• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.269-282
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• 2015

Civil structures should be designed with the lowest cost and longest lifetime possible and without service failure. The efficient and sustainable use of materials in building design and construction has always been at the forefront for civil engineers and environmentalists. Timber is one of the best contenders for these purposes particularly in terms of aesthetics; fire protection; strength-to-weight ratio; acoustic properties and seismic resistance. In recent years, timber has been used in commercial and taller buildings due to these significant advantages. It should be noted that, since the launch of the modern building standards and codes, a number of different structural systems have been developed to stabilise steel or concrete multistorey buildings, however, structural analysis of high-rise and multi-storey timber frame buildings subjected to lateral loads has not yet been fully understood. Additionally, timber degradation can occur as a result of biological decay of the elements and overloading that can result in structural damage. In such structures, the deficient members and joints require strengthening in order to satisfy new code requirements; determine acceptable level of safety; and avoid brittle failure following earthquake actions. This paper investigates performance assessment and damage assessment of older multi-storey timber buildings. One approach is to retrofit the beams in order to increase the ductility of the frame. Experimental studies indicate that Sprayed Fibre Reinforced Polymer (SFRP) repairing/retrofitting not only updates the integrity of the joint, but also increases its strength; stiffness; and ductility in such a way that the joint remains elastic. Non-linear finite element analysis ('pushover') is carried out to study the behaviour of the structure subjected to simulated gravity and lateral loads. A new global index is re-assessed for damage assessment of the plain and SFRP-retrofitted frames using capacity curves obtained from pushover analysis. This study shows that the proposed method is suitable for structural damage assessment of aged timber buildings. Also SFRP retrofitting can potentially improve the performance and load carrying capacity of the structure.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.139-148
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• 2008

The direct inspection of the outward aspects by field engineers is the important and critical part for structural safety assessment according to the related reports. This study presents an improved method of the state assessment for concrete floor slab by separating and evaluating the individual damage types. First, the various types of damage symptoms are separated, which have been included and dealt in a group. Secondly, they are weighted and scored independently based on the present guide and references. Overall procedures other than the above are retained as same as possible to avoid the confusion. The proposed method is applied and tested to a performed assessment project for a bridge for validation. The result shows that it is reasonable and applicable in respect that it is able to make up for the controversial points of the present guide revealed in practices. Careful check of excessively deteriorated parts in addition to the reasonable assessment of system by this method grants the structural repair and reinforcement propriety and economy, and assures of more safety. Twofold appraisal of this approach expands the applicable areas of value engineering to the structural maintenance.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.89-98
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• 1989

In order to take account of the statistical properties of random variables used in the structural analysis, the conventional approach usually adopts the safety factor based on past experiences for the qualitative assessment of structural safety problem. Recently, new approach based on the probabilistic concept has been applied to the assessment of structural safety in order to circumvent the difficulties of the conventional approach in choosing the appropriate safety factor. Thus, computer program called "Probabilistic finite element method" is developed by incorporating the probabilistic concept into the conventional matrix method in order to investigate the effects of the random variables on the final output of the structural analysis. From the comparison of some examples, it can be concluded that the PFEM developed in this study deals consistently with the uncertainty of random variables and provides the rational tool for the assessment of structural safety of plane frame.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.151-161
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• 1998

In this study, an attempt is made to apply the concept of fuzzy-bayesian theory to the integrity assessment of RC highway bridge, and uncertainty states are represented in terms of fuzzy sets which define several linguistic variables such as "very good", "good", "average", "poor", "very poor", etc. Especially, the concept of fuzzy conditional probability aids to derive a new reliability analysis which includes the subjective assessment of engineers without introducing any additional correction factors. The fuzzy concept are also used as reliability indexes for the condition assessment based on the proposed models, the proposed fuzzy theory-based approach with the results of visual inspection and extensive field load tests are applied to the integrity assessment of a new RC highway bridge, namely, Jichok bridge.

• Special Issue of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• 2011.09a
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• pp.117-126
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• 2011

The buckling assessment of plate panels described in common structural rules (CSR) is to be determined according to the buckling utilization factor with hull girder stresses calculated on net hull girder sectional properties. As the thickness requirement for the buckling assessment of plate panels is not explicitly given in CSR, a lot of time is spent to find the proper thickness of plate panels until reaching to an allowable buckling utilization factor. In this study, in order to reduce time and cost, the thickness requirement of plate panels satisfying buckling assessment was derived. The structural design system included with the thickness requirement for buckling assessment was developed. The system is called as Oil-tanker Automated Structural Investigation System (OASIS). The design result of longitudinal strength members using OASIS was verified by Nauticus Hull which is the rule scantling software of DNV. Finally, optimum design of a double hull tanker for the minimum weight using OASIS was presented.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.71-78
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• 1994

The main objectives of the study may be stated as follows : \circled1 the acquisition of fundamental updated data for the assessment of aged wharf structures of pier type based on systematic static/dynamic load testing \circled2 the study of techniques and methods for field testing \circled3 realistic safety and load carrying capacity assessment based on practical reliability analysis. In this study field testing of real structure is performed and the results are compared with those of the 2D and 3D linear structural analysis. It may be seen that the practical reliability methods can be applied for the safety and capacity assessment of aged wharf structures of pier type.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1105-1108
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• 2004

This paper describes the structural analysis result and load test result of accident EMU(Electric Multiple Units). Structural analysis and load test of EMU were performed for the criteria of safety assessment. Structural analysis using commercial I-DEAS software provided important information on the stress distribution and load transfer mechanisms as well as the amount of damages during rolling stock crash. The purpose of the load test is to evaluate a safety which carbody structure shall be considered fully sufficient rigidity so as to satisfy proper system function under maximum load and operating condition. The results have been used to provide the critical information for the criteria of safety assessment.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.245-253
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• 2004

There has been recent demand for extending the life of age-degraded structures and equipment by such techniques as diagnosis, maintenance, safety assessment, and estimating residual life on iron-making plants and hydraulic, thermal, and nuclear power plants. These techniques take into account comprehensive scenarios that may cause malfunction and structural damage and allow an assessment of risk based on the likely scenarios. In particular the safety assessment and residual life estimation of age-degraded ships and equipment facilities require consideration of various factors such as mechanical and thermal stresses, corrosion, hardness, load variation due to changes of operating condition, crack generation and strength reduction of material by fatigue. In this study, a detail thermal stress analysis, one of useful techniques of safety assessment and maintenance, is performed on a blast furnace by using general FEM code (MSC/NASTRAN).

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.129-137
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• 1999

Assessment of structural damage is a complex subject imbued with uncertainty and vagueness. This complexity arises from the use of subjective opinion and imprecise numerical data. Recently several active researches have been performed using new methods such as neural network approach or on-line damage detection. In this paper, Damage assessment (diagnosis) of the concrete bridges is studied by a new approach utilizing a neural fuzzy system that combined a neural network and a fuzzy logic. By applying this system to actual in-service bridges, it has been verified that the neural fuzzy method is effective for the bridge diagnosis.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.132-141
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• 1995

This study is intended to propose practical but systematic and rational approaches for proof load test and integrity assessment of segmental PC box-girder bridges. The proposed models cover the whole range of field tests and assessment of such as inspections, nondestructive tests, static and dynamic load tests, structural analysis, and integrity assessment for the evaluation of load carrying capacity, serviceability, and durability of PC box-girder bridges. They are applied to a newly constructed precast segmental PC box-girder bridge which is a part of the Seoul interior circuit elevated expressway.