• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.1-13
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• 2008

This study presents a case study of condition evaluation of various asphalt pavement sections to estimate performance lives. The pavement surface conditions including cracking and rutting are first evaluated using a automatic pavement analyzer, ARAN. HPCI(Highway Pavement Condition Index) values are estimated using the pavement surface distress data. It is observed from the pavement distress survey that the major distress type of the sections is top-down cracking. The modulus value of each pavement layer is back-calculated from the defection data obtained from a FWD(Falling Weight Deflectometer) and compared with the laboratory measured dynamic modulus values. Remaining lives of the various pavement sections are estimated based on a mechanistic-empirical approach and AAHTO 1993 design guide. The structural capacities of the all pavement sections based on the two approaches are strong enough to maintain the pavement sections for the rest of design life. Since the major distress type is top-down cracking, the remaining lives of the pavement sections are estimated based on HPCI and existing performance database of highway pavements. To evaluate the causes of premature pavement distress, various material properties, such as air void, asphalt binder content, aggregate gradation, dynamic modulus and fatigue resistance, are measured from the field cores. It is impossible to accurately estimate the binder contents of field samples using the ignition method. It is concluded from the laboratory tests that the premature top down cracking is mainly due to insufficient compaction and inadequate aggregate gradation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 2011

If a plugged tube in a steam generator is broken, it may damage nearby intact tubes. To prevent this damage, it is recommended that a stabilizer is installed into the plugged tube. However, the installation cost of a stabilizer is very high. So studies are required to determine the conditions on which the installation is necessary. For this purpose static loads and dynamic loads applied on a tube should be known to estimate the residual strength and remaining fatigue and wear life of a plugged tube. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses are performed to obtain the drag coefficient for cross flow to a tube. Using the obtained drag coefficient, the static load can be estimated and the residual strength of a plugged tube can be calculated. An inclined flow problem is also analyzed and the vertical and horizontal forces are obtained and discussed.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.79-85
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• 2011

Bridge Weigh-in-Motion(BWIM) system calculates a travelling vehicle's weight without interruption of traffic flow by analyzing the signals that are acquired from various sensors installed in the bridge. BWIM system or data accumulated from the BWIM system can be utilized to development of updated live load model for highway bridge design, fatigue load model for estimation of remaining life of bridges, etc. Field test with moving trucks including various load cases should be performed to guarantee successful development of precise BWIM system. In this paper, a numerical simulation technique is adopted as an alternative or supplement to the vehicle traveling test that is indispensible but expensive in time and budget. The constructed numerical model is validated by comparison experimentally measured signal with numerically generated signal. Also vehicles with various dynamic characteristics and travelling conditions are considered in numerical simulation to investigate the variation of bridge responses. Considered parameters in the numerical study are vehicle velocity, natural frequency of the vehicle, height of entry bump, and lateral position of the vehicle. By analyzing the results, it is revealed that the lateral position and natural frequency of the vehicle should be considered to increase precision of developing BWIM system. Since generation of vehicle travelling signal by the numerical simulation technique costs much less than field test, a large number of test parameters can effectively be considered to validate the developed BWIM algorithm. Also, when artificial neural network technique is applied, voluminous data set required for training and testing of the neural network can be prepared by numerical generation. Consequently, proposed numerical simulation technique may contribute to improve precision and performance of BWIM systems.