• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.1043-1046
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• 2013

Prediction of physicochemical properties of organic molecules is an important process in chemistry and chemical engineering. The MSEP approach developed in our lab calculates the molecular surface electrostatic potential (ESP) on van der Waals (vdW) surfaces of molecules. This approach includes geometry optimization and frequency calculation using hybrid density functional theory, B3LYP, at the 6-31G(d) basis set to find minima on the potential energy surface, and is known to give satisfactory QSPR results for various properties of organic molecules. However, this MSEP method is not applicable to screen large database because geometry optimization and frequency calculation require considerable computing time. To develop a fast but yet reliable approach, we have re-examined our previous work on organic molecules using two semi-empirical methods, AM1 and PM3. This new approach can be an efficient protocol in designing new molecules with improved properties.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.473-482
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• 2018

During the period of 2002 to 2017, the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) had observed time-varying gravity changes with unprecedented accuracy. The GRACE science data centers provide the monthly gravity solutions after removing the sub-monthly mass fluctuation using geophysical models. However, model misfit makes the solutions to be contaminated by aliasing errors, which exhibits peculiar north-south stripes. Two conventional filters are used to reduce the errors, but signals with similar spatial patterns to the errors are also removed during the filtering procedure. This would be particularly problematic for estimating the ice mass changes in Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and Antarctic Peninsula (AP) due to their similar spatial pattern to the elongated north-south direction. In this study, we introduce an alternative filter to remove aliasing errors using the Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) analysis. EOF can decompose data into different modes, and thus is useful to separate signals from noise. Therefore, the aliasing errors are effectively suppressed through EOF method. In particular, the month-to-month mass changes in WAIS and AP, which have been significantly contaminated by aliasing errors, can be recovered using EOF method.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.393-399
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• 2022

The Segregation Potential (SP) is one of the most widely used predictors of frost heave in cold regions. Laboratory step-freezing tests determining a representative SP at the onset of the formation of the last ice lens (near the thermal steady state condition) can predict susceptibility to frost heave. Previous work has proposed empirical semi-log fitting for determination of the representative SP and applied it to several fine-grained soils, but considering only frost-susceptible soils. The presence of fines in coarse-grained soil affects frost susceptibility. Therefore, it is required to evaluate the applicability of the empirical semi-log fitting for both frost-susceptible and non-frost-susceptible soils with fines content. This paper reports laboratory frost heave tests for fines contents of 5%-70%. The frost susceptibility of soil mixtures composed of sand and silt was classified by the representative SP, and the suitability of the empirical semi-log fitting method was assessed. Combining semi-log fitting with simple laboratory frost heave testing using a temperature-controllable cell is shown to be suitable for both frost-susceptible and non-frost-susceptible soils. In addition, initially non-frost-susceptible soil became frost susceptible at a 10%-20% weight fraction of fines. This threshold fines content matched well with transitions in the engineering characteristics of both the unfrozen and frozen soil mixtures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.221-241
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• 2022

Perfobond rib connectors are widely used in composite structures to achieve the composite action between the steel and the concrete, and empirical expressions for their strength and secant stiffness have been obtained by numerical simulations or push-out tests. Since perfobond connections are generally in an elastic state in the service process and the structural analysis are always based on the elastic properties of the members, the secant stiffness is not applicable for the normal structural analysis. However, the tangent stiffness of perfobond connections has not been introduced in previous studies. Moreover, the perfobond connections are bearing tension and shear force simultaneously when the composite beams subjected to torque or local loads, but the current studies fail to arrive at the elastic stiffness considering the combined effects. To resolve these discrepancies, this paper investigates the initial elastic stiffness of perfobond connections under combined forces. The calculation method for the elastic stiffness of perfobond connections is analyzed, and the contributions of the perfobond rib, the perforating rebar and the concrete dowel are investigated. A finite element method was verified with a high value of correlation for the test results. Afterwards, parametric studies are carried out using the reliable finite element analysis to explore the trends of several factors. Empirical equations for predicting the initial elastic stiffness of perfobond connections are proposed by the numerical regression of the data extracted by parametric studies. The equations agree well with finite element analysis and test results, which indicates that the proposed empirical equations reflect a high accuracy for predicting the initial elastic stiffness of perfobond connections.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.313-324
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• 2022

Rock properties are important in the design of mines and civil engineering excavations to prevent the imminent failure of slopes and collapse of underground excavations. However, the time, cost, and expertise required to perform experiments to determine those properties are high. Therefore, empirical models have been developed for estimating the mechanical properties of rock that are difficult to determine experimentally from properties that are less difficult to measure. However, the inherent variability in rock properties makes the accurate performance of the empirical models unrealistic and therefore necessitate the use of soft computing models. In this study, Gaussian process regression (GPR), artificial neural network (ANN) and response surface method (RSM) have been proposed to predict the static and dynamic rock properties from the P-wave and rock density. The outcome of the study showed that GPR produced more accurate results than the ANN and RSM models. GPR gave the correlation coefficient of above 99% for all the three properties predicted and RMSE of less than 5. The detailed sensitivity analysis is also conducted using the RSM and the P-wave velocity is found to be the most influencing parameter in the rock mechanical properties predictions. The proposed models can give reasonable predictions of important mechanical properties of sedimentary rock.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.5
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• pp.621-633
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• 2023

Stability analysis and support system estimation of the Beheshtabad water transmission tunnel is investigated in this research. A combination approach based on the rock mass rating (RMR) and rock mass quality index (Q) is used for this purpose. In the first step, 40 datasets related to the petrological, structural, hydrological, physical, and mechanical properties of tunnel host rocks are measured in the field and laboratory. Then, RMR, Q, and height of influenced zone above the tunnel roof are computed and sorted into five general groups to analyze the tunnel stability and determine its support system. Accordingly, tunnel stand-up time, rock load, and required support system are estimated for five sorted rock groups. In addition, various empirical relations between RMR and Q i.e., linear, exponential, logarithmic, and power functions are developed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA). Based on the significance level (sig.), determination coefficient (R²) and Fisher-test (F) indices, power and logarithmic equations are proposed as the optimum relations between RMR and Q. To validate the proposed relations, their results are compared with the results of previous similar equations by using the variance account for (VAF), root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and mean absolute error (MAE) indices. Comparison results showed that the accuracy of proposed RMR-Q relations is better than the previous similar relations and their outputs are more consistent with actual data. Therefore, they can be practically utilized in designing the tunneling projects with an acceptable level of accuracy and reliability.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.245-256
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• 2008

In order to cope with the ill-defined problem of human behavior being immanent uncertainty, several methodologies have been studied in game theoretic, social psychological and political science frameworks. As methods to arrange system elements systematically and draw out the consenting structural model concretively, ISM, FSM and DEMATEL based on graph theory etc. have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a modified structural modeling method to recognize the nature of problem. We introduce the statistical method to adjust the establishment levels in group decision situation. From this, it will become possible to obtain effectively and smoothly the structural model of group members in comparison with the traditional methods. Further we propose a procedure for achieving the consenting structural model of group members based on the structural modeling method. By applying the method to recognize the nature of ill-defined problems, it will be possible to solve the given problem effectively and rationally. In order to inspect the effectiveness of the method, we conduct a practical problem as an empirical study: "Behavior analysis of passengers for the Joban line of East Japan Railway Company after new railway service of Tsukuba Express opened".

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.5-14
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• 2004

Since flexible adhesives are used more and more in structural applications, designers should have a better understanding of its behaviour under various conditions as ultimate load, fatigue load, long-term load and environmental conditions. This paper focuses on long-term load conditions and its effect on flexible adhesives. The creep properties of both PU (PolyUrethane) and SMP (Silyl Modified Polymers) adhesives used for identical applications are considered. To investigate the creep behaviour tests under various conditions were done. The results of those tests are presented and compared. To evaluate these results an empirical method is proposed and discussed. An example illustrates the potential of this method. It is also shown that with use of a probabilistic calibration technique this method results into a simple rule, which can be used to calculate the creep for practical applications. For the studied adhesives, the creep performance of the SMP adhesive is shown to be of the same level or slightly better than of the two PU adhesives. In addition to this empirical method, the principles of a more complex theoretical based method are introduced. The potential of this method is illustrated and future research activities are drawn.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.179-194
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• 2011

Although there have been studies regarding the separating policy of dispensary and medical practice, little study have provided a concrete empirical evidence to what extent the policy objectives are achieved. In this paper, we try to provide empirical evidence whether the policy separating dispensary from medical practice achieved the policy objectives, which representatively are reducing the mis-use or over-use of anti-biotic prescriptions and medicines, and decreasing the government spending for the cost of pharmaceutical support. By comparing the average of the rate of change of the number of medicines prescribed, the rate of anti-biotics prescribed, and the government spending for the cost of pharmaceutical support between the areas where the separation policy was implemented and the exceptional areas, we concluded that it is difficult to conclude that the policy separating dispensary and medical practice achieved its policy objects, as it first announced to achieve in the introduction of the policy in 2000. However, the limitation of this study is that the data, that can thoroughly analyze the effect of separating policy of dispensary from medical practice, cannot be collected as expected. Hence, we could not use a parsimonious empirical model to evaluate the effect of the policy introduced in 2000. Rather we used a simple statistical method to extract enough empirical evidence fro m the data available. In the near future, we would expect to see more research that analyze the exact effect of policy separating dispensary and medical practice with concrete empirical model using more sophisticated dataset.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.163-171
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• 2020

Engaged in trawling in limited fishing grounds with a number of fish schools could cause collisions between fishing vessels. Therefore, providing accurate maneuver information according to the situation could be regarded as essential for improving seafarers safety and fishing efficiency as well as safety of navigation. It is difficult to obtain all maneuver information through sea trial tests only, so a method through empirical formula is necessary. Since most empirical formulas are developed for merchant ship types, especially the characteristics of hull shape parameter like C_bB/L and dC_b/B etc. are clearly different between fishing vessels and merchant ships, this could occur estimation errors. Therefore, in this study, the authors have selected target fishing vessels and merchant ships and analyzed the characteristics of hull shape parameter according to the ship types. Based on this analysis, the empirical formula developed for the merchant ship type has applied to the target fishing vessels; it has verified through the turning motion simulation that the estimation error could be generated. In conclusion, it is necessary to include the characteristics of the hull shape parameter of fishing vessels in the empirical formula in order to apply the empirical formula has developed for merchant ship types to fishing vessel types.