• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.435-448
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• 2018

This paper reports the development of a theoretically rigorous method for permanent way engineers to assess the condition of railway ballast under a concrete sleeper with the potential to be extended to a smart system for long-term health monitoring of railway ballast. Owing to the uncertainties induced by the problems of modeling error and measurement noise, the Bayesian approach was followed in the development. After the selection of the most plausible model class for describing the damage status of the rail-sleeper-ballast system, Bayesian model updating is adopted to calculate the posterior PDF of the ballast stiffness at various regions under the sleeper. An obvious drop in ballast stiffness at a region under the sleeper is an evidence of ballast damage. In model updating, the model that can minimize the discrepancy between the measured and model-predicted modal parameters can be considered as the most probable model for calculating the posterior PDF under the Bayesian framework. To address the problems of non-uniqueness and local minima in the model updating process, a two-stage hybrid optimization method was developed. The modified evolutionary algorithm was developed in the first stage to identify the important regions in the parameter space and resulting in a set of initial trials for deterministic optimization to locate all most probable models in the second stage. The proposed methodology was numerically and experimentally verified. Using the identified model, a series of comprehensive numerical case studies was carried out to investigate the effects of data quantity and quality on the results of ballast damage detection. Difficulties to be overcome before the proposed method can be extended to a long-term ballast monitoring system are discussed in the conclusion.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.89-98
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• 2015

PURPOSES : This study evaluated the feasibility of implementing protected-permissive left-turn (PPLT) signals at three-leg signalized intersections. METHODS: A three-leg signalized intersection with permissive left-turn was first selected. A VISSIM simulation model was constructed using data collected from the test site. The VISSIM network was calibrated by adjusting related parameter values in order to minimize the difference between the simulated and surveyed critical gap. The calibrated network was validated by the number of waiting left-turning vehicles per cycle. Finally, the mobility and safety measures were extracted from simulation runs in which permissive, protected left turns as well as PPLTs were realized based on diverse traffic volume scenarios. RESULTS : The mobility-related measures of effectiveness (MOEs) of the case with PPLT outperformed the other two left-turn treatment scenarios. In particular, the average waiting time per cycle for the left-turn vehicles in the case with PPLT was reduced by 30 s. The safety-related MOEs of the case with PPLT were somewhat higher than those in the case with protected left-turns and much higher than those in the case with permissive left-turns. CONCLUSIONS : Based on the mobility- and safety-related MOEs generated from the VISSIM simulation runs, the use of PPLT seems to be feasible at three-leg signalized intersections where the left-turn is permissive and a pedestrian signal exists at the conflicting approach. However, in order to use the PPLT in earnest, it is necessary to revise the road traffic act, traffic signs, and related manuals.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.34 no.6C
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• pp.588-592
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose a novel method to improve the performance of the global soft decision which is based on the second-order conditional maximum a posteriori (CMAP). Conventional global soft decision scheme has an disadvantage in that the speech absence probability adjusted by a fixed-parameter was sensitive to the various noise environments. In proposed approach using the second-order CMAP, speech absence probability value is more flexible which exploit not only the current observation but also the speech activity decisions in the previous two frames. Experimental results show that the proposed improved global soft decision method based on second-order conditional MAP yields better results compared to the conventional global soft decision technique with the performance criteria of the ITU-T P. 862 perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ).

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2000

This paper proposes a fuzzy logic cross-coupled controller using a new contouring modeling for a two-axis servo system. The general decoupled control approach may result in degraded contouring performance due to such factors as mismatch of axial dynamics and axial loop gains. In practice, such systems contain many uncertainties. The cross-coupled controller utilizes all axis position error information simultaneously to produce accurate contours. However, the conventional cross-coupled controllers cannot overcome friction, backlash, and parameter variations. Also since, it is difficult to obtain an accurate mathematical model of multi-axis system, here we investigate a fuzzy logic cross-coupled controller of servo system. In addition, new contouring error vector computation method is presented. The experimental results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.90-101
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• 2015

Objective: This study was conducted to develop a chemical oxygen demand (COD) regression model using water quality monitoring data (January, 2014) obtained from the Han River auto-monitoring stations. Methods: Surface water quality data at 198 sampling stations along the six major areas were assembled and analyzed to determine the spatial distribution and clustering of monitoring stations based on 18 WQPs and regression modeling using selected parameters. Statistical techniques, including combined genetic algorithm-multiple linear regression (GA-MLR), cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to build a COD model using water quality data. Results: A best GA-MLR model facilitated computing the WQPs for a 5-descriptor COD model with satisfactory statistical results ($r^2=92.64$,$Q{^2}_{LOO}=91.45$,$Q{^2}_{Ext}=88.17$). This approach includes variable selection of the WQPs in order to find the most important factors affecting water quality. Additionally, ordination techniques like PCA and CA were used to classify monitoring stations. The biplot based on the first two principal components (PCs) of the PCA model identified three distinct groups of stations, but also differs with respect to the correlation with WQPs, which enables better interpretation of the water quality characteristics at particular stations as of January 2014. Conclusion: This data analysis procedure appears to provide an efficient means of modelling water quality by interpreting and defining its most essential variables, such as TOC and BOD. The water parameters selected in a COD model as most important in contributing to environmental health and water pollution can be utilized for the application of water quality management strategies. At present, the river is under threat of anthropogenic disturbances during festival periods, especially at upstream areas.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.463-477
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• 1991

This study proposed a new method to design a robot manipulator control system capable of tracking the trajectories of joint angles in a reasonable accuracy to cover with actual situation of varying payload, uncertain parameters, and time delay. The direct adaptive model following control method has been used to improve existing industrial robot manipulator control system design. The proposed robot manipulator controller is operated by adjusting its gains based on the response of the manipulator in such a way that the manipulator closely matches the reference model trajectories predefined by the designer. The manipulator control system studied has two loops: they are an inner loop on adaptive model following controller to compensate nonlinearity in the manipulator dynamic equation and to decouple the coupling terms and an outer loop of state feedback controller with integral action to guarantee the stability of the adaptive scheme. This adaptation algorithm is based on the hyperstability approach with an improved Lyapunov function. The coupling among joints and the nonlinearity in the dynamic equation are explicitly considered. The designed manipulator controller shows good tracking performance in various cases, load variation, parameter uncertainties. and time delay. Since the proposed adaptive control method requires only a small number of parameters to be estimated, the controller has a relatively simple structure compared to the other adaptive manipulator controllers. Therefore, the method used is expected to be well suited for a high performance robot controller under practical operation environments.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.1221-1229
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• 2014

This paper proposes an approach for predicting the fatigue life of a propeller shaft of a forklift truck by an accelerated life test method. The accelerated life test method adopted in this study is the calibrated accelerated life test, which is highly effective in the prediction of the lifetime and enables significant reduction of the test time as well as a quantification of reliability in the case of small sample sizes. First, the fatigue test was performed under two high stress levels, and then, it was performed by setting low stress levels in consideration of the available test time and extrapolation. Major reliability parameters such as the lifetime, accelerated power index, and shape parameter were obtained experimentally, and the experimentally predicted lifetime of the propeller shaft was verified through comparison with results of an analysis of load spectrum data under actual operating conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05b
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• pp.513-518
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• 1996

This report presents a demonstration of application of realistic evaluation methodology to a posturated cold leg large break LOCA in a Westinghouse three-loop pressurized water reactor with 17$\times$17 fuel. The new method of this analysis can be divided into three distinct step: 1) Best Estimate Code Validation and Uncertainty Quantification 2) Realistic LOCA Calculation 3) Limiting Value LOCA Calculation and Uncertainty Combination RELAP5/MOD3/K ［1］, which was improved from RELAP5/MOD3.1, and CONTEMPT4/MOD5 code were used as a best estimate thermal-hydraulic model for realistic LOCA calculation. The code uncertainties which will be determined in step 1) were quantified already in previous study ［2］, and thus the step 2) and 3) for plant application were presented in this paper. The application uncertainty parameters are divided into two categories, i.e. plant system parameters and fuel statistical parameters. Single parameter sensitivity calculations were performed to select system parameters which would be set at their limiting value in Limiting Value Approach (LVA) calculation. Single run of LVA calculation generated 27 PCT data according to the various combinations of fuel parameters and these data provided input to response surface generation. The probability distribution function was generated from Monte Carlo sampling of a response surface and the upper 95$^{th}$ percentile PCT was determined. Break spectrum analysis was also made to determine the critical break size. The results show that sufficient LOCA margin can be obtained for the demonstration NPP.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.230-238
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• 2017

Carbonation is a representative deterioration for underground structure, which causes additional repair for service life. This study proposes a simplified equation for optimum repair timing without complicated probability calculation, considering initial and repair conditions For the work, initial service life, extended service life through repair, and their COVs(Coefficient of Variation) are considered, and the periods which can reduce number of repair are evaluated. Assuming the two service lives to be independent, the repair timings are derived from 10 to 50 years based on the probabilistic method, and the regression analysis technique for optimum repairing timing is proposed. Decreasing COV has insignificant effect on reducing repairing number but shows a governing effect on changes in probability near the critical repairing stage. The extension of service life through repairing is evaluated to be a critical parameter for reducing repairing number. The proposed technique can be efficiently used for maintenance strategy with actual COV of initial and additional service life due to repairing.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.590-596
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• 2010

Through this study, we have attempted the thermodynamic analysis on the dimethyl ether (DME) separation process, which can be used for diesel alternative fuel, additive to LPG and natural gas. And we also have completed the simulation of DME separation process using PRO/II with PROVISION. As an appropriate thermodynamic models, we selected NRTL liquid activity coefficient model to describe the non-ideality between methanol and water. To estimate the vapor phase non-idealities, we have chosen the Peng-Robinson equation of state model. And we also use the Henry's law option to predict the solubilities of non-condensible gases like CO, $CO_2$, $H_2$, $CH_2$ and $N_2$ in methanol solvent. Case study showed that optimal solvent to feed molar ratio was 3.40