• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2023

The free vibration of temperature-dependent functionally graded plates (FGPs) resting on a viscoelastic foundation is investigated in this paper using a newly developed simple first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). Unlike other first order shear deformation (FSDT) theories, the proposed model contains only four variables' unknowns in which the transverse shear stress and strain follow a parabolic distribution along the plates' thickness, and they vanish at the top and bottom surfaces of the plate by considering a new shape function. For this reason, the present theory requires no shear correction factor. Linear steady-state thermal loads and power-law material properties are supposed to be graded across the plate's thickness. Uniform, linear, non-linear, and sinusoidal thermal rises are applied at the two surfaces for simply supported FGP. Hamilton's principle and Navier's approach are utilized to develop motion equations and analytical solutions. The developed theory shows progress in predicting the frequencies of temperature-dependent FGP. Numerical research is conducted to explain the effect of the power law index, temperature fields, and damping coefficient on the dynamic behavior of temperature-dependent FGPs. It can be concluded that the equation and transformation of the proposed model are as simple as the FSDT.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.117-133
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• 2022

Determination of the mechanical behaviour of jointed rock masses has been a challenge for rock engineers for decades. This problem is more pronounced for non-persistent jointed rock masses due to complicated interaction of rock bridges on the overall behaviour. This paper aims to study the effect of a non-persistent joint set configuration on the mechanical behaviour of rock materials under both uniaxial and biaxial compression tests using a discrete element code. The numerical simulation of biaxial compressive strength of rock masses has been challenging in the past due to shortcomings of bonded particle models in reproducing the failure envelope of rock materials. This problem was resolved in this study by employing the flat-joint contact model. The validity of the numerical model was investigated through a comprehensive comparative study against physical uniaxial and biaxial compression experiments. Good agreement was found between numerical and experimental tests in terms of the recorded peak strength and the failure mode in both loading conditions. Studies on the effect of joint orientation on the failure mode showed that four zones of intact, transition to block rotation, block rotation and transition to intact failure occurs when the joint dip angle varies from 0° to 90°. It was found that the applied confining stress can significantly alter the range of these zones. It was observed that the minimum strength occurs at the joint dip angle of around 45 degrees under different confining stresses. It was also found that the joint orientation can alter the post peak behaviour and the lowest brittleness was observed at the block rotation zone.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.577-595
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• 2023

A dynamic triaxial discrete element numerical model of lightweight soil was established using the discrete element method to study the microscopic mechanism of expanded polystyrene (EPS) particles in the soil under cyclic loading. The microscopic parameters of the discrete element model of the lightweight soil were calibrated depending on the dynamic triaxial test hysteresis curves. Based on the calibration results, the effects of the EPS particles volume ratio and amplitude on the contact force, displacement field, and velocity field of the lightweight soil under different accumulated strains were studied. The results showed that the hysteresis curves of lightweight soil exhibit nonlinearity, hysteresis, and strain accumulation. The strain accumulated in remolded soil is mainly tensile strain, and that in lightweight soil is mainly compressive strain. As the volume ratio of EPS particles increased, the contact force first increased and then decreased, and the displacement and velocity of the particles increased accordingly. With an increase in amplitude, the dynamic stress of the particle system increased, and the accumulation rate of the dynamic strain of the samples also increased. At 5% compressive strain, the contact force of the particles changed significantly and the number of particles deflected in the direction of velocity also increased considerably. These results indicated that the cemented structure of the lightweight soil began to fail at a compressive strain of 5%. Thus, a compressive strain of 5% is more reasonable than the dynamic strength failure standard of lightweight soil.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.347-353
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• 2023

Measuring the growth of fish in fish farms still uses a laborious method. This method requires a lot of labor and causes stress to the fish, which has a negative impact on mortality. To solve this problem, we propose the Fish Growth Regression System (FGRS), a system to automate the growth of fish. FGRS consists of two modules. The first is a module that detects fish based on Yolo v8, and the second consists of a module that predicts the growth of fish using fish image data and a CNN-based neural network model. As a result of the simulation, the average prediction error before learning was 134.2 days, but after learning, the average error decreased to 39.8 days. It is expected that the system proposed in this paper can be used to predict the growing date and use the growth prediction of fish to contribute to automation in fish farms, resulting in a significant reduction in labor and cost savings.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.525-538
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• 2023

The development of a city is closely linked to the construction and operation of its subway system. However, constructing a new subway tunnel under an existing station is an extremely complex task, and the deformation characteristics and mechanical behavior of the new subway tunnel during the excavation process can greatly impact the normal operation of the existing station. Although the previous studies about the case of underpass engineering have been carried out, there is limited research on the condition of a newly-built subway tunnel that closely undercrossing an existing station with zero distance between them. Therefore, this study analyzes the deformation law and mechanical behavior characteristics of the preliminary lining of the underpass tunnel during the excavation process based on the real engineering case of Chengdu Metro Line 8. This study also makes an in-depth comparison of the influence of different excavation methods on this issue. Finally, the accuracy of numerical simulation is verified by comparing it with on-site result. The results indicate that the maximum bending moment mainly occurs at the floor slab of the preliminary lining, while that of the ceiling is small. The stress state at the ceiling position is less affected by the construction process of the pilot tunnel. Compared to the all-in-one excavation method, although the process of partial excavation method is more complicated, the deformation of preliminary lining caused by it is basically less than the upper limit value of the standard, while that of the all-in-one excavation method is beyond standard requirements.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2024

Objectives : This study evaluates how various traditional Korean herbal medicines assess MUC5AC expression for esophageal mucosal defense and analyzes the associated mechanisms involved in inflammation. Methods : Forty types of traditional Korean herbal medicines were assessed for in vitro antioxidant activities, and the real-time PCR method was employed to analyze MUC5AC expression under pH 4.5 conditions in human esophageal epithelial cells (HET-1A). Eight types of Korean herbal medicines were evaluated for in vitro antioxidant activities, and Reactive oxygen specise (ROS) expression was analyzed under bile salt (480 𝜇M) and pH 5.5 conditions in human esophageal epithelial cells (HET-1A). Simulation experiments involving bile salts and acidity were conducted for one hour to assess the efficacy of four drugs, and the activities of Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase (MEK), Nuclear Factor Kappa B (NF-𝜅B), and Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) were detected through Western blot analysis. Results : Compared to the Normal group, the Control group exhibited higher ROS generation. Such increased ROS levels were significantly reduced by four extracts: Citrus Unshius Pericarpium (CUP), Cnidium officinale Rhizoma (CR), Ginseng Radix (GR), and Linderae Radix (LR). The protein expression of COX-2 decreased with the treatment of LR, CUP, and CR. Particularly, CUP and CR exhibited superior effects compared to other groups in inhibiting the phosphorylation of NF-𝜅B. Conclusion : Based on the results obtained, we have identified drugs that inhibit oxidative stress and inflammation caused by bile acid in esophageal epithelial cells. Our future plans involve comparing and analyzing the efficacy of these herbal medicines through animal experiments.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.589-602
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• 2024

Thermoelectric generator (TEG) generally do not have high heat conversion efficiencies. The performance of a thermoelectric generator module depends on the shape of the legs as well as the properties of the material and the number of legs. In this study, the leg shapes of thermoelectric elements are modeled into various geometric structures such as cylinder and cube shaped to efficiently harvest waste heat, and the electrical characteristics are compared numerically. The temperature gradient and power generation according to the bridge shape are found to be highest at the existing Cube shape. As a result of comparing the power generation using the cooling effect, the Cone shape was the highest in natural convection and the Hourglass shape was highest in forced convection. Research results confirm that geometry can affect the efficiency of thermoelectric generators.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.131-143
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• 2024

Shield tunneling construction commonly crosses underground pipelines in urban areas, resulting in soil loss and followed deformation of grounds and pipelines nearby, which may threaten the safe operation of shield tunneling. This paper investigated the pipeline deformation caused by double curved shield tunnels in soil-rock composite stratum in Nanjing, China. The stratum settlement equation was modified to consider the double shield tunneling. Moreover, a three dimensional finite element model was established to explore the effects of hard-layer ratio, tunnel curvature radius, pipeline buried depth and other influencing factors. The results indicate the subsequent shield tunnel would cause secondary disturbance to the soil around the preceding tunnel, resulting in increased pipeline and ground surface settlement above the preceding tunnel. The settlement and stress of the pipeline increased gradually as buried depth of the pipeline increased or the hard-layer ratio (the ratio of hard-rock layer thickness to shield tunnel diameter within the range of the tunnel face) decreased. The modified settlement calculation equation was consistent with the measured data, which can be applied to the settlement calculation of ground surface and pipeline settlement. The modified coefficients a and b ranged from 0.45 to 0.95 and 0.90 to 1.25, respectively. Moreover, the hard-layer ratio had the most significant influence on the pipeline settlement, but the tunnel curvature radius and the included angle between pipeline and tunnel axis played a dominant role in the scope of the pipeline settlement deformation.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.659-674
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• 2024

Casting Ultra High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) on an orthotropic steel deck and forming a composite action by connectors could improve the steel deck fatigue performance. This study presents the mechanical performance of a proposed post-combination connection between UHPC and steel, which had a low constraint effect on UHPC shrinkage. A total of 10 push-out tests were conducted for static and fatigue performance investigations. And the test results were compared with evaluation methods in codes to verify the latter's applicability. Meanwhile, nonlinear simulation and parametric works with material damage plasticity models were also conducted for the static and fatigue failure mechanism understanding. The static and fatigue test results both showed that fractures at stud roots and surrounding local UHPC crushes were the main failure appearances. Compared with normally arranged studs, group arrangement could result in reductions of static stud shear stiffness, strength, and fatigue lives, which were about 18%, 12%, and 27%, respectively. Compared with the test results, stud shear capacity and fatigue lives evaluations based on the codes of AASHTO, Eurocode 4, JSCE and JTG D64 could be applicable in general while the safety redundancies tended to be smaller or even insufficient for group studs. The analysis results showed that arranging studs in groups caused obviously uneven strain distributions. The severer stress concentration and larger strain ranges caused the static and fatigue performance degradations of group studs. The research outcome provides a very important basis for establishing a design method of connections in the novel post-combination steel-UHPC composite deck.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.3
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• pp.233-252
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• 2024

This research explores a new finite element model for the free vibration analysis of bi-directional functionally graded (BDFG) beams. The model is based on an efficient higher-order shear deformation beam theory that incorporates a trigonometric warping function for both transverse shear deformation and stress to guarantee traction-free boundary conditions without the necessity of shear correction factors. The proposed two-node beam element has three degrees of freedom per node, and the inter-element continuity is retained using both C1 and C0 continuities for kinematics variables. In addition, the mechanical properties of the (BDFG) beam vary gradually and smoothly in both the in-plane and out-of-plane beam's directions according to an exponential power-law distribution. The highly elevated performance of the developed model is shown by comparing it to conceptual frameworks and solution procedures. Detailed numerical investigations are also conducted to examine the impact of boundary conditions, the bi-directional gradient indices, and the slenderness ratio on the free vibration response of BDFG beams. The suggested finite element beam model is an excellent potential tool for the design and the mechanical behavior estimation of BDFG structures.