• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제84권3호
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• pp.217-225
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• 2021

Background: Despite the proven benefits of dexamethasone in hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, the optimum time for the administration of dexamethasone is unknown. We investigated the progression of COVID-19 pneumonia based on the timing of dexamethasone administration. Methods: A single-center, retrospective cohort study based on medical record reviews was conducted between June 10 and September 21, 2020. We compared the risk of severe COVID-19, defined as the use of a high-flow nasal cannula or a mechanical ventilator, between groups that received dexamethasone either within 24 hours of hypoxemia (early dexamethasone group) or 24 hours after hypoxemia (late dexamethasone group). Hypoxemia was defined as room-air SpO₂ <90%. Results: Among 59 patients treated with dexamethasone for COVID-19 pneumonia, 30 were in the early dexamethasone group and 29 were in the late dexamethasone group. There was no significant difference in baseline characteristics, the time interval from symptom onset to diagnosis or hospitalization, or the use of antiviral or antibacterial agents between the two groups. The early dexamethasone group showed a significantly lower rate of severe COVID-19 compared to the control group (75.9% vs. 40.0%, p=0.012). Further, the early dexamethasone group showed a significantly shorter total duration of oxygen supplementation (10.45 days vs. 21.61 days, p=0.003) and length of stay in the hospital (19.76 days vs. 27.21 days, p=0.013). However, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and in-hospital mortality rates were not significantly different between the two groups. Conclusion: Early administration of dexamethasone may prevent the progression of COVID-19 to a severe disease, without increased mortality.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.407-415
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• 2019

A controlled low strength material (CLSM) is a highly flowable cementitious material used for trench backfilling. However, when applying vertical loads to backfilled trenches, shear failure or differential settlement may occur at the interface between the CLSM and natural soil. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the characteristics of the interface friction between the CLSM and soils based on curing time, gradation, and normal stress. The CLSM is composed of fly ash, calcium sulfoaluminate cement, sand, silt, water, and an accelerator. To investigate the engineering properties of the CLSM, flow and unconfined compressive strength tests are carried out. Poorly graded and well-graded sands are selected as the in-situ soil adjacent to the CLSM. The direct shear tests of the CLSM and soils are carried out under three normal stresses for four different curing times. The test results show that the shear strengths obtained within 1 day are higher than those obtained after 1 day. As the curing time increases, the maximum dilation of the poorly graded sand-CLSM specimens under lower normal stresses also generally increases. The maximum contraction increases with increasing normal stress, but it decreases with increasing curing time. The shear strengths of the well-graded sand-CLSM interface are greater than those of the poorly graded sand-CLSM interface. Moreover, the friction angle for the CLSM-soil interface decreases with increasing curing time, and the friction angles of the well-graded sand-CLSM interface are greater than those of the poorly graded sand-CLSM interface. The results suggest that the CLSM may be effectively used for trench backfilling owing to a better understanding of the interface shear strength and behavior between the CLSM and soils.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제70권2호
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• pp.169-178
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• 2019

The replacement of damaged components is an important task for long-span bridges. Conventional strategy for component replacement is to close the bridge to traffic, so that the influence of the surrounding environment is reduced to a minimum extent. However, complete traffic interruption would bring substantial economic losses and negative social influence nowadays. This paper investigates traffic control technologies without interruption for component replacement of long-span bridges. A numerical procedure of traffic control technologies is proposed incorporating traffic microsimulation and site-specific data, which is then implemented through a case study of cable replacement of a long-span cable-stayed bridge. Results indicate traffic load effects on the bridge are lower than the design values under current low daily traffic volume, and therefore cable replacement could be conducted without traffic control. However, considering a possible medium or high level of daily traffic volume, traffic load effects of girder bending moment and cable force nearest to the replaced cable become larger than the design level. This indicates a potential risk of failure, and traffic control should be implemented. Parametric studies show that speed control does not decrease but increase the load effects, and flow control using lane closure is not effectual. However, weight control and gap control are very effective to mitigate traffic load effects, and it is recommended to employ a weight control with gross vehicle weight no more than 65 t or/and a gap control with minimum vehicle gap no less than 40 m for the cable replacement of the case bridge.

• 대한토목학회논문집
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• 제41권3호
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• pp.237-246
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• 2021

기후변화로 극한강우에 의해 발생하는 얕은 비탈면 붕괴와 침식으로 토석류 유발이 잦아지고 있다. 앵커나 네일링 공법으로 보강하기 보다는 원지반을 이용하여 식생이 되는 비탈면 보강이 경제적이면서 친환경적인 공법으로 연구되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 충분한 식생이 가능하도록 부엽토와 한약재 찌꺼기를 활용하여 토양개량제를 개발하였다. 그리고 표면침식을 방지하기 위해 첨가제로 마이크로 시멘트와 반수석고 등을 사용하여 전단강도를 증가시켰다. 이러한 주재료와 첨가제 결정은 실내시험을 통하여 강우로 인한 지반 표층의 침식 진행을 확인하여 전단강도의 증가를 확인할 수 있었다. 원지반을 활용하는 토양개량제의 보강은 식생이 가능하고 침식에 대해 저항력이 크게 증가한다. 이러한 보강은 사면 불안정성의 주요 원인인 인장균열 발생을 방지하고 침식에 의한 토석류 유발을 막을 수 있기 때문에 다른 공법들보다 장마철 폭우에 대한 대처방안으로 효율적인 방법이라고 판단된다.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제85권3호
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• pp.337-351
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• 2023

In this paper, the shear behavior of soft filling in rectangular-hollow concrete specimens was simulated using the 2D particle flow code (PFC2D). The laboratory-measured properties were used to calibrate some PFC2D micro-properties for modeling the behavior of geo-materials. The dimensions of prepared and modeled samples were 100 mm×100 mm. Some disc type narrow bands were removed from the central part of the model and different lengths of bridge areas (i.e., the distance between internal tips of two joints) with lengths of 30 mm, 50 mm, and 70 mm were produced. Then, the middle of the rectangular hollow was filled with cement material. Three filling sizes with dimensions of 5 mm×5 mm, 10 mm×5 mm, and 15 mm×5 mm were provided for different modeled samples. The parallel bond model was used to calibrate and re-produce these modeled specimens. Therefore, totally, 9 different types of samples were designed for the shear tests in PFC2D. The shear load was gradually applied to the model under a constant loading condition of 3 MPa (σc/3). The loading was continued till shear failure occur in the modeled concrete specimens. It has been shown that both tensile and shear cracks may occur in the fillings. The shear cracks mainly initiated from the crack (joint) tips and coalesced with another one. The shear displacements and shear strengths were both increased as the filling dimensions increased (for the case of a bridge area with a particular fixed length).

• 한국지반공학회논문집
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• 제38권7호
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• pp.39-47
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• 2022

본 연구는 도심지 내에 위치한 학교와 아파트 등 지반구조물들의 재해 위험성을 검증하기 위해 비탈면붕괴에 대한 안정성 평가를 수행하고자 한다. 이에 광주광역시에 위치한 𐩒𐩒고등학교 뒤편의 비탈면이 2018년 8월에 집중호우로 인하여 붕괴되었다. 일반적으로 장마철이면 비탈면 주위로 배수가 원활하게 진행되겠지만, 붕괴 시 비탈면 표층에서 침투수의 다량 용출과 지표면을 따라 포화된 지층을 따라 얕은파괴가 진행되었다. 붕괴 원인을 분석하기 위해 직접 확인하지 못하는 비탈면 상부지역을 무인항공기를 이용하여 영상촬영을 하였다. 영상분석을 통해 경사도를 이용한 수치표고모형(DEM)을 수행하였고, 강우 흐름 방향, 벌목지역의 넓이와 폭, 길이를 계산할 수 있었다. 10일 동안 지속된 강우로 인한 붕괴사면의 시간별 불안정성에 대한 변화를 수치해석을 통하여 분석하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권12호
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• pp.3990-4002
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• 2021

CSPACE (Core meltdown, Safety and Performance Analysis CodE for nuclear power plants) for a simulation of severe accident progression in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) is developed by coupling of verified system thermal hydraulic code of SPACE (Safety and Performance Analysis CodE for nuclear power plants) and core damage progression code of COMPASS (Core Meltdown Progression Accident Simulation Software). SPACE is responsible for the description of fluid state in nuclear system nodes, while COMPASS is responsible for the prediction of thermal and mechanical responses of core fuels and reactor vessel heat structures. New heat transfer models to each phase of the fluid, flow blockage, corium behavior in the lower head are added to COMPASS. Then, an interface module for the data transfer between two codes was developed to enable coupling. An implicit coupling scheme of wall heat transfer was applied to prevent fluid temperature oscillation. To validate the performance of newly developed code CSPACE, we analyzed typical severe accident scenarios for OPR1000 (Optimized Power Reactor 1000), which were initiated from large break loss of coolant accident, small break loss of coolant accident, and station black out accident. The results including thermal hydraulic behavior of RCS, core damage progression, hydrogen generation, corium behavior in the lower head, reactor vessel failure were reasonable and consistent. We demonstrate that CSPACE provides a good platform for the prediction of severe accident progression by detailed review of analysis results and a qualitative comparison with the results of previous MELCOR analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권12호
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• pp.3879-3891
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• 2021

A heat pipe residual heat removal system is proposed to be incorporated into the reactor driven subcritical (RDS) facility, which has been proposed by MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory for testing and demonstrating the Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR). It aims to reduce the risk of the system operation after the shutdown of the facility. One of the main components of the system is an air-cooled heat pipe heat exchanger. The alkali-metal high-temperature heat pipe was designed to meet the operation temperature and residual heat removal requirement of the facility. The heat pipe model developed in the previous work was adopted to simulate the designed heat pipe and assess the heat transport capability. 3D numerical simulation of the subcritical facility active zone was performed by the commercial CFD software STAR CCM + to investigate the operation characteristics of this proposed system. The thermal resistance network of the heat pipe was built and incorporated into the CFD model. The nominal condition, partial loss of air flow accident and partial heat pipe failure accident were simulated and analyzed. The results show that the residual heat removal system can provide sufficient cooling of the subcritical facility with a remarkable safety margin. The heat pipe can work under the recommended operation temperature range and the heat flux is below all thermal limits. The facility peak temperature is also lower than the safety limits.

• 한국포장학회지
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.143-149
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• 2022

PCS needs to freely switch AC and DC to connect the battery, external AC loads and renewable energy in both directions for energy efficiency. Whenever converting happens, power loss inevitably occurs. Minimization of the power loss to save electricity and convert it for usage is a very critical function in PCS. PCS plays an important role in the ESS(Energy Storage System) but the importance of stabilizing semiconductors on PCB(Printed Circuit Board) should be empathized with a risk of failure such as a fire explosion. In this study, the temperature variation inside PCS was reviewed by cooling fan on top of PCS, and the vibration characteristics of PCS were analyzed during truck transportation for reliability of the product. In most cases, a cooling fan is mounted to control the inner temperature at the upper part of the PCS and components generating the heat placed on the internal aluminum cooling plate to apply the primary cooling and the secondary cooling system with inlet fans for the external air. Results of CFD showed slightly lack of circulating capacity but simulated temperatures were durable for components. The resonance points of PCS were various due to the complexity of components. Although they were less than 40 Hz which mostly occurs breakage, it was analyzed that the vibration displacement in the resonance frequency band was very insufficient. As a result of random-vibration simulation, the lower part was analyzed as the stress-concentrated point but no breakage was shown. The steel sheet could be stable for now, but for long-term domestic transportation, structural coupling may occur due to accumulation of fatigue strength. After the test completed, output voltage of the product had lost so that extra packaging such as bubble wrap should be considered.

• Journal of Platform Technology
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.91-96
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• 2022

오늘날 기술이 국가 경쟁력과 직결되는 기술패권 경쟁의 흐름 속에서 연구개발 투자뿐만 아니라 연구개발에 대한 보안중요성이 강조되고 있다. 그러나 연구개발 보안사고 발생이 가져오게 되는 위험성에도 불구하고 연구산출물에 대한 유출사고는 계속해서 발생하고 있다. 본 연구는 이러한 문제를 해결하고자 연구개발 산출물에 대한 유출사고의 사례를 분석하여, 연구기관 중심의 거시적인 보안관리체계보다는 연구현장에 있는 연구자에 대한 규정 개발이 시급하다는 1차적 결론을 도출하였고, 그 다음 현장 관찰방법론을 통해 연구자 중심의 보안대책 설계 방향을 크게 4가지로 세분화하였다. 본 연구를 통해 도출된 연구자 보안대책 설계 방향은 향후 연구 현장에 특화된 규정 및 연구기관 보안 관리 체계 개발을 위한 기초자료로 활용될 것으로 기대한다.