• Computers and Concrete
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.243-257
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• 2007

A novel method for recognition, characterization, and quantification of deterioration in bridge components and laboratory concrete samples is presented in this paper. The proposed scheme is based on grey level co-occurrence matrix texture analysis using Haar's discrete wavelet transform on concrete imagery. Each image is described by a subset of band-filtered images containing wavelet coefficients, and then reconstructed images are employed in characterizing the texture, using grey level co-occurrence matrices, of the different types and degrees of damage: map-cracking, spalling and steel corrosion. A comparative study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the supervised maximum likelihood and unsupervised K-means classification techniques, in order to classify and quantify the deterioration and its extent. Experimental results show both methods are relatively effective in characterizing and quantifying damage; however, the supervised technique produced more accurate results, with overall classification accuracies ranging from 76.8% to 79.1%.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.2 s.48
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• pp.47-58
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• 2007

This study examines the distribution of basement rocks in Gyochon-ri, Muan-eup, Muan-gun, Jeonnam where ground subsidence occurred in June 2005, and traces corrosion of limestone. Mica schist and rhyolite are distributed in the surface of the study area, but thick limestone layer with large and small caverns are distributed underground. A horizon of limestone with maximum width of 300 m and 4 km of length was found along the detour which is in the north of pound subsidence. Such identification of limestone presence would be very useful to predict potential ground subsidence. Limestone in this area was disturbed by fold and fault due to severe shearing deformation. Small caverns were frequently found in anticline part of folds formed in limestone layer. Schists with different thicknesses were intercalated in the limestone with shearing deformation and consist of sheet silicate minerals (chlorite and mica) and quartz. In sections of weathered specimen, it is shown that biotite of schist part was altered into chlorite and corrosion of calcite around the schist followed. This suggest that ground water permeated between intercalated sheet silicate minerals and corrosion of limestone began. And small caverns were generated where active corrosion occurred. This study suggests that because of many reasons (for instance, reclamation of the Bulmu reservior and excess pumping), cavern water level was lowered and cave sediments were removed, and it caused ground subsidence to occur.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.191-199
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• 2021

In this study, the correlation between the influencing factors on corrosion and Half Cell Potential(HCP) measurement was analyzed considering the three levels of W/C ratio, cover depth, and chloride concentration. The HCP increased with enlarged cover depth, so it was confirmed that the increment of cover depth was effective for control of corrosion. Based on the criteria, the case of 60mm cover depth showed excellent corrosion control with under -200mV, indicating increase of cover depth is an effective method for reducing intrusion of external deterioration factors. When fresh water was injected to the upper part of specimens, very low level of HCP was monitored, but in the case that concentrations of chloride were 3.5% and 7.0%, HCP dropped under -200mV. In addition, the case with high volume of unit binder showed lower HCP measurement like increasing cover depth. Multiple regression analysis was performed to evaluate the correlation between the corrosive influence factors and HCP results, showing high coefficient of determination of 0.97. However, there were limitations such as limited number of samples and measuring period. Through the additional corrosion monitoring and chloride content evaluation after dismantling the specimen, more reasonable prediction can be achieved for correlation analysis with relevant data.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.276-284
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• 2000

The acoustic emission (AE) behavior of reinforced concrete beams tested under flexural loading was investigated to characterize and identify the source of damage. This research was aimed at identifying the characteristic AE response associated with micro-crack development, localized crack propagation, corrosion, and debonding of the reinforcing steel. Concrete beams were prepared to isolate the damage mechanisms by using plain, notched-plain, reinforced, and corroded-reinforced specimens. The beams were tested using four-point cyclic step-loading. The AE response was analyzed to obtain key parameters such as the time history of AE events, the total number and rate of AE events, and the characteristic features of the waveform. Initial analysis of the AE signal has shown that a clear difference in the AE response is observed depending on the source of the damage. The Felicity ratio exhibited a correlation with the overall damage level, while the number of AE events during unloading can be an effective criterion to estimate the level of corrosion distress in reinforced concrete structures. Consequently, AE measurement characterization appears to provide a promising approach for estimating the level of deterioration in reinforced concrete structure.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.10-18
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• 2018

The primary purposes of this study are to understand a fundamental aspect of current uniformity around a reinforcing bar (rebar) in cement mortar, and to develop an accurate monitoring method in a wet-dry cycling process with the alternative current (AC) impedance method. Three cement mortar specimens with two embedded rebars were prepared in the laboratory. As a main variable, the distance between two rebars was designed to be 10, 20 and 30 mm with the same thickness of 20 mm. To simulate the corrosion of rebars in concrete structures in a marine environment, three cement mortar specimens were exposed to 15 wet-drying cycles (24-hour-immersion in seawater and 48-hour-drying in a room temperature) in the laboratory. It was observed that the potential level shifted to a noble value during corrosion potential monitoring, which is attributed to acceleration of dissolved oxygen diffusion at the drying process. AC impedance was measured in a frequency range from 100 kHz to 1 mHz on a wet-drying process. A theoretical model was proposed to explain the interface condition between the rebars and cement mortar by using the equivalent circuit consisting of a solution resistance, a charge transfer resistance and a CPE (constant phase element). It was observed that the diffusion impedance appeared in a low frequency range as corrosion of rebars progresses. At the drying stage of the wet-drying cycles, the currents line for monitoring tended to be non-uniform at the interface of rebar/mortar, being phase shift, ${\theta}$, close to $-45^{\circ}$.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.97-108
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• 2008

The use of fly ash to replace a portion of cement has resulted significant savings in the cost of cement production. Fly ash blended cement concretes require a longer curing time and their early strength is low when compared to ordinary Portland cement(OPC) concrete. By adopting various activation techniques such as physical, thermal and chemical method, hydration of fly ash blended cement concrete was accelerated and thereby improved the corrosion-resistance of concrete. Concrete specimens prepared with 10-40% of activated fly ash replacement were evaluated for their open circuit potential measurements, weight loss measurements, impedance measurements, linear polarization measurements, water absorption test, rapid chloride ion penetration test and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) test and the results were compared with those for OPC concrete without fly ash. All the studies confirmed that up to a critical level of 20-30% replacement; activated fly ash cement improved the corrosion-resistance properties of concrete. It was also confirmed that the chemical activation of fly ash better results than the other methods of activation investigated in this study.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.75-81
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• 2010

In this study, when concrete properties are changed by concrete mix proportions or blending of admixtures, the characteristics of electro-chemical method for corrosion assessment of the embedded steel are compared and its causes are analyzed. According to the results, when the ratio of corroding area was less than 10%, the half-cell method was affected by concrete properties. In the case of specimen blended admixtures, it is possible to assess the high-corroded steel qualitatively using the half-cell method. For the polarization resistance method, though the corroding area was less than 10%, it has not affected by concrete properties. However, in case of specimen blended admixtures, the corrosion level of steel was underestimated than OPC specimens having a similar corroding area.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.11
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• pp.716-721
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• 2009

The major drive for the application of low-temperature plasma treatment in nitrocarburizing of austenitic stainless steels lies in improved surface hardness without degraded corrosion resistance. The low-temperature plasma nitrocarburizing was performed in a gas mixture of $N_{2}$, $H_{2}$, and carbon-containing gas such as $CH_{4}$ at $450^{\circ}C$. The influence of the processing time (5~30 h) and $N_{2}$ gas composition (15~35%) on the surface properties of the nitrocarburized layer was investigated. The resultant nitrocarburized layer was a dual-layer structure, which was comprised of a N-enriched layer (${\gamma}_N$) with a high nitrogen content on top of a C-enriched layer (${\gamma}_C$) with a high carbon content, leading to a significant increase in surface hardness. The surface hardness reached up to about $1050HV_{0.01}$, which is about 4 times higher than that of the untreated sample ($250HV_{0.01}$). The thickness of the hardened layer increased with increasing treatment time and $N_{2}$ gas level in the atmosphere and reached up to about $25{\mu}m$. In addition, the corrosion resistance of the treated samples without containing $Cr_{2}N$ precipitates was enhanced than that of the untreated samples due to a high concentration of N on the surface. However, longer treatment time (25% $N_{2}$, 30 h) and higher $N_{2}$ gas composition (35% $N_{2}$, 20 h) resulted in the formation of $Cr_{2}N$ precipitates in the N-enriched layer, which caused the degradation of corrosion resistance.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.235-252
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• 2009

Due to the reduction of bond strength resulting from the high corrosion level of reinforcing bars, influence of this reduction on flexural capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beam should be considered. An extreme case is considered, where bond strength is complete lost and/or the tensile steel are exposed due to heavy corrosion over a fraction of the beam length. A compatibility condition of deformations of the RC beam with partially unbonded length is proposed. Flexural capacity of this kind of RC beam is predicted by combining the proposed compatibility condition of deformations with equilibrium condition of forces. Comparison between the model's predictions with the experimental results published in the literature shows the practicability of the proposed model. Finally, influence of some parameters on the flexural capacity of RC beam with partially unbonded length is discussed. It is concluded that the flexural capacity of the beam may not be influenced by the completely loss of bond of the whole beam span as long as the tensile steel can yield; whether or not the reduction of the flexural capacity of the beam resulting from the loss of bond over certain length may occur depends on the detailed parameters of the given beam.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.113-119
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• 2015

Alloy 82/182 weld metals had been extensively used in joining the components of the PWR primary system. Unfortunately, there have been a number of incidents of cracking caused by PWSCC in Alloy 82/182 welds during the operation of PWR worldwide. To mitigate PWSCC, optimization of water-chemistry conditions, especially dissolved hydrogen (DH) and Zn contents, is considered as the most promising and effective remedial method. In this study, the PWSCC behaviours of Alloy 182 weld were investigated in simulated PWR environments with various DH content. Both in-situ and ex-situ oxide characterizations as well as PWSCC initiation tests were performed. The results showed that PWSCC crack initiation time was shortest in PWR water (DH: 30cc/kg). Also, high stress reduced crack initiation time. Oxide layer showed multi-layered structures consisted of the outer needle-like Ni-rich oxide layer, Fe-rich crystalline oxide, and inner Cr-rich inner oxide layers, which was not altered by the level of applied stress. To analyse the multi-layer structure of oxides, EIS measurement were fitted into an equivalent circuit model. Further analyses including TEM and EDS are underway to verify appropriateness of the equivalent circuit model.