• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.85-93
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• 2024

The monitoring of environmental information (e.g. noise, dust, vibration, temperature, humidity) is crucial to the safe and sustainable operation of a construction site. However, commercial sensors exhibit certain drawbacks when applied on-site. First, the installation cost is prohibitively high. Second, these sensors have been engineered without considering the rugged and harsh conditions of a construction site, resulting in error-prone sensing. Third, construction sites are compelled to allocate additional resources in terms of manpower, expenses, and physical spaces to accommodate individual sensors. This research developed an integrated sensing module to measure the environmental information in construction site. The sensing module slashes the installation cost to 3.3%, is robust enough to harsh and outdoor sites, and consolidates multiple sensors into a single unit. The sensing module also supports GPS, LTE, and real-time sensing. The evaluation showed remarkable results including 97.5% accuracy and 99.9% precision in noise measurement, an 89.7% accuracy in dust measurement, and a 93.5% reliability in data transmission. This research empowers the collection of substantial volumes and high-quality environmental data from construction sites, providing invaluable support to decision-making process. These encompass objective regulatory compliance checking, simulations of environmental data dispersion, and the development of environmental mitigation strategies.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2024

This research addresses the types and causes of defects in seismic retrofitting projects of school facilities, which, following the Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes in September 2016 and November 2017 respectively, have been identified as having comparatively lower seismic resilience among public buildings. The incidence of seismic retrofitting has notably increased in the subsequent years, raising concerns about the potential for defects arising from these efforts. The government has committed to enhancing the seismic resilience of all public facilities by 2035, with a specific focus on completing upgrades for educational establishments by 2029. Although prior investigations have explored construction defects in school facilities, there exists a gap in research specifically targeting defects within seismic retrofitting processes. Thus, this study aims to catalog the defects associated with seismic retrofitting efforts and analyze their underlying causes to identify crucial management strategies for defect mitigation. Furthermore, by examining the interplay between defect types and their causative factors, the study seeks to pinpoint essential management practices that could preempt defects during the construction phase, ultimately aiding in the reduction of future maintenance expenditures.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.803-811
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• 2024

Nuclear accidents such as Fukushima Daiichi have highlighted the potential of passive safety systems to replace or complement active safety systems as part of the overall prevention and/or mitigation strategies. In addition, passive systems are key features of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), for which they are becoming almost unavoidable and are part of the basic design of many reactors available in today's nuclear market. Nevertheless, their potential to significantly increase the safety of nuclear power plants still needs to be strengthened, in particular the ability of computer codes to determine their performance and reliability in industrial applications and support the safety demonstration. The PASTELS project (September 2020-February 2024), funded by the European Commission "Euratom H2020" programme, is devoted to the study of passive systems relying on natural circulation. The project focuses on two types, namely the SAfety COndenser (SACO) for the evacuation of the core residual power and the Containment Wall Condenser (CWC) for the reduction of heat and pressure in the containment vessel in case of accident. A specific design for each of these systems is being investigated in the project. Firstly, a straight vertical pool type of SACO has been implemented on the Framatome's PKL loop at Erlangen. It represents a tube bundle type heat exchanger that transfers heat from the secondary circuit to the water pool in which it is immersed by condensing the vapour generated in the steam generator. Secondly, the project relies on the CWC installed on the PASI test loop at LUT University in Finland. This facility reproduces the thermal-hydraulic behaviour of a Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS) mainly composed of a CWC, a heat exchanger in the containment vessel connected to a water tank at atmospheric pressure outside the vessel which represents the ultimate heat sink. Several activities are carried out within the framework of the project. Different tests are conducted on these integral test facilities to produce new and relevant experimental data allowing to better characterize the physical behaviours and the performances of these systems for various thermo-hydraulic conditions. These test programmes are simulated by different codes acting at different scales, mainly system and CFD codes. New "system/CFD" coupling approaches are also considered to evaluate their potential to benefit both from the accuracy of CFD in regions where local 3D effects are dominant and system codes whose computational speed, robustness and general level of physical validation are particularly appreciated in industrial studies. In parallel, the project includes the study of single and two-phase natural circulation loops through a bibliographical study and the simulations of the PERSEO and HERO-2 experimental facilities. After a synthetic presentation of the project and its objectives, this article provides the reader with findings related to the physical analysis of the test results obtained on the PKL and PASI installations as well an overall evaluation of the capability of the different numerical tools to simulate passive systems.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.381-391
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• 2024

This study examined the factors influencing safety scores in air conditioning installation projects, with a specific focus on the characteristics of safety managers and project-specific details. Given the increase in industrial accidents within this sector and the lack of research on smaller-scale operations, this analysis of 7,046 safety data records from Company A aimed to address this gap. The results indicate that the month of project commencement has the most significant impact on safety scores(correlation coefficient of 0.21), followed by the age of the safety manager(correlation coefficient of 0.06). Interestingly, the educational background of the managers did not appear to influence safety outcomes. Furthermore, project cost was found to have a negative correlation with safety scores(-0.1), suggesting that lower-cost projects may be associated with higher risk levels. These findings underscore the importance of developing tailored safety checklists that take into account the specific timing and scale of air conditioning installation projects. Additionally, the results suggest that incorporating both experienced(older) and less experienced(younger) safety managers into safety strategies may be beneficial for achieving optimal safety outcomes. This balanced approach could leverage the strengths of both groups, potentially enhancing overall risk assessment and mitigation efforts.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.54-60
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impacts of three-dimensional land cover on changing urban air temperatures and to explore some strategies of urban landscaping towards mitigation of heat build-up. This study located study spaces within a diameter of 300m around 24 Automatic Weather Stations(AWS) in Seoul, and collected data of diverse variables which could affect summer energy budgets and air temperatures. The study also selected reflecting study objectives 6 smaller-scale spaces with a diameter of 30m in Chuncheon, and measured summer air temperatures and three-dimensional land cover to compare their relationships with results from Seoul's AWS. Linear regression models derived from data of Seoul's AWS revealed that vegetation volume, greenspace area, building volume, building area, population density, and pavement area contributed to a statistically significant change in summer air temperatures. Of these variables, vegetation and building volume indicated the highest accountability for total variability of changes in the air temperatures. Multiple regression models derived from combinations of the significant variables also showed that both vegetation and building volume generated a model with the best fitness. Based on this multiple regression model, a 10% increase of vegetation volume decreased the air temperatures by approximately 0.14%, while a 10% increase of building volume raised them by 0.26%. Relationships between Chuncheon's summer air temperatures and land cover distribution for the smaller-scale spaces also disclosed that the air temperatures were negatively correlated to vegetation volume and greenspace area, while they were positively correlated to hardscape area. Similarly to the case of Seoul's AWS, the air temperatures for the smaller-scale spaces decreased by 0.32% ($0.08^{\circ}C$) as vegetation volume increased by 10%, based on the most appropriate linear model. Thus, urban landscaping for the reduction of summer air temperatures requires strategies to improve vegetation volume and simultaneously to decrease building volume. For Seoul's AWS, the impact of building volume on changing the air temperatures was about 2 times greater than that of vegetation volume. Wall and rooftop greening for shading and evapotranspiration is suggested to control atmospheric heating by three-dimensional building surfaces, enlarging vegetation volume through multilayered plantings on soil surfaces.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.179-184
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: Accurate estimates of total direct $CH_4$ emissions from croplands on a country scale are important for global budgets of anthropogenic sources of $CH_4$ emissions and for the development of effective mitigation strategies. Methane production resulted by the anaerobic decomposition of organic compounds where $CO_2$ acts as inorganic electron acceptor. This process could be affected by the addition of rice straw, water management and rice variety itself. METHODS AND RESULTS: Rice (Oryza sativa L. Japonica type, var Samkwangbyeo) was cultivated in four plots: (1) Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium (NPK) ($N-P_2O_5-K_2O$:90-45-57 kg/ha); (2) NPK plus 3 Mg/ha rice straw (RS3); (3) NPK plus 5 Mg/ha rice straw (RS5); (4) NPK plus 7 Mg/ha rice straw (RS7) for 3 years (2010-2012) and the rice straw incorporated in fall (Nov.) in Gyeonggi-do Hwaseong-si. Gas samples were collected using the closed static chamber which were installed in each treated plot of $152.9m^2$. According to application of 3, 5, 7 Mg/ha of rice straw, methane emission increased by 46, 101, 190%, respectively, compared to that of the NPK plot. CONCLUSION(S): We obtained a quantitative relationship between $CH_4$ emission and the amount of rice straw applied from rice fields which could be described by polynomial regression of order 2. The emission scaling factor estimated by the relationship were in the range of IPCC GPG (2000).

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.152-161
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• 2023

In general, large-capacity hydrogen storage vessels, typically in the form of vertical cylindrical vessels, are constructed using steel materials. These vessels are anchored to foundation slabs that are specially designed to suit the environmental conditions. This anchoring method involves pre-installed anchors on top of the concrete foundation slab. However, it's important to note that such a design can result in concentrated stresses at the anchoring points when external forces, such as seismic events, are at play. This may lead to potential structural damage due to anchor and concrete damage. For this reason, in this study, it selected an vertical hydrogen storage vessel based on site observations and created a 3D finite element model. Artificial seismic motions made following the procedures specified in ICC-ES AC 156, as well as domestic recorded earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 5.0, were applied to analyze the structural behavior and performance of the target structures. Conducting experiments on a structure built to actual scale would be ideal, but due to practical constraints, it proved challenging to execute. Therefore, it opted for an analytical approach to assess the safety of the target structure. Regarding the structural response characteristics, the acceleration induced by seismic motion was observed to amplify by approximately ten times compared to the input seismic motions. Additionally, there was a tendency for a decrease in amplification as the response acceleration was transmitted to the point where the centre of gravity is located. For the vulnerable components, specifically the sub-system (support columns and anchorages), the stress levels were found to satisfy the allowable stress criteria. However, the concrete's tensile strength exhibited only about a 5% margin of safety compared to the allowable stress. This indicates the need for mitigation strategies in addressing these concerns. Based on the research findings presented in this paper, it is anticipated that predictable load information for the design of storage vessels required for future shaking table tests will be provided.