• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.148-159
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• 1998

Spot welding palys a key role in increasing productivity and weight reduction of the final products. This paper proposes a systematic approach on the design of spot weld configuration, dealing with the requried number and location of spot weld joints under the given design parameters, such as the applied loads, lap area, and individual spot weld strength. The optimal design of a spot-welded joint is postulated as a state when the safety factors of all spot weld points (i) are evenly distributed and (ii) reach maximum value. A CAD program is developed to arrange the optimal location of each spot weld based on the derived objective function and constraints. The CAD tool integrates the optimization procedure with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) code through an interface. The interface automatically provides geometrical data and mesh configuration for different spot weld locations to FEA model. It also extracts the transmitted load of each spot weld from the FEA code, and allows the optimization code predict an improved arrangement of spot weld locations. The feasibility of the developed approach is demonstrated by the selected examples.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.42-47
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• 2013

The strain-induced phase transformation from austenite to martensite is responsible for the high strength and ductility of TRIP steels. However high strength steels are susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of hydrogen on the behavior of hydrogen delayed fracture in TRIP steel with hydrogen charging conditions. The electrochemical hydrogen charging was conducted at each specimen with varying current density and charging time. The relationship between hydrogen concentration and mechanical properties of TRIP steel was established by SP test and SEM fractography. The maximum loads and displacements of the TRIP steel in SP test decreased with increasing hydrogen charging time. The results of SEM fractography investigation revealed typical brittle mode of failure. Thus it was concluded that hydrogen delayed fracture in TRIP steel result from the diffusion of hydrogen through the ${\alpha}$' phase.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.669-681
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• 2017

The design of reinforced concrete buildings must satisfy the serviceability stiffness criteria in terms of maximum lateral deflections and inter story drift in order to prevent both structural and non-structural damages. Consideration of plastic hinge formation is also important to obtain accurate failure mechanism and ultimate strength of reinforced concrete frames. In the present study, an iterative procedure has been developed for the analysis of reinforced concrete frames with cracked elements and consideration of plastic hinge formation. The ACI and probability-based effective stiffness models are used for the effective moment of inertia of cracked members. Shear deformation effect is also considered, and the variation of shear stiffness due to cracking is evaluated by reduced shear stiffness models available in the literature. The analytical procedure has been demonstrated through the application to three reinforced concrete frame examples available in the literature. It has been shown that the iterative analytical procedure can provide accurate and efficient predictions of deflections and ultimate strength of the frames studied under lateral and vertical loads. The proposed procedure is also efficient from the viewpoint of computational time and convergence rate. The developed technique was able to accurately predict the locations and sequential development of plastic hinges in frames. The results also show that shear deformation can contribute significantly to frame deflections.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.53-60
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• 2023

Recently, a novel cast-in specialty insert was developed in Korea as an anchor for lightweight pipe supports, including fire-protection pipes. As these pipe supports and anchors play a critical role in transferring loads of fire-protection pipes to structural members, it is crucial to evaluate their seismic performance before applying the newly developed insert. In this study, the seismic shear performance of the insert anchors was evaluated through cyclic loading tests based on the loading protocols of ACI 355.2 and FEMA 461. Initially, five monotonic loading tests were conducted on the insert anchors in cracked concrete, followed by cyclic loading tests based on the monotonic test results. The findings revealed that the insert anchors exhibited negligible decrease in shear strength even after cyclic loading. Furthermore, a comparison of the maximum load and displacement of the insert anchors obtained under the loading protocols of ACI 355.2 and FEMA 461 was performed to investigate the applicability of the FEMA 461 loading protocol for anchor performance evaluation.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.495-501
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• 2019

Recently, research has been carried out into the use of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP), which has good tensile strength and corrosion resistance, as an alternative to rebar. But as of yet, the research into fatigue failure of CFRP is insufficient. In this paper, an analysis was performed of the mechanical behavior and failure patterns of CFRP reinforced concrete beams according to static and cyclic loads, in order to evaluate the safety and validity of CFRP rebar as an alternative material for rebar. The cyclic load ranged from 10 % to 70% of the ultimate load, and was loaded at a speed of 3Hz using a sine wave in the form of a three-point loading method. Through the static load test, the maximum load or stiffness of the beam was found to increase remarkably with the increase of the reinforcement, but the fatigue test showed that the number of repetitions decreased and the amount of deflection increased with the increase of the reinforcement.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.961-972
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• 2002

Flat plate structures under lateral load are susceptible to the brittle shear failure of plate-column connection. To prevent such brittle failure, strength and ductility of the connection should be ensured. However, according to previous studies, current design methods do not accurately estimate the strength of plate-column connection. In the present study, parametric study using nonlinear finite element analysis was performed for interior connections. Based on the numerical results, a design method for the connection was developed. At the critical sections around the connection coexist flexural moment and shear developed by lateral and gravity loads, and maximum allowable eccentric shear stresses were proposed based on the interactions between the flexural moment and shear, The proposed method can precisely predict the strength of the connection, compared with the current design provisions. The predictability of the proposed method was verified by the comparisons with existing experiments and nonlinear numerical analyses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.665-683
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• 2006

The strength behaviors of Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRP) Composites can be greatly influenced by the properties of constitutive materials, the laminate structures, and load conditions etc, accompanied by many uncertainty factors. So the reliability study on FRP is an important subject of research. Many achievements have been made in reliability studies based on the probability theory, but little has been done on the roles played by fuzzy variables. In this paper, a fuzzy reliability model for FRP laminates is established first, in which the loads are considered as random variables and the strengths as fuzzy variables. Then a numerical model is developed to assess the fuzzy reliability. The Monte Carlo simulation method is utilized to compute the reliability of laminas under the maximum stress criterion. In the second part of this paper, a generalized fuzzy reliability model (GFRM) is proposed. By virtue of the fact that there may exist a series of states between the failure state and the function state, a fuzzy assumption for the structure state together with the probabilistic assumption for strength parameters is adopted to construct the GFRM of composite materials. By defining a generalized limit state function, the problem is converted to the conventional reliability formula that enables the first-order reliability method (FORM) applicable in calculating the reliability index. Several examples are worked out to show the validity of the models and the efficiency of the methods proposed in this paper. The parameter sensitivity analysis shows that some of the mean values of the strength parameters have great influence on the laminated composites' reliability. The differences resulting from the application of different failure criteria and different fuzzy assumptions are also discussed. It is concluded that the GFRM is feasible to use, and can provide an effective and synthetic method to evaluate the reliability of a system with different types of uncertainty factors.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.343-363
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• 2017

The objective of this work was finding out the most advisable testing conditions for an effective and robust characterization of the tensile strength (TS) of concrete disks. The independent variables were the loading geometry, the angle subtended by the contact area, disk diameter and thickness, maximum aggregate size, and the sample compression strength (CS). The effect of the independent variables was studied in a three groups of experiments using a factorial design with two levels and four factors. The likeliest location where failure beginning was calculated using the equations that account for the stress-strain field developed within the disk. The theoretical outcome shows that for failure beginning at the geometric center of the sample, it is necessary for the contact angle in the loading setup to be larger than or equal to a threshold value. Nevertheless, the measured indirect tensile strength must be adjusted to get a close estimate of the uniaxial TS of the material. The correction depends on the loading geometry, and we got their mathematical expression and cross-validated them with the reported in the literature. The experimental results show that a loading geometry with a curved contact area, uniform load distribution over the contact area, loads projected parallel to one another within the disk, and a contact angle bigger of $12^{\circ}$ is the most advisable and robust setup for implementation of BT on concrete disks. This work provides a description of the BT carries on concrete disks and put forward a characterization technique to study costly samples of cement based material that have been enabled to display new and improved properties with nanomaterials.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2023

Composite structures have been designed by stacking the laminae with different stacking angles to meet the required mechanical performance. Although the induced stresses on the composite structures under the external loads usually differ depending on the location, we determined the stacking sequence based on the maximum stress, which leads to low efficiency and generally is not the optimum design. Recently, piecewise integrated composites (PICs) were suggested for solving this inefficiency. PICs assume the perfect bonding between adjacent pieces, but this is ideal and hard to accomplish. Therefore, the overlap at the boundary is essential to prevent separation from each other. In this study, we investigated the effect of the overlap design on the impact failure mode of PIC plates. We fabricated the sample composite plates with different overlap designs using the fast curing carbon prepreg and conducted the impact tests according to ASTM D 7136. We found that PICs had different failure modes according to the overlap design, which lead the changes of absorbed impact energies as well as impact load curves.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.126-135
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• 2002

Plate bonding technique has been widely used in strengthening of existing concrete structures, although it has often a serious problem of premature falure such as interface separation and rip-off. However, this premature failure problem has not been well explored yet especially in view of local failure mechanism around the interface of plate ends. The purpose of the present study is, therefore, to identify the local failure of strengthened plates and to derive a separation criterion at the interface of plates. To this end, a comprehensive experimental program has been set up. The double lap pull-out tests considering pure shear force and half beam tests considering combined flexure-shear force were performed. The main experimental parameters include plate thickness, adhesive thickness, and plate end arrangement. The strains along the longitudinal direction of steel plates have been measured and the shear stress were calculated from those measures strains. The effects of plate thickness, bonded length, and plate end treatment have been also clarified from the present test results. Nonlinear finite element analysis has been performed and compared with test results. The Interface properties are also modeled to present the separation failure behavior of strengthened members. The cracking patterns as well as maximum failure loads agree well with test data. The relation between maximum shear and normal stresses at the interface has been derived to propose a separation failure criterion of strengthened members. The present study allows more realistic analysis and design of externally strengthened flexural member with steel plates.