• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.93-104
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• 2010

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to observe the effects of work environment and low back pain on the structural and muscle strength changes in lumbar spine to helpful for preventation and cure of low back pain. Methods : Through measuring of lumbosacral angle, lumbar lordotic angle, lumbar gravity line ratio analyzed structure of lumbar spine and using Trunk Extension Flexion Program of CYBEX NORM System(cybex770+TMC, USA) analyzed Flex. PT, Ext. PT, E/F ratio of lumbar spine of company employees given a medical examination. Results : According to work environment, lumbar gravity line ratio is higher in white collar group than in blue collar group, Ext. PT is significantly lower in white collar group than in blue collar group. According to low back pain or not, lumbar gravity line ratio, Ext. PT is lower in low back pain group than in non-low back pain group. Conclusions : Work environment and low back pain effects on the structural and muscle strength changes in lumbar spine.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.233-257
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• 2016

This paper provides an overview on development of long-span bridges monitoring in Japan, with emphasis on monitoring strategies, types of monitoring system, and effective utilization of monitoring data. Because of severe environment condition such as high seismic activity and strong wind, bridge monitoring systems in Japan historically put more emphasis on structural evaluation against extreme events. Monitoring data were used to verify design assumptions, update specifications, and facilitate the efficacy of vibration control system. These were among the first objectives of instrumentation of long-span bridges in a framework of monitoring system in Japan. Later, monitoring systems were also utilized to evaluate structural performance under various environment and loading conditions, and to detect the possible structural deterioration over the age of structures. Monitoring systems are also employed as the basis of investigation and decision making for structural repair and/or retrofit when required. More recent interest has been to further extend application of monitoring to facilitate operation and maintenance, through rationalization of risk and asset management by utilizing monitoring data. The paper describes strategies and several examples of monitoring system and lessons learned from structural monitoring of long-span bridges in Japan.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.355-368
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• 2005

Large and complex structures are being built now-a-days and, they are required to be functional even under extreme loading and environmental conditions. In order to meet the safety and maintenance demands, there is a need to build sensors integrated structural system, which can sense and provide necessary information about the structural response to complex loading and environment. Sophisticated tools have been developed for the design and construction of civil engineering structures. However, very little has been accomplished in the area of monitoring and rehabilitation. The employment of appropriate sensor is therefore crucial, and efforts must be directed towards non-destructive testing techniques that remain functional throughout the life of the structure. Fiber optic sensors are emerging as a superior non-destructive tool for evaluating the health of civil engineering structures. Flexibility, small in size and corrosion resistance of optical fibers allow them to be directly embedded in concrete structures. The inherent advantages of fiber optic sensors over conventional sensors include high resolution, ability to work in difficult environment, immunity from electromagnetic interference, large band width of signal, low noise and high sensitivity. This paper brings out the potential and current status of technology of fiber optic sensors for civil engineering applications. The importance of employing fiber optic sensors for health monitoring of civil engineering structures has been highlighted. Details of laboratory studies carried out on fiber optic strain sensors to assess their suitability for civil engineering applications are also covered.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.105-119
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• 2015

Structural damage detection using modal strain energy (MSE) is one of the most efficient and reliable structural health monitoring techniques. However, some of the existing MSE methods have been validated for special types of structures such as beams or steel truss bridges which demands improving the available methods. The purpose of this study is to improve an efficient modal strain energy method to detect and quantify the damage in complex structures at early stage of formation. In this paper, a modal strain energy method was mathematically developed and then numerically applied to a fixed-end beam and a three-story frame including single and multiple damage scenarios in absence and presence of up to five per cent noise. For each damage scenario, all mode shapes and natural frequencies of intact structures and the first five mode shapes of assumed damaged structures were obtained using STRAND7. The derived mode shapes of each intact and damaged structure at any damage scenario were then separately used in the improved formulation using MATLAB to detect the location and quantify the severity of damage as compared to those obtained from previous method. It was found that the improved method is more accurate, efficient and convergent than its predecessors. The outcomes of this study can be safely and inexpensively used for structural health monitoring to minimize the loss of lives and property by identifying the unforeseen structural damages.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.300-309
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• 2009

The effective utilization of wood structure is encouraged to preserve natural resources and the global environment. Long-span and large-scale structures are preferred to promote demand for wood. This study attempts to develop new Fire-resistance Composite Material composed of Structural steel and Structural glued laminated timber for long-span and large-scale structures. Prior to take a fire-resistance test, compare properties of bending strength with Composite material composed of Structural steel and Structural glued laminated timber, structural steel and structural provides the stability of the structure, but the structural glued laminated timber has high value elasticity of bending. Using the Composite material will improve structural stability and Eco-friend construction environment.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.17-24
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• 1994

The pre- and post-processor for finite element structural analysis considering the user-friendly device are developed by using GUI. These can be used on WINDOWS' environment which is realized the multi-tasking and the concurrency by object-oriented paradigm. They are designed to control integratedly the pre-processing, execution and the post-processing of the finite element structural analysis program on multiple windows. These object-oriented modeling approach can be used for complex integrated engineering systems.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.170-175
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• 1995

In this paper, the problems on Windows application for finite element structural analysis softwares are presented. These Windows application programs provide the better graphical representation of structural geometry through the GUI, and provide the integrated environment for managing various processors such as a preprocessor and a postprocessor. Two examples show the efficiency of this system which can represent various inputs and outputs concurrently on multi-windows by dialog-type.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.553-565
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• 2017

Structural modeling of unencapsulated ionic polymer metal composite (u-IPMC) actuators that are used for flapping the insect scale-flapping wing of micro air vehicles (FMAV) in dry environmental conditions is carried out. Structural modeling for optimization of design parameters for retention of water, maximize actuation performance and to study the influence of water activity on the actuation characteristics of u-IPMC is explored for use in FMAV. The influence of equivalent weight of Nafion polymer, cations, concentration of cations, pre-treatment procedures on retention of water of u-IPMCs and on actuation parameters, flapping angle, flexural stiffness and actuation displacement are investigated. IPMC designed with Nafion having equivalent weight 900-1100, pre-heated at $30^{\circ}C$ and with sodium as the cations is promising for optimum retention of water and actuation performance. The actuation parameters while in operation in dry and humid environment with varying water activity can be tuned to desirable frequency, deflection, flap angle and flexural stiffness by changing the water activity and operational temperature of the environment.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.987-994
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• 2008

The optimal structure of the Tonpilz transducer was designed. First, the FE model of the transducer was constructed, that included all the details of the transducer which used practical environment. The validity of the FE model was verified through the impedance analysis of the transducer. Second, the resonance frequency, the sound pressure, the bandwidth, and the impulsive shock pressure of the transducer in relation to its structural variables were analyzed. Third, the design method of $2^n$ experiments was employed to reduce the number of analysis cases, and through statistical multiple regression analysis of the results, the functional forms of the transducer performances that could consider the cross-coupled effects of the structural variables were derived. Based on the all results, the optimal geometry of the Tonpilz transducer that had the highest sound pressure level at the desired working environment was determined through the optimization with the SQP-PD method of a target function composed of the transducer performance. Furthermore, for the convenience of a user, the automatic process program making the optimal structure of the acoustic transducer automatically at a given target and a desired working environment was made. The developed method can reflect all the cross-coupled effects of multiple structural variables, and can be extended to the design of general acoustic transducers.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.199-211
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• 2015

The safety and performance of bridges could be monitored and evaluated by Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. These systems try to identify and locate the damages in a structure and estimate their severities. Current SHM systems are applied to a single bridge, and they have not been used to monitor the structural condition of a network of bridges. This paper propose a new method which will be used in Synthetic Rating Procedures (SRP) developed by the authors of this paper and utilizes SHM systems for monitoring and evaluating the condition of a network of bridges. Synthetic rating procedures are used to assess the condition of a network of bridges and identify their ratings. As an additional part of the SRP, the method proposed in this paper can continuously monitor the behaviour of a network of bridges and therefore it can assist to prevent the sudden collapses of bridges or the disruptions to their serviceability. The method could be an important part of a bridge management system (BMS) for managers and engineers who work on condition assessment of a network of bridges.