• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2009

The safe and reliable performance of fusion and fission plants depends on the choice of suitable materials and an assessment of long-term materials degradation. These materials are degraded by their exposure to extreme conditions; it is necessary, therefore, to address the issue of long-term damage evolution of materials under service exposure in advanced plants. The empirical approach to the study of structural materials and fuels is reaching its limit when used to define and extrapolate new materials, new environments, or new operating conditions due to a lack of knowledge of the basic principles and mechanisms present. Materials designed for future Gen IV systems require significant innovation for the new environments that the materials will be exposed to. Thus, it is a challenge to understand the materials more precisely and to go far beyond the current empirical design methodology. Breakthrough technology is being achieved with the incorporation in design codes of a fundamental understanding of the properties of materials. This paper discusses the multi-scale, multi-code computations and multi-dimensional modelling undertaken to understand the mechanical properties of these materials. Such an approach is envisaged to probe beyond currently possible approaches to become a predictive tool in estimating the mechanical properties and lifetimes of materials.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1-11
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• 2017

PURPOSES : This study is aimed at development of a stochastic pavement deterioration forecasting model using National Highway Pavement Condition Index (NHPCI) to support infrastructure asset management. Using this model, the deterioration process regarding life expectancy, deterioration speed change, and reliability were estimated. METHODS : Eight years of Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) data fused with traffic loads (Equivalent Single Axle Loads; ESAL) and structural capacity (Structural Number of Pavement; SNP) were used for the deterioration modeling. As an ideal stochastic model for asset management, Bayesian Markov multi-state exponential hazard model was introduced. RESULTS:The interval of NHPCI was empirically distributed from 8 to 2, and the estimation functions of individual condition indices (crack, rutting, and IRI) in conjunction with the NHPCI index were suggested. The derived deterioration curve shows that life expectancies for the preventive maintenance level was 8.34 years. The general life expectancy was 12.77 years and located in the statistical interval of 11.10-15.58 years at a 95.5% reliability level. CONCLUSIONS : This study originates and contributes to suggesting a simple way to develop a pavement deterioration model using the total condition index that considers road user satisfaction. A definition for level of service system and the corresponding life expectancies are useful for building long-term maintenance plan, especially in Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) work.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.196-203
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• 2012

Energy foundations and other thermo-active ground structure, energy wells, energy-slab, and pavement heating and cooling represent an innovative technology that contributes to environmental protection and provides substantial long-term cost savings and minimized maintenance. This paper focuses on earth-contact concrete elements that are already required for structural reasons, but which simultaneously work as heat exchangers. Pipes, energy slabs, filled with a heat carrier fluid are installed under conventional structural elements, forming the primary circuit of a geothermal energy system. The natural ground temperature is used as a heat source in winter and a heat sink in summer. The geothermal heat pump system with energy-slab represented very high heating and cooling performance due to the stability of EWT from energy slab. However, the performance of it seemed to be affected by the atmospheric air temperature.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.393-410
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• 2012

Conventional geotechnical instrumentation techniques available for monitoring of slopes, especially soil-nailed slopes have limitations such as electromagnetic interference, low accuracy, poor longterm reliability and difficulty in mounting a series of strain sensors on a soil nail bar with a small-diameter. This paper presents a slope monitoring system based on fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensing technology. This monitoring system is designed to perform long-term monitoring of slope movements, strains along soil nails, and other slope reinforcement elements. All these FBG sensors are fabricated and calibrated in laboratory and a trial of this monitoring system has been successfully conducted on a roadside slope in Hong Kong. As part of the slope stability improvement works, soil nails and a toe support soldier-pile wall were constructed. During the slope works, more than 100 FBG sensors were installed on a soil nail, a soldier pile, and an in- place inclinometer. The paper presents the layout and arrangement of the instruments as well as the installation procedures adopted. Monitoring data have been collected since March 2008. This trial has demonstrated the great potential of the optical fibre monitoring system for long-term monitoring of slope performance. The advantages of the slope monitoring system and experience gained in the field implementation are also discussed in the paper.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2020

The wind field measurement of severe winds such as hurricanes (or typhoons), thunderstorm downbursts and other gales is important issue in wind engineering community, both for the construction and health monitoring of the wind-sensitive structures. Although several wireless data transmission systems have been available for the wind field measurement, most of them are not specially designed for the wind data measurement in structural wind engineering. Therefore, the field collection is still dominant in the field of structural wind engineering at present, especially for the measurement of the long-term and high-frequency wind speed data. In this study, for remote wind field measurement, a novel wireless long-term and high-frequency wind data acquisition system with the functions such as remote control and data compression is developed. The system structure and the collector are firstly presented. Subsequently, main functions of the collector are introduced. Also novel functions of the system and the comparison with existing systems are presented. Furthermore, the performance of this system is evaluated. In addition to as the wireless transmission for wind data and hardware integration for the collector, the developed system possesses a few novel features, such as the modification of wind data collection parameters by the remote control, the remarkable data compression before the data wireless transmission and monitoring the data collection by the cell phone application. It can be expected that this system would have wide applications in wind, meteorological and other communities.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.2
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• pp.197-215
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• 2021

Under a severe environment of multiple hazards such as earthquakes and winds, the life-cycle performance of engineering structures may inevitably be deteriorated due to the fatigue effect caused by long-term exposure to wind loads, which would further increase the structural vulnerability to earthquakes. This paper presents a framework for evaluating the lifetime structural seismic performance under the effect of wind-induced fatigue considering different sources of uncertainties. The seismic behavior of a high-rise steel-concrete composite frame with buckling-restrained braces (FBRB) during its service life is systematically investigated using the proposed approach. Recorded field data for the wind hazard of Fuzhou, Fujian Province of China from Jan. 1, 1980 to Mar. 31, 2019 is collected, based on which the distribution of wind velocity is constructed by the Gumbel model after comparisons. The OpenSees platform is employed to establish the numerical model of the FBRB and conduct subsequent numerical computations. Allowed for the uncertainties caused by the wind generation and structural modeling, the final annual fatigue damage takes the average of 50 groups of simulations. The lifetime structural performance assessments, including static pushover analyses, nonlinear dynamic time history analyses and fragility analyses, are conducted on the time-dependent finite element (FE) models which are modified in lines with the material deterioration models. The results indicate that the structural performance tends to degrade over time under the effect of fatigue, while the influencing degree of fatigue varies with the duration time of fatigue process and seismic intensity. The impact of wind-induced fatigue on structural responses and fragilities are explicitly quantified and discussed in details.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.231-236
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• 2023

The importance of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in the industry is increasing due to various loads, such as earthquakes and wind, having a significant impact on the performance of structures and equipment. Estimating responses is crucial for the effective health management of these assets. However, using numerous sensors in facilities and equipment for response estimation causes economic challenges. Additionally, it could require a response from locations where sensors cannot be attached. Digital twin technology has garnered significant attention in the industry to address these challenges. This paper constructs a digital twin system utilizing the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model to estimate responses in a pipe system under simultaneous seismic load and arbitrary loads. The performance of the data-driven digital twin system was verified through a comparative analysis of experimental data, demonstrating that the constructed digital twin system successfully estimated the responses.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.20-29
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• 2022

The operational modal analysis (OMA) technique, which extracts the modal parameters of a structural system using ambient vibrations, has been actively developed as a field of structural health monitoring of cable-supported bridges. In this paper, the short and long-term modal parameters of a cable-stayed bridge were evaluated using the acceleration data obtained from the two ambient vibration tests (AVTs) and three years of continuous measurements. A total of 27 vertical modes and 1 lateral mode in the range 0.1 ~ 2.5 Hz were extracted from the high-resolution AVTs which were conducted in the 6th and 19th years after its completion. Existing OMA methods such as Peak-Picking (PP), Eigensystem Realization Algorithm with Data Correlation (ERADC), Frequency Domain Decomposition (FDD) and Time Domain Decomposition (TDD) were applied for modal parameters extraction, and it was confirmed that there was no significant difference between the applied methods. From the correlation analysis between long-term natural frequencies and environmental factors, it was confirmed that temperature change is the dominant factor influencing natural frequency fluctuations. It was revealed that the decreased natural frequencies of the bridge were not due to changes in structural performance and integrity, but to the environmental effects caused by the temperature difference between the two AVTs. In addition, when the TDD technique is applied, the accuracy of extracted mode shapes is improved by adding a proposed algorithm that normalizes the sequence so that the autocorrelations at zero lag equal 1.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.325-332
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• 2022

The aim of this research is to use a conceptual model to experimentally evaluate the mediating impact of government financial and training support on structural social capital and non-financial performance of family farms. Questionnaires were used to collect data from family farms in Guangxi, China, from August 25^th to September 8^th, 2021. There were 759 valid responses, accounting for 94.99 percent of the total number of respondents. The scales' reliability and validity, and the research's mediating effects and hypotheses, are tested using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 26.0. The findings suggest that the impact of government financial assistance on family farms' non-financial performance cannot be substantiated. The intermediary chain connection of financial and training support, on the other hand, has a significant mediating effect between structural social capital and family farm non-financial performance. Direct financial assistance could be thought to encourage family farms to rely too much on funding, making them less competitive in market competition, innovation, and long-term operations. According to the conclusions of the study, government assistance to family farms could take a variety of forms, including providing diversified skills training programs in farming practices, managerial skills, and other areas.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.307-313
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• 2014

Recent interest in the increased structural performance and durability evaluation of this concrete structure in a salt damage environment is increasing. The most secure and reliable method of accelerated corrosion test is a method to carry out the rebar corrosion monitoring can be exposed directly to the marine test site exposure. However, long-term exposure testinghas the disadvantage that a long period is necessary. So, a lot of research on RC of salt damage environment have beenpromoted as alternatives to replace this. However, accelerated corrosion test, in the short term only is appropriate and is but an accelerated test method to evaluate the critical chlorine concentration, there is a difficult problem that you still get the answer. It is one of the correlation problems accelerated test correspond to a certain period of exposure environment. Therefore, in this study, to clarify the differences rebar corrosion beginning, through the actual corrosion accelerated test in corrosion time and laboratory test chamber of the structure of the marine environment results in both environments, it is an object of correlation coefficient derived.