• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.57-76
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• 2015

The Performance-based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) concept implies the definition of multiple target performance levels of damage which are expected to be achieved (or not exceeded), when the structure is subjected to earthquake ground motion of specified intensity. These levels are associates to different return period (RP) of earthquakes and structural behaviors quantified with adopted factors or indexes of control. In this work an 8-level PBEE study is carried out, finding different curves for control index or Engineering Demand Parameters (EDP) of levels that assess the structural behavior. The results and the curves for each index of control allow to deduce the structural behavior at an a priori unspecified RP. A general methodology is proposed that takes into account a possible optimization process in the PBEE field. Finally, an application to 8-level seismic performance assessment to structure in a Spanish seismic zone permits deducing that its behavior is deficient for high seismic levels (RP > 475 years). The application of the methodology to a low-to-moderate seismic zone case proves to be a good tool of structural seismic design, applying a more sophisticated although simple PBEE formulation.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.315-329
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• 2019

Non-synoptic winds have distinctive statistical properties compared to synoptic winds and can produce different wind loads on buildings and structures. The current study uses the new capabilities of the WindEEE Dome at Western University to replicate a stationary non-Gaussian wind event recorded at the Port of La Spezia in Italy. These stationary non-Gaussian wind events are also known as intermediate wind events as they differ from non-stationary non-Gaussian events (e.g., downbursts) as well as stationary Gaussian events (e.g., atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flows). In the present study, the wind loads on a typical low-rise building are investigated for an intermediate wind event reproduced using a continuous radial impinging jet (IJ) at the WindEEE Dome. For the same building model, differences in wind loads between ABL and IJ are also examined. Wind loads on different surface zones on the building, as defined in the ASCE code for design loads, are also calculated and compared with the code.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.5
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• pp.557-569
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• 2022

The retrofit of existing structures in high seismic zones is a crucial issue in the earthquake engineering field. The interest of the research community is particularly high for the structures that do not respect current seismic codes and present structural deficiencies such as poor detailing and lack of capacity design provisions. A reinforced concrete (RC) school building is used as case study to show the influence of different knowledge levels on the seismic retrofitting cost assessment. The safety assessment of the case study building highlights deficiencies under both vertical and seismic loads. By considering all the possible knowledge levels defined by the Italian such as by the European codes in order to derive the mechanical properties of the school building constitutive materials, the retrofit operations are designed to achieve different seismic safety thresholds. The retrofit structural costs are calculated and summed up to the costs for in-situ in tests. The paper shows how for the case study building the major costs spent for a large number of in-situ tests allows to save a consistent amount of money for retrofit operations. The hypothesis of demolition and reconstruction of the building is also compared in terms of costs with all the analyzed retrofit options.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.99-110
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• 2023

Land surface temperature (LST) is a critical environmental indicator affected by land cover (LC) changes. Currently, the most convenient and fastest way to retrieve LST is to use remote sensing images due to their continuous monitoring of the Earth's surface. The work intended to investigate land cover change and temperature response inAn-Najaf province. Landsat multispectral imageries acquired inAugust 1989, 2004, and 2021 were employed to estimate land cover change and LST responses. The findings exhibited an increase in water bodies, built-up areas, plantations, and croplands by 7.78%, 7.27%, 6.98%, 3.24%, and 7.78%, respectively, while bare soil decreased by 25.27% for the period (1989-2021). This indicates a transition from barren lands to different land cover types. The contribution index (CI) was employed to depict how changes in land cover categories altered mean region surface temperatures. The highest LSTs recorded were in bare lands (42.2℃, 44.25℃, and 46.9℃), followed by built-up zones (41.6℃, 43.96℃, and 44.89℃), cropland (30.9℃, 32.96℃, and 34.76℃), plantations (35.4℃, 36.97℃, and 38.92℃), and water bodies (27.3℃, 29.35℃, and 29.68℃) respectively, in 1989, 2004, and 2021. Consequently, these changes resulted in significant variances in LST between different LC types.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.1174-1176
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• 2011

Unfortunately, the number of blind people increases every 5 seconds in our world. An extensive research was made on improving the conventional walking cane and developing a microcontroller based walking stick for the blind with sensors and a feedback in form of vibration. Two different kinds of sensors are used to detect obstacles, ultrasonic and infrared distance sensors. The signal from an ultrasonic sensor is fed to a microcontroller. With the help of the supporting software, the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) principle is extensively used to form three zones and run the corresponding vibration motor at different spends according to how far the detected object is located. The other infrared distance sensors are connected to amplifiers and after that to their corresponding vibration motors through motor drivers. The vibration motors are to be located around the user's arm to notify the blind of the obstacles in the intended walking way. It can be very reliable and sufficient device guiding the blind other than the conventional walking cane which has many drawbacks which will be explained and discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.88 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2023

Seismic risk assessment studies are one of the most crucial instruments for mitigating casualties and economic losses. This work utilizes fragility curves to evaluate the seismic risk of single-story precast buildings, which are generally favored in Marmara's organized industrial zones. First, the precast building stock in the region has been categorized into nine sub-classes. Then, seven locations in the Marmara region with a high concentration of industrial activities are considered. Probabilistic seismic hazard assessments were conducted for both the soil-dependent and soil-independent scenarios. Subsequently, damage analysis was performed based on the structural capacity and mean fragility curves. Considering four different consequence models, 630 sub-class-specific loss curves for buildings were obtained. In the current study, it has been determined that the consequence model has a significant impact on the loss curves, hence, average loss curves were computed for each case investigated. In light of the acquired results, it was found that the loss ratio values obtained at different locations within the same region show significant variation. In addition, it was observed that the structural damage states change from serviceable to repairable or repairable to unrepairable. Within the scope of the study, 126 average loss functions were presented that could be easily used by non-experts in earthquake engineering, regardless of structural analysis. These functions, which offer loss ratios for varying hazard levels, are valuable outputs that allow preliminary risk assessment in the region and yield sensible outcomes for insurance activities.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.59-72
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• 1999

Cavitating fluid sea ice model of Plato and Hibler (1992) is applied to the Southern Ocean with an idealized, circular Antarctica. Using climatological atmospheric forcing fields averaged in the zonal direction, we show that oceanic heat flux and ice velocity have major effects on the seasonal change of ice edge, as other studies showed. In our model results, there appears a zone of free drift that contains a polynya zone. Thermodynamic forcing functions make dominant contributions to daily increments of ice thickness and compactness, except the zones of ice edge and polynya. The dominant contributions are also shown in distributions of the temperature on ice surface and several to terms in surface heat balance equation, and are also confirmed by those obtained from the thermodynamic-only model with the different locations of ice edge.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2038-2043
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• 2007

Analysis of the internal state of the blast furnace is needed to predict and control the operating condition. Especially, it is important to develop modeling of blast furnace for predicting cohesive zone because shape of cohesive zone influences on overall operating condition of blast furnace such as gas flow, temperature distribution and chemical reactions. Because many previous blast furnace models assumed cohesive zone to be fixed, they can't evaluate change of cohesive zone shape by operation condition such as PCR, blast condition and production rate. In this study, an axi-symmetric 2-dimensional steady state model is proposed to simulate blast furnace process using the general purpose-simulation code. And Porous media is assumed for the gas flow and the potential flow for the solid flow. Velocity, pressure and temperature distribution for gas and solid are displayed as the simulation results. The cohesive zones are figured in 3 different operating conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1994.09a
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• pp.231-234
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• 1994

Concentrated stresses due to the tunnel excavation easily cause failure around opening in the soft rock mass layer. Thus, while excavatng tunnel in the soft rock mass layerm it is very important to predict the possibility of failure or yielding zones around tunnel boundary. There are two typical methods to predict these; 1) the analysis of field monioring data and 2) numerical analysis. In this study, it was attempted to describe the time-dependent or progressive rock mass manner due to the continuous failure and fracturing caused by surrounding underground openings using the second method. In order to apply the effects of progressive failure underground, an iterative technique was used with the Hoek and Brown rock mass failure theory. By developing and simulating, three different shapes of twin tunnels, this research simulated and estimated the proper size of critical pillar width between tunnels, distributed stresses on the tunnel sides, and convergences of tunnel crowns. Moreover, results out progressive failure technique based on the Hoek and Brown theory were compared with the results out of Mohr-Coulomb theory.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.365-380
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• 2002

Following a series of experiments on isolated low-rise RC shear walls with openings, a theoretical study on the backbone curve of a perforated shear wall shows that there are some important observations from experimental results that make clear a semi-empirical formula of the backbone curve of a perforated wall. Critical shear zones can be depicted from the configuration of shear walls with openings. Different factors, including the size and location of shear wall openings, the wall's height/width ratio, horizontal and vertical steel bar ratios, and location and amount of diagonal steel bars are involved in the derivation of the backbone curve. Bending and shear effects are also considered in the paper. In addition, a comparison of load and displacement for solid and perforated shear walls is discussed. Generally, the comparison between experimental curves and computed backbone curves is favorable.