• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2000

It is inevitable that every space truss structure would be under some form of direct member loading. At least the structure self weight certainly affects the members directly, and in structures involving top concrete slabs or cladding, their weight is also likely to apply some lateral pressure on the members. In spite of that, direct member loading is usually ignored in space truss designs and assumed to lead only to a negligible effect on truss performance. This study is intended to explore this point and identify the actual effects that can arise from direct member loading, and eventually provide an answer to the question of whether the current design practice is satisfactory or certain modifications would be needed. After presenting two analytical techniques to allow the study of space trusses with laterally loaded members, the paper describes a wide parametric study involving practical-size space trusses with different configurations, aspect ratios, boundary conditions and number of chord panels.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.5
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• pp.607-619
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• 2023

This study, it was tried to evaluate the asphalt behavior under tensile loading conditions through indirect Brazilian and direct tensile tests, experimentally and numerically. This paper is important from two points of view. The first one, a new test method was developed for the determination of the direct tensile strength of asphalt and its difference was obtained from the indirect test method. The second one, the effects of particle size and loading rate have been cleared on the tensile fracture mechanism. The experimental direct tensile strength of the asphalt specimens was measured in the laboratory using the compression-to-tensile load converting (CTLC) device. Some special types of asphalt specimens were prepared in the form of slabs with a central hole. The CTLC device is then equipped with this specimen and placed in the universal testing machine. Then, the direct tensile strength of asphalt specimens with different sizes of ingredients can be measured at different loading rates in the laboratory. The particle flow code (PFC) was used to numerically simulate the direct tensile strength test of asphalt samples. This numerical modeling technique is based on the versatile discrete element method (DEM). Three different particle diameters were chosen and were tested under three different loading rates. The results show that when the loading rate was 0.016 mm/sec, two tensile cracks were initiated from the left and right of the hole and propagated perpendicular to the loading axis till coalescence to the model boundary. When the loading rate was 0.032 mm/sec, two tensile cracks were initiated from the left and right of the hole and propagated perpendicular to the loading axis. The branching occurs in these cracks. This shows that the crack propagation is under quasi-static conditions. When the loading rate was 0.064 mm/sec, mixed tensile and shear cracks were initiated below the loading walls and branching occurred in these cracks. This shows that the crack propagation is under dynamic conditions. The loading rate increases and the tensile strength increases. Because all defects mobilized under a low loading rate and this led to decreasing the tensile strength. The experimental results for the direct tensile strengths of asphalt specimens of different ingredients were in good accordance with their corresponding results approximated by DEM software.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.467-473
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• 2008

This study is to investigate the influence of catalyst loading quantity on the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) performance. In this paper, Pt-Ru and Pt-black loading as the catalyst were varied from 1 to $4mg/cm^2$ at the anode and cathode, respectively. The experiment was conducted with single fuel cell consisted of $5cm^2$ effective electrode area, serpentine type flow pattern and Nafion 117 membrane. Also, AC impedance and methanol crossover current were measured to investigate the performance loss precisely. As a result, the performance of fuel cell was significantly increased with the increase of cathode catalyst loading. However, the performance did not increase further above a certain Pt-Ru catalyst loading as the increase of anode catalyst loading.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.331-337
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• 2017

A simple strategy is proposed herein for attaining uniform current distribution in direct methanol fuel cells by varying the catalyst loading over the electrode. In order to use the same total catalyst amount for a serpentine flow field, three spatial variation types of catalyst loading were selected: enhancing the cathode catalyst loading (i) near the cathode outlet, (ii) near the cathode inlet, and (iii) near the lateral areas. These variations in catalyst loading are shown to improve the homogeneity of the current distribution, particularly at lower currents and lower air-flow rates. Among these three variations, increased loading near the lateral areas was shown to contribute most to achieving a homogenous current distribution. The mechanism underlying each catalyst loading variation method is different; very high catalyst-loading is shown to decrease the homogeneity of the distribution, which may be caused by water management in the thick catalyst layer thereof.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.124-131
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• 1987

The aims of this study was to determine the mechanical properties of steel-fiber reinforced concrete under direct tensile loading, and also to insestigate the mechanism fiber reinforcement in order to improve the possible applications of steel-fiber reinforced concrete. In this study the major variables of experimental investigation were fiber conntents, and the lengths and diameters of fibers. The major results obtained are summarized as follows : 1. The strength, elastic modulus and energy absorption capability of steel-fiber reinforced concrete under direct tensile loading were improved as increasing of fiber contents. 2. The direct tensile strength of steel-fiber reinforced concrete was not influenced by the lengths of fiber, but was decreased as increasing of fiber diameters. 3. The direct tensile strength of steel-fiber reinforced concrete was not influenced by the fiber aspect-ratio, but this was because the fiber contents were below the critical value of fiber content. 4. The correlation of direct tensile strength and combined parameter, Vf l/d, was not good. 5. Mutiple cracking and post-crack resistance were investigated at stress-strain curves in direct tensile test. 6. The effect of fiber reinforcement can be influenced by fiber orientation and the bond strength between fiber and matrix. 7. The improvement of mechanical properties of steel-fiber reinforced concrete under direct tensile loading can be theoretically explained by the concept of composite materials.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.89-98
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• 2021

The paper presents an experimental study on the strength behaviour of a coral gravelly sand from Vietnam subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading. A series of direct shear tests were carried out to investigate the shear strength behaviour and the factors affecting the shear strength of the sand such as relative density, cyclic load, amplitude of the cyclic load and loading rate. The study results indicate that the shear strength parameters of the coral gravelly sand include not only internal friction angle but also apparent cohesion. These parameters vary with the relative density, cyclic load, the amplitude of the cyclic load and loading rate. The shear strength increases with the increase of the relative density. The shear strength increases after subjecting to cyclic loading. The amplitude of the cyclic load affects the shear strength of coral gravelly sand, the shear strength increases as the amplitude of the cyclic load increases. The loading rate has insignificantly effect on the shear strength of the coral gravelly sand.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.6 s.171
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• pp.152-158
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• 2005

The stress conditions acting on the practical structure are complex, and thus most cracks existing in the practical structures are under mixed-mode loading conditions. The effect of shear load component of mixed-mode loading acts more greatly in the stage of crack initiation and initial propagation than crack propagation stage. Hence, research on the behavior in the stage of crack initiation and initial propagation need to be examined in order to evaluate behavior of mixed-mode fatigue cracks. In this study, the crack tip displacement(CTD) was measured by using the direct measuring method(DMM). We examined the behavior at crack tip by determining crack opening load$(P_{op})$. From the test results, the propagation behavior of mixed-mode fatigue cracks was evaluated by considering mixed-mode crack closure. Also, we examined the characteristic of crack propagation under mixed-mode loading with crack propagation direction.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.297-303
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• 1996

The general approach using sine series expansions was represented to evaluate the radiation loading from a vibrating surface on a simply supported cylinder. In this paper, the fluid-loading coefficients (radiation impedance) for a submerged finite cylindrical shell with an arbitrary end condition are defined and evaluated. The vibrations of cylindrical shell are expressed by using cosine series expansions to analyze the radiation impedance for a finite cylindrical shell. It is possible to represent the displacements at both ends of cylindrical shell in comparison with sine series. The direct and cross modal components of fluid-loading coefficients are shown and the validity of cosine series expansions are verified from the results of numerical computations. This approach and results are directly applicable in the analysis of sound radiation from subemerged finite cylindrical shell with arbitrary end conditions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.449-463
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• 2012

For buildings subjected to blast loading, structural failure can be categorized into local failure (direct blast effects) and progressive collapse (consequential effects). In direct blast effects, the intensive blast pressures create localized failure of structural elements such as exterior columns and walls. Columns, and their behaviour, play a key role in these situations. Therefore investigating the behaviour of columns under blast loading is very important to estimate the strength, safety and reliability of the whole structure. When a building is subjected to blast loading, it experiences huge loading pressures and undergoes great displacement and plastic behaviour. In order to study the behaviour of an element under blast loading, in addition to elastic properties of materials, plastic and elastic-plastic properties of materials and sections are needed. In this paper, using analytical studies and nonlinear time-history analysis by Ansys software, the effects of shape of column sections and boundary conditions, on behaviour and local failure of steel columns under blast load are studied. This study identifies the importance of elastic-plastic properties of sections and proposes criteria for choosing the best section and boundary conditions for columns to resist blast loading.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.249-262
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• 2014

Tire chips and tire chips-soil mixtures can be used as alternative fill material in many civil engineering applications. In this study, the potential benefits of using tire chips as lightweight material to improve the bearing capacity and the settlement behavior of sand slope was investigated experimentally. For this aim, a series of direct shear and model loading tests were conducted. In direct shear tests, the effect of contents of the tire chips on the shear strength parameters of sand was investigated. Different mixing ratios of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% by volume were used and the optimum mixing ratio was obtained. Then, laboratory model tests were performed on a model strip footing on sand slope reinforced with randomly distributed tire chips. The loading tests were carried out on sand slope with relative density of 65% and the slope angle of $30^{\circ}C$. In the loading tests the percentage of tire chips to sand was taken as same as in direct shear tests. The results indicated that at the same loading level the settlement of strip footing on sand-tire chips mixture was about 30% less than in the case of pure sand. Addition of tire chips to sand increases BCR (bearing capacity ratio) from 1.17 to 1.88 with respect to tire chips content. The maximum BCR is attained at tire chips content of 10%.