• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2018

Discontinuities considerably affect the mechanical and hydraulic properties of rock mass. These properties of the rock mass are influenced by the geometry of the discontinuities to a great extent. This paper aims to render an account of the geometrical parameters of several discontinuity sets related to the surrounding rock mass of Rudbar Lorestan Pumped Storage Power Plant powerhouse cavern making use of the linear and areal (circular and rectangular) sampling methods. Taking into consideration quite a large quantity of scanline and the window samplings used in this research, it was realized that the areal sampling methods are more time consuming and cost-effective than the linear methods. Having corrected the biases of the geometrical properties of the discontinuities, density (areal and volumetric) as well as the linear, areal and volumetric intensity accompanied by the other properties related to four sets of discontinuities were computed. There is an acceptable difference among the mean trace lengths measured using two linear and areal methods for the two joint sets. A 3D discrete fracture network generation code (3DFAM) has been developed to model the fracture network based on the mapped data. The code has been validated on the basis of numerous geometrical characteristics computed by use of the linear, areal sampling methods and volumetric method. Results of the linear sampling method have significant variations. So, the areal and volumetric methods are more efficient than the linear method and they are more appropriate for validation of 3D DFN (Discrete Fracture Network) codes.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.67-73
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• 2010

The foot performs an important function in supporting the body and keeping body balance. An abnormal walking habit breaks the balance of the human body as well as the normal function of the foot. The influence of a flatfoot(pes planus) occupies a considerable portion of the various causes resulting in the wrong walking habit. But, little studies has been done by the functional foot orthotics for the flat foot. The object of this study, therefore, is to propose a new approach method to reveal the effects of the improvement of the foot function by using orthotics. The essential point of this study is to measure and analyze the change of ankle angle in the sagittal plane for flat foot subjects wearing the orthotics. Before and after wearing the functional orthotics, the gait analysis of flat foot subjects was conducted in three experimental aspects : the change of ankle angle, the change of the total Ankle ROM and the difference of left & right ankle angle in the sagittal plane. 1. The average ankle angle differences of before-and-after wearing the orthotics have declined like this; left : $2.71^{\circ}$, right: $1.91^{\circ}$ (p<0.05). 2. Total ankle ROM also showed decrease in both sides while the left side's is rather slight; left : $0.57^{\circ}$, right : $2.07^{\circ}$ (p<0.05). 3. The difference of left and right ankle angle in the sagittal plane decreased by $0.71^{\circ}$ (p<0.05). In result, it is confirmed that the functional foot orthotics have a significant effect on mechanical movement of ankle joint for flat foot. it is expected that this paper will be further studied and improved as a practical estimation method in the research on the effect of foot-orthotics.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.250-258
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• 2016

Objective : A common cause of failure in laminectomy surgery is when epidural, peridural, or perineural adhesion occurs postoperatively. The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of a temperature-sensitive, anti-adhesive agent (TSAA agent), Guardix-SG$^{(R)}$, as a mechanical barrier for the prevention or reduction of peridural scar adhesion in a rabbit laminectomy model. Methods : Twenty-six mature rabbits were used for this study. Each rabbit underwent two separate laminectomies at lumbar vertebrae L3 and L6, left empty (the control group) and applied 2 mL of the TSAA agent (the experimental group), respectively. Invasive scar formation or inflammation after laminectomy was quantitatively evaluated by measuring the thickness of the dura, the distance from the surface of dura to the scar tissues, the number of inflammatory cells in the scar tissues at the laminectomy site, and the concentration of collagen in histological sections. Results : At 6 weeks postsurgery, the dura was significantly thinner and the distance from the surface of dura to the scar tissues was greater in the experimental group than in the control group (p=0.04 and p=0.01). The number of inflammatory cells was not significantly different in the two groups (p=0.08), although the mean number of inflammatory cells was relatively lower in the experimental group than in the control group. Conclusion : The current study suggests that the TSAA agent, Guardix-SG$^{(R)}$, could be useful as an interpositional physical barrier after laminectomy for the prevention or reduction of adhesion.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.438-447
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• 2007

This technical report is to introduce the research on SRM (Synthetic Rock Mass) which was presented in 2007 ISRM Congress at Lisbon by Prof, Fairhurst who speak with emphasis on its importance and potential in rock engineering. The Synthetic Rock Mass approach to jointed rock mass characterization (Pierce et al. 2007) is reviewed relative to existing empirical approaches and current understanding of jointed rock mass behaviour. The review illustrates how the key factors affecting the mechanical behaviour of jointed rock masses may be considered and demonstrates that the SRM approach constitutes a significant step forward in this field. This technique, based on two well-established methods, Bonded Particle Modelling in PFC-3D (Potyondy and Cundall, 2004) and Discrete Fracture Network simulation, employs a new sliding joint model that allows for large rock volumes containing thousands of pre-existing joints to be subjected to any non-trivial stress path. Output from SRM testing includes rock mass brittleness and strength, evolution of the full compliance matrix and primary fragmentation.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2010

Cycling that transform human energy into mechanical energy is one of the man-machine systems out of sports fields. Benchmarking means "improving ourselves by learning from others', therefore benchmarking toward dominant cyclist is necessary on field. The goals of this study were to provide important factors on multi-disciplines (kinematics, physiology, power, psychology) for a tailored-training program that is suitable to individual characteristics. Two cyclists participated in this study and gave consent to the experimental procedure. One was dominant cyclist (years: 21 yrs, height: 177 cm, mass: 70 kg), and the other was non-dominant cyclist (years: 21, height: 176, mass: 70). Kinematic data were recorded using six infrared cameras (240Hz) and QTM (software). Physiological data (VO2max, AT) were acquired according to graded exercising test with cycle ergometer and power with Wingate test used by Bar-Or et. al (1977) and to evaluate muscle function with Cybex. Psychological data were collected with competitive state anxiety inventory (CSAI-2) that was devised by Martens et. al (1990) and athletes' self-management questionnaire (ASMQ) of Huh (2003). It appears that the dominant's CV of ankle joint angle was higher than non-dominant's CV and dominant's pedaling pattern was consistent in biomechanics domain, which the dominant's values for all factors ware higher than non-dominant's values in physical, and physiological domain, and their values between cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety were contrary to each other in psychology. Further research on multi-disciplines may lead to the development of tailored-optimal training programs applicable with key factors to enhance athletic performance by means of research including athlete, coach and parents.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.291-301
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• 2017

Most of current representative design standards worldwide forbid or impose restrictions on the use of high-strength steels for hollow tubular structures. The mechanical background of these limitations appears unclear and unduly conservative, and their validity needs to be re-evaluated. In this study, a total of 9 CHS(Circular Hollow Section) X-joints were tested under axial compression and analyzed to examine if the high-strength steel restrictions specified by current design standards could be relaxed. All the high-strength steel CHS X-joints tested showed satisfactory performance compared to ordinary steel joints in terms of serviceability, ultimate strength, and ductility, although the yield strength of steel was even as high as 800MPa.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.203-209
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• 1999

In this study, the structural deflection analysis of robot manipulator for removing nuclear fuel rod from nuclear reactor vessel is performed by using general purpose finite element code (ANSYS). The structural deflection analysis results reported in this study is very required for the accurate design of robot system. The structural deflection analysis for the manipulator's structural status at which the gripper grasps and draws up the nuclear fuel rod is done, For this beginning structural status of robot manipulator's removing motion, the reaction forces at each joint have static maximum values as reported in the reference(6), and so these forces may cause the maximum deflection of robot structure. The structural deflection analysis is performed for selected four working cases of the proposed structural model and results on deformation, stress for the manipulator's solid body and the deflection at the end of robot manipulator's gripper are calculated. And further, the same analysis is performed for the slenderer manipulator with cross section reduced by one-fifth of each side length of proposed model. The analysis is performed not only for the nuclear fuel rod with weight load of 300kg but also for nuclear fuel rods with weight loads of 100kg, 200kg, 400kg and 500kg. The static structural deflection analysis results show that the deflection value increases as the load increases and the largest value (corresponding to the weight load of 500kg in case 1) is much smaller than the gap distance between nuclear fuel rods. but the largest value for the slenderer manipulator is almost as large as the gap distance, Hence, conclusively, the proposed manipulator's structural model is acceptably safe for mechanical design of robot system.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.55-61
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• 2008

This paper shows quantitative reliability evaluations of a Bluetooth module through extending previous qualitative methods limited to structure reliability tests and solder joint reliability tests for Bluetooth modules. Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) of the modules using temperature difference in temperature cycling as an accelerated stress was conducted for quantitative reliability evaluation under field environment conditions. Lifetime distribution parameters were estimated using the failure times obtained through the ALT, and then Coffin-Manson model was implemented. Results of the ALT showed that the failure mode of the modules was open and the failure mechanisms are both crack and delamination. The ALT reproduced the failure mode and mechanisms of failed Bluetooth modules collected from the field. Further, a quantitative reliability evaluation method with respect to various temperature differences in temperature cycling was proposed in this paper. $B_{10}$ lifetime of the module for the temperature difference $70^{\circ}C$ using the proposed method would be estimated as about 4 years.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.108-115
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• 2009

In metal forming technologies, the stamping process is one of the significant manufacturing processes to produce sheet metal components. It is important to design stamping process which can produce sound products without defect such as fracture and wrinkle. The objective of this study is to propose the feasible formability diagram which denotes the safe region without fracture and wrinkle for effective design of stamping process. To determine the feasible formability diagram, FE-analyses were firstly performed for the combinations of process parameters and then the characteristic values for fracture and wrinkle were estimated from the results of FE-analyses based on forming limit diagram. The characteristic values were extended through training of the artificial neural network. The feasible formability diagram was finally determined for various combinations of process parameters. The stamping process of turret suspension to support suspension module was taken as an example to verify the effectiveness of feasible formability diagram. The results of FE-analyses for process conditions within fracture and wrinkle as well as safe regions were in good agreement with experimental ones.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1106-1114
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• 2012

To achieve synchronized motion between a wearable robot and a human user, the redundancy must be resolved in the same manner by both systems. According to the seven DOF (Degrees of Freedom) human arm model composed of the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints, positioning and orientating the wrist in space is a task requiring only six DOFs. Due to this redundancy, a given task can be completed by multiple arm configurations, and thus there exists no unique mathematical solution to the inverse kinematics. This paper presents analysis on the kinematic and dynamic aspect of the human arm movement and their effect on the redundancy resolution of the human arm based on a seven DOF manipulator model. The redundancy of the arm is expressed mathematically by defining the swivel angle. The final form of swivel angle can be represented as a linear combination of two different swivel angles achieved by optimizing different cost functions based on kinematic and dynamic criteria. The kinematic criterion is to maximize the projection of the longest principal axis of the manipulability ellipsoid for the human arm on the vector connecting the wrist and the virtual target on the head region. The dynamic criterion is to minimize the mechanical work done in the joint space for each two consecutive points along the task space trajectory. As a first step, the redundancy based on the kinematic criterion will be thoroughly studied based on the motion capture data analysis. Experimental results indicate that by using the proposed redundancy resolution criterion in the kinematic level, error between the predicted and the actual swivel angle acquired from the motor control system is less than five degrees.