• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.108-113
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• 2006

Urban conditions, such as existing underground facilities and ambient noise due to cultural activity, restrict the general application of conventional geophysical techniques. At a tunnelling site in an urban area along an existing railroad, we used the refraction microtremor (REMI) technique (Louie, 2001) as an alternative way to get geotechnical information. The REMI method uses ambient noise recorded by standard refraction equipment and a linear geophone array to derive a shear-wave velocity profile. In the inversion procedure, the Rayleigh wave dispersion curve is picked from a wavefield transformation, and iteratively modelled to get the S-wave velocity structure. The REMI survey was carried out along the line of the planned railway tunnel. At this site vibrations from trains and cars provided strong seismic sources that allowed REMI to be very effective. The objective of the survey was to evaluate the rock mass rating (RMR), using shear-wave velocity information from REMI. First, the relation between uniaxial compressive strength, which is a component of the RMR, and shear-wave velocity from laboratory tests was studied to learn whether shear-wave velocity and RMR are closely related. Then Suspension PS (SPS) logging was performed in selected boreholes along the profile, in order to draw out the quantitative relation between the shear-wave velocity from SPS logging and the RMR determined from inspection of core from the same boreholes. In these tests, shear-wave velocity showed fairly good correlation with RMR. A good relation between shear-wave velocity from REMI and RMR could be obtained, so it is possible to estimate the RMR of the entire profile for use in design of the underground tunnel.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the application of various numerical models and frequency contents of earthquakes on the performances of the reactor containment building (RCB) in a nuclear power plant (NPP) equipped with an advanced power reactor 1400. Two kinds of numerical models are developed to perform time-history analyses: a lumped-mass stick model (LMSM) and a full three-dimensional finite element model (3D FEM). The LMSM is constructed in SAP2000 using conventional beam elements with concentrated masses, whereas the 3D FEM is built in ANSYS using solid elements. Two groups of ground motions considering low- and high-frequency contents are applied in time-history analyses. The low-frequency motions are created by matching their response spectra with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1.60 design spectrum, whereas the high-frequency motions are artificially generated with a high-frequency range from 10Hz to 100Hz. Seismic responses are measured in terms of floor response spectra (FRS) at the various elevations of the RCB. The numerical results show that the FRS of the structure under low-frequency motions for two numerical models are highly matched. However, under high-frequency motions, the FRS obtained by the LMSM at a high natural frequency range are significantly different from those of the 3D FEM, and the largest difference is found at the lower elevation of the RCB. By assuming that the 3D FEM approximates responses of the structure accurately, it can be concluded that the LMSM produces a moderate discrepancy at the high-frequency range of the FRS of the RCB.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.663-666
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• 2005

Gas hydrates are ice-like compounds that form at the low temperature and high pressure conditions common in shallow marine sediments at water depths greater than 300-500 m when concentrations of methane and other hydrocarbon gases exceed saturation. Estimates of the total mass of methane carbon that resides in this reservoir vary widely. While there is general agreement that gas hydrate is a significant component of the global near-surface carbon budget, there is considerable controversy about whether it has the potential to be a major source of fossil fuel in the future and whether periods of global climate change in the past can be attributed to destabilization of this reservoir. Also essentially unknown is the interaction between gas hydrate and the subsurface biosphere. ODP Leg 204 was designed to address these questions by determining the distribution, amount and rate of formation of gas hydrate within an accretionary ridge and adjacent basin and the sources of gas for forming hydrate. Additional objectives included identification of geologic proxies for past gas hydrate occurrence and calibration of remote sensing techniques to quantify the in situ amount of gas hydrate that can be used to improve estimates where no boreholes exist. Leg 204 also provided an opportunity to test several new techniques for sampling, preserving and measuring gas hydrates. During ODP Leg 204, nine sites were drilled and cored on southern Hydrate Ridge, a topographic high in the accretionary complex of the Cascadia subduction zone, located approximately 80km west of Newport, Oregon. Previous studies of southern Hydrate Ridge had documented the presence of seafloor gas vents, outcrops of massive gas hydrate, and a pinnacle' of authigenic carbonate near the summit. Deep-towed sidescan data show an approximately $300\times500m$ area of relatively high acoustic backscatter that indicates the extent of seafloor venting. Elsewhere on southern Hydrate Ridge, the seafloor is covered with low reflectivity sediment, but the presence of a regional bottom-simulating seismic reflection (BSR) suggests that gas hydrate is widespread. The sites that were drilled and cored during ODP Leg 204 can be grouped into three end-member environments basedon the seismic data. Sites 1244 through 1247 characterize the flanks of southern Hydrate Ridge. Sites 1248-1250 characterize the summit in the region of active seafloor venting. Sites 1251 and 1252 characterize the slope basin east of Hydrate Ridge, which is a region of rapid sedimentation, in contrast to the erosional environment of Hydrate Ridge. Site 1252 was located on the flank of a secondary anticline and is the only site where no BSR is observed.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.271-277
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• 2020

There are increasing cases of monitoring the structural response of structures using multiple sensors. However, owing to cost and management problems, limited sensors are installed in the structure. Thus, few structural responses are collected, which hinders analyzing the behavior of the structure. Therefore, a technique to predict responses at a location where sensors are not installed to a reliable level using limited sensors is necessary. In this study, a numerical study is conducted to predict the seismic response of low-rise buildings using limited information. It is assumed that the available response information is only the acceleration responses of the first and top floors. Using both information, the first natural frequency of the structure can be obtained. The acceleration information on the first floor is used as the ground motion information. To minimize the error on the acceleration history response of the top floor and the first natural frequency error of the target structure, the method for predicting the mass and stiffness information of a structure using the genetic algorithm is presented. However, the constraints are not considered. To determine the range of design variables that mean the search space, the parameter prediction method based on artificial neural networks is proposed. To verify the proposed method, a five-story structure is used as an example.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.61-73
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• 2017

The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in 2011 and California Power Failure in 2001 are examples of the importance of the power plant safety management that caused huge national loss with a power-related mass casualty incident. In a situation where humans cannot live without electricity, efforts to strengthen the systematic firefighting safety management in power plants that produce electricity with large amounts of hazardous materials as fuel, such as nuclear energy, coal and gas, are essential to protect life and prevent property loss and stable economic growth from fire explosion accident or radiation leak due to the negligence of safety management and natural disasters such as earthquakes, which has recently become an issue. This study examined the operating situation of firefighting safety management in power plants with firefighting officials employed by five power generation companies including Korea Southern Power Co., Ltd. and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., which are in charge of the domestic power supply. As a result, for the systematic firefighting safety management of power plants, improvement plans were drawn, including the development of an effective business manual and a comprehensive management system, the substantiality of firefighting safety education, and the strengthening of seismic designs to prepare for earthquakes.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.427-435
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• 2021

An analysis considering the fluid-structure interaction is required to strictly evaluate the seismic behavior of facilities such as, environmental facilities and dams, that store fluids. Specifically, in the case of an infinite domain in the upstream direction, such as a dam-reservoir system, this should be carefully considered. In this study, we proposed a practical numerical model for both wave propagation and fluid-structure interaction analyses of an infinite domain, for a system with a semi-infinite domain such as a dam-reservoir system. This method was applicable to the time domain, and enabled accurate boundary analysis. For an infinite fluid domain, a small number of mid-point integrated acoustic finite elements were applied instead of a general acoustic finite element, and a viscous boundary was imposed on the outermost boundary. The validity and accuracy of the proposed method were secured by comparing analytic solutions of a reservoir having infinite domain, with the parametric analysis results, for the number of elements and the size of the modeling region. Furthermore, the proposed method was compared with other fluid-structure interaction methods using additional mass.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.155-167
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• 2020

This paper demonstrates a real-time hybrid substructuring (RTHS) shake table test to evaluate the seismic performance of a base isolated building. Since RTHS involves a feedback loop in the test implementation, the frequency dependent magnitude and inherent time delay of the actuator dynamics can introduce inaccuracy and instability. The paper presents a robust stability and performance analysis method for the RTHS test. The robust stability method involves casting the actuator dynamics as a multiplicative uncertainty and applying the small gain theorem to derive the sufficient conditions for robust stability and performance. The attractive feature of this robust stability and performance analysis method is that it accommodates linearized modeled or measured frequency response functions for both the physical substructure and actuator dynamics. Significant experimental research has been conducted on base isolators and dampers toward developing high fidelity numerical models. Shake table testing, where the building superstructure is tested while the isolation layer is numerically modeled, can allow for a range of isolation strategies to be examined for a single shake table experiment. Further, recent concerns in base isolation for long period, long duration earthquakes necessitate adding damping at the isolation layer, which can allow higher frequency energy to be transmitted into the superstructure and can result in damage to structural and nonstructural components that can be difficult to numerically model and accurately predict. As such, physical testing of the superstructure while numerically modeling the isolation layer may be desired. The RTHS approach has been previously proposed for base isolated buildings, however, to date it has not been conducted on a base isolated structure isolated at the ground level and where the isolation layer itself is numerically simulated. This configuration provides multiple challenges in the RTHS stability associated with higher physical substructure frequencies and a low numerical to physical mass ratio. This paper demonstrates a base isolated RTHS test and the robust stability and performance analysis necessary to ensure the stability and accuracy. The tests consist of a scaled idealized 4-story superstructure building model placed directly onto a shake table and the isolation layer simulated in MATLAB/Simulink using a dSpace real-time controller.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.155-165
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• 1999

In completely weathered granite gneiss,8 of 40cm cast-in-situ concrete piles are constructed, and static pile load tests are executed on the piles to study the bearing behavior of rock-socketed piles. Subsurface explorations are carried out on the test site in three phases, in which 14 borehole investigations as well as the seismic investigation are performed. Rock socketd depths of the piles in the weathered rocks are varied as 3m, 6m and 9m to separate the shaft resistance from the end bearing resistance, and for a couple of piles, styrofoam of 10cm thickness is installed under the pile point to eliminate the effect of the end resistance. Strain gages are instrumented on re-bars to pick-up the transferred loads along the pile length. From the results of the pile load tests, the allowable shaft resistance and the allowable end bearing values of weathered rocks are proposed as $8.6t/m^2\;and\; 84t/m^2$, respectively. The empirical equation relating the elastic modulus of rock mass with the uniaxial compressive strength of the rock specimen is also proposed for the weathered rocks.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.64-73
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• 2007

A Large thermal vacuum chamber (LTVC) for space environment simulation on large satellites was successfully developed and constructed by KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) in Korea with a local company. This chamber has an effective diameter of 8 meters and depth of 10 meters, and is composed of vacuum system, thermal control system, and anti-vibration system. Temperature below $-190^{\circ}C$ is maintained over the thermal shroud wrapping a satellite under $3.7{\times}10^{-5}Pa$ ($5{\times}10^{-7}torr$) vacuum level, and optical test can be done in this chamber by seismic mass with $10^{-5}g_{rms}$ or lower vibration level. In addition, the shroud temperature can be increased up to $123^{\circ}C$ using halogen lamps. Chamber control program based on PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) could control this large thermal vacuum chamber automatically.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.89-96
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• 2010

In comparison with ordinary or heavy-weight concrete, light-weight air void concrete has the good aspects in optimizing super tall structure systems for the process of design considering wind load and seismic load by lightening total dead load of buildings and reducing natural resources used. Light-weight air void concrete has excellent properties of heat and sound insulating due to its high amount porosity of air voids. So, it has been used as partition walls and the floor of Ondol which is the traditional Korean floor heating system. Under the condition of which the supply of light-weight aggregates are limited, the development of light-weight concrete using air voids is highly required in the aspects of reduced manufacturing prices and mass production. In this study, we investigated the physical properties and thermal behaviors of specimens that applied different mixing ratios of foaming agent to evaluate the possibility of use in the structural elements. We proposed the estimating equation for compressive strength of each mix having different ratio of foaming agent. We also confirmed that the density of cement matrix is decreased as the mixing amount of foaming agent increase up to 0.6% of foaming agent mixing ratio which was observed by SEM. Based on porosity and compressive strength of control mortar without foaming agent, we built the estimating equations of compressive strength for mortars with foaming agent. The upper limit of use in foaming agent is about 0.6% of the binder amount. Each air void is independent, and size of voids range from 50 to $100{\mu}m$.