• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.517-538
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• 2016

This paper presents a probabilistic fragility analysis for two groups of bridges: simply supported and integral bridges. Comparisons are based on the seismic fragility of the bridges subjected to accelerograms of two seismic sources. Three-dimensional finite-element models of the bridges were created for each set of bridge samples, considering the nonlinear behaviour of critical bridge components. When the seismic hazard in the site is controlled by a few seismic sources, it is important to quantify separately the contribution of each fault to the structure vulnerability. In this study, seismic records come from earthquakes that originated in strike-slip and reverse faulting mechanisms. The influence of the earthquake mechanism on the seismic vulnerability of the bridges was analysed by considering the displacement ductility of the piers. An in-depth parametric study was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of the bridges' seismic responses to variations of structural parameters. The analysis showed that uncertainties related to the presence of lap splices in columns and superstructure type in terms of integral or simply supported spans should be considered in the fragility analysis of the bridge system. Finally, the fragility curves determine the conditional probabilities that a specific structural demand will reach or exceed the structural capacity by considering peak ground acceleration (PGA) and acceleration spectrum intensity (ASI). The results also show that the simply supported bridges perform consistently better from a seismic perspective than integral bridges and focal mechanism of the earthquakes plays an important role in the seismic fragility analysis of highway bridges.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.5
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• pp.619-629
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• 2017

This paper focuses on the study of complete dynamic modeling and maximum dynamic load carrying capacity computation of N-flexible links and N-flexible joints mobile manipulator undergoing large deformation. Nonlinear dynamic analysis relies on the Timoshenko theory of beams. In order to model the system completely and precisely, structural and joint flexibility, nonlinear strain-displacement relationship, payload, and non-holonomic constraints will be considered to. A finite element solution method based on mixed method is applied to model the shear deformation. This procedure is considerably more involved than displacement based element and shear deformation can be readily included without inducing the shear locking in the element. Another goal of this paper is to present a computational procedure for determination of the maximum dynamic load of geometrically nonlinear manipulators with structural and joint flexibility. An effective measure named as Moment-Height Stability (MHS) measure is applied to consider the dynamic stability of a wheeled mobile manipulator. Simulations are performed for mobile base manipulator with two flexible links and joints. The results represent that dynamic stability constraint is sensitive when calculating the maximum carrying load. Furthermore, by changing the trajectory of end effector, allowable load also changes. The effect of torsional spring parameter on the joint deformation is investigated in a parametric sensitivity study. The findings show that, by the increase of torsional stiffness, the behavior of system approaches to a system with rigid joints and allowable load of robot is also enhanced. A comparison is also made between the results obtained from small and large deformation models. Fluctuation range in obtained figures for angular displacement of links and end effector path is bigger for large deformation model. Experimental results are also provided to validate the theoretical model and these have good agreement with the simulated results.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.75-89
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• 2014

In recent years, utilization of underground space has been increasing in various parts of the world. In particular, open-cut method is usually applied to the shallow depth excavation. However some problems such as extreme traffic congestion and unstability of adjacent structures etc. might occur. In order to cope with these problems, the M-CAM (Modified Cellular Arch Method) method was proposed to excavate soil tunnels at shallow depth with secured enough stability and minimized construction period. In this study, sensitivity analysis was performed to predict the influence of the size of CPW(Continuous Pile Wall) and ground conditions on the behavior of the tunnel. First of all, embedded depth and diameter (or thickness) of CPW, coefficient of lateral earth pressure, and ground conditions were selected as parameters that could affect tunnel stability. Meanwhile, FLAC 2D based on finite difference method was used for numerical analysis. As a result of this study, it was checked out that embedded depth among sizes of CPW had a greatest influence on the stability of a tunnel.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.409-436
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• 2014

Although it is widely accepted that the interaction -between masonry infill and structural members significantly affects the seismic response of reinforced concrete (RC) frames, this interaction is generally neglected in current design-oriented seismic analyses of structures. Moreover, the role of masonry infill is expected to be even more relevant in the case of existing frames designed only for gravitational loads, as infill walls can significantly modify both lateral strength and stiffness. However, the additional contribution to both strength and stiffness is often coupled to a modification of the global collapse mechanisms possibly resulting in brittle failure modes, generally related to irregular distributions of masonry walls throughout the frame. As a matter of principle, accurate modelling of masonry infill should be at least carried out by adopting nonlinear 2D elements. However, several practice-oriented proposals are currently available for modelling masonry infill through equivalent (nonlinear) strut elements. The present paper firstly outlines some of the well-established models currently available in the scientific literature for modelling infill panels in seismic analyses of RC frames. Then, a parametric analysis is carried out in order to demonstrate the consequences of considering such models in nonlinear static and dynamic analyses of existing RC structures. Two bay-frames with two-, three- and four-storeys are considered for performing nonlinear analyses aimed at investigating some critical aspects of modelling masonry infill and their effects on the structural response. Particularly, sensitivity analyses about specific parameters involved in the definition of the equivalent strut models, such as the constitutive force-displacement law of the panel, are proposed.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.78-85
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• 2016

While most AUV researches have concerned about single hydrofoil, practical AUV's are generally operated with multiple hydrofoils. Double hydrofoil study attempts to evaluate thrust and efficiency with various flapping motions, and carries out design optimization using parametric analysis. Flow patterns such as vortex shedding and wake-body interaction are carefully investigated during design variable sensitivity analysis. The purpose of this design optimization is to find out the optimal motion that yields maximum thrust and efficiency. The design optimization employes several techniques such as table of orthogonal arrays, Kriging method, ANOVA analysis and MGA. Throughout this research, it is possible to find the optimal values of heaving ratio, heaving shift and pitch shift: Heaving ratio 0.950, heaving shift $23.120^{\circ}$ and pitch shift $89.991^{\circ}$ are found to be optimal values in double hydrofoil motions. Thrust and efficiency are 16.7% and 35.1% higher than existing AUV that did not consider nonlinear dependency of motion parameters. This results may offer an effective framework that is applicable to various AUV motion analyses and designs.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.100-107
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• 2002

The sea-surface winds during the passage of 64 typhoons for 1979-1999 were simulated using two different typhoon wind models, ie, typhoon parametric model(TPM) and primitive vortex model(PVM). The model hindcast winds were compared with the winds observed at JMA ocean buoys(22001 and 21002) and Kyushu ocean observation tower. The analysis of ms and relative errors between hindcast and observed winds was made to find the accuracy and sensitivity of the typhoon wind prediction models. Both hindcast winds of TPM and PVM underestimate the observed typhoon winds, but PVM winds are more closer to the observations with less rms and relative errors. Relative errors of two model winds were small within 200km from typhoon center, but TPM's relative errors increase up to 70% as the radial distance from typhoon center increases beyond > 200km although PVM's relative errors remain in 20% with less sensitive to the distance from typhoon centers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.185-194
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• 2006

Transient operations for an integral type reactor, SMART-P, have been experimentally investigated using a thermal-hydraulic integral test facility, VISTA (Experimental Verification by Integral Simulation of Transients and Accidents), in order to verify the system design and performance of the SMART-P, a pilot plant of SMART. The VISTA facility was subjected to various accident conditions such as feedwater increase and decrease, loss of coolant flow, and control rod withdrawal accidents in order to elucidate the thermal-hydraulic responses following such accidents and finally to verify the system design of the SMARTP. Full functional control logics have been implemented in the VISTA facility in order to control the required control action for an accident simulation. As one of the sensitivity tests to verify the PRHRS performance, the effects of the initial water level in the compensation tank are experimentally investigated. When the initial water level is 16%, the water is quickly drained and nitrogen gas is then introduced into the PRHR system, resulting in deterioration of the PRHRS performance. It is thus found that nitrogen ingression should be prevented to ensure stable PRHRS operation.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.289-296
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• 2014

A simple analytical approach for stability assessment of underground storage caverns against ground uplift of overburden rock above the rock caverns for high pressurized fluid such as compressed air energy storage (CAES) and compressed natural gas (CNG) was developed. In the developed approach, we assumed that failure plane of the overburden is straight upward to ground surface, and factor of safety can be calculated from a limit equilibrium analysis in terms of this cylindrical shape failure model. The frictional resisting force on the failure plane was estimated by Hoek-Brown strength criterion which replaces with Mohr-Coulomb criterion such that both intact rock strength and rock mass conditions can be considered in the current approach. We carried out a parametric sensitivity analysis of strength parameters under various rock mass conditions and demonstrated that the factor of safety againt ground uplift was more sensitive to Mohr-Coulomb strength criterion rather than Hoek-Brown criterion.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.113-125
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• 2002

Although there are several empirical and semi-empirical formulae available for predicting ground surface settlement, most of them do not simultaneously take into consideration all the relevant factors, resulting in inaccurate predictions. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) is incorporated with 113 of monitored field results to predict surface settlement for a tunnel site with prescribed conditions. To achieve this, a format for a database of monitored field data is first proposed and then used for sorting out a variety of monitored data sets available in Korea Institute of Construction Technology. An optimal neural network model is suggested through preliminary parametric studies and introduces a concept of RSE (Yang and Zhang, 1997) in sensitivity analysis for various major factors affecting the surface settlement in tunnelling. It is seen in some examples that the RSE rationally enables to recognize the most significant factors of all the contributing factors. Two verification examples are undertaken with the trained ANN using the database created in this study. It is shown from the examples that the ANN has adequately recognized the characteristics of the monitored data sets retaining a generality fur further prediction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.18-28
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• 2016

Numerical analysis was conducted as a preliminary study for evaluating the dual bell nozzle. For future parametric studies, a dual bell nozzle was designed, and thereafter inlet condition, turbulence model, and the number of optimum grids were determined. Dual bell nozzle was designed based on the KSLV-II first stage nozzle. Inlet condition was determined to frozen flow model of non-reacting eight species by comparing with the design values. SST $k-{\omega}$ model turned out to be suitable as turbulence model. About 150 thousand of the grids were selected after grid sensitivity tests. Based on the results determined in this study, we plan to investigate performance gain of the KSLV-II by adopting a proposed dual bell nozzle.