• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.53-72
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• 2019

Safety measures for tower cranes are extremely important among the seismic countermeasures at high-rise building construction sites. In particular, the collapse of a tower crane from a high position is a very serious catastrophe. An example of such an accident due to an earthquake is the case of the Taipei 101 Building (the author was the project director), which occurred on March 31, 2002. Failure of the bolted joints of the tower-crane mast was the direct cause of the collapse. Therefore, it is necessary to design for this eventuality and to take the necessary measures on construction sites. This can only be done by understanding the precise dynamic behavior of mast joints during an earthquake. Consequently, we created a new hybrid-element model (using beam, shell, and solid elements) that not only expressed the detailed behavior of the site joints of a tower-crane mast during an earthquake but also suppressed any increase in the total calculation time and revealed its behavior through computer simulations. Using the proposed structural model and simulation method, effective information for designing safe joints during earthquakes can be provided by considering workability (control of the bolt pretension axial force and other factors) and less construction cost. Notably, this analysis showed that the joint behavior of the initial pretension axial force of a bolt is considerably reduced after the axial force of the bolt exceeds the yield strength. A maximum decrease of 50% in the initial pretension axial force under the El Centro N-S Wave ($v_{max}=100cm/s$) was observed. Furthermore, this method can be applied to analyze the seismic responses of general temporary structures in construction sites.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.165-172
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• 2019

In this study, the shear strength of prestressed concrete deep beams is predicted using finite element analysis, and the variation in the shear strength according to the degree of prestressing is investigated. Numerical analysis results are compared with results obtained by the strut-and-tie model and associated experiments. Numerical analyses are performed on prestressed concrete deep beams with different values of concrete strength, effective prestress, ratio of tensile reinforcement, and shear span to effective depth ratio. The shear strength predicted by the numerical analysis is similar to the experimental value obtained, with an error of less than 5%. However, the strut-and-tie model highly overestimated the shear strength of prestressed concrete deep beams with a concentrated loading area. The ultimate shear capacity of prestressed concrete deep beams increased linearly with increasing prestresss applied to the tendon.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.170-180
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the facial skeletal patterns and the shape of the mandibular symphysis in adults with malocclusion by using a structural equation model (SEM). Methods: Ninety adults who had malocclusion and had records of facial skeletal measurements performed using cone-beam computed tomography were selected for this study. The skeletal measurements were classified into three groups (vertical, anteroposterior, and transverse). Cross-sectional images of the mandibular symphysis were analyzed using generalized Procrustes and principal component (PC) analyses. A SEM was constructed after the factors were extracted via factor analysis. Results: Two factors were extracted from the transverse, vertical, and anteroposterior skeletal measurements. Latent variables were extracted for each factor. PC1, PC2, and PC3 were selected to analyze the variations of the mandibular symphyseal shape. The SEM was constructed using the skeletal variables, PCs, and latent variables. The SEM showed that the vertical latent variable exerted the most influence on the mandibular symphyseal shape. Conclusions: The relationship between the skeletal pattern and the mandibular symphysis was analyzed using a SEM, which showed that the vertical facial skeletal pattern had the highest effect on the shape of the mandibular symphysis.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.37-44
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• 2017

Due to structural characteristics, construction costs and duration of a modular system would be saved by minimizing the schedule on the job site. As such, it is crucial to develop a connection that can guarantee stiffness while allowing for simple assembling. Particularly, the mid- to high-rise construction of the modular system necessitates the securing of the structural stability and seismic performance of multi-unit frames and connections, and thus, the stiffness of unit-assembled structures needs to be re-evaluated and designed. However, evaluating a frame consisting of slender members and reinforcing materials is a complicated process. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the structural characteristics of a modular unit connection based a method for reinforcing connection brackets and hinges while minimizing the loss of the cross section. Toward this end, the study modeled the beam-to-column connection of a modular system with the proposed connection, and produced a specimen which was used to perform a cycling loading test. The study compared the initial stiffness, the attributes of the hysteretic behavior, and the maximum flexural moment, and observed whether the model acquired the seismic performance, compared to the flexural strength of the steel moment frame connection that is required by the Korean Building Code. The test results showed that the proposed connection produced a similar initial stiffness value to that of the theoretical equation, and its maximum strength exceeded the theoretical strength. Furthermore, the model with a larger ceiling bracket showed higher seismic performance, which was further increased by the reinforcement of the plate.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.457-472
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• 2021

Reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Taiwan have suffered failure from strong earthquakes, which was magnified by the non-ductile detailing frames. Inadequate reinforcement as a consequence of the design philosophy prior to the introduction of current standards resulted in severe damage in the column and beam-column joint (BCJ). This study establishes a finite element analysis (FEA) of the non-ductile detailing RC column, BCJ, and three-story building that was previously tested through a tri-axial shaking table test. The results were then validated to laboratory specimens having the exact same dimensions and properties. FEA simulation integrates the concrete damage plasticity model and the elastic-perfectly plastic model for steel. The load-displacement responses of the column and BCJ specimens obtained from FEA were in a reasonable agreement with the experimental curves. The resulting initial stiffness and maximum base shear were found to be a close approximation to the experimental results. Also, the findings of a dynamic analysis of the three-story building showed that the time-history data of acceleration and displacement correlated well with the shaking table test results. This indicates the FEA implementation can be effectively used to predict the RC frame performance and failure mode under seismic loads.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 2022

In many engineering problems, the dynamic substructuring can be useful to analyze complex structures which made with many substructures, such as aircrafts and automotive vehicles. It was originally intended as a method to simplify the engineering problem. The powerful advantage to this is that computational efficiency dramatically increases with eliminating unnecessary degrees-of-freedom of the system and the system targets are concurrently satisfied. Craig-Bampton method has been widely used for the linear system reduction. Recently, multi-level optimization (such as target cascading), which propagates the system-level targets to the subsystem-level targets, has been widely utilized. To this concept, the genetic algorithm which one of the global optimization technique has been utilized to the substructure optimization. The number of internal modes for each substructure can be obtained by the genetic algorithm. Simultaneously, the reduced system meets the top-level targets. In this paper, various numerical examples are tested to verify this concept.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.18-27
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• 2023

In this paper, the structural-thermal-optical performance analysis of the mirror was performed by setting the laser heat source as the boundary condition of the thermal analysis. For the laser heat source model, the Beer-Lambert model considering semi-transparent optical material based on Gaussian beam was selected as the boundary condition, and the mechanical part was not considered, to analyze the performance of only the mirror. As a result of the thermal analysis, thermal stress and thermal deformation data due to temperature change on the surface of the mirror were obtained. The displacement data of the surface due to thermal deformation was fitted to a Zernike polynomial to calculate the optical performance, through which the performance of the mirror when a high-energy laser was incident on the mirror could be predicted.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.619-632
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• 2022

There are numerous structural details (Longitudinal beam, web plate, U-ribs and I-ribs) in the top and bottom plates of steel box girders, which have significant influences on the longitudinal stress (normal stress) distribution. Clarifying the influence of these structural details on the normal stress distribution is important. In this paper, the ultra-wide steel box girder with large cantilevers of the Jinhai Bridge in China, which is the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world, has been analyzed. A 1:4.5 scale laboratory model of the steel box girder has been manufactured, and the influence of structural details on the normal stress distribution in the top and bottom plates for four different load cases has been analyzed in detail. Furthermore, a three-dimensional finite element model has been established to further investigate the influence regularity of structural details on the normal stress. The experimental and finite element analysis (FEA) results have shown that different structural details of the top and bottom plates have varying effects on the normal stress distribution. Notably, the U-ribs and I-ribs of the top and bottom plates introduce periodicity to the normal stress distribution. The period of the influence of U-ribs on the normal stress distribution is the sum of the single U-rib width and the U-rib spacing, and that of the influence of I-ribs on the normal stress distribution is equal to the spacing of the I-ribs. Furthermore, the same structural details but located at different positions, will have a different effect on the normal stress distribution.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.715-727
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• 2024

During fast neutron imaging, besides the dark current noise and readout noise of the CCD camera, the main noise in fast neutron imaging comes from high-energy gamma rays generated by neutron nuclear reactions in and around the experimental setup. These high-energy gamma rays result in the presence of high-density gamma white spots (GWS) in the fast neutron image. Due to the microscopic quantum characteristics of the neutron beam itself and environmental scattering effects, fast neutron images typically exhibit a mixture of Gaussian noise. Existing denoising methods in neutron images are difficult to handle when dealing with a mixture of GWS and Gaussian noise. Herein we put forward a deep learning approach based on the Swin Transformer UNet (SUNet) model to remove high-density GWS-Gaussian mixture noise from fast neutron images. The improved denoising model utilizes a customized loss function for training, which combines perceptual loss and mean squared error loss to avoid grid-like artifacts caused by using a single perceptual loss. To address the high cost of acquiring real fast neutron images, this study introduces Monte Carlo method to simulate noise data with GWS characteristics by computing the interaction between gamma rays and sensors based on the principle of GWS generation. Ultimately, the experimental scenarios involving simulated neutron noise images and real fast neutron images demonstrate that the proposed method not only improves the quality and signal-to-noise ratio of fast neutron images but also preserves the details of the original images during denoising.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.453-465
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• 2024

This paper presents a logarithmic shear deformation theory to study the thermal buckling response of power-law FG one-dimensional structures in thermal conditions with different boundary conditions. It is assumed that the functionally graded material and thermal properties are supposed to vary smoothly according to a contentious function across the vertical direction of the beams. A P-FG type function is employed to describe the volume fraction of material and thermal properties of the graded (1D) beam. The Ritz model is employed to solve the thermal buckling problems in immovable boundary conditions. The outcomes of the stability analysis of FG beams with temperature-dependent and independent properties are presented. The effects of the thermal loading are considered with three forms of rising: nonlinear, linear and uniform. Numerical results are obtained employing the present logarithmic theory and are verified by comparisons with the other models to check the accuracy of the developed theory. A parametric study was conducted to investigate the effects of various parameters on the critical thermal stability of P-FG beams. These parameters included support type, temperature fields, material distributions, side-to-thickness ratios, and temperature dependency.