• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.38-43
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• 2011

For the efficient and safe operation of nuclear power plant, evaluating quantitatively aging phenomenon of major components is necessary. Especially, typical aging parameters such as stresses and cumulative usage factors should be determined accurately to manage the lifetime of the plant facility. The 3-D finite element(FE) model is generated to calculate the aging parameters. Mechanical and thermal transfer functions called Green's functions are developed for the FE model with standard step input. The stress results estimated from transfer functions are verified by comparing with 3-D FE analyses results. Lastly, we suggest an effective fatigue evaluation methodology by using the transfer functions. The usefulness of the proposed fatigue evaluation methodology can be maximized by combining it with an on-line monitoring system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.577-588
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• 2022

Oil refineries' Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units (FCCU) when in full operation may exhibit strong fluid dynamics caused by turbulent flow in the piping system that may induce vibrations in other mechanical and structural components of the Unity. This paper reports on the experimental-theoretical-computational program performed to get the vibration properties and the dynamic response amplitudes to find out alternative solutions to attenuate the excessive vibrations that were causing fatigue fractures in components of the bottle like reactor-regenerator of an FCC unit in operation in an existing oil refinery in Brazil. Solutions to the vibration problem were sought with the aid of a 3D finite element model calibrated with the results obtained from experimental measurements. A short description of the found solutions is given and their effectiveness are shown by means of numerical results. The solutions were guided by the concepts of structural stiffening and dynamic control performed by a nonlinear pendulum controller whose mechanical design was based on parameters determined by means of a parametric study carried out with 2D and 3D mathematical models of the coupled pendulum-structure system. The effectiveness of the proposed solutions is evaluated in terms of the fatigue life of critical welded connections.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.583-588
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• 2016

The high-temperature steam pipes of thermal power plants are subjected to severe conditions such as creep and fatigue due to the power plant frequently being started up and shut down. To prevent critical pipes from serious damage and possible failure, inspection methods such as computational analysis and online piping displacement monitoring have been developed. However, these methods are limited in that they cannot determine the life consumption rate of a critical pipe precisely. Therefore, we set out to develop a life assessment system, based on a three-dimensional piping displacement monitoring system, which is capable of evaluating the life consumption rate of a critical pipe. This system was installed at the "M" thermal power plant in Malaysia, and was shown to operate well in practice. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the increase safety of piping systems by minimizing stress and extending the actual life of critical piping.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.1177-1186
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• 2009

High temperature steam pipes of thermal power plant are subject to a severe thermal range and usually operates well into the creep range. Cyclic operation of the plant subjects the piping system to mechanical and thermal fatigue damages. Also, poor or malfunctional supports can impose massive loads or stress onto the piping system. In order to prevent the serious damage and failure of the critical piping system, various inspection methods such as visual inspection, computational analysis and on-line piping displacement monitoring were developed. 3-dimensional piping displacement monitoring system was developed with using the aluminum alloy rod and rotary encoder sensors, this system was installed and operated on the high temperature steam piping of "Y" thermal power plant successfully. It is expected that this study will contribute to the safety of piping system, which could minimize stress and extend the actual life of critical piping.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.1033-1036
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• 2008

In this paper, we describe the development of the polarized-light stereoscopic monitoring system based on full HDTV. The system consists of the stereoscopic camera part, image processing device for the stereoscopic image recording and stereoscopic display. The developed stereoscopic imaging display system reduces eyestrain and viewer fatigue.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.86-92
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• 2022

Pipe failure due to thermal fatigue and environmental regulations are increasing the importance of pipe monitoring systems in industrial plants. Since most pipe monitoring systems are focus on external crack inspected, it is necessary to temperature and concentration measuring monitoring system inside the pipe. These systems have spatial uncertainty due to sample inspection by one-point measurement. In addition, real-time measurement is not possible due to the limitation of time delay due to contact measurement. In this study, CT-TDLAS (Computed tomography-Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy) apply to overcome the limitations of existing methods. Lasers exhibiting an absorption response at a wavelength of 1395 nm were arranged in a lattice pattern on measuring cell. It showed that the inside of the pipe changed to an unstable combustion state over time.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.397-408
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• 2021

The construction industry has the highest occupational accidents/injuries and has experienced the most fatalities among entire industries. Korean government installed surveillance camera systems at construction sites to reduce occupational accident rates. Construction safety managers are monitoring potential hazards at the sites through surveillance system; however, the human capability of monitoring surveillance system with their own eyes has critical issues. A long-time monitoring surveillance system causes high physical fatigue and has limitations in grasping all accidents in real-time. Therefore, this study aims to build a deep learning-based safety monitoring system that can obtain information on the recognition, location, identification of workers and heavy equipment in the construction sites by applying multiple object tracking with instance segmentation. To evaluate the system's performance, we utilized the Microsoft common objects in context and the multiple object tracking challenge metrics. These results prove that it is optimal for efficiently automating monitoring surveillance system task at construction sites.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.391-406
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• 2008

This study attempts to develop a real-time debonding monitoring system for carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthened structures by continuously inspecting the bonding condition between the CFRP layer and the host structure. The uniqueness of this study is in developing a new concept and theoretical framework of nondestructive testing (NDT), in which debonding is detected without relying on previously-obtained baseline data. The proposed reference-free damage diagnosis is achieved based on the concept of time reversal acoustics (TRA). In TRA, an input signal at an excitation point can be reconstructed if the response signal measured at another point is reemitted to the original excitation point after being reversed in the time domain. Examining the deviation of the reconstructed signal from the known initial input signal allows instantaneous identification of damage without requiring a baseline signal representing the undamaged state for comparison. The concept of TRA has been extended to guided wave propagations within the CFRP-strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams to improve the detectibility of local debonding. Monotonic and fatigue load tests of large-scale CFRP-strengthened RC beams are conducted to demonstrate the potential of the proposed reference-free debonding monitoring system. Comparisons with an electro-mechanical impedance method and an inferred imaging technique are provided as well.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.33-52
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• 2017

A cantilever beam with a breathing crack is studied to improve the breathing crack identification sensitivity by the parametric optimization of sample entropy and wavelet transformation. Crack breathing is a special bi-linear phenomenon experienced by fatigue cracks which are under dynamic loadings. Entropy is a measure, which can quantify the complexity or irregularity in system dynamics, and hence employed to quantify the bi-linearity/irregularity of the vibration response, which is induced by the breathing phenomenon of a fatigue crack. To improve the sensitivity of entropy measurement for crack identification, wavelet transformation is merged with entropy. The crack identification is studied under different sinusoidal excitation frequencies of the cantilever beam. It is found that, for the excitation frequencies close to the first modal frequency of the beam structure, the method is capable of detecting only 22% of the crack depth percentage ratio with respect to the thickness of the beam. Using parametric optimization of sample entropy and wavelet transformation, this crack identification sensitivity is improved up to 8%. The experimental studies are carried out, and experimental results successfully validate the numerical parametric optimization process.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.148-154
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• 2022

Background: Bus driving is a mentally demanding activity that requires prolonged attention to ensure safety. The aim of the study was to assess mental fatigue caused by driving a public bus and to find a profile of workers at higher risk. Methods: We evaluated changes of critical flicker fusion (CFF) (index of central arousal) and heart rate variability (HRV) (index of autonomic balance) in a 6-hour driving shift on a real route, in 31 professional bus drivers, and we tested the influence of personal factors such as sleep quality, BMI, and age. Paired t-test was used to test differences of CFF and HRV between both initial and final phase of driving, while multiple linear regression tested the influence of personal variables on the indexes of mental fatigue. Results: Results showed that CFF significantly decreased after 6 hours of bus driving (41.91 Hz, sd 3.31 vs. 41.15 Hz, sd 3.15; p = 0.041), and heart rate significantly decreased in the final phase of driving, with respect to the initial phase (85 vs. 78 bpm, p = 0.027). Increasing age (beta = -0.729, p = 0.022), risk of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (beta = -0.530, p = 0.04), and diurnal sleepiness (beta = -0.406, p = 0.017) showed a significant effect on influencing mental fatigue. Conclusion: Elderly drivers at higher risk of sleep disorders are more prone to mental fatigue, when exposed to driving activity. Monitoring indexes of central arousal and autonomic balance, coupled with the use of structured questionnaires can represent a useful strategy to detect profile of workers at higher risk of mental fatigue in such duty.