• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2017.11a
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• pp.65-66
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• 2017

Early-frost damages easily take place in smaller and thinner walls and slabs. In case of slabs, it is difficult to visually determine the depth of early-frost damage. As such, the current study aims to determine the depth of early-frost damage caused to concrete structures due to bad curing in the winter. As a result, the study found that the depth of early-frost damages increased from the top as the atmospheric temperature on the concrete surface decreased. The changes in the color allowed the observer to easily identify the depth of early-frost damage with the naked eye. In particular, the color difference between potentially damaged parts and undamaged parts were the greatest around thirty minutes of drying after wetting.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.189-197
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• 1997

This paper describes an experimental study on the seawater resistance of steel fiber reinforced concrete. The test methods adopted for this study are divided into long-term immersion test and acceleration test by wetting and drying. Tests were carried out to evaluate the procedures which were measured for nine months about reduction in dynamic modulus, length change and compressive strength. Resistance indicators are the water-cement ratio, the content of steel fiber, the content of fly ash, the immersion water(artificial seawater or freshwater) and the types of curing. The seawater resistance of the appropriate additions of steel fiber and fly ash have apparently increased.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.383-391
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• 2016

This paper reports the results of an experimental program involving several small-scale columns which were constructed to simulate corrosion damage in the field using two accelerated corrosion techniques namely, constant voltage and constant current. A total of six columns were cast for this experiment. For one pair of regular RC columns, corrosion was accelerated using constant voltage and for another pair, corrosion was accelerated using constant current. The remaining pair of regular RC columns was used as control. In the experiment, all the columns were subjected to cyclic wetting and drying using sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. The currents were monitored on an hourly interval and cracks were visually checked throughout the test program. After the specimens had suffered sufficient percentage steel loss, all the columns including the control were tested to failure in compression. The test results generated show that accelerated corrosion using impressed constant current produces more corrosion damage than that using constant voltage. The results suggest that the constant current approach can be better used to simulate corrosion damage of reinforced concrete structures and to assess the effectiveness of various materials, repair strategies and admixtures to resist corrosion damage.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.339-349
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• 2020

This study investigates the feasibility of using the results of the UPV (ultrasonic pulse velocity) test to assess the UCS (unconfined compressive strength) of unsaturated soil. A series of laboratory tests was conducted on samples of unsaturated lateritic soils of northern Taiwan. Specifically, the unconfined compressive test was combined with the pressure plate test to obtain the unconfined compressive strength and its matric suction (s) of the samples. Soil samples were first compacted at the designated water content and subsequently subjected to the wetting process for saturation and the following drying process to its target suction using the apparatus developed by the authors. The correlations among the UCS, s and UPV were studied. The test results show that both the UCS and UPV significantly increased with the matric suction regardless of the initial compaction condition, but neither the UCS nor UPV obviously varied when the matric suction was less than the air-entry value. In addition, the UCS approximately linearly increased with increasing UPV. According to the investigation of the test results, simplified methods to estimate the UCS using the UPV or matric suction were established. Furthermore, an empirical formula of the matric suction calculated from the UPV was proposed. From the comparison between the predicted values and the test results, the MAPE values of UCS were 4.52-9.98% and were less than 10%, and the MAPE value of matric suction was 17.3% and in the range of 10-20%. Thus, the established formulas have good forecasting accuracy and may be applied to the stability analysis of the unsaturated soil slope. However, further study is warranted for validation.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.17-28
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to measure the volumetric water content of unsaturated soils during drying and wetting process by using volumetric pressure plate extractor (VPPE) incorporated with time domain reflectometry (TDR). The VPPE consists of a pressure cell, a pressure regulator, a burette system and a TDR probe. Two samples with different initial void ratios were prepared in the pressure cell, and the air pressure at the range of 0.1 kPa - 50 kPa was applied to adjust the matric suction by the pressure regulator. The burette system was used to measure the volumetric water content change of the sample according to the matric suction. In addition, the TDR probe, installed in the cell, was used to evaluate the dielectric constant from the reflected signal of the electromagnetic wave at the probe. The volumetric water content of specimen was estimated by the empirical equation between the volumetric water content and dielectric constant, which was calibrated with the Jumunjin sand. The test results show that the volumetric water content calculated by TDR probe is strongly correlated to the measured value by burette system. The hysteresis occurs during drying and wetting process. Furthermore, the degree of hysteresis reduces in the repeated process. This study suggests that TDR may be effectively used to evaluate the water content soil for the determination of water characteristic curve of unsaturated soils.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.7 s.250
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• pp.779-786
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• 2006

Woven sisal textile reinforced composites were manufactured to evaluate fracture toughness, and tensile test. All specimens were immersed in water five times. All specimens are immersed in pure water during 9 days at room temperature, and dried in 1 day at $50^{\circ}C$. Two kinds of polymer matrices such as epoxy and vinyl-ester were used. Fractured surface were investigated to study the failure mechanism and fiber/matrix interfacial adhesion. It is shows that it can be enhanced to improve their mechanical performance to reveal the relationship between fracture toughness and water absorption fatigue according to different polymer matrices. Water uptake of the epoxy composites was found to increase with cycle times. Mechanical properties are dramatically affected by the water absorption cycles. Water-absorbed samples observed poor mechanical properties such as lower values of maximum strength and extreme elongation. The $K_{IC}$ values demonstrate a decrease in inclination with increasing cyclic times of wetting and drying fur the epoxy and vinyl-ester.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.785-801
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• 2017

Biopolymer treatment of geomaterials to develop sustainable geotechnical systems is an important step towards the reduction of global warming. The cutting edge technology of biopolymer treatment is not only environment friendly but also has widespread application. This paper presents the strength and slake durability characteristics of biopolymer-treated sand sampled from Al-Sharqia Desert in Oman. The specimens were prepared by mixing sand at various proportions by weight of xanthan gum biopolymer. To make a comparison with conventional methods of ground improvement, cement treated sand specimens were also prepared. To demonstrate the effects of wetting and drying, standard slake durability tests were also conducted on the specimens. According to the results of strength tests, xanthan gum treatment increased the unconfined strength of sand, similar to the strengthening effect of mixing cement in sand. The slake durability test results indicated that the resistance of biopolymer-treated sand to disintegration upon interaction with water is stronger than that of cement treated sand. The percentage of xanthan gum to treat sand is proposed as 2-3% for optimal performance in terms of strength and durability. SEM analysis of biopolymer-treated sand specimens also confirms that the sand particles are linked through the biopolymer, which has increased shear resistance and durability. Results of this study imply xanthan gum biopolymer treatment as an eco-friendly technique to improve the mechanical properties of desert sand. However, the strengthening effect due to the biopolymer treatment of sand can be weakened upon interaction with water.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.457-469
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• 2022

Hydraulic concrete buildings in the northwest of China are often subject to the combined effects of low-temperature frost damage, during drying and wetting cycles, and salt erosion, so the study of concrete deterioration prediction is of major importance. The prediction model of the relative dynamic elastic modulus (RDEM) of four different kinds of modified concrete under the special environment in the northwest of China was established using Grey residual Markov theory. Based on the available test data, modified values of the dynamic elastic modulus were obtained based on the Grey GM(1,1) model and the residual GM(1,1) model, combined with the Markov sign correction, and the dynamic elastic modulus of concrete was predicted. The computational analysis showed that the maximum relative error of the corrected dynamic elastic modulus was significantly reduced, from 1.599% to 0.270% for the BS2 group. The analysis error showed that the model was more adjusted to the concrete mixed with fly ash and mineral powder, and its calculation error was significantly lower than that of the rest of the groups. The analysis of the data for each group proved that the model could predict the loss of dynamic elastic modulus of the deterioration of the concrete effectively, as well as the number of cycles when the concrete reached the damaged state.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.483-493
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• 2000

Two dimensional finite element model, RMA, is used to simulate flood inundation phenomena from main channel to floodplain. The marsh porosity method allows finite elements to simulate gradual transition between wet and dry states. The model is applied to prismatic trapezoidal channel to test the applicability of wetting and drying. The floodwave in a river which meanders through a floodplain is also analyzed. The short-circuiting effects, in which the flow leave the meandering main channel and takes a more direct route on the floodplain, are analyzed with various sinuosity factor and roughness coefficients. Finally, the model is applied to the midstream of the Keum River. Wet/dry calculation can simulate the various discharge condition with the same finite element networks.

• KCI Concrete Journal
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.145-150
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• 2002

Reinforced concrete is inherently a durable composite material. When properly designed for the environment to be exposed and carefully constructed, reinforced concrete is capable of giving maintenance-free performance. However, unintentionally using improper materials such as non-washed sea sand having much salt together with poor controlled quality, or the concrete are placed in highly severe environment such as marine atmosphere, the corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete becomes one of the most significant concerns of concrete. The purpose of this experimental research is to evaluate the performance of corrosion inhibitors for normal strength and high strength concrete, and to propose desirable measures for controlling corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete. Test specimens in normal strength and high strength concrete were made with and without corrosion inhibitors. The accelerated corrosion test for reinforcing steel in concrete was adopted in accordance with JCI-SC3, which required the periodic 20 cycles for 140 days. One cycle includes 3 days for the wetting condition of $65^{\circ}C$ and $90\%$ RH, and 4 days for the drying condition of $15^{\circ}C\;and\;60\%$ RH. It was observed from the test that corrosion inhibitors in normal strength concrete and high strength concrete showed excellent corrosion resistance for reinforcing steel in concrete, but the silica fume in high strength concrete was found to have a negligible corrosion resistance if not used with corrosion inhibitors, since the chloride corrosion threshold limit in concrete containing silica fume without corrosion inhibitor was found to be considerably smaller than that of the case with corrosion inhibitor.