• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.1
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• pp.67-80
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• 2019

Strengthening with near surface mounted carbon fibre reinforced polymers (NSM-CFRP) is a strengthening technique that have been used for several decades to increase the load carrying capacity of reinforced concrete members. In Iraq, many concrete buildings and bridges were subjected to a wide range of damage as a result of the last war and many other events. Accordingly, there is a progressive increase in the strengthening of concrete structures, bridges in particular, by using CFRP strengthening techniques. Near-surface mounted carbon fibre polymer has been recently proved as a powerful strengthening technique in which the CFRP strips are sufficiently protected against external environmental conditions especially the high-temperature rates in Iraq. However, this technique has not been examined yet under repeated loading conditions such as traffic loads on bridge girders. The main objective of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of NSM-CFRP strips in reinforced concrete beams under repeated loads. Different parameters such as the number of strips, groove size, and two types of bonding materials (epoxy resin and cement-based adhesive) were considered. Fifteen NSM-CFRP strengthened beams were tested under concentrated monotonic and repeated loadings. Three beams were non-strengthened as reference specimens while the remaining were strengthened with NSM-CFRP strips and divided into three groups. Each group comprises two beams tested under monotonic loads and used as control for those tested under repeated loads in the same group. The experimental results are discussed in terms of load-deflection behavior up to failure, ductility factor, cumulative energy absorption, number of cycles to failure, and the mode of failure. The test results proved that strengthening with NSM-CFRP strips increased both the flexural strength and stiffness of the tested beams. An increase in load carrying capacity was obtained in a range of (1.47 to 4.49) times that for the non-strengthened specimens. Also, the increase in total area of CFRPs showed a slight increase in flexural capacity of (1.02) times the value of the control strengthened one tested under repeated loading. Increasing the total area of CFRP strips resulted in a reduction in ductility factor reached to (0.71) while the cumulative energy absorption increased by (1.22) times the values of the strengthened reference specimens tested under repeated loading. Moreover, the replacement of epoxy resin with cement-based adhesive as a bonding material exhibited higher ductility than specimen with epoxy resin tested under monotonic and repeated loading.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.82-92
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate the effect of total electrochemical cell resistance (TECR) on electrochemical impedance (EI) measurements of reinforced concrete (RC) by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) using a three-electrode system. A series of experimental study is performed to measure electrochemical behavior of a steel bar embedded in a concrete cube specimen, with a side length of 200 mm, in various experimental conditions. Main variables include concrete dry conditions, coupling resistance between sensing electrodes and concrete surface, and area of the counter electrode. It is demonstrated that EI values remains stable when the compliant voltage of a measuring device is sufficiently great compared to the potential drop caused by TECR of concrete specimens. It is confirmed that the effect of the coupling resistance of TECR is far more influential than other two factors (concrete dry conditions and area of the counter electrode). The results in this study can be used as a fundamental basis for development of a surface-mount sensor for corrosion monitoring of reinforced concrete structures exposed to wet-and-dry cycles under marine environment.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.5A
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• pp.737-746
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• 2008

Recently, NDTs (Non-Destructive Techniques) using electromagnetic(EM) properties are applied to the performance evaluation for RC (Reinforced Concrete) structures. Since nonmetallic materials which are cement-based system have their unique dielectric constant and conductivity, they can be characterized and changed with different mixture conditions like W/C (water to cement) ratios and unit cement weight. In a room condition, cement mortar is generally dry so that porosity plays a major role in EM properties, which is determined at early-aged stage and also be affected by curing condition. In this paper, EM properties (dielectric constant and conductivity) in cement mortar specimens with 4 different W/C ratios are measured in the wide region of 0.2 GHz~20 GHz. Each specimen has different submerged curing period from 0 to 28 days and then EM measurement is performed after 4 weeks. Furthermore, porosity at the age of 28 days is measured through MIP (Mercury Intrusion Porosimeter) and saturation is also measured through amount of water loss in room condition. In order to evaluate the porosity from the initial curing stage, numerical analysis based on the modeling for the behavior in early-aged concrete is performed and the calculated results of porosity and measured EM properties are analyzed. For the convenient comparison with influencing parameters like W/C ratios and curing period, EM properties from 5 GHz to 15 GHz are averaged as one value. For 4 weeks, the averaged dielectric constant and conductivity in cement mortar are linearly decrease with higher W/C ratios and they increase in proportion to the square root of curing period regardless of W/C ratios.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4A
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• pp.347-353
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• 2009

The qualitative factors influencing the ingress of chloride ion into concrete are water-binder (W/B) ratio, cement type, age, chloride ion concentration of given environment, wet and dry conditions, etc. Thus, an objective of this experimental research is to investigate the effects of cement types and environmental conditions on the chloride ion diffusion characteristics in concrete through the chloride ion diffusion test. For this purpose, the diffusion coefficients for chloride ion in concrete with three types of cement such as ordinary portland cement (OPC), binary blended cement (BBC), and ternary blended cement (TBC), were measured for the concrete specimens with W/B ratios of 32%, 38%, and 43%, respectively. The diffusion coefficients for chloride ion were also measured for the concrete specimens with W/B ratio of 43%, which were subjected to standard curing and field exposure conditions. It was observed from the test results that the resistance against chloride ion penetration increased with decreasing W/B ratio and those of BBC and TBC concretes were greater than that of OPC concrete. Therefore, it was revealed that the use of these cements containing mineral admixtures is required to extend the service life of RC structures exposed to chloride environment. On the other hand, it was noted that the resistance against chloride ion penetration of field exposure test specimens was slightly lower than that of standard curing test specimens due to the penetration of chloride ion under the irregular ambient temperature, splash of wave, and cycle of wet and dry.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1A
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• pp.53-59
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• 2010

Recently, NDTs (Non-Destructive Techniques) using infrared camera are widely studied for detection of damage and void in RC (reinforced concrete) structures and they are also considered as an effective techniques for maintenance of infrastructures. The temperature on concrete surface depends on material and thermal properties such as specific heat, thermal conductivity, and thermal diffusion coefficient. Different porosity on cement mortar due to different mixture proportions can show different heat behavior in cooling stage. The porosity can affect physical and durability properties like strength and chloride diffusion coefficient as well. In this paper, active thermography which uses flash for heat induction is utilized and thermal characteristics on surface are evaluated. Samples of cement mortar with W/C (water to cement ratio) of 0.55 and 0.65 are prepared and physical properties like porosity, compressive strength, and chloride diffusion coefficient are evaluated. Then infrared thermography technique is carried out in a constant room condition (temperature $20{\sim}22^{\circ}C$ and relative humidity 55-60%). The mortar samples with higher porosity shows higher residual temperature at the cooling stage and also shows reduced critical time which shows constant temperature due to back wall effect. Furthermore, simple equation for critical time of back wall effect is suggested with porosity and experimental constants. These characteristics indicate the applicability of infrared thermography as an NDT for quality assessment of cement based composite like concrete. Physical properties and thermal behavior in cement mortar with different porosity are analyzed in discussed in this paper.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.43-57
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• 2023

The impacts of waste tire rubber (WTR) on the bending conduct of reinforced concrete beams (RCBs) are investigated in visualization of experimental tests and 3D finite element model (FEM) using both ANSYS and SAP2000. Several WTR rates are used in total 4 various full scale RCBs to observe the impact of WTR rate on the rupture and bending conduct of RCBs. For this purpose, the volumetric ratios (Vf) of WTR were chosen to change to 0%, 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% in the whole concrete. In relation to experimental test consequences, bending and rupture behaviors of the RCBs are observed. The best performance among the beams was observed in the beams with 2.5% WTR. Furthermore, as stated by test consequences, it is noticed that while WTR rate in the RCBs is improved, max. bending in the RCBs rises. For test consequences, it is clearly recognized as WTR rate in the RCB mixture is improved from 0% to 2.5%, deformation value in the RCB remarkably rises from 3.89 cm to 7.69 cm. This consequence is markedly recognized that WTR rates have a favorable result on deformation values in the RCBs. Furthermore, experimental tests are compared to 3D FEM consequences via using ANSYS software. In the ANSYS, special element types are formed and nonlinear multilinear misses plasticity material model and bilinear misses plasticity material model are chosen for concrete and compression and tension elements. As a consequence, it is noticed that each WTR rates in the RCBs mixture have dissimilar bending and rupture impacts on the RCBs. Then, to observe the impacts of WTR rate on the constructions under near-fault ground motions, a reinforced-concrete building was modelled via using SAP2000 software using 3-D model of the construction to complete nonlinear static analysis. Beam, column, steel haunch elements are modeled as nonlinear frame elements. Consequently, the seismic impacts of WTR rate on the lateral motions of each floor are obviously investigated particularly. Considering reduction in weight of structure and capacity of the members with using waste tire rubber, 2.5% of WTR resulted in the best performance while the construction is subjected to near fault earthquakes. Moreover, it is noticeably recognized that WTR rate has opposing influences on the seismic displacement behavior of the RC constructions.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.347-358
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• 2009

Recently, it is getting into a good situation for the flat-plate slab system to be applied. The flat-plate slab without beam, however, is often too weak to control deflection properly compared to other typical slab-beam structures, for which the post-tension method is generally regarded as one of best solutions. The post-tension (PT) method can effectively control deflection without increase of slab thickness. Despite this good advantage, however, the application of PT method has been very limited due to cost increase, technical problems, and lack of experiences. Therefore, in order to reduce difficulties on applying full PT method under the current domestic circumstances and to enhance constructability of PT system, this research proposed the partial PT method with top jacking anchorage applied in a part of span as need. For the top jacking anchorage system, the efficiency of deflection control shall be considered in detail because it can vary widely depending on the location of anchorage that can be placed anywhere as need, and tensile stresses induced at back of the anchorage zone also shall be examined. Therefore, in this study, analysis were performed on the efficiency of deflection control depending on the location of anchorage and on tensile stresses or forces using finite element method and strut and tie model in the proposed top jacking anchorage system. The proposed jacking system were also applied to the floor slabs at a construction site to investigate its applicability and the analysis results of slab behavior were compared to the measured values obtained from the PT slab constructed by the partial PT method. The result of this study indicates that the partial PT method can be very efficiently applied with little cost increase to control deflection and tensile stresses in the region as a need basis where problem exists.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.584-596
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• 1994

The objective of the study is to explore the relationships between the variables of nursing productivity on the framework of system del in the tertiary university based care hospital in Korea. Productivity is basically defined as the relation-ship between inputs and outputs. Under the proposition that the nursing unit is a system that produces nursing care output using personal and material resources through the nursing intervention and nursing care management. And this major conception of nursing productivity system comproises input, process and output and feed-back. These categorized variables are essential parts to produce desirable and meaningful out-put. While nursing personnel from head nurse to staff nurses cooperate with each other, the head nurse directs her subordinates to achieve the goal of nursing care unit. In this procedure, the head nurse uses the leadership of authority and benevolence. Meantime nursing productivity will be greatly influenced by environment and surrounding organizational structures, and by also the operational objectives, the policy and standards of procedures. For the study of nursing productivity one sample hospital with 15 general nursing care units was selected. Research data were collected for 3 weeks from May 31 to June 20 in 1993. Input variables were measured in terms of both the served and the server. And patient classification scores were measured drily by degree of nursing care needs that indicated patent case-mix. And also nurses' educational period for profession and clinical experience and the score of nurses' personality were measured as producer input variables by the questionnaires. The process varialbes act necessarily on leading input resources and result in desirable nursing outputs. Thus the head nurse's leadership perceived by her followers is defined as process variable. The output variables were defined as length of stay, average nursing care hours per patient a day the score of quality of nursing care, the score of patient satisfaction, the score of nurse's job satis-faction. The nursing unit was the basis of analysis, and various statistical analyses were used : Reliability analysis(Cronbach's alpha) for 5 measurement tools and Pearson-correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and canonical correlation analysis for the test of the relationship among the variables. The results were as follows : 1. Significant positive relationship between the score of patient classification and length of stay was found(r=.6095, p.008). 2. Regression coefficient between the score of patient classification and length of stay was significant (β=.6245, p=.0128), and variance explained was 39%. 3. Significant positive relationship between nurses’ educational period and length of stay was found(r=-.4546, p=.044). 5. Regression coefficient between nurses' educational period and the score of quality of nursing care was significant (β=.5600, p=.029), and variance explained was 31.4%. 6. Significant positive relationship between the score of head nurse's leadership of authoritic characteristics and the length of stay was found (r=.5869, p=.011). 7. Significant negative relationship between the score of head nurse's leadership of benevolent characteristics and average nursing care hours was found(r=-.4578, p=.043). 8. Regression coefficient between the score of head nurse's leadership of benevolent characteristics and average nursing care hours was significant(β=-.6912, p=.0043), variance explained was 47.8%. 9. Significant positive relationship between the score of the head nurse's leadership of benevolent characteristics and the score of nurses' job satis-faction was found(r=.4499, p=050). 10. A significant canonical correlation was found between the group of the independent variables consisted of the score of the nurses' personality, the score of the head nurse's leadership of authoritic characteristics and the group of the dependent variables consisted of the length of stay, average nursing care hours(Rc²=.4771, p=.041). Through these results, the assumed relationships between input variables, process variable, output variables were partly supported. In addition it is also considered necessary that-further study on the relationships between nurses' personality and nurses' educational period, between nurses' clinical experience including skill level and output variables in many research samples should be made.