and the damaged structures. The possible damage locations in the structure arc determined by the application of damage indicator according to previously developed decision rules. The robustness and effectiveness of the method arc demonstrated using numerical examples of beam structures with simulated damage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.291-316
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• 2009

Damage detection using structural classical deflection flexibility has received considerable attention due to the unique features of the flexibility in the last two decades. However, for relatively complex structures, most methods based on classical deflection flexibility fail to locate damage sites to the exact members. In this study, for structures whose members are dominated by axial forces, such as truss structures, a more feasible flexibility for damage detection is proposed, which is called the Axial Strain (AS) flexibility. It is synthesized from measured modal frequencies and axial strain mode shapes which are expressed in terms of translational mode shapes. A damage indicator based on AS flexibility is proposed. In addition, how to integrate the AS flexibility into the Damage Location Vector (DLV) approach (Bernal and Gunes 2004) to improve its performance of damage localization is presented. The methods based on AS flexbility localize multiple damages to the exact members and they are suitable for the cases where the baseline data of the intact structure is not available. The proposed methods are demonstrated by numerical simulations of a 14-bay planar truss and a five-story steel frame and experiments on a five-story steel frame.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.419-444
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• 2014

Within this paper a new approach for early damage detection in rotor blades of wind energy converters is presented, which is shown to have a more sensitive reaction to damage than eigenfrequency-based methods. The new approach is based on the extension of Gasch's proportionality method, according to which maximum oscillation velocity and maximum stress are proportional by a factor, which describes the dynamic behavior of the structure. A change in the proportionality factor can be used as damage indicator. In addition, a novel deflection sensor was developed, which was specifically designed for use in wind turbine rotor blades. This deflection sensor was used during the experimental tests conducted for the measurement of the blade deflection. The method was applied on numerical models for different damage cases and damage extents. Additionally, the method and the sensing concept were applied on a real 50.8 m blade during a fatigue test in the edgewise direction. During the test, a damage of 1.5 m length was induced on the upper trailing edge bondline. Both the initial damage and the increase of its length were successfully detected by the decrease of the proportionality factor. This decrease coincided significantly with the decrease of the factor calculated from the numerical analyses.