• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.77-82
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• 2016

PURPOSES : This paper proposes a reliability index for the safety evaluation of freeway sections. It establishes a reliability index as a safety surrogate on freeways considering speeds and speed dispersions. METHODS : We collated values of design elements including radii, curve lengths, vertical slopes (absolute values), superelevations, and vertical slopes from seven freeway sections in Korea. We also collected data about driving speeds, traffic accidents, and their deviations. We established a reliability index using these variables. RESULTS : The average radii, curve lengths, and superelevations are highly correlated with the incidence of traffic accidents. Deviations in radius and curve lengths show an especially high correlation. The reliability index, derived from speed and speed dispersions of the seven freeway sections, also correlated highly with accidents with a correlation index of 0.63. CONCLUSIONS : Since the reliability index obtained from speed and speed dispersions are highly correlated with traffic accidents, we conclude that a reliability index can be a safety surrogate on freeways considering speeds and speed dispersions together in terms of design and operational levels.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.74-80
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• 2013

This study describes structural reliability analysis of actively-controlled structure for which random vibration analysis is incorporated into the first-order reliability method (FORM) framework. The existing approaches perform the reliability analysis based on the RMS response, whereas the proposed study uses the peak response for the reliability analysis. Therefore, the proposed approach provides us a meaningful performance measure of the active control system, i.e., realistic failure probability. In addition, it can deal with the uncertainties in the system parameters as well as the excitations in single-loop reliability analysis, whereas the conventional random vibration analysis requires double-loop reliability analysis; one is for the system parameters and the other is for stochastic excitations. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated through a numerical example where the proposed approach shows fast and accurate reliability (or inversely failure probability) assessment results of the dynamical active control system against random seismic excitations in the presence of parametric uncertainties of the dynamical structural system.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.99-115
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• 2014

Uncertainties in design variables and design equations have a significant impact on the safety of geotechnical structures like retaining walls and slopes. This paper presents a possible framework for obtaining the partial safety factors based on reliability approach for different random variables affecting the stability of a reinforced concrete cantilever retaining wall and a slope under static loading conditions. Reliability analysis is carried out by Mean First Order Second Moment Method, Point Estimate Method, Monte Carlo Simulation and Response Surface Methodology. A target reliability index ${\beta}$ = 3 is set and partial safety factors for each random variable are calculated based on different coefficient of variations of the random variables. The study shows that although deterministic analysis reveals a safety factor greater than 1.5 which is considered to be safe in conventional approach, reliability analysis indicates quite high failure probability due to variation of soil properties. The results also reveal that a higher factor of safety is required for internal friction angle ${\varphi}$, while almost negligible values of safety factors are required for soil unit weight ${\gamma}$ in case of cantilever retaining wall and soil unit weight ${\gamma}$ and cohesion c in case of slope. Importance of partial safety factors is shown by analyzing two simple geotechnical structures. However, it can be applied for any complex system to achieve economization.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1462-1470
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• 2020

Reliability in safety-critical systems and equipment is of vital importance, so the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) has been widely used for many years in the nuclear industry to address reliability in a quantitative manner. As many nuclear power plants (NPPs) become digitalized, evaluating the reliability of safety-critical software has become an emerging issue. Due to a lack of available methods, in many conventional PSA models only hardware reliability is addressed with the assumption that software reliability is perfect or very high compared to hardware reliability. This study focused on developing a new method of safety-critical software reliability quantification, derived from hardware-software integrated environment testing. Since the complexity of hardware and software interaction makes the possible number of test cases for exhaustive testing well beyond a practically achievable range, an importance-oriented testing method that assures the most efficient test coverage was developed. Application to the test of an actual NPP reactor protection system demonstrated the applicability of the developed method and provided insight into complex software-based system reliability.

• IE interfaces
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.270-278
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• 2002

Product Liability(PL) is a legal policy to deal with global competition by improving domestic industrial competitive power and to reduce the cost of defect products. The purpose of this paper is to address the state of the art solutions to dispute on PL, in reality of a frequent occurrence of global product exchange focussing on product safety that is one of the most important functions of PL and to improve solution of the product safety and reliability responsive to PL. To minimize PL exposure, manufacturers should reflect comprehensive product safety and reliability concepts in establishing PL prevention policies. Total PL prevention policies are composed of total quality management and product safety management system in respect of safety design, risk, and reliability. These PL prevention activities should be performed consistently during the total product life cycle, especially product research and development periods.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2019

Thermal-hydraulic passive safety systems (PSSs) are incorporated into many advanced reactor designs on the bases of simplicity, economics and inherent safety nature. Several factors among which are the critical parameters (CPs) that influence failure and reliability of thermal-hydraulic (t-h) passive systems are now being explored. For simplicity, it is assumed in most reliability analyses that the CPs are independent whereas in practice this assumption is not always valid. There is need to critically examine the dependency influence of the CPs on reliability of the t-h passive systems at design stage and in operation to guarantee safety/better performance. In this paper, two multivariate analysis methods (covariance and conditional subjective probability density function) were presented and applied to a simple PSS. The methods followed a generalized procedure for evaluating t-h reliability based on dependency consideration. A passively water-cooled steam generator was used to demonstrate the dependency of the identified key CPs using the methods. The results obtained from the methods are in agreement and justified the need to consider the dependency of CPs in t-h reliability. For dependable t-h reliability, it is advisable to adopt all possible CPs and apply suitable multivariate method in dependency consideration of CPs among other factors.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.287-298
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• 2013

Objectives: Workers who use chemicals are exposed to safety accidents and occupational diseases. Employers are required to provide workers with Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) in order to prevent accidents and diseases related to chemicals. Thus, it is very important to offer reliable MSDSs. In this paper, we assessed the reliability of MSDSs for chemicals including formaldehyde. Methods: To evaluate MSDS reliability, we collected 14 MSDSs and bulk samples from the chemical industry. MSDS reliability was evaluated by the completeness of details. In order to evaluate the adequacy of the formaldehyde contents in a mixture, bulk samples were collected and analyzed by HPLC. The result of Globally Harmonized System (GHS) classification was confirmed by identifying physical chemical properties, toxicology information and ecological information. Results: The result of the evaluation of 14 MSDSs showed 76.29% average reliability on each item, especially 53.9% average appropriate rate on hazard risk classification. No chemicals failed to match between the content (%) in MSDSs and the result of analysis. Conclusions: To elevate MSDSs reliability, the certified education of MSDS drafters and reorganization of the MSDS circulation system is required.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.91-102
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• 2006

Korea Railroad Research Institute developed the driverless rubber-tired Korean-AGT system from 1999 to 2005 and has done its performance and reliability tests on the test line at Gyeongsan-city. We made the reliability management program to control required the RAMS(reliability, availability, maintainability & safety) of the K-AGT system. Therefore, we demonstrated the development and application of Reliability DB program. The main functions of K-AGT Reliability DB program manages failures and maintenance data systematically from the test line through test period and provides various analysis results based on the inputted data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.876-880
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• 1998

This Paper Provides an overview of reliability Program implemented at Cernavoda NPP. It was written to serve the experience exchange between Cernavoda and Wolsung NPPs in the plant safety and systems reliability area.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.249-265
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• 2017

An efficient and accurate algorithm is proposed to estimate flutter safety factor of suspension bridges satisfying prescribed reliability levels. Uncertainties which arise from the basic wind speed at the bridge deck location, critical flutter velocity, the wind conversion factor from a scaled model to the prototype structure and the gust speed factor are incorporated. The proposed algorithm integrates the concepts of the inverse reliability method and the calculation method of the critical flutter velocity of suspension bridges. The unique feature of the proposed method is that it offers a tool for flutter safety assessment of suspension bridges, when the reliability level is specified as a target to be satisfied by the designer. Accuracy and efficiency of this method with reference to three example suspension bridges is studied and numerical results validate its superiority over conventional deterministic method. Finally, the effects of various parameters on the flutter safety factor of suspension bridges are also investigated.