• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.397-408
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• 2018

In a recent tragic fire incident, the Plasco Tower collapsed after an intense outburst of fire lasting for three and a half hours and claiming the lives of 16 firefighters and 6 civilians. This paper will present continuing collaborative work between Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Queen's University in Canada to model the progressive collapse of the tower. The fire started at the 10th floor and was observed to have travelled along the floor horizontally and through the staircase and windows vertically. Plasco Tower was steel structure and all the steel sections were fabricated by welding standard European channel or angle profiles and no fire protection was applied. Four internal columns carried the loads transferred by the primary beams, and box columns were constructed along the perimeter of the building as a braced tube for resisting seismic loading. OpenSees fibre-based sections and displacement-based beam-column elements are used to model the frames, while shell elements are used for the reinforced concrete floor slabs. The thermal properties and elevated temperature mechanical properties are as recommended in the Eurocodes. The results in this preliminarily analysis are based on rough estimations of the structure's configuration. The ongoing work looks at modeling the Plasco Tower based on the most accurate findings from reviewing many photographs and collected data.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 2022

Data-driven engineering is crucial for information delivery between design, fabrication, assembly, and maintenance of prefabricated structures. Design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) is a critical methodology for prefabricated bridge structures. In this study, a novel concept of digital engineering model that combined existing knowledge of DfMA with object-oriented parametric modeling technologies was developed. Three-dimensional (3D) geometry models and their data models for each phase of a construction project were defined for information delivery. Digital design models were used for conceptual design, including aesthetic consideration and possible variation during fabrication and assembly. The seismic performance of a bridge pier was evaluated by linking the design parameters to the calculated moment-curvature curves. Control parameters were selected to consider the tolerance control and revision of the digital models. Digitalized fabrication of the prefabricated members was realized using the digital fabrication model with G-code for a concrete printer or a robot. The fabrication error was evaluated and the design digital models were updated. The revised fabrication models were used in the preassembly simulation to guarantee constructability. For the maintenance of the bridge, the as-built information was defined for the prefabricated bridge piers. The results of this process revealed that data-driven information delivery is crucial for lifecycle management of prefabricated bridge piers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3194-3201
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• 2023

In water-cooled power reactor, hydrogen is generated in case of steam zirconium reaction during severe accident condition and later on in addition to hydrogen; CO is also generated during molten corium concrete interaction after reactor pressure vessel failure. Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners (PARs) are provided in the containment for hydrogen management. The performance of the PARs in presence of hydrogen and carbon monoxide along with air has been evaluated. Depending on the conditions, CO may either react with oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO2) or act as catalyst poison, reducing the catalyst activity and hence the hydrogen conversion efficiency. CFD analysis has been carried out to determine the effect of CO on catalyst plate temperature for 2 & 4% v/v H₂ and 1-4% v/v CO with air at the recombiner inlet for a reported experiment. The results of CFD simulations have been compared with the reported experimental data for the model validation. The reaction at the recombiner plate is modelled based on diffusion theory. The developed CFD model has been used to predict the maximum catalyst temperature and outlet species concentration for different inlet velocity and temperatures of the mixture gas. The obtained results were used to fit a correlation for obtaining removal rate of carbon monoxide inside PAR as a function of inlet velocity and concentrations.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.567-576
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• 2023

In this study, a 3D microstructure-based model is established to simulate the effective thermal conductivity of cement paste, covering varying influencing factors associated with microstructure and thermal transfer mechanisms. The virtual cement paste divided into colloidal C-S-H and heterogeneous paste are reconstructed based on its structural attributes. Using the two-level hierarchical cement pastes as inputs, a lattice Boltzmann model for heat conduction is presented to predict the thermal conductivity. The results suggest that due to the Knudsen effect induced by the nanoscale pore, the thermal conductivity of air in C-S-H gel pore is significantly decreased, maximumly accounting for 3.3% thermal conductivity of air at the macroscale. In the cement paste, the thermal conductivities of dried and saturated cement pastes are stable at the curing age larger than 100 h. The high water-to-cement ratio can decrease the thermal conductivity of cement paste.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.91-102
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• 2024

Beam-shaped components commonly rotate along a fixed axis when massive mechanical structures like rotors, jet engine blades, motor turbines, and rotating railway crossings perform their functions. For these structures to be useful in real life, their mechanical behavior is essential. Therefore, this is the first article to use the modified shear deformation theory type hyperbolic sine functions theory and the FEM to study the static bending response of rotating functionally graded GPL-reinforced composite (FG-GPLRC) beams with initial geometrical deficiencies in thermal media. Graphene platelets (GPLs) in three different configurations are woven into the beam's composition to increase its strength. By comparing the numerical results with those of previously published studies, we can assess the robustness of the theory and mechanical model employed in this study. Parameter studies are performed to determine the effect of various geometric and physical variables, such as rotation speed and temperature, on the bending reactions of structures.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.45-54
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• 2011

A simple model for reinforced concrete shear walls with boundary elements is proposed, which is a macro-model composed of spring elements representing flexure and shear behaviors. The flexural behaviour is represented by vertical springs at the wall ends, where the moment strength and rotational capacity of the wall are based on section analysis. The shear behaviour is represented by a horizontal spring at the wall center, where the key parameters for the shear behavior are based on the flexural behaviour since the shear walls with boundary elements are governed by the flexure. The proposed model was prepared with the results of hysteretic tests of the shear walls, and then the reliability of the hysteretic rule and variables was investigated by nonlinear dynamic analyses. Using parametric study with nonlinear dynamic analyses, the effect of the variables on demand and capacity, which are major parameters in seismic performance evaluation, are investigated. Results show that the measured and calculated shear forces versus the shear distortion relationships are slightly different, but the global response is well simulated. Furthermore, the demand and capacity are also changed in a similar way to the change in the major parameters so that the proposed model may be appropriate for reinforced concrete shear walls with boundary elements.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.173-181
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• 2018

Recently composite materials have dominated most engineering fields, owing to their better performance, increased durability and flexibility to be customized and designed for a specific required property. This has given them unprecedented superiority over conventional materials. With the help of the ever increasing computational capabilities of computers, researchers have been trying to develop accurate material models for the complex and integrated properties of these composites. This has led to advances in virtual testing of composite materials as a supplement or a possible replacement of laboratory experiments to predict the properties and responses of composite materials and structures. This paper presents a review on the complex multi-scale modelling framework of the virtual testing machines, which involve computational mechanics at various length-scales starting with nano-mechanics and ending in structure level computational mechanics, with a homogenization technique used to link the different length scales. In addition, the paper presents the features of some of the biggest integrated virtual testing machines developed for study of concrete, including a multiscale modeling scheme for the simulation of the constitutive properties of nanocomposites. Finally, the current challenges and future development potentials for virtual test machines are discussed.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.223-232
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• 2018

Bird screen meshes are installed at the air inlet and outlet ducts of spent fuel storage casks to inhibit the intrusion of debris from the external environment. The presence of these screens introduces an additional resistance to air flow through the ducts. In this study, a porous media model was developed to simplify the bird screen meshes. CFD analyses were used to derive and verify the flow resistance factors for the porous media model. Thermal analyses were carried out for concrete storage cask using the porous media model. Thermal tests were performed for concrete casks with bird screen meshes. The measured temperatures were compared with the analysis results for the porous model. The analysis results agreed well with the test results. The analysis temperatures were slightly higher than the test temperatures. Therefore, the reliability and conservatism of the analysis results for the porous model have been verified.

• Journal of Korean Society of societal Security
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.63-68
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• 2009

Seismic design of newly built bridges can be considered and carried out during construction process according to the revised road bridge design standard issued recently. While for the existing reinforced concrete bridge priers under service before new standard implements, their resistance capacity against lateral seismic loading is inferior. In this research, seismic reinforcing for existing bridge piers by nickel-chrome alloy bar has been analyzed. Based on the established model by MIDAS program, the behaviors of bridge piers including deformation and stress with and without nickel-chrome alloy reinforcing bars have been compared and discussed under lateral seismic loading. And the advantages of using nickel-chrome alloy bar as seismic reinforcement over other materials, such as good performance, good economy etc. have been demonstrated by comparison with other researches. Also the anti-seismic efficiency of nickel-chrome alloy reinforcing bars has been confirmed by MIDAS modeling analysis.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.1847-1853
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• 2011

Analysis of an indoor propagation channel has conventionally used the ray-tracing method. But, in this paper, we had modelling the channel for three dimensional indoor structure by the finite difference time domain method for three dimensional full wave analysis. An excitation signal of the FDTD method used plane wave. The plane wave was excited using the total field/scattered field method. And absorbing boundary condition used the perfectly matched layer method with 7 layers. An living room for the simulation of indoor channel modeling is surrounded the wall that be composed of the wood, the conductor, the glass and concrete. When there are furniture in the living room or not, it were simulated, respectively. As simulation results, we could identify the fading effect of multipath at indoor propagation environment, calculated mean excess delay and rms delay spread for the receiver design.