• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.367-380
• /
• 2021

This study evaluated the stability through a three-dimensional numerical analysis method when a natural cave exists under a road in operation in Jeju Island. In order to confirm the geometric and geotechnical characteristics of the Jeju natural cave passing under the road, existing geotechnical survey reports were collected, and were studied the characteristics. In order to evaluate the effect of vehicle vibration loading on the natural cave in Jeju, three-dimensional numerical analysis was performed considering discontinuities. Through this, the stability of roads and caves with respect to vehicle speed and the depth of cover (distance from the road to the top of the natural cave) was evaluated and countermeasures were suggested. In order to secure the long-term stability of the Jeju natural cave that penetrates the lower part of the road, it was evaluated that systematic management such as long-term measurement management, reinforcement measures, and emergency measures would be necessary depending on the depth of the cover.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.229-239
• /
• 2019

A model of landslides is developed using the shallow water equations to simulate time-dependent performance of landslides. The shallow water equations are derived using the (b, s) coordinate system which can be applied in both river and ocean. The finite volume scheme employing the HLL approximate Riemann solver and the total variation diminishing (TVD) limiter is applied to deal with the numerical discontinuities occurring in landslides. For dam-break water flow and debris flow, numerical results are compared with analytical solutions and experimental data and good agreements are observed. The developed landslide model is successfully applied to predict subaerial and submarine landslides. It is found that the subaerial landslide propagates faster than the submarine landslide and the speed of propagation becomes faster with steeper bottom slope and less bottom roughness.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.381-388
• /
• 2018

This paper presents a generalized finite element formulation for plastic hinge modeling based on lumped plasticity in the classical Euler-Bernoulli beam elements. In this approach, the plastic hinges are effectively modeled using proper enrichment functions describing weak discontinuities of the solution. The proposed methodology enables the insertion of plastic hinges at an arbitrary location without modifying the connectivity of elements. The formations of plastic hinges are instead achieved by hierarchically adding degrees of freedom to existing elements. Convergence analyses such as h- and p-extensions are performed to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The analysis results indicate that the proposed generalized finite element method can achieve theoretical convergence rates for both cases where plastic hinges are located at nodes and within an element, thus demonstrating its accuracy.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.681-692
• /
• 2020

Conventional Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters (CPEH) have been extensively studied for maximizing their electrical output through material selection, geometric and structural optimization, and adoption of efficient interface circuits. In this paper, the performance of Stepped Piezoelectric Energy Harvester (SPEH) under harmonic base excitation is studied analytically, numerically and experimentally. The motivation is to compare the energy harvesting performance of CPEH and SPEHs with the same characteristics (resonant frequency). The results of this study challenge the notion of achieving higher voltage and power output through incorporation of geometric discontinuities such as step sections in the harvester beams. A CPEH consists of substrate material with a patch of piezoelectric material bonded over it and a tip mass at the free end to tune the resonant frequency. A SPEH is designed by introducing a step section near the root of substrate beam to induce higher dynamic strain for maximizing the electrical output. The incorporation of step section reduces the stiffness and consequently, a lower tip mass is used with SPEH to match the resonant frequency to that of CPEH. Moreover, the electromechanical coupling coefficient, forcing function and damping are significantly influenced because of the inclusion of step section, which consequently affects harvester's output. Three different configurations of SPEHs characterized by the same resonant frequency as that of CPEH are designed and analyzed using linear electromechanical model and their performances are compared. The variation of strain on the harvester beams is obtained using finite element analysis. The prototypes of CPEH and SPEHs are fabricated and experimentally tested. It is shown that the power output from SPEHs is lower than the CPEH. When the prototypes with resonant frequencies in the range of 56-56.5 Hz are tested at 1 m/s2, three SPEHs generate power output of 482 μW, 424 μW and 228 μW when compared with 674 μW from CPEH. It is concluded that the advantage of increasing dynamic strain using step section is negated by increase in damping and decrease in forcing function. However, SPEHs show slightly better performance in terms of specific power and thus making them suitable for practical scenarios where the ratio of power to system mass is critical.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
• /
• v.49 no.12
• /
• pp.924-929
• /
• 2011

It is well known that grain boundary cavitation is the main failure mechanism in austenitic stainless steel under tensile hold creep-fatigue interaction conditions. The cavities are nucleated at the grain boundary during cyclic loading and grow to become grain boundary cracks. The attenuation of ultrasound depends on scattering and absorption in polycrystalline materials. Scattering occurs when a propagation wave encounters microstructural discontinuities, such as internal voids or cavities. Since the density of the creep-fatigue cavities increases with the fatigue cycles, the attenuation of ultrasound will also be increased with the fatigue cycles and this attenuation can be detected nondestructively. In this study, it is found that individual grain boundary cavities are formed and grow up to about 100 cycles and then, these cavities coalesce to become cracks. The measured ultrasonic attenuation increased with the cycles up to cycle 100, where it reached a maximum value and then decreased with further cycles. These experimental measurements strongly indicate that the open pores of cavities contribute to the attenuation of ultrasonic waves. However, when the cavities develop, at the grain boundary cracks whose crack surfaces are in contact with each other, there is no longer any open space and the ultrasonic wave may propagate across the cracks. Therefore, the attenuation of ultrasonic waves will be decreased. This phenomenon of maximum attenuation is very important to judge the stage of grain boundary crack development, which is the indication of the dangerous stage of the structures.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.307-321
• /
• 2021

In an earlier publication (Serrano et al. 2014), the theoretical basis for evaluating the shear strength in rock joints was presented and used to derive an equation that governs the relationship between tangential and normal stresses on the joint during slippage between the joint faces. In this paper, the theoretical equation is applied to two non-linear failure criteria by using non-associated flow laws, including the modified Hoek and Brown and modified Mohr-Coulomb equations. The theoretical model considers the geometric dilatancy, the instantaneous friction angle, and a parameter that considers joint surface roughness as dependent variables. This model uses a similar equation structure to the empirical law that was proposed by Barton in 1973. However, a good correlation with the empirical values and, therefore, Barton's equation is necessary to incorporate a non-associated flow law that governs breakage processes in rock masses and becomes more significant in highly fractured media, which can be induced in a rock joint. A linear law of dilatancy is used to assess the importance of the non-associated flow to obtain very close values for different roughness states, so the best results are obtained for null material dilatancy, which considers significant changes that correspond to soft rock masses or altered zones of weakness.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.267-275
• /
• 2022

Using a nonconforming mesh in enrichment methods results in several numerical issues induced by discontinuities and singularities found within the solution spaces, including the computational overhead during integration. In this study, we present a novel enrichment technique based on the selective expansion technique of moment fitting (Düster and Allix, 2020). In particular, two modifications are proposed to address the inefficiency during the integration process. First, a feedforward artificial neural network is introduced to correlate the implicit functions and integration moments. Through numerical examples, it is shown that the efficiency of the method is greatly improved when compared with existing expansion techniques, whereas the solution accuracy is maintained. Additionally, the finite element and domain representation grids are separated, which in turn improves the solution accuracy even for coarse mesh conditions.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.461-474
• /
• 2023

The study area is located in Hyeonseo-myeon and Andeok-myeon of Cheongsong-gun, Korea around the Yeongcheon dam waterway tunnel, and in this paper, it is analyzed whether the groundwater level is recovered or not compared to groundwater level before waterway tunnel construction by measuring the groundwater level of 156 wells which were installed in areas near and away from the waterway tunnel. From September 2017 to August 2018, the groundwater level of the well was measured at least once a month, and as a result of groundwater level observation survey, the groundwater level of wells distributed in the directly affected zone by the waterway tunnel is relatively lower than that of the indirectly affected zone apart from the waterway tunnel. These results are estimated to be predominantly affected by the effect of waterway tunnel acting on geologic discontinuities rather than by terrain conditions, i.e. groundwater flows being leaked to the waterway tunnel through direct or indirect channels. Continuous monitoring and further investigation will be required to maintain groundwater facilities and preserve groundwater environments in the future.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.81 no.1
• /
• pp.81-91
• /
• 2022

The effects of interaction between concrete-gypsum interface and edge crack on the failure behavior of the specimens in senicircular bend (SCB) test were studied in the laboratory and also simulated numerically using the discrete element method. Some quarter circular specimens of gypsum and concrete with 5 cm radii and hieghts were separately prepared. Then the semicircular testing specimens were made by attaching one gypsum and one concrete sample to one another using a special glue and one edge crack is produced (in the interface) by do not using the glue in that part of the interface. The tensile strengths of concrete and gypsum samples were separately measured as 2.2 MPa and 1.3 MPa, respectively. during all testing performances a constant loading rate of 0.005 mm/s were stablished. The proposed testing method showed that the mechanism of failure and fracture in the brittle materials were mostly governed by the dimensions and number of discontinuities. The fracture toughnesses of the SCB samples were related to the fracture patterns during the failure processes of these specimens. The tensile behaviour of edge notch was related to the number of induced tensile cracks which were increased by decreasing the joint length. The fracture toughness of samples was constant by increasing the joint length. The failure process and fracture pattern in the notched semi-circular bending specimens were similar for both methods used in this study (i.e., the laboratory tests and the simulation procedure using the particle flow code (PFC2D)).

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.207-214
• /
• 2015

Stress concentrations around discontinuities, such as a hole or a sudden change in cross section of a structural member, have great important cause in the most materials failure because the stress near the points of application of concentrated loads can reach values much larger than the average value of the stress in the member. This paper presents the stress concentrations between fillet and hole at different locations in a stepped plate under tensile loading. The analysis for interaction effect of stress concentration was performed by photoelasticity and ANSYS which is a commercial finite element software. From the analysis results, the circular hole located at the different position from the fillet radius can cause different values of stress concentration factor within interacting region.