• Wind and Structures
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.143-158
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• 2000

This report presents the findings of a one-year monitoring effort to empirically characterize and evaluate the nature of near-ground winds for structural engineering purposes. The current wind engineering practice in the United States does not explicitly consider certain important near-ground wind characteristics in typical rough terrain conditions and the possible effect on efficient design of low-rise structures, such as homes and other light-frame buildings that comprise most of the building population. Therefore, near ground wind data was collected for the purpose of comparing actual near-ground wind characteristics to the current U.S. wind engineering practice. The study provides data depicting variability of wind speeds, wind velocity profiles for a major thunderstorm event and a northeaster, and the influence of thunderstorms on annual extreme wind speeds at various heights above ground in a typical rough environment. Data showing the decrease in the power law exponent with increasing wind speed is also presented. It is demonstrated that near-ground wind speeds (i.e., less than 10 m above ground) are likely to be over-estimated in the current design practice by as much as 20 percent which may result in wind load over-estimate of about 50% for low-rise buildings in typical rough terrain. The importance of thunderstorm wind profiles on determination of design wind speeds and building loads (particularly for buildings substantially taller than 10 m) is also discussed. Recommendations are given for possible improvements to the current design practice in the United States with respect to low-rise buildings in rough terrain and for the need to study the impact of thunderstorm gust profile shapes on extreme value wind speed estimates and building loads.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.319-332
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• 2019

This study is aimed to predict the behaviour of channel shear connectors in composite floor systems at different temperatures. For this purpose, a soft computing approach is adopted. Two novel intelligence methods, including an Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) and a Genetic Programming (GP), are developed. In order to generate the required data for the intelligence methods, several push-out tests were conducted on various channel connectors at different temperatures. The dimension of the channel connectors, temperature, and slip are considered as the inputs of the models, and the strength of the connector is predicted as the output. Next, the performance of the ELM and GP is evaluated by developing an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Finally, the performance of the ELM, GP, and ANN is compared with each other. Results show that ELM is capable of achieving superior performance indices in comparison with GP and ANN in the case of load prediction. Also, it is found that ELM is not only a very fast algorithm but also a more reliable model.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.299-313
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• 2019

In order to examine the effects of different wind deflectors on the wind load distribution characteristics of extra-large cooling towers, a comparative study of the distribution characteristics of wind pressures on the surface of three large cooling towers with typical wind deflectors and one tower without wind deflector was conducted using wind tunnel tests. These characteristics include aerodynamic parameters such as mean wind pressures, fluctuating wind pressures, peak factors, correlation coefficients, extreme wind pressures, drag coefficients and vorticity distribution. Then distribution regularities of different wind deflectors on global and local wind pressure of extra-large cooling towers was extracted, and finally the fitting formula of extreme wind pressure of the cooling towers with different wind deflectors was provided. The results showed that the large eddy simulation (LES) method used in this article could be used to accurately simulate wind loads of such extra-large cooling towers. The three typical wind deflectors could effectively reduce the average wind pressure of the negative pressure extreme regions in the central part of the tower, and were also effective in reducing the root of the variance of the fluctuating wind pressure in the upper-middle part of the windward side of the tower, with the curved air deflector showing particularly. All the different wind deflectors effectively reduced the wind pressure extremes of the middle and lower regions of the windward side of the tower and of the negative pressure extremes region, with the best effect occurring in the curved wind deflector. After the wind deflectors were installed the drag coefficient values of each layer of the middle and lower parts of the tower were significantly higher than that without wind deflector, but the effect on the drag coefficients of layers above the throat was weak. The peak factors for the windward side, the side and leeward side of the extra-large cooling towers with different wind deflectors were set as 3.29, 3.41 and 3.50, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.235-241
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• 2014

As a fiber-optic cable is being unwound, it is protected by a tube that is designed to prevent unwinding problems such as tangling and unintentional cutting. In addition, a guide body is separated from the protective tube if a shear pin breaks when the maximum allowable load is exceeded. Therefore, it is important to analyze and predict the unwinding behavior of the protective tube, as well as the load on the shear pin, to enhance the likelihood of a successful operation when laying cables at extreme depths. In this study, the protective tube and the guide body are modeled with particles and are constrained with a constant-length constraint. The load on the shear pin was verified against experimental data, and the unwinding behavior was predicted from the load prediction results.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.107-120
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• 1987

This study is directed for the evolution of the rational approaches to the systematic evaluation of the load carrying capacity of bridges based on the practical and second moment reliability methods. A new approach for the evaluation of load carrying capacity of exsisting bridges is proposed in this study. The key idea behind this approach is in the fact that the load carrying capacity of an existing bridges under extreme traffic truck loadings may be measured by evaluating and classifying the reliability state of the bridge in terms of reliability index(${\beta}$). The rating formulas developed in this study are applied for the evaluation of load carrying capacity of the several actual deteriorated bridges inspected and tested for the capacity rating, and the results are compared with those calculated by using the current rating formulas. It may be concluded that the proposed rating formulas which is derived based on reliability methods, have to eventually replace the current rating formula when the basic statistical data for the resistance and load effects become available in the near future.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.3A
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• pp.199-207
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• 2009

In this paper, new vehicular load model is developed for reliability-based bridge design code. Rational load model and statistical properties of loads are important for developing reliability-based design code. In the previous paper, truck weight data collected at eight locations using WIM or BWIM system are analyzed to calculate the maximum truck weights for specified bridge lifetime. Probability distributions of upper 20% total truck weight are assumed as Extreme Type I (Gumbel Distribution) and 100 years maximum weights are estimated by linear regression. In this study, effects of multiple presence of trucks are analyzed. Probability of multiple presence of trucks are estimated and corresponding multiple truck weights are calculated using the same probability distribution function as in the previous paper. New vehicular live load model are proposed for span length from 10 m to 200 m. New model is compared with current Korean model and various load models of other countries.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.3A
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• pp.189-197
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• 2009

In this study, truck weight data and load effects of single truck on bridges are analyzed for development of new vehicular load model of the reliability-based bridge design code. Rational load model and statistical properties of loads are important for developing reliability-based design code. In this study, truck weight data collected at four locations are used as well as data from four locations in other studies. Truck weight data are collected from WIM or BWIM system, which are known to give reliable data. Typical truck types, dimensions and axle weight distribution are determined. Probability distributions of upper 20% total truck weight are assumed as Extreme Type I and 100 years maximum truck weights are estimated by linear regression on the probability paper. The load effects of trucks having estimated maximum weights are analyzed for span length from 10 m to 200 m.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.369-379
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• 2012

The collapse of concrete structures by extreme loads such as impact, explosion, and blast from terrorist attacks causes severe property damage and human casualties. Concrete has excellent impact resistance to such extreme loads in comparison with other construction materials. Nevertheless, existing concrete structures designed without consideration of the impact or blast load with high strain rate are endangered by those unexpected extreme loads. In this study, to improve the impact resistance, the static and impact behaviors of concrete beams caste with steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) with 0~1.5% (by volume) of 30 mm long hooked steel fibers were assessed. Test results indicated that the static and impact resistances, flexural strength, ductility, etc., were significantly increased when higher steel fiber volume fraction was applied. In the case of the layered concrete (LC) beams including greater steel fiber volume fraction in the tensile zone, the higher static and impact resistances were achieved than those of the normal steel fiber reinforced concrete beam with an equivalent steel fiber volume fraction. The impact test results were also compared with the analysis results obtained from the single degree of freedom (SDOF) system anaysis considering non-linear material behaviors of steel fiber reinforced concrete. The analysis results from SDOF system showed good agreement with the experimental maximum deflections.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.159-169
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• 2014

This study generalizes the lateral load-displacement relationship of reinforced concrete shear walls from the section analysis for moment-curvature response to straightforwardly evaluate the flexural capacity and ductility of such members. Moment and curvature at different selected points including the first flexural crack, yielding of tensile reinforcing bar, maximum strength, 80% of the maximum strength at descending branch, and fracture of tensile reinforcing bar are calculated based on the strain compatibility and equilibrium of internal forces. The strain at extreme compressive fiber to determine the curvature at the descending branch is formulated as a function of reduction factor of maximum stress of concrete and volumetric index of lateral reinforcement using the stress-strain model of confined concrete proposed by Razvi and Saatcioglu. The moment prediction models are simply formulated as a function of tensile reinforcement index, vertical reinforcement index, and axial load index from an extensive parametric study. Lateral displacement is calculated by using the moment area method of idealized curvature distribution along the wall height. The generalized lateral load-displacement relationship is in good agreement with test result, even at the descending branch after ultimate strength of shear walls.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.545-553
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• 2009

A lot of long-span marine bridge, which connects land to island or island to island, are being designed and constructed lately in south-west coast in South Korea. In the past, caisson foundations in marine were mainly adopted in construction and stability aspect, however, nowadays with development of pile construction technology, drilled shaft foundations are mainly adopted. As the long span cable stayed bridge and suspension bridge applied with lots of loads are being designed, the scale of pile foundations are getting larger. As the construction cost of substructure including foundation in marine bridges is too high, the appropriate evaluation of the axial bearing capacity of pile becomes a core factor to decide the construction cost of foundation if the drilled shaft is adopted as foundation type of bridge. The evaluation values of skin friction and end bearing capacity of drilled shaft in weathered rock suggested in south Korea are only to introduce the foreign specifications, and most of them are designed in a kind of hard soil layer. Also the allowable load of pile section is less than the expected bearing capacity of pile in the soil condition since the allowable capacity of pile is undervalued. Recently in order to improve this factor the bi-axial hydraulic load test of pile was taken, the data of load transfer analysis of pile, unit of skin friction and end bearing capacity are accumulated. In our country, the design of piles are made with ASD, however, LRFD considering service, strength and extreme state was adopted in Incheon Grand Bridge implemented with BTL, and the research to systematize the resistance coefficient appropriate at home country are being progressed.