• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.189-194
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• 2024

Plastics are consistently produced owing to their practicality and convenience. Unmanaged plastics enter the oceans, where they adversely impact marine life, and their degradation into nano-plastics due to sunlight and weathering is of concern for all living beings. Nano-plastics affect humans via the food chain, emphasizing the necessity for effective solutions. Microbial biodegradation has been suggested as a solution, offering the advantages of minimal environmental impact and the utilization of decomposition byproducts in microbial metabolic pathways. In this study, fifty-seven bacterial strains were isolated and identified from a waste-treatment facility. Cultivation in a minimum medium with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) beads as the sole carbon source resulted in the selection of the LDPE-degrading strain Acinetobacter guillouiae PL211. The selected strain was cultured at high cell density with LDPE as a carbon source, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis confirmed chemical changes on the LDPE bead's surface. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) analysis revealed substantial biodegradation of the LDPE surface. These results demonstrated the capability of A. guillouiae PL211 to biodegrade LDPE beads. This discovery demonstrates the potential of an environmentally friendly process to addressing polyethylene waste issues.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.389-394
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• 2001

The notched Charpy and Izod impact tests arc the most prevalent techniques used to characterize the effects of high impulse loads on ploymeric materials. An analysis method for rubber toughened PVC is suggested to evaluate critical strain energy release rates(Gc) from the Charpy impact energy measurements. An Instrumented Charpy impact tester was used to extract ancillary information concerning fracture properties in addition to total fracture properties and maximum critical loads. The stress intensity factor Kd was computed for varying amounts of rubber contents from the obtained maximum critical loads and also toughening effects were investigated as well.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.729-744
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• 2010

There is world wide concern for safety of nuclear power installations after the terrorist attack on World Trade Center in 2001 and several other civilian structures in the last decade. The nuclear containment structure in many countries is a double shell structure (outer shell a RCC and inner a prestressed concrete). The outer reinforced concrete shell protects the inner shell and is designed for external loading like impact and blast. A comparative study of non-linear response of reinforced concrete nuclear containment cylindrical shell subjected to impact of an aircraft (Phantom) and explosion of different amounts of blast charges have been presented here. A material model which takes into account the strain rate sensitivity in dynamic loading situations, plastic and visco-plastic behavior in three dimensional stress state and cracking in tension has been developed earlier and implemented into a finite element code which has been validated with published literature. The analysis has been made using the developed software. Significant conclusions have been drawn for dissimilarity in response (deflections, stresses, cracks etc.) of the shell for impact and blast loading.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.549-560
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• 2014

The paper provides the test results and analysis on the behavior of steel 1.7147 at different temperatures. Mechanical uniaxial tests were used to determine mechanical properties, resistance to creep and Charpy impact tests to determine impact energy. Test results are presented in the form of engineering stress-strain diagrams, creep curves as well as numerical data related to impact energy. The results show that the tensile strength has the highest value at room temperature, and the same goes for the yield strength as well as for modulus of elasticity. After room temperature both of mentioned properties decrease with temperature increasing. Some of creep curves were modeled using rheological models and analytical equation. Based on Charpy impact energy an assessment of fracture toughness was made.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.3
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• pp.351-363
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• 2020

Based on the dynamic tests of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) short columns confined by the hoop reinforcement, the dynamic failure mechanism and the mechanical parameters related to the constitutive relation of confined recycled aggregate concrete (CRAC) were investigated thoroughly. The fracturing sections were relatively flat and smooth at higher strain rates rather than those at a quasi-static strain rate. With the increasing stirrup volume ratio, the crack mode is transited from splitting crack to slipping crack constrained with large transverse confinement. The compressive peak stress, peak strain, and ultimate strain increase with the increase of stirrup volume ratio, as well as the increasing strain rate. The dynamic confining increase factors of the compressive peak stress, peak strain, and ultimate strain increase by about 33%, 39%, and 103% when the volume ratio of hoop reinforcement is increased from 0 to 2%, but decrease by about 3.7%, 4.2%, and 9.1% when the stirrup spacing is increased from 20mm to 60mm, respectively. This sentence is rephrased as follows: When the stirrup volume ratios are up to 0.675%, and 2%, the contributions of the hoop confinement effect to the dynamic confining increase factors of the compressive peak strain and the compressive peak stress are greater than those of the strain rate effect, respectively. The dynamic confining increase factor (DCIF) models of the compressive peak stress, peak strain, and ultimate strain of CRAC are proposed in the paper. Through the confinement of the hoop reinforcement, the ductility of RAC, which is generally slightly lower than that of NAC, is significantly improved.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.155-164
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• 2011

In the case of impact loading test, measurement of the test data has difficulties due to fast loading velocity. In addition, the dynamic behaviors of specimens are distorted by ignoring local fracture. In this study, therefore, finite element analysis which considers local fracture and strain rate effect on impact load was performed by using LS-DYNA, an explicit analysis program. The one-way and two-way specimens strengthened with FRP Sheets and steel fibers were considered as analysis models. The results showed that the impact resistance of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) and ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) was enhanced. In the case of specimens strengthened with FRP Sheets, GFRP was superior to CFRP in the performance of impact resistance, and there was little effect of the FRP Sheet orientation. The reliability of this analysis model was verified by comparing with previous experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.03b
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• pp.173-182
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• 2000

To find axial and lateral responses of impact-driven H piles in embankment(SM), the H piles are instrumented with electric strain gages, dynamic load test is performed during driving, and then the damage of strain gages is checked simultaneously. Axially and laterally static load tests are performed on the same piles after one to nine days as well. Then load-settlement behavior is measured. Furthermore, to find the set-up effect in H pile, No. 4, 16, 26, and R6 piles are restriked about 1, 2, and 14 days after driving. As results, ram height and pile capacity obtained from impact driving control method become 80cm and 210.3∼242.3ton, respectively. At 15 days after driving, allowable bearing capacity by CAPWAP analysis, which 2.5 of the factor of safety is applied for ultimate bearing capacity, increases 10.8%. Ultimate bearing capacity obtained from axially static load test is 306∼338ton. This capacity is 68.5∼75.7% at yield force of pile material and is 4∼4.5 times of design load. Allowable bearing capacity using 2 of the factor of safety is 153∼169ton. Initial stiffness response of the pile is 27.5ton/mm. As the lateral load increases, the horizontal load-settlement behaves linearly to which the lateral load reaches up to 17ton. This reason is filled with sand in the cavity formed between flange and web during pile driving. As the result of reading with electric strain gages, flange material of pile is yielded at 19ton in horizontal load. Thus allowable load of this pile material is 9.5ton when the factor of safety is 2.0. Allowable lateral displacement of this pile corresponding to this load is 23∼36mm in embankment.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.81-97
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• 2011

In this research, the wavelet transform is used to analyze time response of a cracked beam carrying moving mass for damage detection. In this respect, a new damage detection method based on the combined use of continuous and discrete wavelet transforms is proposed. It is shown that this method is more capable in making damage signature evident than the traditional two approaches based on direct investigation of the wavelet coefficients of structural response. By the proposed method, it is concluded that strain data outperforms displacement data at the same point in revealing damage signature. In addition, influence of moving mass-induced terms such as gravitational, Coriolis, centrifuge forces, and pure inertia force along the deflection direction to damage detection is investigated on a sample case. From this analysis it is concluded that centrifuge force has the most influence on making both displacement and strain data damage-sensitive. The Coriolis effect is the second to improve the damage-sensitivity of data. However, its impact is considerably less than the former. The rest, on the other hand, are observed to be insufficient alone.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.603-618
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• 2005

The split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) technique is widely used to characterize the dynamic mechanical response of engineering materials at high strain rates. In this paper, attendant problems associated with testing 70 mm diameter concrete specimens are considered, analysed and resolved. An adaptation of a conventional solid circular striker bar, as a means of achieving reliable and repeatable SHPB tests, is then proposed. In the analysis, a pseudo one-dimensional model is used to analyse wave propagation in a non-uniform striker bar. The stress history of the incident wave is then obtained by using the finite difference method. Comparison was made between incident waves determined from the simplified model, finite element solution and experimental data. The results show that the simplified method is adequate for designing striker bar shapes to overcome difficulties commonly encountered in SHPB tests. Using two specifically designed striker bars, tests were conducted on 70 mm diameter steel fibre reinforced concrete specimens. The results are presented in the paper.