• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.50-57
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• 2010

Various installation faults may lie in fasteners in the construction of a direct-fixation track by the top-down method. At an extreme, they may cause excessive interaction between the train and track, compromise the running safety of the train, and cause damage to the track components. Therefore, the faults need to be kept within the allowable level through an investigation of their effects on the interactions between the train and track. In this study, the vertical dynamic stiffness of fasteners in installation faults was measured based on the dynamic stiffness test by means of an experimental apparatus that was devised to feasibly reproduce gap faults. This study proposes an effective analytical model for a train-track interaction system in which most elements, except the nonlinear wheel-rail contact and some components that behave bi-linearly, exhibit linear behavior. To investigate the effect of the behavior of fasteners in gap faults in a direct-fixation track on the vehicle and track, vehicle-track interaction analyses were carried out, targeting key review parameters such as the wheel load reduction factor, vertical rail displacement, rail bending stress, and mean stress of the elastomer. From the results, it was noted that the gap faults in the concrete bearing surface of a direct-fixation track need to be limited for the sake of the long-term durability of the elastomer than for the running safety of the train or the structural safety of the track.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.321-341
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• 2013

This paper investigates earthquake response of reinforced concrete regular frames subjected to rebar corrosion. A typical four-story reinforced concrete frame is designed according to Turkish Earthquake Code in order to examine earthquake response. Then different levels of rebar corrosion scenarios are applied to this frame structure. The deteriorated conditions as a result of these scenarios are included loss in cross sectional area of rebar, loss of mechanical properties of rebar, loss in bond strength and variations in damage limits of concrete sections. The frame is evaluated using a nonlinear static analysis in its sound as well as deteriorated conditions. The rebar corrosion effect on the structural response is investigated by comparing the response of the frame in each scenario with respect to the sound condition of the frame. The results shows that the progressive deterioration of the frame over time cause serious reductions on the base shear and top displacement capacity and also structural ductility of the corroded frames. The propagation time, intensity, and extensity of rebar corrosion on the frame are important parameters governing the effect of rebar corrosion on earthquake response of the frame.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.239-246
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• 2021

The immunological sperm separation method is economical compared to the existing sorting method, and it is promising for the development of new technologies by reducing sperm damage. Wholemom (WM) is a sex-regulating protein that comprises on immunoglobulin G coupled with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) that responds to surface proteins derived from the Y chromosome in cattle. Y sperms are restricted in motility as the WM aggregates them, and the magnet could separate the non-aggregated cells. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of WM treatment on the characteristics of bull sperm. After treating sperm with WM and incubation for 6 h, the motility parameters including total motility, progressive motility, velocity average path, velocity straight line, amplitude of lateral head displacement, and linearity were significantly higher in the WM treatment group than in the control group (p < 0.05). Sperm viability and acrosome reaction rates were similar in both groups during each incubation period (p > 0.05). In conclusion, the immunological sperm sexing procedure using a monoclonal antibody conjugated with MNPs did not affect the characteristics of bull sperm. This study suggests that compared to other techniques, the immunological method for sperm sexing could classify sperm quickly and efficiently without the use of expensive equipment.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.523-540
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• 2023

The failure of slope can cause remarkable damage to either human life or infrastructures. Stabilizing piles are widely utilized to reinforce slope as a slip-resistance structure. The workability of pile-stabilized slopes is affected by various parameters. In this study, the performance of earth slope reinforced with piles and the behavior of piles under static load, by shear reduction strength method using the finite difference software (FLAC^3D) has been investigated. Parametric studies were conducted to investigate the role of pile length (L), different pile distances from each other (S/D), pile head conditions (free and fixed head condition), the effect of sand density (loose, medium, and high-density soil) on the pile behavior, and the performance of pile-stabilized slopes. The performance of the stabilized slopes was analyzed by evaluating the factor of safety, lateral displacement and bending moment of piles, and critical slip mechanism. The results depict that as L increased and S/D reduced, the performance of slopes stabilized with pile gets better by raising the soil density. The greater the amount of bending moment at the shallow depths of the pile in the fixed pile head indicates the effect of the inertial force due to the structure on the pile performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.193-204
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• 2022

The need for establishing the contribution of pultruded FRP encasements and additional FRP wraps around these encasements to the shear strength and load-deflection behavior of reinforced concrete beams is the main motivation of the present study. This paper primarily focuses on the effect of additional wrapping around the composite beam on the flexural and shear behavior of the pultruded GFRP (Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer) beams infilled with reinforced concrete, taking into account different types of failure according to av/H ratio (arch action, shear-tension, shear-compression and pure bending). For this purpose, nine hybrid beams with variable shear span-to-depth ratio (av/H) were tested. Hybrid beams with 500 mm, 1000 mm, and 1500 mm lengths and cross-sections of 150x100 mm and 100x100 mm were tested under three-point and four-point loading. Based on the testing load-displacement relationship, ductility ratio, energy dissipation capacity of the beams were evaluated with comprehensive macro damage analysis on pultruded GFRP profile and GFRP wrapping. The GFRP wraps were established to have a major contribution to the composite beam ductility (90-125%) and strength (40-75%) in all ranges of beam behavior (shear-dominated or dominated by the coupling of shear and flexure). The composite beams with wraps were showns to reach ductilities and strength values of their counterparts with much greater beam depth.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.311-319
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• 2019

The number of aged bridges is increasing so that bridges over 30 years old account for about 11% of all bridges. Consequently, the development of a seismic performance evaluation method that considers the effects of ageing is essential for a seismic retrofitting process for improvement of the seismic safety of existing old bridges. Assessment of the damage situation of bridges after the recent earthquakes in Korea has been limited to the bearings, anchor, and concrete mortar on piers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the seismic responses of PSC box girder bridges by considering the ageing effect of rubber bearings (RBs) and lead-rubber bearings (LRBs). The modification factor proposed by AASHTO is used to take into account the ageing effect in the bearings. PSC box girder bridges with RBs and LRBs were 3D modeled and analyzed with the OpenSEES program. In order to evaluate the ageing effect of RBs and LRBs, 40 near fault and 40 far field records were used as the input earthquakes. When considering the effect of ageing, the displacement responses and shear forces of bridge bearings (RBs and LRBs) were found to increase mostly under the analytical conditions. It was shown that the effect of ageing is greater in the case of RBs than in the case of LRBs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.217-227
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• 2018

In the last decades, valuable results have been reported regarding conventional passive, active, semi-active, and hybrid structural control systems on two-dimensional and a few three-dimensional shear buildings. In this research, using a three-dimensional finite element model of high-rise concrete structures, designed by performance based plastic design method, it was attempted to construct a relatively close to reality model of concrete structures equipped with Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) by considering the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI), torsion effect, hysteresis behavior and cracking effect of concrete. In contrast to previous studies which have focused mainly on linearly designed structures, in this study, using performance-based plastic design (PBPD) design approach, nonlinear behavior of the structures was considered from the beginning of the design stage. Inelastic time history analysis on a detailed model of twenty-story concrete structure was performed under a far-field ground motion record set. The seismic responses of the structure by considering SSI effect are studied by eight main objective functions that are related to the performance of the structure, containing: lateral displacement, acceleration, inter-story drift, plastic energy dissipation, shear force, number of plastic hinges, local plastic energy and rotation of plastic hinges. The tuning problem of TMD based on tuned mass spectra is set by considering five of the eight previously described functions. Results reveal that the structural damage distribution range is retracted and inter-story drift distribution in height of the structure is more uniform. It is strongly suggested to consider the effect of SSI in structural design and analysis.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.541-547
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• 2017

Climate change has become the main cause of the exacerbation in natural disasters. Social Overhead Capital(SOC) structure needs to be checked for displacement and crack periodically to prevent damage and the collapse caused by natural disaster and ensure the safety. For efficient structure maintenance, the optical image technology is applied to the Structure Health Monitoring(SHM). However, optical image is sensitive to environmental factors. So it is necessary to verify its validity. In this paper, the accuracy of estimating the vertical displacement was verified with respect to environmental condition such as natural light, measurement distance, and the number of image sheets. The result of experiments showed that the effect of natural light on accuracy of estimating vertical displacement was the greatest of all. The measurement angle which was affected by the change in measurement distance was also important to check the vertical displacement. These findings will be taken into account by applying appropriate environmental condition to minimize errors when the bridge was measured by camera. It will also enable the application of optical images to the SHM.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.229-249
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• 2017

A new technique to mitigate irregular buildings with soil structure interaction (SSI) effect subjected to critical seismic waves is presented. The L-shape in plan irregular building for various reasons was selected, subjected to seismic a load which is a big problem for structural design especially without separation gap. The L-shape in plan building with different dimensions was chosen to study, with different rectangularity ratios and various soil kinds, to show the effect of the irregular building on the seismic response. A 3D building subjected to critical earthquake was analyzed by structural analysis program (SAP2000) fixed and with SSI (three types of soils were analyzed, soft, medium and hard soils) to find their effect on top displacement, base shear, and base torsion. The straining actions were appointed and the treatment of the effect of irregular shape under critical earthquake was made by using tuned mass damper (TMD) with different configurations with SSI and without. The study improve the success of using TMDs to mitigate the effect of critical earthquake on irregular building for both cases of study as fixed base and raft foundation (SSI) with different TMDs parameters and configurations. Torsion occurs when the L-shape in plan building subjected to earthquake which may be caused harmful damage. TMDs parameters which give the most effective efficiency in the earthquake duration must be defined, that will mitigate these effects. The parameters of TMDs were studied with structure for different rectangularity ratios and soil types, with different TMD configurations. Nonlinear time history analysis is carried out by SAP2000 with El Centro earthquake wave. The numerical results of the parametric study help in understanding the seismic behavior of L-shape in plan building with TMDs mitigation system.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.305-320
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• 2023

The mechanical properties of polymeric composites are degraded under elevated temperatures due to the effect of temperature on the mechanical behavior of the resin and resin fiber interfaces. In this study, the effect of temperature on the impact response of the carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) was investigated at low-velocity impact (LVI) using a drop-weight impact tester machine. All the composite plates were fabricated using a vacuum infusion process with a stacking sequence of [45/0_2/-45/90_2]s, and a thickness of 2.9 mm. A group of the specimens was exposed to an environment with a temperature cycling at the range of -30 ℃ to 65 ℃. In addition, three other groups of the specimens were aged at ambient (28 ℃), -30 ℃, and 65 ℃ for ten days. Then all the conditioned specimens were subjected to LVI at three energy levels of 10, 15, and 20 J. To assess the behavior of the damaged composite plates, the force-time, force-displacement, and energy-time diagrams were analyzed at all temperatures. Finally, radiography, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to evaluate the effect of the temperature and damages at various impact levels. Based on the results, different energy levels have a similar effect on the LVI behavior of the samples at various temperatures. Delamination, matrix cracking, and fiber failure were the main damage modes. Compared to the samples tested at room temperature, the reduction of temperature to -30 ℃ enhanced the maximum impact force and flexural stiffness while decreasing the absorbed energy and the failure surface area. The temperature increasing to 65 ℃ increased the maximum impact force and flexural stiffness while decreasing the absorbed energy and the failure surface area. Applying 200 thermal cycles at the range of -30 ℃ to 65 ℃ led to the formation of fine cracks in the matrix while decreasing the absorbed energy. The maximum contact force is recorded under cyclic temperature as 5.95, 6.51 and 7.14 kN, under impact energy of 10, 15 and 20 J, respectively. As well as, the minimum contact force belongs to the room temperature condition and is reported as 3.93, 4.94 and 5.71 kN, under impact energy of 10, 15 and 20 J, respectively.