• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.531-543
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• 2023

The existing concrete bridges are time-varying working systems, where the maintenance strategy should be planned according to the time-varying performance of the bridge. This work proposes a time-dependent residual capacity assessment procedure, which considers the non-stationary bridge load effects under growing traffic and non-stationary structural deterioration owing to material degradations. Lifetime bridge load effects under traffic growth are predicated by the non-stationary peaks-over-threshold (POT) method using time-dependent generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) models. The non-stationary structural resistance owing to material degradation is modeled by incorporating the Gamma deterioration process and field inspection data. A three-span continuous box-girder bridge is illustrated as an example to demonstrate the application of the proposed procedure, and the time-varying reliability indexes of the bridge girder are calculated. The accuracy of the proposed non-stationary POT method is verified through numerical examples, where the shape parameter of the time-varying GPD model is constant but the threshold and scale parameters are polynomial functions increasing with time. The case study illustrates that the residual flexural capacities show a degradation trend from a slow decrease to an accelerated decrease under traffic growth and material degradation. The reliability index for the mid-span cross-section reduces from 4.91 to 4.55 after being in service for 100 years, and the value is from 4.96 to 4.75 for the mid-support cross-section. The studied bridge shows no safety risk under traffic growth and structural deterioration owing to its high design safety reserve. However, applying the proposed numerical approach to analyze the degradation of residual bearing capacity for bridge structures with low safety reserves is of great significance for management and maintenance.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2016

The activation energy of a material is an important factor that significantly affects the lifetime and can be used to develop a degradation model. In this study, a thermal analysis was carried out to evaluate and collect quantitative data on the degradation of insulation materials like EPR and CSP used for nuclear power plant cables. The activation energy was determined from the relationship between log ${\beta}$ and 1/T based on the Flynn.Wall.Ozawa method, by a TGA test. The activation energy was also derived from the relationship between ln(t) and 1/T based on isothermal analysis, by an OIT test. The activation energy of EPR derived from thermal analysis was used to calculate the accelerated aging time corresponding to the number of years of use, employing the Arrhenius equation, and determine the elongation corresponding to the accelerated aging time.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.325-330
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• 2004

Several kinds of low voltage cables have been used in nuclear power plants for the supply of electric power, supervision, and the propagation of control signals. These low voltage tables must be inspected for safe and stable operation of nuclear power plants. In particular, the degradation diagnosis to estimate the integrity of low voltage rabies has recently been emphasized according to the long use of nuclear power plants. In order to evaluate their degradation, the surrounding temperature, hardness of insulation material, elongation at breaking point (EAB), etc. have been used. However, the measurement of temperature or hardness is not useful because of the absence of quantitative criteria; the inspection of a sample requires turning off of the power plant power; and, the electrical inspection method is not sufficiently sensitive from the initial through the middle stage of degradation. In this research, based on the theory that the ultrasonic velocity changes with relation to the degradation of the material, we measured the ultrasonic velocity as low voltage cables were degraded. To this end, an ultrasonic degradation diagnosis device was developed and used to measure the ultrasonic velocity with the clothing on the cable, and it was confirmed that the ultrasonic velocity changes according to the degradation of low voltage cables. The low voltage cables used in nuclear power plants were degraded at an accelerated rate, and EAB was measured in a tensile test conducted after the measurement of ultrasonic velocity. With the increasing degradation degree, the ultrasonic velocity decreased, whose potential as a useful parameter for the quantitative degradation evaluation was thus confirmed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.420-420
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• 1999

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.173-181
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• 2007

Out door exposure to daylight and weather climate conditions can cause adverse effect on the properties of automotive plastic materials. The effects of sunlight exposure, especially ultra violet (UV) radiation, can break down the chemical bonds in a polymeric material. This degradation process is called photo-degradation and ultimately leads to color changes, cracking, chalking, the loss of physical properties and deterioration of other properties. To explore the effect of sunlight exposure on the automotive materials, this study investigated photo-oxidation degree and surface property change of molding parts by analytical methods. For the further study, accelerated weathering test methods are proposed, which can correlate with out door weathering, to predict long term performance of automotive plastic materials.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.51-56
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• 1999

The ultrasonic method, which is well known as nondestructive test method, is widely used to evaluate the material damage due to degradation. However, this method is just used for measuring the crack size and the thickness loss of the tube. The purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of the ultrasonic technique for the evaluation of marine diesel engine exhaust valve and to suggest the correlations between the ultrasonic characteristics and valve degradation. From the evaluation of the results obtained, the technique of using the ultrasonic property was founds to be a efficient method to evaluate the degree of marine diesel engine exhaust valve by nondestructive test.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.348-352
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• 2014

In light of the sure protection function, the most important factors of a varistor are the clamping voltage ratio and degradation characteristics. The degradation characteristics of Pr/Co/Cr/Er co-doped zinc oxide varistors were investigated by impulse currents (0.4~2.1 kA) stress for the specified content of $Er_2O_3$ (0.5 and 2.0 mol%). The varistor doped with 2.0 mol% $Er_2O_3$ exhibited the best clamp characteristics, with the clamp voltage ratio (K) in the range of K = 1.63~1.88 at the impulse currents of 5-50 A. However, the varistor doped with 0.5 mol% exhibited excellent electrical stability, with variation rates for the breakdown field, for the nonlinear coefficient, and for the leakage current density of -6.9%, -12.6%, and -14.3%, respectively, after application of an impulse current of 2.1 kA. In contrast, the varistor doped with 2.0 mol% was destroyed after application of an impulse current of 1.2 kA.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.10
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• pp.1688-1693
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• 2016

In this study shall investigate the influence upon the electrical property of transformer oil due to the heat among accelerated heat degradation experiment for a constant hour in the typical insulation oils of mineral base oil, silicon base oil and vegetable oil. In addition, the electric insulation performance of insulation materials in transformer shall be evaluated through the electric property analysis according to the heat degradation of epoxy insulation material, which has been used for electric facilities such as a molded transformer.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.12-16
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• 2020

This study investigates the degradation characteristics of different material types of ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) and polyolefin (POE) with combining transparent backsheet. To this end, we fabricated samples with structure of glass/encapsulant/transparent backsheet for each type of encapsulants, and shingled Si modules with the same structure. The samples were then subjected to accelerated test by storing under damp heat condition of 85℃ and 85% RH. As a result, encaplsulant discoloration was observed, which the transmittance of the samples with EVA decreased in a rapid rate than the samples with POE. The discoloration also affected a power degradation of the shingled modules with a reduction of current density, resulting that the module with EVA showed more drop on the efficiency than the modules with POE. Furthermore, corrosion of the soldered ribbon caused by acetic acid produced from the degraded EVA also contributed in fill factor reduction.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2008

For evaluating the radiation degradation of cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cable insulation due to the irradiated oxidation, XLPE was irradiated with ${\gamma}$-ray. For each irradiated samples, TGA, DSC, FT-IR, and tensile tests were carried out. Regarding radiation degradation, oxidative process was predominant. TGA, DSC and FT-IR can be useful tools for evaluating the radiation degradation due to the irradiated oxidation because these analyses need only small amount of samples. The results of TGA, DSC and FTIR analyses showed the similar tendency for irradiated degradation. They can be useful tools for evaluating the oxidation of insulating material by non-destructive testing.