• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.55-69
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• 1995

The primary objective of this research was to investigate optimum manufacturing condition of thin composite panels composed of sawdust, polyethylene film and polypropylene net. At the study the experiment was designed to make thin board in which sawdust offers effectiveness as core composing material, polyethylene as adhesive with added urea resin, and polypropylene as stiffness and flexibility in the composition panel. 100 types of thin composite panels were manufactured according to press-lam and mat-forming process of various hot pressing conditions(pressure, temperature and time). They were tested and compared with control boards on bending properties(MOR, MOE, SPL, WML), internal bond strength, thickness swelling, linear expansion and water absorption. At the same time the visual inspections of each types of panels were accomplished. The physical and mechanical properties of composite types passed by visual inspection were analyzed by Tukey's studentized range test. From the statistical analysis, the optimum manufacturing condition of thin composite panels were selected. Compared with two manufacturing processes, mat-forming process performed better than press-lam process in all tested properties. The optimum manufacturing conditions resulted from the experiment and statistical analysis were able to determine as following: the press temperature was shown the most good result at 130$^{\circ}C$ in mat forming process and 140$^{\circ}C$ press lam process, the press time 4 min in both processes, but the press pressure was 25-10kg/$cm^2$ in mat forming and 15k/$cm^2$ press lam process.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.74-84
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• 1995

Eight types of thin composite panels were manufactured by press-lam and mat-forming process applied to optimum manufacturing condition, studied in former first research by author (1995). They were tested and compared with control boards on dimensional stability, internal bond strength, tensile strength, Screw withdrawal strength, and bending properties. These thin composite panels manufactured by mat-forming process were generally superior to those by press-lam in dimensional stability and mechanical properties. In the dimensional stability and mechanical properties of thin composite panels manufactured by mat-forming process, the thin composite panels (A and E type) composed of particle or sawdust core and veneer face with polyethylene film, were as good as those of common plywood (control board). Internal bond strength showed highest value in the thin composite panel(D type) which composed of particle core and polypropylene screen face with polyethylene film. The thin composite panels(G and H type) composed of sawdust or particle core and polypropylene screen face with polyethylene film by press-lam and mat-forming process, showed most highest value in dimensional stability and water absorption.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.101-117
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• 2014

This paper presents a reliability-based analysis on seismic performance of timber-steel hybrid shear wall systems. Such system is composed of steel moment resisting frame and infill wood frame shear wall. The performance criteria of the hybrid system with respect to different seismic hazard levels were determined through a damage assessment process, and the effectiveness of the infill wood shear walls on improving the seismic performance of the hybrid systems was evaluated. Performance curves were obtained by considering different target non-exceedance probabilities, and design charts were further established as a function of seismic weight. Wall drift responses and shear forces in wood-steel bolted connections were used as performance criteria in establishing the performance curves to illustrate the proposed design procedure. It was found that the presence of the infill wood shear walls significantly reduced the non-performance probabilities of the hybrid wall systems. This study provides performance-based seismic evaluations on the timber-steel hybrid shear walls in support of future applications of such hybrid systems in multi-story buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.459-478
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• 2010

This paper contains detailed descriptions of a dynamic time-history modal analysis to calculate deflection, inter-storey drift and storey shear demand in single-storey and multi-storey buildings using an EXCEL spreadsheet. The developed spreadsheets can be used to obtain estimates of the dynamic response parameters with minimum input information, and is therefore ideal for supporting the conceptual design of tall building structures, or any other structures, in the early stages of the design process. No commercial packages, when customised, could compete with spreadsheets in terms of simplicity, portability, versatility and transparency. An innovative method for developing the stiffness matrix for the lateral load resistant elements in medium-rise and high-rise buildings is also introduced. The method involves minimal use of memory space and computational time, and yet allows for variations in the sectional properties of the lateral load resisting elements up the height of the building and the coupling of moment frames with structural walls by diaphragm action. Numerical examples are used throughout the paper to illustrate the development and use of the spreadsheet programs.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.435-448
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• 2018

This paper reports the development of a theoretically rigorous method for permanent way engineers to assess the condition of railway ballast under a concrete sleeper with the potential to be extended to a smart system for long-term health monitoring of railway ballast. Owing to the uncertainties induced by the problems of modeling error and measurement noise, the Bayesian approach was followed in the development. After the selection of the most plausible model class for describing the damage status of the rail-sleeper-ballast system, Bayesian model updating is adopted to calculate the posterior PDF of the ballast stiffness at various regions under the sleeper. An obvious drop in ballast stiffness at a region under the sleeper is an evidence of ballast damage. In model updating, the model that can minimize the discrepancy between the measured and model-predicted modal parameters can be considered as the most probable model for calculating the posterior PDF under the Bayesian framework. To address the problems of non-uniqueness and local minima in the model updating process, a two-stage hybrid optimization method was developed. The modified evolutionary algorithm was developed in the first stage to identify the important regions in the parameter space and resulting in a set of initial trials for deterministic optimization to locate all most probable models in the second stage. The proposed methodology was numerically and experimentally verified. Using the identified model, a series of comprehensive numerical case studies was carried out to investigate the effects of data quantity and quality on the results of ballast damage detection. Difficulties to be overcome before the proposed method can be extended to a long-term ballast monitoring system are discussed in the conclusion.