• The Journal of Churna Manual Medicine for Spine and Nerves
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2015

Objectives : To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of Flexible brace(SpineCor Brace). Methods : CNKI, PubMed databases and Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine in 1999-2014 were searched for studies on SpineCor. This study researched 4 randomized controlled trial studies. Results : The results suggested that the SpineCor brace reduced the probability of the progression of early idiopathic scoliosis comparing with its natural history or rigid brace. But some studies showed that there is no significant difference between SpineCor and rigid brace. Conclusions : These results indicate that SpineCor have obvious effects on treatment of scoliosis and no adverse reactions, therefore we need to study more researches on SpineCor.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.856-863
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• 2008

High-rise apartments of shear wall system are governed by flexural behavior like a cantilever beam. Installation of the damper-brace system in a structure governed by flexural behavior is not suitable. Because of relatively high lateral stiffness of the shear wall, a load is not concentrate on the brace and the brace cannot perform a role as a damping device. In this paper, a friction damper applying flexibility of shear wall is proposed in order to reduce the deformation of a structure. To evaluate performance of the proposed friction damper, nonlinear time history analysis is executed by SeismoStruct analysis program and MVLEM(multi vertical linear element model) be used for simulating flexural behavior of the shear wall. It is found that control performance of the proposed friction damper is superior to one of a coupled wall with rigid beam. In conclusion, this study verified that the optimal control performance of the proposed friction damper is equal to 45 % of the maximum shear force inducing in middle-floor beam with rigid beam.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.667-674
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• 2013

Improving the earthquake resistance of buildings through seismic retrofitting using steel braces can result in brittle failure at the connection between the brace and the building, as well as buckling failure of the braces. This paper proposes a new seismic retrofit methodology combined with glass fiber sheet (GFS) and non-compression X-brace system using carbon fiber (CFXB) for reinforced concrete buildings damaged in earthquakes. The GFS is used to improve the ductility of columns damaged in earthquake. The CFXB consists of carbon fiber bracing and anchors, to replace the conventional steel bracing and bolt connection. This paper reports the seismic resistance of a reinforced concrete frame strengthened using the GFS-CFXB system. Cyclic loading tests were carried out, and the hysteresis of the lateral load-drift relations as well as ductility capacities were investigated. Carbon fiber is less rigid than the conventional materials used for seismic retrofitting, resulting in some significant advantages: the strength of the structure increased markedly with the use of CF X-bracing, and no buckling failure of the bracing was observed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.309-318
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• 2018

Buckling Restrained Braced (BRB) frames have been widely used as an efficient seismic load resisting system in recent years mostly due to their symmetric and stable hysteretic behavior and significant energy dissipation capacity. In this study, to provide a better understanding of the behavior of BRB frames with various beam-column connections, a numerical study using non-linear finite element (FE) analysis is conducted. All models are implemented in the Abaqus software package following an explicit formulation. Initially, the results of the FE model are verified with experimental data. Then, diverse beam-column connections are modeled for the sake of comparison from the shear capacity, energy dissipation and frame hysteresis behavior points of view until appropriate performance is assessed. The considered connections are divided into three different categories: (1) simple beam-column connections including connection by web angle and connection by seat angle; (2) semi-rigid connection including connection by web and seat angles; and (3) rigid beam-column connections by upper-lower beam plates and beam connections with web and flange splices. Results of the non-linear FE analyses show that these types of beam-column connections have little effect on the maximum story drift and shear capacity of BRB frames. However, the connection type has a significant effect on the amount of energy dissipation and hysteresis behavior of BRB frames. Also, changes in length and thickness of the angles in simple and semi-rigid connections and changes in length and thickness of plates in rigid connections have slight effects (less than 4%) on the overall frame behavior.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.92-98
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• 2016

Background: We used an Abramson technique for minimally invasive repair of pectus carinatum in patients who preferred surgery to brace therapy, had been unsuccessfully treated via brace therapy, or were unsuitable for brace therapy because of a rigid chest wall. Methods: Between July 2011 and May 2015, 16 patients with pectus carinatum underwent minimally invasive surgery. Results: The mean age of the patients was $24.35{\pm}13.20years$ (range, 14-57 years), and all patients were male. The percentage of excellent aesthetic results, as rated by the patients, was 37.5%, and the percentage of good results was 56.25%. The preoperative and postoperative Haller Index values were $2.01{\pm}0.19$ (range, 1.60-2.31), and $2.22{\pm}0.19$ (range, 1.87-2.50), respectively (p-value=0.01), and the median hospital stay was $7.09{\pm}2.91days$ (range, 5-15 days). Only one patient experienced postoperative complications. Conclusion: Minimally invasive repair is effective for the treatment of pectus carinatum, even in adult patients.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.197-211
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• 2020

Application of the steel ring as a type of seismic fuse has been one of the efforts made by researchers in recent years aiming to enhance the ductility of the bracing systems which in turn, possesses various advantages and disadvantages. Accordingly, to alleviate these disadvantages, an innovative bracing system with a diamond scheme equipped with a steel ring is introduced in this paper. In this system, the braces and yielding circular damper act in parallel whose main functionality is to increase ductility, energy absorption and mitigate drawbacks of the existing bracing systems, in which the braces and yielding circular damper act in parallel. To conduct the experimental tests, specimens with three types of rigid, semi-rigid and pinned connections were built and subjected to cyclic loading so that their performance could be analyzed. Promisingly, the results indicate both great applicability and efficiency of the proposed system in energy absorption and ductility. Moreover, it was concluded that as the braces and damper are in parallel, the use of a steel ring with smaller size and thickness would result in higher energy absorption and load-resisting capacity when compared to the other existing systems. Finally, to assess the potential of numerically modeling the proposed system, its finite element model was simulated by ABAQUS software and observed that there is a great agreement between the numerical and experimental results.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.151-167
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• 2014

It is common that analyses of offshore platforms being carried out with the assumption of rigid tubular joints. However, many researches have concluded that it is necessary that local joint flexibility (LJF) of tubular joints should be taken into account. Meanwhile, advanced analysis of old offshore platforms considering local joint flexibility leads to more accurate results. This paper presents an extensive finite-element (FE) based study on the flexibility of uni-planner multi-brace tubular Y-T and K-joints commonly found in offshore platforms. A wide range of geometric parameters of Y-T and K-joints in offshore practice is covered to generate reliable parametric equations for flexibility matrices. The formulas are obtained by non-linear regression analyses on the database. The proposed equations are verified against existing analytical and experimental formulations. The equations can be used reliably in global analyses of offshore structures to account for the LJF effects on overall behavior of the structure.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.12 no.1 s.44
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• pp.75-82
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• 2000

Recently, many studies on connections in steel structures have been performed. In practice, designers assume that the connection is a rigid- or pinned-one, however, actually the connection behaves as partially restrained one, neither fully restrained nor unrestrained. This paper concentrates on the behavior of double angle connections in the field of semi-rigid connections. The behavior of double angle connection. induced by abrupt axial tension load or by collapsed brace in medium or low rise building, is analyzed by 3D nonlinear finite element method using ABAQUS(ver 5.8). From the analytic results. a simplified model of double angle and a rotational stiffness at the corner of the angle are derived, which are fundamentally used for understanding the behavior of the double angle connection.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.87-94
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• 2021

The purpose of this paper is to improve the inappropriate analysis results when the end of the brace on braced frame is applied as pinned connection in practice. The stiffness of the gusset plate connection on the braced frame has the amount of between pinned and rigid connection, and the analysis model that applies the stiffness of the connection must be used for accurate performance evaluation. In this study, the stiffness of the gusset plate designed by the balanced design procedure are quantified, and applied to the analysis model to simulate the gusset plate connection. The proposed model was verified through nonlinear static analysis (pushover analysis) of SAP2000. The effect of the connection on the seismic performance of the braced frame was analyzed by comparing the proposed model and pinned model. As a result, it was confirmed that the performance of the braced frame was evaluated conservatively in practice, and the ductility was overestimated. Therefore, it is important to consider the connection for accurate and economical performance evaluation.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.237-252
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• 2023

The article describes the development of a novel dissipative bracing connection device (identified by the acronym DRBrC) for concentrically braced frames in steel and composite structures. The origins of the device trace back to the seminal work of Kelly, Skinner and Heine (1972), and, more directly related, to the PIN-INERD device, overcoming some of its limitations and greatly improving the replaceability characteristics. The connection device is composed of a rigid housing, connected to both the brace and the beam-column connection (or just the column), in which the axial force transfer is achieved by four-point bending of a dissipative pin. The experimental validation stages, presented in detail, consisted of a preliminary testing campaign, resulting in successive improvements of the original device design, followed by a systematic parametric testing campaign. That final campaign was devised to study the influence of the constituent materials (S235 and Stainless Steel, for the pin, and S355 and High Strength Steel, for the housing), of the geometry (four-point bending intermediate spans) and of the loading history (constant amplitude or increasing cyclic alternate). The main conclusions point to the most promising DRBrC device configurations, also presenting some suggestions in terms of the replaceability requirements.