• Computers and Concrete
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.107-127
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• 2016

Concrete is a heterogeneous material containing many weaknesses such as micro-cracks, pores and grain boundaries. The crack growth mechanism and failure behavior of concrete structures depend on the plastic deformation created by these weaknesses. In this article the non-linear finite element method is used to analyze the effect of presence of micro pore near a crack tip on both of the characteristics of crack tip plastic zone (its shape and size) and crack growth properties (such as crack growth length and crack initiation angle) under pure shear loading. The FE Code Franc2D/L is used to carry out these objectives. The effects of the crack-pore configurations and the spacing between micro pore and pre-excising crack tip on the characteristics of crack tip plastic zone and crack growth properties is highlighted. Based on the obtained results, the relative distance between the crack tip and the micro pore affects in very significant way the shape and the size of the crack tip plastic zone. Furthermore, crack growth length and crack initiation angle are mostly influenced by size and shape of plastic zone ahead of crack tip. Also the effects of pore decrease on the crack tip by variation of pore situation from linear to perpendicular configuration. The critical position for a micro pore is in front of the crack tip.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.179-189
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• 2014

We analyzed the three-dimensional distribution of micropores and internal structures in both fresh and weathered granite using micro-focus X-ray computed tomography (micro-CT). Results show that the pore radius in fresh granite is mostly in the range of $17-50{\mu}m$, the throat radius is in the range of $5-25{\mu}m$, and the coordination number (CN) of pores is less than 10. In contrast, the pore radius in weathered granite is mostly in the range of $20-80{\mu}m$, the throat radius is in the range of $8-30{\mu}m$, and the CN is less than 12. In general, a positive linear relationship exists between pore radius and CN. In addition, both the size and the density of pores increase with an increasing degree of rock weathering. The size of the throats that connect the pores also increases with an increasing degree of weathering, which induces fracture propagation in rocks. Micro-CT is a powerful and versatile approach for investigating the three-dimensional distributions of pores and fracture structures in rocks, and for quantitatively assessing the degree of pore connectivity.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.5 s.89
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• pp.857-868
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• 2005

This paper deals with the accumulated damage in concrete structures due to the cyclic freeze-thaw as an environmental load. The cyclic ice body nucleation and growth processes in porous systems are affected by the thermo-physical and mass transport properties, and gradients of temperature and chemical potentials. Furthermore, the diffusivity of deicing chemicals shows significantly higher value under cyclic freeze-thaw conditions. Consequently, the disintegration of concrete structures is aggravated at marine environments, higher altitudes, and northern areas. However, the properties of cyclic freeze-thaw with crack growth and diffusion of chloride ion effects are hard to be identified in tests, and there has been no analytic model for the combined degradations. The main objective is to determine the driving force and evaluate the reduced strength and stiffness by freeze-thaw. For the development of computational model of those coupled deterioration, micro-pore structure characterization, pore pressure based on the thermodynamic equilibrium, time and temperature dependent super-cooling with or without deicing salts, nonlinear-fracture constitutive relation for the evaluation of internal damage, and the effect of entrained air pores (EA) has been modeled numerically. As a result, the amount of ice volume with temperature dependent surface tensions, freezing pressure and resulting deformations, and cycle and temperature dependent pore volume has been calculated and compared with available test results. The developed computational program can be combined with DuCOM, which can calculate the early aged strength, heat of hydration, micro-pore volume, shrinkage, transportation of free water in concrete. Therefore, the developed model can be applied to evaluate those various practical degradation cases as well.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.249-255
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• 2011

It is complicate problem to optimize removing natural organic matter (NOM) by activated carbon in drinking water treatment because the activated carbon has heterogeneous surface area and pore structure. Seven different coals based activated carbons which have different pore structures were used in the study. Sand filtered effluents which normally used as GAC adsorber influent were used. The molecular weight distribution showed that most of the NOM was bigger than 10,000Da. In this study, systematical approaches such as characteristics of surface area and pore volume were evaluated on NOM adsorption. Especially, the adsorption capacities for NOM were evaluated by effect of micro-pores and meso-pores in surface area and pore structure. The results show that the higher ratio of meso-pore compare to the micro-pore has not only the better adsorption capacities for NOM but also the higher strongly-adsorbable fraction. Therefore, the overall adsorption capacity is increased with higher meso-pore ratio with existing of reasonable micro-pore surface area and volume.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.347-354
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• 2009

Physical properties of rocks are strongly dependant on details of pore micro-structures, which can be used for quantifying relations between physical properties of rocks through pore-scale simulation techniques. Recently, high-resolution scan techniques, such as X-ray microtomography and high performance computers make it possible to calculate permeability from pore micro-structures of rocks. We try to extend this simulation methodology to velocity and electrical conductivity. However, the smoothing effect during tomographic inversion creates artifacts in pore micro-structures and causes inaccurate property estimation. To mitigate this artifact, we tried to use sharpening filter and neural network classification techniques. Both methods gave noticeable improvement in pore structure imaging and accurate estimation of permeability and electrical conductivity, which implies that our method effectively removes the smoothing effect in pore structures. However, the calculated velocities showed only incremental improvement. By comparison between thin section images and tomogram, we found that our resolution is not high enough, and it is mainly responsible for the inaccuracy in velocity despite the successful removal of the smoothing effect. In conclusion, our methods can be very useful for pore-scale modeling, since it can create accurate pore structure without the smoothing effect. For accurate velocity estimation, the resolution of pore structure should be at least three times higher than that for permeability simulation.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.461-465
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• 2010

Weathering and permeability in rocks play a very important role in underground disposal of radioactive waste and their long-term management as well as stability security of rock structures. Weathering and permeability of rocks are largely controlled by the characters of inner structures of rocks. In other words, weathering rate can be accelerated depending on the quantity of pore and microcrack in rocks. Quantitative evaluation of inner structures of rocks can serve as a tool that can assess the degree of weathering of rocks. Therefore it can be said that the understanding of three dimensional distribution of the inner structure of rocks is important for long-term management of rock structures. This study was performed to analyze three dimensional distribution of pore in rocks using Micro Focus X-ray CT on fresh granite and weathered granite from Korea. Results of the analysis clearly show distribution of pore and porosity of the inner rock.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 2012

Currently, the technology of $CO_2$ capture and storage (CCS) has become the main issue for climate change and global warming. Among CCS technologies, the prediction of $CO_2$ behavior underground is very critical for $CO_2$ storage design, especially for its safety. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to model and simulate $CO_2$ flow and its heat transfer characteristics in a storage site, for more accurate evaluation of the safety for $CO_2$ storage process. In the present study, as part of the storage design, a micro pore-scale model was developed to mimic real porous structure, and computational fluid dynamics was applied to calculate the $CO_2$ flow and thermal fields in the micro pore-scale porous structure. Three different configurations of 3-dimensional (3D) micro-pore structures were developed, and compared. In particular, the technique of assigning random pore size in 3D porous media was considered. For the computation, physical conditions such as temperature and pressure were set up, equivalent to the underground condition at which the $CO_2$ fluid was injected. From the results, the characteristics of the flow and thermal fields of $CO_2$ were scrutinized, and the influence of the configuration of the micro-pore structure on the flow and scalar transport was investigated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.479-493
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• 2019

In this paper, the interaction between notch and micro pore under uniaxial compression has been performed experimentally and numerically. Firstly calibration of PFC2D was performed using Brazilian tensile strength, uniaxial tensile strength and biaxial tensile strength. Secondly uniaxial compression test consisting internal notch and micro pore was performed experimentally and numerically. 9 models consisting notch and micro pore were built, experimentally and numerically. Dimension of these models are 10 cm*1 cm*5 cm. the length of joint is 2 cm. the angularities of joint are $30^{\circ}$, $45^{\circ}$ and $60^{\circ}$. For each joint angularity, micro pore was situated 2 cm above the lower tip of the joint, 2 cm above the middle of the joint and 2 cm above the upper of the joint, separately. Dimension of numerical models are 5.4 cm*10.8 cm. The size of the cracks was 2 cm and its orientation was $30^{\circ}$, $45^{\circ}$ and $60^{\circ}$. Diameter of pore was 1cm which situated at the upper of the notch i.e., 2 cm above the upper notch tip, 2 cm above the middle of the notch and 2 cm above the lower of the notch tip. The results show that failure pattern was affected by notch orientation and pore position while uniaxial compressive strength is affected by failure pattern.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.83-92
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• 2011

The random and heterogeneous pore structure is a significant factor that dominates physical and mechanical behaviors of soils such as fluid flow and geomechanical responses driven by loading. The characterization method using non-destructive testing such as micro X-ray CT technique which has a high resolution with micrometer unit allows to observe internal structure of soils. However, the application has been limited to qualitatively observe 2D and 3D CT images and to obtain the void ratio at macro-scale although the CT images contain enormous information of materials of interests. In this study, we constructed the 3D particle and pore structures based on sequentially taken 2D images of glass beads and quantitatively defined complex pore structure with void cell and void channel. This approach was enabled by implementing image processing techniques that include coordinate transformation, binarization, Delaunay Triangulation, and Euclidean Distance Transform. It was confirmed that the suggested algorithm allows to quantitatively evaluate the distribution of void cells and their connectivity of heterogeneous pore structures for glass beads.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.345-351
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• 2003

The transport characteristics of deleterious ions such as chlorides depend on the pore structures of concrete and are the major factors in the durability of concrete structures in subjected to chloride attack such as in marine environments. In this paper, the effect of the pore structure on compressive strength and chloride diffusivity of concrete was investigated. Six types of concretes were tested. The pore volume of concrete containing mineral admixtures increased in the range of 3∼30nm due to micro filling effect of hydrates of the mineral admixtures. There was a good correlation between the median pore diameter, the pore volume above 50nm and compressive strength of concrete, but there was not a significant correlation between the total pore volume and compressive strength. The relationship between compressive strength and chloride diffusivity were not well correlated, however, pore volume above 50nm were closely related to the chloride diffusion coefficient.