• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.221-232
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• 2008

This paper represents the final results of a research program sponsored by the European Commission through project WIND-CHIME ($\underline{W}$ide Range Non-$\underline{IN}$trusive $\underline{D}$evices toward $\underline{C}$onservation of $\underline{HI}$storical Monuments in the $\underline{ME}$diterranean Area), in which the possibility of using advanced seismic protection technologies to preserve historical monuments in the Mediterranean area is investigated. In the current research, the dynamic characteristics of two outstanding Mamluk-Style minarets, which similar minarets were reported to experience extensive damage during Dahshur 1992 earthquake, are investigated. The first minaret is the Qusun minaret (1337 A.D, 736 Hijri Date (H.D)) located in El-Suyuti cemetery on the southern side of the Salah El-Din citadel. The minaret is currently separated from the surrounding building and is directly resting on the ground (no vaults underneath). The total height of the minaret is 40.28 meters with a base rectangular shaft of about 5.42 ${\times}$ 5.20 m. The second minaret is the southern minaret of Al-Sultaniya (1340 A.D, 739 H.D). It is located about 30.0 meters from Qusun minaret, and it is now standing alone but it seems that it used to be attached to a huge unidentified structure. The style of the minaret and its size attribute it to the first half of the fourteenth century. The minaret total height is 36.69 meters and has a 4.48 ${\times}$ 4.48 m rectangular base. Field investigations were conducted to obtain: (a) geometrical description of the minarets, (b) material properties of the minarets' stones, and (c) soil conditions at the minarets' location. Ambient vibration tests were performed to determine the modal parameters of the minarets such as natural frequencies and mode shapes. A $1/16^{th}$ scale model of Qusun minaret was constructed at Cairo University Concrete Research Laboratory and tested under free vibration with and without SMA wire dampers. The contribution of SMA wire dampers to the structural damping coefficient was evaluated under different vertical loads and vibration amplitudes. Experimental results were used along with the field investigation data to develop a realistic 3-D finite element model that can be used for seismic risk evaluation of the minarets. Examining the updated finite element models under different seismic excitations indicated the vulnerability of such structures to earthquakes with medium to high a/v ratio. The use of SMA wire dampers was found feasible for reducing the seismic risk for this type of structures.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.89-93
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• 2006

We investigate a method to improve the extinction ratio of directional couplers by controlling the angle of approach to their input ports and controlling the error limit for improving the extinction ratio of the directional coupler. Although relatively large angle of approach to the input port usually causes an error in calculations made by mode propagation analysis(MPA), optimally designed angle of approach not only minimizes errors in MPA calculations but also can improve extinction ratio by precision control of coupling coefficients of optical modes. We show that abrupt changes in approaching angle, although not enough to cause modal leakage, give rise to field-profile overshooting, which degrades extinction ratio and other properties of the directional coupler. Using Beam Propagation Method (BPM) we calculate two types of input structures, linear and curved, for optimization of extinction ratio.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.575-589
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• 2020

For vibration control of stay cables in cable-stayed bridges, viscous dampers are frequently used, and they are regularly installed between the cable and the bridge deck. In practice, neoprene rubber bushings (or of other types) are also widely installed inside the cable guide pipe, mainly for reducing the bending stresses of the cable near its anchorages. Therefore, it is important to understand the effect of the bushings on the performance of the external damper. Besides, for long cables, external dampers installed at a single position near a cable end can no longer provide enough damping due to the sag effect and the limited installation distance. It is thus of interest to improve cable damping by additionally installing dampers inside the guide pipe. This paper hence studies the combined effects of an external damper and an internal damper (which can also model the bushings) on a stay cable. The internal damper is assumed to be a High Damping Rubber (HDR) damper, and the external damper is considered to be a viscous damper with intrinsic stiffness, and the cable sag is also considered. Both the cases when the two dampers are installed close to one cable end and respectively close to the two cable ends are studied. Asymptotic design formulas are derived for both cases considering that the dampers are close to the cable ends. It is shown that when the two dampers are placed close to different cable ends, their combined damping effects are approximately the sum of their separate contributions, regardless of small cable sag and damper intrinsic stiffness. When the two dampers are installed close to the same end, maximum damping that can be achieved by the external damper is generally degraded, regardless of properties of the HDR damper. Field tests on an existing cable-stayed bridge have further validated the influence of the internal damper on the performance of the external damper. The results suggest that the HDR is optimally placed in the guide pipe of the cable-pylon anchorage when installing viscous dampers at one position is insufficient. When an HDR damper or the bushing has to be installed near the external damper, their combined damping effects need to be evaluated using the presented methods.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartD
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• v.13D no.7 s.110
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• pp.1017-1026
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• 2006

Recently, distributed collaborative development environment has been recognized an alternative environment for product development in which multidisciplinary participants are naturally involving. Reuse of Product design information has long been recognized as one of core requirements for efficient product development. This paper addresses an image-based retrieval system to support product design information reuse. In the system, product images obtained from multi-modal devices are utilized to reuse design information. The proposed system conducts the segmentation of a product image by using a labeling method and generates an attributed relational graph (ARG) that represents properties of segmented regions and their relationships. The generated ARG is extended by integrating corresponding part/assembly information. In this manner, the reuse of assembly design information using a product image has been realized. The main advantages of the presented system are following. First, the system is not dependent to specific design tools, because it utilizes multimedia images that can be obtained easily from peripheral devices. Second ratio-based features extracted from images enable image retrievals that contain various sizes of parts. Third, the system has shown outstanding search performance, because we applied various information of segmented part regions and their relationships between parts.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.66-73
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• 2024

Stay-cable is one of the most important load carrying members in cable-stayed bridges. Monitoring structural integrity of stay-cables is crucial for evaluating the structural condition of the cable-stayed bridge. For stay-cables, tension and damping ratio are estimated based on modal properties as a measure of structural integrity. Since the monitoring system continuously measures the vibration for the long-term period, data acquisition systems should be stable and power-efficiency as the hardware system. In addition, massive signals from the data acquisition systems are continuously generated, so that automated analysis system should be indispensable. In order to fulfill these purpose simultaneously, this study presents an autonomous cable monitoring system based on domain-knowledge using IoT for continuous cable monitoring systems of cable-stayed bridges. An IoT system was developed to provide effective and power-efficient data acquisition and on-board processing capability for Edge-computing. Automated peak-picking algorithm using domain knowledge was embedded to the IoT system in order to analyze massive data from continuous monitoring automatically and reliably. To evaluate its operational performance in real fields, the developed autonomous monitoring system has been installed on a cable-stayed bridge in Korea. The operational performance are confirmed and validated by comparing with the existing system in terms of data transmission rates, accuracy and efficiency of tension estimation.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.121-134
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• 2016

We characterize the spatial distribution of Cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts covering the summit and slopes of a seamount in the western Pacific, using acoustic backscatter from multibeam echo sounders (MBES) and seafloor video observation. Based on multibeam bathymetric data, we identify that ~70% of the summit area of this flattopped seamount has slope gradients less than $5^{\circ}$. The histogram of the backscatter intensity data shows a bi-modal distribution, indicating significant variations in seabed hardness. On the one hand, visual inspection of the seafloor using deep-sea camera data exhibits that the steep slope areas with high backscatter are mainly covered by manganese crusts. On the other hand, the visual analyses for the summit reveal that the summit areas with relatively low backscatter are covered by sediments. The other summit areas, however, exhibit high acoustic reflectivity due to coexistence of manganese crusts and sediments. Comparison between seafloor video images and acoustic backscatter intensity suggests that the central summit has relatively flat topography and low backscatter intensity resulting from unconsolidated sediments. In addition, the rim of the summit and the slopes are of high acoustic reflectivity because of manganese crusts and/or bedrock outcrops with little sediments. Therefore, we find a strong correlation between the acoustic backscatter data acquired from sea-surface multibeam survey and the spatial distribution of sediments and manganese crusts. We propose that analyzing acoustic backscatter can be one of practical methods to select optimal minable areas of the ferromanganese crusts from seamounts for future mining.