• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.337-350
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• 2016

Even though extensive researches have been performed for steam explosion due to their complex mechanisms and inherent uncertainties, establishment of severe accident management guidelines and strategies is one of state-of-the arts in nuclear industry. The goal of this research is primarily to examine effects of vessel failure modes and locations on nuclear facilities under typical steam explosion conditions. Both discrete and integrated models were employed from the viewpoint of structural integrity assessment of steel components and evaluation of the cracking and crushing in reinforced concrete structures. Thereafter, comparison of systematic analysis results was performed; despite the vessel failure modes were dominant, resulting maximum stresses at the all steel components were sufficiently lower than the corresponding yield strengths. Two failure criteria for the reinforced concrete structures such as the limiting failure ratio of concrete and the limiting strains for rebar and liner plate were satisfied under steam explosion conditions. Moreover, stresses of steel components and reinforced concrete structures were reduced with maximum difference of 12% when the integrated model was adopted comparing to those of discrete models.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.599-620
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• 2011

The investigation on possible causes of failures related to documented collapses is a complicated issue, primarily due to the scarcity and inadequacy of information available. Although several studies have tried to understand which are the inherent structural deficiencies or circumstances associated to failure of the main structural elements in a reinforced concrete frame, to the authors knowledge a uniform approach for the evaluation building static vulnerability, does not exist yet. This paper investigates, by means of a detailed case study, the potential failure mechanisms of an existing reinforced concrete building. The linear elastic analysis for the three-dimensional building model gives an insight on the working conditions of the structural elements, demonstrating the relevance of a number of structural faults that could sensibly lower the structure's safety margin. Next, the building's bearing capacity is studied by means of parametric nonlinear analysis performed at the element's level. It is seen that, depending on material properties, concrete strength and steel yield stress, the failure hierarchy could be dominated by either brittle or ductile mechanisms.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.145-154
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• 1997

The results of optimum design by the deterministic approach adopted in the current design codes depend upon the safety levels of the applied code. But, it is now generally recognized that structural problems are nondeterministic and, consequently, that engineering optimum design must cope with uncertainties. Therefore, it is not an overstatement to affirm that the combination of reliability-based design procedures and optimization techniques is the only means of providing a powerful tool to obtain a practical optimum design solution. In the paper, reliability based optimum design procedure as a rational approach to optimum structural design is presented. The design constraints are formulated based on the ASD, LRFD and reliability theories. The reliability analysis is based on an advanced first-order second moment approach. Uncertainties in the structural strength and loading due to inherent variability as well as modeling and prediction errors are included in failure due to combined bending and shear. For the realistic reliability-based optimization of continuous steel box girder bridges, interactive non-linear limit state model is formulated based on the von Mises's combined stress yield criterion. Comparative results are presented when the ASD criteria are used for the optimum design of a structure under reliability constraints. In addition, this study comparatively shows the results of the optimum design for various criteria of design codes.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.6-12
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• 2008

Non-metallic composite overwrap repair methods utilize resin based fiber-reinforced composite materials, which have higher specific strength to weight ratio and stiffness, superior corrosion and fatigue resistance, and substantially reduced weight when compared to carbon steel. Non-metallic repair methods/systems can allow desired functional properties to be achieved at a respectable economic advantage. For example, non-metallic composite repair systems have at least a 50 year design stress of 20 ksi and approximately 25% of the short term tensile strength of fiberglass. For these systems, the contribution of the repaired steel to the load carrying capability need not be considered, as the strength of the repair itself is sufficient to carry the internal pressure. Worldwide experience in the Oil & Gas industry confirms the integrity, durability, inherent permanency, and cost-effectiveness of non-metallic composite repair or rehabilitation systems. A case study of a recent application of a composite repair system in Saudi Aramco resulted in savings of 37% for offshore subsea line and 75% for onshore above grade pipeline job. Maintaining a pipeline can be costly but it is very small in comparison to the cost of a failure. Pipeline proponents must balance maintenance costs with pipeline integrity. The purpose is not just to save money but also to attain a level of safety that is acceptable. This technology involves the use of an epoxy polymer resin based, fiber-reinforced composite sleeve system for rehabilitation and /or repair pipelines.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.264-270
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• 1998

This research broadens the prime concern of nuclear power plant operations from safe performance to both economic and safe performance. First emergency diesel generator is identified as one of main contributors for the lost plant availability through the review of plants forced outage records. The framework of an integrated architecture for performing modern on-line condition for operational availability improvement is configured in this work. For the development of the comprehensive sensor networks for complex target systems, an integrated methodology incorporating a structural hierarchy, a functional hierarchy, and a fault-system matrix is formulated. The second part of our research is development of intelligent diagnosis and maintenance advisory system, which employs Bayesian Belief networks (BBNs) as a high level reasoning tool incorporating inherent uncertainty use in probabilistic inference. Our prototype diagnosis algorithms are represented explicitly through topological symbols and links between them in a causal direction. As new evidence from sensor network development is entered into the model especially, our advisory of system provides operational advice concerning both availability and safety, so that the operator is able to determine the likely modes, diagnose the system state, locate root causes, and take the most advantageous action. Thereby, this advice improves operational availability

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.24-30
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• 2011

Conventional slope stability analysis is focused on calculating minimum factor of safety or maximum probability of failure. To minimize inherent uncertainty of soil properties and analytical model and to reflect various analytical models and its failure shape in slope stability analysis, slope stability analysis method considering simultaneous failure probability for multi failure mode was proposed. Linear programming recently introduced in system reliability analysis was used for calculation of simultaneous failure probability. System reliability analysis for various analytical models could be executed by this method. For application analysis for embankment, the results of this method shows that system stability of embankment calculate quantitatively.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.766-772
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• 2015

This paper proposes an object detection method based on motion estimation using background subtraction in the fisheye images obtained through omni-directional camera mounted on the vehicle. Recently, most of the vehicles installed with rear camera as a standard option, as well as various camera systems for safety. However, differently from the conventional object detection using the image obtained from the camera, the embedded system installed in the vehicle is difficult to apply a complicated algorithm because of its inherent low processing performance. In general, the embedded system needs system-dependent algorithm because it has lower processing performance than the computer. In this paper, the location of object is estimated from the information of object's motion obtained by applying a background subtraction method which compares the previous frames with the current ones. The real-time detection performance of the proposed method for object detection is verified experimentally on embedded board by comparing the proposed algorithm with the object detection based on LKOF (Lucas-Kanade optical flow).

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.1025-1028
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• 2009

Earth and rock fill dam is our typical dam because of their inherent flexibility and adaptability to various fundation conditions. In order to secure structural safety, rockfill materials are used angular particles obtained by blasting parent rock or rounded particles collected from river beds. Concrete-faces rockfill dams(CFRD) and Concrete-faces gravelfill dams(CFGD) have become popular in the last 20 years as s result of their good performance and low cost compared with the rockfill dam. These Dams are also constructed by the materials. A key factor in the design of the dams is the deformations induced during construction and upon reservoir filling. These can be predicted using the stress-strain and strength properties can be adequately define. However the stress-strain properties of rockfill are difficult to determine because the properties are affected by such factors as particle grading, size and shape of particles, stress conditions, and particle crushing. In our study, testing of the behavior of the rockfill materials are essential prerequisites to the realistic analysis and design of the CFGD. This paper deals with laboratory testing of particle crushing among the study.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-99
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• 1989

Since 1960's, structural engineers have recognized that the inherent random nature of loadings and materials as well as the imperfect structural analysis may be important factors in the structural safety evaluation. Based on the successful developments of the reliability-based structural analysis and design, the design criteria of the standards are recently developed(or modified) in the light of the probabilistic concepts. To develop the probability - based criteria for the domestic buildings, the probabilistic characteristic of loadings acting on structures should be defined first. In this study, therefore, live load data on apartment buildings have been collected and analyzed in systematic manner, and their probabilistic characteristics have been studied. Based on the results, the lifetime extreme values are computed and compared with current design loads. More rational design loads are suggested, which are more consistent in the probabilistic concepts.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.441-457
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• 2018

Characteristic parameter values of seismic isolators deviate from their nominal design values due to uncertainties and/or errors in their material properties and element dimensions, etc. Deviations may increase over service life due to environmental effects and service conditions. For accurate evaluation of the seismic safety level, all such effects, which would result in deviations in the structural response, need to be taken into account. In this study, the sensitivity of the probability of failure of the structures equipped with nonlinear base isolation systems to the uncertainties in various isolation system characteristic parameters is investigated in terms of various isolation system and superstructure response parameters in the context of a realistic three-dimensional base-isolated building model via Monte Carlo Simulations. The inherent record-to-record variability nature of the earthquake ground motions is also taken into account by carrying out analyses for a large number of ground motion records which are classified as those with and without forward-directivity effects. Two levels of nominal isolation periods each with three different levels of uncertainty are considered. Comparative plots of cumulative distribution functions and related statistical evaluation presented here portray the potential extent of the deviation of the structural response parameters resulting from the uncertainties and the uncertainty levels considered, which is expected to be useful for practicing engineers in evaluating isolator test results for their projects.