• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.5
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• pp.493-504
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• 2024

This paper presents the methodology and results for the investigation of the structural safety of 40 aged underground water tanks to support the weight of photovoltaic (PV) systems that were supposed to be placed on their roof reinforced concrete (RC) slabs. The investigation procedure included (1) review of available documents; (2) visual inspection of the roof RC slabs; (3) carrying out a series of nondestructive (ND) tests; and (4) analysis of results. Out of the 40 tanks, eleven failed the visual inspection phase and were discarded from further investigation. The roof RC slabs of the tanks that passed the visual inspection were subjected to a series of ND tests that included infrared thermography, impact echo, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), Schmidt hammer, concrete core compressive strength, and water-soluble chloride content. The NDT results proved that eight more tanks were not suitable to support the PV systems. Based on the results of the visual inspection and testing, a probabilistic decision-making criterion was established to reach a decision regarding the structural integrity of the roof slabs. The study concluded that the condition of the drainage filter was essential in protecting the tanks and its intact presence can be used as a strong indication of the structural integrity of the roof RC slabs.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2008

This study is about manufacturing and producing girder, which is an essential component of bridge structure, in a composite of FRP + concrete. This has a higher competitive power in price than steel girder. The girder used in this study is made of glass fiber which has a lower elastic modulus than steel and thus has some technical limitations such as excessive deflection compared to steel girder and lack of production facilities in FRP production companies to make a large-section component material. Thus, this study suggested a section of a new module that will allow for applying a large section in order to solve the technical difficulties mentioned above and to secure low stiffness of FRP, developed a new FRP+concrete composite girder that is filled with the appropriate amount of concrete. To identify the structural behavior of this FRP+concrete composite girder, experiments were conducted to measure its flexural strength according to the difference in the strength of confined concrete and the existence of stud. The results of the flexural strength test confirmed the composite effect from confining concrete and the effect of increase in strength proportional to the strength of concrete. In developing FRP+concrete composite girder, NDT study was also conducted to analyze the interface characteristics of concrete and FRP.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.62-68
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• 2017

It is necessary to analyze on the compressive strength among material properties of concrete for confirming damages of architectures due to large explosion. A non destructive test is known as the representative methods estimating compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity, rebound hardness test are widely used because of their simplicity, convenience. But combined method supplementing two types is applied at now as they are affected by the characteristics of test specimen. In this research to check damages on the members of structure before and after explosion, the characteristics of compressive strength are compared and analyzed through a real explosion test prior to full scale structures. The test results showed that the larger the TNT powder and the shorter the distance, the greater the decrease in strength before and after the explosion and that the largest displacement and moment for the explosive load and the greatest decrease in the strength at the central part. Due to the surface condition and the thickness variation of the concrete specimens, the standard deviation value is the smallest in the combining method of fusion of the ultrasonic method and rebound hardness method. Thus, the combining method can be one of appropriate methods to evaluate the strength in the reinforced concrete structures damaged by the explosion.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.209-216
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• 2014

One of the widely used NDT(Non-destructive techniques) is the ultrasonic pulse velocity (USPV) method, which determines the travel time of the ultrasonic pulse through the tested materials and most studies were focused on the results expressed in time domain. However, the signal of ultrasonic pulse in time domain can be transformed into frequency domain, through Fast fourier transform(FFT) to give more useful informations. This paper shows a comparison of changes in the pulse velocity and frequency domain signals of concrete for various load histories using lightweight fine aggregates. The strength prediction equation for normal concrete using USPV cannot be used to estimate lightweight fine aggregate concrete strength. The signals in frequency domain of ultrasonic pulse of lightweight fine aggregate concrete does not show any significant difference comparing with those of normal concrete. The increases in stress levels of concrete change the pulse velocities and maximum frequencies, however the apparent relationship between themselves can not be found in this experiment.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.199-206
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• 2015

Regular high-strength carbon steel is currently the most commonly used pipe material for onshore and offshore pipelines. The corrosion of offshore pipelines is a major problem as they age. The collapse of these structures as a result of corrosion may have a heavy cost is lives and assets. Therefore, their monitoring and screening is a high priority for maintenance, which may ensure the integrity and safety of a structure. Monitoring risers and subsea pipelines effectively can be accomplished using eddy current inspection to detect the average remaining wall thickness of corroded low-alloy carbon steel pipelines through corrosion scaling, paint, coating, and concrete. A test specimen for simulating the offshore pipeline is prepared as a standard specimen for an analysis and experiment with differential bobbin eddy current sensors. Using encircling coils, the signals for the defect in the simulated specimen are analyzed and evaluated in experiments. Differential bobbin eddy current sensors can diagnose the defects in a specimen, and experiments have been carried out using the developed bobbin eddy current sensor. As a result, the most optimum coil parameters were selected for designing differential bobbin eddy current sensors.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.391-406
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• 2008

This study attempts to develop a real-time debonding monitoring system for carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthened structures by continuously inspecting the bonding condition between the CFRP layer and the host structure. The uniqueness of this study is in developing a new concept and theoretical framework of nondestructive testing (NDT), in which debonding is detected without relying on previously-obtained baseline data. The proposed reference-free damage diagnosis is achieved based on the concept of time reversal acoustics (TRA). In TRA, an input signal at an excitation point can be reconstructed if the response signal measured at another point is reemitted to the original excitation point after being reversed in the time domain. Examining the deviation of the reconstructed signal from the known initial input signal allows instantaneous identification of damage without requiring a baseline signal representing the undamaged state for comparison. The concept of TRA has been extended to guided wave propagations within the CFRP-strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams to improve the detectibility of local debonding. Monotonic and fatigue load tests of large-scale CFRP-strengthened RC beams are conducted to demonstrate the potential of the proposed reference-free debonding monitoring system. Comparisons with an electro-mechanical impedance method and an inferred imaging technique are provided as well.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.101 no.3
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• pp.412-425
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• 2012

Concrete Soil Erosion Control Dam, which blocks flow of debris flow in torrential stream, are reported to lose expected functions due to structural failure and collapses, caused by poor construction, material deterioration and external impacts. In this paper, an integrity assessment technique for debris barriers was proposed, which allows preliminary detection of problems inherent in debris barriers. The proposed integrity assessment technique is a non-destructive method based on SASW method, one of surface-wave tests. In this paper, a practical procedure and analysis guidelines in applying the SASW technique to debris barrier was proposed and its validity was verified using five decrepit debris barriers older than 20-year old. As a result, the SASW method was validated for the reliable grade evaluation method for concrete soil erosion control dam, and the resulting grades turned out to agree with the results determined by Sabang Associations.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.17-21
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• 2017

This paper is to grasp the use of impact-echo response signal induced from impacting an object for the assessment of compressive strength of construction materials nondestructively and to propose the test results. For this study, an impact device was devised and used for impacting an object by an initial rotating free falling impact and following repetitive impacts from the rebound action which eventually disappears. Concrete test specimens which had been mixed for different strengths were tested and the impact echo response signal was measured for each test specimen. The total sound signal energy which is assessed from integrating the impact-echo response signal was compared with the directly measured compressive strength for each specimen. The comparison showed that the total sound signal energy has a direct relationship with the directly measured compressive strength and the results clearly indicated that the compressive strength of construction materials can be assessed nondestructively using total sound signal energy which is assessed from integrating the impact-echo response signal induced from impacting an object.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.5-9
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• 2019

This paper is to provide the results of a pilot study of the usability and possibility of impact force response signal induced from impacting an object for the assessment of compressive strength of various materials (rock, concrete, wood, etc.) nondestructively. For this study, a device was devised for impacting an object and measuring the impact force. The impact was carried out by an initial rotating free falling impact and following repetitive impacts from the rebound action which eventually disappears. Wood and rock test specimens for different strengths were tested and an impact force response signal was measured for each test specimen. The total impact force signal energy which is assessed from integrating the impact force response signal was compared with the directly measured compressive strength for each specimen. The comparison showed that the total impact force signal energy has a direct relationship with the directly measured compressive strength and the results clearly indicated that the compressive strength of construction materials can be assessed nondestructively using total impact force signal energy which is assessed from integrating the impact force response signal induced from impacting an object.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.185-192
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• 2002

We made a study of 3-D migration which could precisely image data of GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) applied to NDT (Non-Destructive Test) field for the inspection of structural safety. In this study, we obtained 3-D migrated images of important targets in structuresurvey (e.g. steel pipes, cracks) by using 3-D Kirchhoff prestack depth migration scheme developed for seismic data processing. For a concrete model consisting of steel pipe and void, the targets have been well defined with opposite amplitude according to the parameters of the targets. And migrated images using Parallel-Broadside array (XX configuration) have shown higher resolution than those using Perpendicular-Broadside array (YY configuration) when steel pipes had different sizes. Therefore, it is required to analyze the migrated image of XX configuration as well as that of general YY configuration in order to get more accurate information. As the last stage, we chose a model including two steel pipes which cross each other. The upper pipe has been resolved clearly but the lower has been imaged bigger than the model size due to the high conductivity of the upper steel.