• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.15-27
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to investigate the seismic behavior of precast segmental PSC bridge columns. For the analysis of reinforced concrete structures, a computer program named RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology) is used. To represent the interaction between tendon and concrete of a prestressed concrete member, a bonded or unbonded tendon element based on the finite element method is used. A joint element is modified to predict the inelastic behaviors of segmental joints. The solution of the equations of motion is obtained by numerical integration using Hilber-Hughes-Taylor (HHT) algorithm. The proposed numerical method gives a realistic prediction of seismic behavior throughout the input ground motions for numerical examples.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.109-120
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• 1994

One of problems being faced during construction of soil structures along the coastal regions is the stabilization of soft clay foundation, In this study, centrifugal model bests were conducted to investigate behavior effect of soft foundation reinforced by cement -soil piles for the stabilization of softs clay foundation during the embankment construction. This paper presents results of settlement and heaving behavior of reinforced and unreinforced foundation with time under the swaged loading for different best conditions. The test results have shown that the reductions of vertical settlement of the foundation and heaving of the ground surface adjacent to the embankment are greatly influenced by strength of improved pile, and moisture content, and especially the ratio of replacement area.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.91-100
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• 2002

This paper presents the results of laboratory investigation on the deformation behavior of tunnel face reinforced with longitudinal pipes. A series of reduced-scale model tests was carried out to investigate the effect of reinforcement layout on the tunnel face axial displacement as well as the surface settlement. Among other things, the results of the model tests indicate that the axial displacement of tunnel face as well as the ground surface settlement can significantly be reduced by pre-reinforcing the tunnel face with longitudinal pipes, suggesting that the pre-reinforcing technique may effectively be used as a positive ground control method in the urban environments. Also illustrated is that the reinforcing effect is significantly influenced by the reinforcement layout. The implications of the findings from this study are discussed in a great detail.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.13-24
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• 2006

A site investigation has been performed for bridge abutments constructed on soft ground, which are deformed laterally by backfill. As the result from the evaluation of lateral movement in bridge abutment, the foundation piles were not considered as the passive pile at the design stage and the period for soft ground improvement was not proper. In order to prevent lateral movement of bridge abutment, the pile slab is proposed as a countermeasure. This method can effectively prevent the lateral flow of soft ground, since the overburden surcharge due to backfill on soft ground would be effectively delivered to bedrock through the piles in soft ground. The instrumentation system is designed and installed to investigate the behavior of bridge abutment on soft ground reinforced by pile slab. The instrumentation results show that pile slab effectively resists to the lateral movement of bridge abutment due to backfill. Also, the surcharge loads due to backfill are transmitted to the bedrock through piles. It confirms that the pile slab effectively resists to the lateral movement of bridge abutment due to backfill and the applied design method is reasonable.

• Multiscale and Multiphysics Mechanics
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.143-156
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• 2016

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures require advanced analysis techniques for better estimation of their seismic responses, especially in the case of exhibiting complex three-dimensional coupling of torsional and flexural behaviors. This study focuses on validating a numerical approach for evaluating the seismic response of a three-dimensional unsymmetrical RC structure through the participation in the SMART 2013 international benchmark program. The benchmark program provides material properties, detailed drawings of the RC structure, and input ground motions for the seismic response evaluation. In this study, nonlinear constitutive models of concrete and rebar were formed and local tests were conducted to verify the constitutive models in finite element analysis. Elastic calibration of the finite element model of the SMART 2013 RC structure was performed by comparing numerical and experimental results in modal and linear time history analyses. Using the calibrated model, nonlinear earthquake analysis and seismic fragility analysis were performed to estimate the behavior and vulnerability of the RC structure with various ground motions.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.139-144
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• 2001

The objective of this study is to investigate the behavior of 1/12 scale upper-wall lower-frame reinforced concrete structure subjected to earthquake excitations. For this purpose, Taft N21E earthquake accelerogram was simulated by using 4m$\times$4m shaking table. When the input acceleration is compared to that of output, it was found that simulation of shaking table is satisfactory. From the test results with peak ground acceleration(PGA) 0.22g, which corresponds to 0.11g in prototype by the similitude law, it can be observed that the model responded in elastic behavior and that large interstory drift occurred at the lower part of the structure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1669-1680
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• 2019

Seismic safety is considered to be one of the key design objectives of AP1000 nuclear power plant (NPP) in strong earthquakes. Dynamic behavior, damage development and aggravation effect are studied in this study for the three main components of AP1000 NPP, namely reinforced concrete shield building (RCSB), steel vessel containment (SVC) and reinforced concrete auxiliary building (RCAB). Characteristics including nonlinear concrete tension and compressive constitutions with plastic damage are employed to establish the numerical model, which is further validated by existing studies. The author investigates three earthquakes and eight input levels with the maximum magnitude of 2.4 g and the results show that the concrete material of both RCSB and RCAB have suffered serious damage in intense earthquakes. Considering RCAB in the whole NPP, significant damage aggravation effect can be detected, which is mainly concentrated at the upper intersection between RCSB and RCAB. SVC and reinforcing bar demonstrate excellent seismic performance with no obvious damage.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.6
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• pp.789-807
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• 2020

Multiple earthquakes that occur during short seismic intervals affect the inelastic behavior of the structures. Sequential ground motions against the single earthquake event cause the building structure to face loss in stiffness and its strength. Although, numerous research studies had been conducted in this research area but still significant limitations exist such as: 1) use of traditional design procedure which usually considers single seismic excitation; 2) selecting a seismic excitation data based on earthquake events occurred at another place and time. Therefore, it is important to study the effects of successive ground motions on the framed structures. The objective of this study is to overcome the aforementioned limitations through testing a two storey RC building structural model scaled down to 1/10 ratio through a similitude relation. The scaled model is examined using a shaking table. Thereafter, the experimental model results are validated with simulated results using ETABS software. The test framed specimen is subjected to sequential five artificial and four real-time earthquake motions. Dynamic response history analysis has been conducted to investigate the i) observed response and crack pattern; ii) maximum displacement; iii) residual displacement; iv) Interstorey drift ratio and damage limitation. The results of the study conclude that the low-rise building model has ability to resist successive artificial ground motion from its strength. Sequential artificial ground motions cause the framed structure to displace each storey twice in correlation with vary first artificial seismic vibration. The displacement parameters showed that real-time successive ground motions have a limited impact on the low-rise reinforced concrete model. The finding shows that traditional seismic design EC8 requires to reconsider the traditional design procedure.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.467-484
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• 2023

Despite the significant features of fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCCs), including better mechanical, fractural, and durability performance, their high content of cement has restricted their use in the construction industry. Although ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) is considered the main supplementary cementitious material, its slow pozzolanic reaction stands against its application. The addition of nano-sized mineral modifiers, including nano-silica (NS), is an alternative to address the drawbacks of using GGBFS. The main object of this empirical and numerical research is to examine the effect of NS on the strain-hardening behavior of cementitious composites; ten mixes were designed, and five levels of NS were considered. This study proposes a new method, using a four-point bending test to assess the use of nano-silica (NS) on the flexural behavior, first cracking strength, fracture energy, and micromechanical parameters including interfacial friction bond strength and maximum bridging stress. Digital image correlation (DIC) was used for monitoring the initiation and propagation of the cracks. In addition, to attain a deep comprehension of fiber/matrix interaction, scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis was used. It was discovered that using nano-silica (NS) in cementitious materials results in an enhancement in the matrix toughness, which prevents multiple cracking and, therefore, strain-hardening. In addition, adding NS enhanced the interfacial transition zone between matrix and fiber, leading to a higher interfacial friction bond strength, which helps multiple cracking in the composite due to the hydrophobic nature of polypropylene (PP) fibers. The findings of this research provide insight into finding the optimum percent of NS in which both ductility and high tensile strength of the composites would be satisfied. As a concluding remark, a new criterion is proposed, showing that the optimum value of nano-silica is 2%. The findings and proposed method of this study can facilitate the design and utilization of green cementitious composites in structures.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.19-24
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• 2023

Ground anchor has been widely used specially for maintaining stability on reinforced cut slope in expressway. While the durability of the ground anchors should be ensured over the service life. However, the long-term loss of tensile force has occurred in most of field-installed anchors. Main causes are not clearly identified and very few studies have been made for analyzing long-term behavior of ground anchor in slopes. In this study, full-scale model tests and long-term measurements were made to obtain the load-displacement data and identified the causes of the long-term behaviors of ground anchor. As a result, the bond strength decreases exponentially with increasing water-binder ratio. Especially, groundwater is the most influencing factor to the bond strength. In the long-term behavior, the load decreases sharply until the initial settlement stabilized, and thereafter the tension force decreases constantly.