• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.1060-1067
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• 2018

A feasibility of reusing option of spent nuclear fuel in a fusion-fission hybrid system without partitioning was checked as an alternative option of pyro-processing with critical reactor system. Neutronic study was performed with MCNP 6.1 for this option, direct reuse of spent PWR fuel (DRUP). Various options with DRUP fuel were compared with the reference design concept; transmutation purpose blanket with (U-TRU)Zr fuel loading connected with pyro-processing. Performance parameters to be compared are transmutation performance of transuranic (TRU) nuclides, required fusion power and tritium breeding ratio (TBR). When blanket part is loaded only with DRUP, initial $k_{eff}$ level becomes too low to maintain a practical subcritical system, increasing the required fusion power. In this case, production rate of TRU nuclides exceeds the incineration rate. Design optimization is done for combining DRUP fuel with (U-TRU)Zr fuel. Reactivity swing is reduced to about 2447 pcm through fissile breeding compared to (U-TRU)Zr fuel option. Therefore, a required fusion power is reduced and tritium breeding performance is improved. However, transmutation performance with TRU nuclides especially $^{241}Am$ is degraded because of softening effect of spectrum. It is known that partitioning and transmutation should be accompanied with fusion-fission hybrid system for the effective transmutation of TRU.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.537-548
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• 2020

Currently, radioactive waste for disposal has been restricted to low and intermediate level radioactive waste generated during operation of nuclear power plants, and these radioactive wastes were managed and disposed of the 200 L and 320 L of steel drums. However, it is expected that it will be difficult to manage a large amount of decommissioning waste of the Kori unit 1 with the existing drums and transportation containers. Accordingly, the KORAD is currently developing various and large-sized containers for packaging, transportation, and disposal of decommissioning waste. In this study, the radiation exposure doses of workers and the public were evaluated using RADTRAN computational analysis code in case of the domestic on-road transportation of new package and transportation containers under development. The results were compared with the domestic annual dose limit. In addition, the sensitivity of the expected exposure dose according to the change in the leakage rate of radionuclides in the waste packaging was evaluated. As a result of the evaluation, it was confirmed that the exposure dose under normal and accident condition was less than the domestic annual exposure dose limit. However, in the case of a number of loading and unloading operations, working systems should be prepared to reduce the exposure of workers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.427-444
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• 2020

The performance of an isolated horizontally curved continuous bridge with High Damping Rubber (HDR) Bearings has been investigated under seismic loading conditions. The effectiveness of response controls of the bridge by HDR bearings for various aspects viz. variation in ground motion characteristics, multi-directional effect, level of earthquake shaking, varying incidence angle, have been determined. Three recorded ground motions, representative of historical earthquakes along with near-field, far-field and forward directivity effects, have been considered in the study. The efficacy of the bearings with bidirectional effect considering interaction behavior of bearing and pier has also been investigated. Modeling and analysis of the bridge have been done by finite element approach. Sensitivity studies of the bridge response with respect to design parameters of the bearings for the considered ground motions have been performed. The importance of the nonlinearity of HDR bearings along with crucial design parameters has been identified. It has been observed that the HDR bearings performed well in different variations of ground motions, especially for controlling torsional moment. However, the deck displacement has been found to be increased significantly in case of Turkey ground motions, considering forward directivity effect, which needs to be paid more attention from designer point of view.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2021

This study aimed to develop a method for the determination of the damaged story in reinforced concrete (RC) structure with ambient vibrations, based on modified jerk energy methodology. The damage was taken as a localized reduction in the stiffness of the structural member. For loading, random white noise excitation was used, and dynamic responses from the finite element model (FEM) of 4 story RC shear frame were extracted at nodal points. The data thus obtained from the structure was used in the damage detection and localization algorithm. In the structure, two damage configurations have been introduced. In the first configuration, damage to the structure was artificially caused by a local reduction in the modulus of elasticity. In the second configuration, the damage was caused, using the Elcentro1940 and Kashmir2005 earthquakes in real-time history. The damage was successfully detected if the frequency drop was greater than 5% and the mode shape correlation remained less than 0.8. The results of the damage were also compared to the performance criteria developed in the Seismostruct software. It is demonstrated that the proposed algorithm has effectively detected the existence of the damage and can locate the damaged story for multiple damage scenarios in the RC structure.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.15-30
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• 2021

With improvement in innovative manufacturing technologies, it became possible to fabricate any complex shaped structural design for practical applications. This allows for the fabrication of curvilinearly stiffened pressure vessels and pipes. Compared to straight stiffeners, curvilinear stiffeners have shown to have better structural performance and weight savings under certain loading conditions. In this paper, an optimization framework for designing curvilinearly stiffened composite pressure vessels and pipes is presented. NURBS are utilized to define curvilinear stiffeners over the surface of the pipe. An integrated tool using Python, Rhinoceros 3D, MSC.PATRAN and MSC.NASTRAN is implemented for performing the optimization. Rhinoceros 3D is used for creating the geometry, which later is exported to MSC.PATRAN for finite element model generation. Finally, MSC.NASTRAN is used for structural analysis. A Bi-Level Programming (BLP) optimization technique, consisting of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Gradient-Based Optimization (GBO), is used to find optimal locations of stiffeners, geometric dimensions for stiffener cross-sections and layer thickness for the composite skin. A cylindrical pipe stiffened by orthogonal and curvilinear stiffeners under torsional and bending load cases is studied. It is seen that curvilinear stiffeners can lead to a potential 10.8% weight saving in the structure as compared to the case of using straight stiffeners.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.4
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• pp.395-409
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• 2022

The presence of infill generally neglected in design despite the fact that infill contribution significantly increase the lateral stiffness and strength of the reinforced concrete frame structure. Several experimental studies and computational models have been proposed to capture the rational response of infill-frame interaction at global level. However, limited studies are available on explicit finite element modelling to study the local behavior due to high computation and convergence issues in numerical modelling. In the current study, the computational modelling of RC frames is done with various configurations of infill masonry in terms of types of blocks, lateral loading and reinforcement detailing employed with material nonlinearities, interface contact issues and bond-slip phenomenon particularly near the beam-column joints. To this end, extensive computational modelling of five variant characteristics test specimens extracted from the detailed experimental program available in literature and process through nonlinear static analysis in FEM code, ATENA generally used to capture the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete structures. Results are presented in terms of damage patterns and capacity curves by employing the finest possible detail provided in the experimental program. Comparative analysis shows that good correlation amongst the experimental and numerical simulated results both in terms of capacity and crack patterns.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.31-38
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• 2022

In this study, an incremental loading test of the HRS(Hybrid Rubber Slit) damper was additionally performed to define the physical characteristics according to the incremental test results, and an analytical study was performed according to the damping design procedure by selecting an example structure. As a result of performing seismic performance evaluation before reinforcement by selecting a RC structure similar to an actual school structure as an example structure, the story drift ratio was satisfied, but some column members collapsed due to bending deformation. In order to secure the seismic performance, the damping design procedure of the HRS damper was presented and performed. As a result of calculating the amount of damping device according to the expected damping ratio and applying it to the example structure, the hysteresis behavior was stable without decrease in strength, and the story drift ratio and the shear force were reduced according to the damping effect. Finally the column members that had collapsed before reinforcement satisfied the LS Level.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.170-178
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• 2024

This study aimed to quantitatively analyze the risk using data from 329 safety accidents that occurred in aquaculture fisheries management vessels over the recent five years (2018-2022). For quantitative risk analysis, the Bayesian network proposed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) was used to analyze the risk level according to the fishing process and cause of safety accidents. Among the work processes, the fishing process was analyzed to have the highest risk, being 12.5 times that of the navigation, 2.7 times that of the maintenance, and 8.8 times that of the loading and unloading. Among the causes of accidents, the hull and working environment showed the highest risk, being 1.7 times that of fishing gear and equipment, 4.7 times that of machinery and equipment, and 9.4 times that of external environment. By quantitatively analyzing the safety accident risks for 64 combinations of these four work processes and four accident causes, this study provided fundamental data to reduce safety accidents occurring in aquaculture fisheries management vessels.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.173-183
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• 2024

This study investigates a new seismic retrofit system that utilizes rotational friction dampers and axial springs. The retrofit system involves a steel frame with rotational friction dampers (RFD) at beam-column joints and linear springs at the corners, providing energy dissipation and self-centering capabilities to existing structures. The axial spring acts as a self-centering mechanism that eliminates residual deformations, while the friction damper mitigates seismic damage. To evaluate the seismic performance of the proposed retrofit system, a series of cyclic loading tests were carried out on a steel beam-column subassembly equipped with the proposed devices. An analytical model was then developed to validate the experimental results. A performance point ratio (PPR) was presented to optimize the design parameters of the retrofit system, and a performance-based seismic design strategy was developed based on the PPR. The retrofit system's effectiveness and the presented performance-based design approach were evaluated through case study models, and the analysis results demonstrated that the developed retrofit system and the performance-based design procedure were effective in retrofitting structures for multi-level design objectives.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2024

This paper introduces a system allows for seismic isolation of the pallet from the rack in the down-aisle direction, occupies minimal vertical space (5 cm) and ±7.5 cm of deformation range. A conceptual model of the isolation system is presented, leading to a constitutive equation governing its behavior. A first experimental campaign studying the response of the isolation system's components was conducted to calibrate the parameters of its constitutive equation. A second experimental campaign evaluated the response of the isolation system with mass placed on it, subjected to cyclic loading. The results of this second campaign were compared with the numerical predictions using the pre-calibrated constitutive equation, allowing a double-blind validation of the constitutive equation of the isolation system. Finally, a numerical evaluation of the isolation system subjected to a synthetic earthquake of one component. This evaluation allowed verifying attributes of the proposed isolation system, such as its self-centering capacity and its effectiveness in reducing the absolute acceleration of the isolated mass and the shear load transmitted to the supporting beams of the rack.