• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.151-159
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• 2011

This study performed an experimental study for air-tightness performance evaluation of concrete tube structures with joints. The test specimens consist of a continuous concrete tube, a concrete tube with a joint in the middle, and a segmented concrete tube. The test is performed in such a way that the inner pressure of the tube is dropped down to 0.1atm and the increase of the pressure is monitored with time. An equivalent air permeability is then calculated based on the test results. The results show that, as expected, a structure with more joints or bonds tends to be less air-tight. A sensitivity study shows that the system air-tightness performance level becomes higher as either the diameter or the thickness of the tube increases. Moreover, the increase in the diameter or the thickness of the tube makes an effort to enhance the air-tightness more effective.