• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.125-134
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• 2023

In the present work, a new global damage index is proposed for the seismic performance and failure analysis of concrete gravity dams. Unlike the existing indices of concrete structures, this index doesn't need scaling with an ultimate or an upper value. For this purpose, the Beni-Haroun dam in north-eastern Algeria, is considered as a case study, for which an average seismic capacity curve is first evaluated by performing several incremental dynamic analyses. The seismic performance point of the dam is then determined using the N2 method, considering multiple modes and taking into account the stiffness degradation. The seismic demand is obtained from the design spectrum of the Algerian seismic regulations. A series of recorded and artificial accelerograms are used as dynamic loads to evaluate the nonlinear responses of the dam. The nonlinear behaviour of the concrete mass is modelled by using continuum damage mechanics, where material damage is represented by a scalar field damage variable. This modelling, which is suitable for cyclic loading, uses only a single damage parameter to describe the stiffness degradation of the concrete. The hydrodynamic and the sediment pressures are included in the analyses. The obtained results show that the proposed damage index faithfully describes the successive brittle failures of the dam which increase with increasing applied ground accelerations. It is found that minor damage can occur for ground accelerations less than 0.3 g, and complete failure can be caused by accelerations greater than 0.45 g.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.341-358
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• 2024

This paper reports several plane-strain trapdoor tests conducted to investigate the effects of reinforcement on soil arching development under localized surface loading with a loading plate width three times the trapdoor width. An analogical soil composed of aluminum rods with three different diameters was used as the backfill and Kraft paper with two different stiffness values was used as the reinforcement material. Four reinforcement arrangements were investigated: (1) no reinforcement, (2) one low stiffness reinforcement R1, (3) one high stiffness reinforcement R2, and (4) two low stiffness reinforcements R1 with a backfill layer in between. The stiffness of R2 was approximately twice that of R1; therefore, two R1 had approximately the same total stiffness as one R2. Test results indicate that the use of reinforcement minimized soil arching degradation under localized surface loading. Soil arching with reinforcement degraded more at unloading stages as compared to that at loading stages. The use of stiffer reinforcement had the advantages of more effectively minimizing soil arching degradation. As compared to one high stiffness reinforcement layer, two low stiffness reinforcement layers with a backfill layer of certain thickness in between promoted soil arching under localized surface loading. Due to different states of soil arching development with and without reinforcement, an analytical multi-stage soil arching model available in the literature was selected in this study to calculate the average vertical pressures acting on the trapdoor or on the deflected reinforcement section under both the backfill self-weight and localized surface loading.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.142-147
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• 2009

The influence of graphitization of carbon support on the electrochemical corrosion of carbon and sintering of Pt particles are investigated by measuring $CO_2$ emission at a constant potential of 1.4 V for 30 min using on-line mass spectrometry and cyclic voltammogram. In comparison to commercial Pt/C (from Johnson Matthey), highly graphitized carbon nanofiber (CNF) supported Pt catalyst exhibits lower performance degradation and $CO_2$ emission. As the more carbon corrosion occurred, the more prominent changes were detected in electrochemical characteristics of fuel cell. This indicates that the carbon corrosion affects significantly the fuel cell durability. From the observed results, CNF is considered to be more corrosion resistant material as a catalyst support. However, CNF shows higher aggregation of Pt particles under repeated cyclic voltammetry between 0 and 0.8 V where the carbon corrosion is not initiated.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.15-21
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• 2013

The analysis of long-term performance of pavement sections under wheel loads is normally conducted in two separated steps. First the resilient behavior of the pavement is calculated assuming the pavement is a layered or discrete elastic medium, and then the permanent deformation is evaluated based on empirical permanent displacement equations. Material properties required in both steps can be obtained from cyclic triaxial tests, in other words, resilient and permanent deformation tests. While this analytical approach is simple and convenient, it does not consider the modulus degradation caused by cyclic loads, and some types of reinforcements such as geosynthetic cannot be modeled in this type of analysis. A model for degraded secant modulus is proposed and suggested to be used for the analysis of permanent behavior of unpaved roadway sections. The parameter for suggested model can be obtained from cyclic triaxial tests, regular practice in pavement engineering. Examples to estimate the model parameters are presented based on both laboratory permanent deformation test and large-scale plate load test.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.885-890
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• 1994

Kinetics of electrochemical polymerization of aniline on a tungsten electrode in acidic aqueous solution was studied by means of cyclic voltammetry and kinetic measurements of anodic oxidation. Aniline molecule appeared to be intially oxidized via two-electron transfer to produce oxidized deprotonated aniline ion, which subsequently undergoes nucleophilic attack to the parent aniline and results in head to tail coupling to yield a dimerized species. But, being contrary to the case of Pt electrode, the propagation of polymerization occured through attack of the monomer by the oxidized aniline monomer to polymer. The growth rate of polyaniline was slow in comparison with the growth on Pt electrode. The degradation products were confirmed to be not p-benzoquinone(BQ) but p-phenylenediamine(p-PDA) by spectrophotometry, which agrees with the fact that oxidation of p-PDA was not observed below 1.0 V.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.47 no.8
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

This paper models a symbol timing offset (STO) with respect to the guard period and the maximum access delay time for asynchronous multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) uplink systems over frequency-selective multipath fading channels. Analytical derivation shows that STO causes desired signal power degradation and generates self-interferences. This effect of the STO on the average bit error rate (BER) and the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is evaluated. The approximated BER and the SNR loss caused by STO are then obtained as closed-form expressions. The tightness between the analytical result and the simulated one is verified for the different STOs and SNRs. Furthermore, the derived analytical results are verified via Monte Carlo simulations.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.299-310
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• 2018

When reinforced concrete structures are subjected to strong seismic forces, their beam-column connections are very susceptible to be damaged during the earthquake event. Consequently, structural designers try to fit an important quantity of steel reinforcement inside the connection, complicating its construction without a clear justification for this. The aim of this work is to evaluate -and demonstrate- numerically how the quantity and the array of the internal steel reinforcement influences on the nonlinear response of the RC beam-column connection. For this, two specimens (extracted from an experimental test of 12 RC beam-column connections reported in literature) were modeled in the Finite Element code FEAP considering different stirrup's arrays. The nonlinear response of the RC beam-column connection is evaluated taking into account the nonlinear thermodynamic behavior of each component: a damage model is used for concrete; a classical plasticity model is adopted for steel reinforcement; the steel-concrete bonding is considered perfect without degradation. At the end, the experimental responses obtained in the tests are compared to the numerical results, as well as the distribution of shear stresses and damage inside the concrete core of the beam-column connection, which are analyzed for a low and high state of confinement.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.122-133
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• 1996

In order to evaluate the cryogenic fracture characteristics of structural steels for superconducting magnets of fusion reactor, small punch (SP) testing was performed on austenitic stainless steel (JN1 base metal) and its TIG weldments at 293K, 77K and 4K. The mechanical properties with respect to the extracted location of the weld metal, on the effects of welding heat cycle about base metal near fusion line in TIG weldments were investigated. The mechanical property of the weld metal in TIG weldments depends on distance from welding root, root region of weldments having the lowest mechanical property. The base metal near fusion line showed degradation of mechanical property caused by cyclic heating during the TIG welding. Based on the test results, HAZ was found to be up to 5mm from the fusion line. It is shown that SP testing is a useful tool to evaluate the mechanical properties with respect to the microstructures changes such as HAZ as well as weld metal in TIG weldments at cryogenic temperature.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 1992

An enhanced version of the Roufaiel and Meyer model is developed for the simulation of the hysteretic response of reinforced concrete members. This model takes into account the finite size of plastic regions and considers the effects of stiffness degradation, strength deterioration, shear and axial force. A significant improvement is the way in which strength deterioration is simulated during inelastic cyclic loadings. The accuracy of this model has been demonstrated by analytically reproducing numerous laboratory experimental load-deformation curves.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.765-784
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• 2014

In comparison with conventional shape memory actuated structures, antagonistic shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators permits a fully reversible two-way response and higher response frequency. However, excessive internal stress could adversely reduce the stroke of the actuators under repeated use. The two-way shape memory effect might further decrease the range of the recovered strain under actuation of an antagonistic SMA actuator unless additional components (e.g., spring and stopper) are added to regain the overall actuation capability. In this paper, the performance of all four possible types of SMA actuation schemes is investigated in detail with emphasis on five key properties: recovered strain, cyclic degradation, response frequency, self-sensing control accuracy, and controllable maximum output. The testing parameters are chosen based on the maximization of recovered strain. Three types of these actuators are antagonistic SMA actuators, which drive with two active SMA wires in two directions. The antagonistic SMA actuator with an additional pair of springs exhibits wider displacement range, more stable performance under reuse, and faster response, although accurate control cannot be maintained under force interference. With two additional stoppers to prevent the over stretch of the spring, the results showed that the proposed structure could achieve significant improvement on all five properties. It can be concluded that, the last type actuator scheme with additional spring and stopper provide much better applicability than the other three in most conditions. The results of the performance analysis of all four SMA actuators could provide a solid basis for the practical design of SMA actuators.