• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.43-65
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• 2012

The primary objective of this study was to identify concrete contribution to the initial shear strength of reinforced concrete (RC) hollow columns under lateral loading. Seven large-scale RC rectangular hollow column specimens were tested under monotonic or cyclic lateral loads. The most important design parameter was column length-to-depth aspect ratio ranging between 1.5 and 3.0, and the other test variables included web area ratio, hollow section ratio, and loading history. The tests showed that the initial shear strength reduced in a linear pattern as the column aspect ratio increased, and one specimen tested under cyclic loading achieved approximately 83% of the shear strength of the companion specimen under monotonic loading. Also, several pioneering shear models proposed around the world, all of which were mainly based on tests for columns with solid sections, were reviewed and compared with the test results of this study, for their possible applications to columns with hollow sections. After all, an empirical equation was proposed for concrete contribution to the initial shear strength of RC hollow columns based on fundamental mechanics and the test results.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.499-517
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• 2013

In order to investigate shear behavior of granular materials due to excavation and associated unloading actions, load-controlled plane strain compression tests under decreasing confining pressure were performed under drained conditions and the results were compared with the conventional plane strain compression tests. Four types of granular material consisting of two quartz sands and two glass beads were used to investigate particle shape effects. It is clarified that macro stress-strain behavior is more easily influenced by stress level and stress path in sands than in glass beads. Development of localized deformation was analyzed using photogrammetry method. It was found that shear bands are generated before peak strength and shear band patterns vary during the whole shearing process. Under the same test condition, shear band thickness in the two sands was smaller than that in one type of glass beads even if the materials have almost the same mean particle size. Shear band thickness also decreased with increase of confining pressure regardless of particle shape or size. Local maximum shear strain inside shear band grew approximately linearly with global axial strain from onset of shear band to the end of softening. The growth rate is found related to shear band thickness. The wider shear band, the relatively lower the growth rate. Finally, observed shear band inclination angles were compared with classical Coulomb and Roscoe solutions and different results were found for sands and glass beads.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.153-159
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• 2014

During the winter and spring seasons in Korea, structures such as buried water supply pipelines, roads, railways are frequently damaged due to frost heaving and thawing. Until now, the method of substituting the frost susceptible soil with the gravel or rubbles those are non-frost susceptible materials have been employed in Korea to prevent frost heaving. A series of laboratory soil tests and indoor frozen soil engineering experiments, as well as laboratory frost heaving tests were conducted for seeking the means of utilizing recycled PET bottles as substitute material.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2064-2070
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• 2018

Pseudomonas tolaasii 6264 is a representative strain that causes bacterial blotch disease on the cultivated oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus. Bacteriophages are able to sterilize the pathogenic P. tolaasii strains, and therefore, they can be applied in creating disease-free mushroom cultivation farms, through a method known as "phage therapy". For successful phage therapy, the characterization of phage-resistant strains is necessary, since they are frequently induced from the original pathogenic bacteria in the presence of phages. When 10 different phages were incubated with P. tolaasii 6264, their corresponding phage-resistant strains were obtained. In this study, changes in pathogenic, genetic, and biochemical characteristics as well as the acquired phage resistance of these strains were investigated. In the phylogenetic analyses, all phage-resistant strains were identical to the original parent strain based on the sequence comparison of 16S rRNA genes. When various phage-resistant strains were examined by three different methods, pitting test, white line test, and hemolytic activity, they were divided into three groups: strains showing all positive results in three tests, two positive in the first two tests, and all negative. Nevertheless, all phage-resistant strains showed that their pathogenic activities were reduced or completely lost.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.19-28
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to investigate the habitat of Luciola unmunsana to understand the status of land snails, which are the larvae prey, and to evaluate the effects of larval feeding preferences and prey size for the restoration of the L. unmunsana habitat as a basis for future restoration projects. The research methods included field surveys of the habitat and laboratory experiments on feeding preferences using three types of land snails (Allopeas clavulinum kyotoense, Euphaedusa fusaniana, Pupinella rufa) observed in the habitat. Field surveys of 13 L. unmunsana habitat sites revealed a total of 24 land snail species. The experimental results regarding the larvae prey were analyzed for statistical significance of feeding preferences using Chi-square tests and independent sample t-tests. Consequently, larvae showed the highest preference for A. c. kyotoense, with statistically significant differences in feeding preferences (p<0.05). Also, statistically significant differences were observed in the size between the land snails that were eaten as prey and those that were not eaten. This research can deepen the understanding of the feeding preferences of L. unmunsana larvae and provide practical guidelines for the effective conservation and restoration strategies of the firefly habitat.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.318-327
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• 2017

Background: A typical sewage treatment plant is designed for organic and nutrient removal from municipal sewage water and not targeted to eliminate micropollutants such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and nano-sized metals which become a big concern for sustainable human and ecological system and are mainly discharged from sewage treatment plant. Therefore, despite contaminant removal by wastewater treatment processes, there are still remaining environmental risks by untreated pollutants in STP (sewage treatment plant) effluents. This study performed aquatic toxicity tests of raw wastewater and treated effluents in two sewage treatment plants to evaluate toxicity reduction by wastewater treatment process and analyze concentration of contaminants to reveal potential toxic factors in STP effluents. Methods: Water samples were collected from each treatment steps of two STPs, and acute and chronic toxicity tests were conducted following USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) guidelines. Endpoints were immobility for mortality and reproduction effect for estrogenicity. Results: Acute $EC_{50}s$ (median effective concentration) of influents for Seungki (SK) and Jungnang (JN) STPs are $54.13{\pm}32.64%$ and $30.38{\pm}24.96%$, respectively, and reduced to $96.49{\pm}7.84%$ and 100%. Acute toxicity reduction was clearly correlated with SS (suspended solids) concentration because of filter feeding characteristics of test organisms. Chronic toxicity tests revealed that lethal effect was reduced and low concentration of influents showed higher number of neonates. However, toxicity reduction was not related to nutrient removal. Fecundity effect positively increased in treated wastewater compared to that in raw wastewater, and no significant differences were observed compared to the control group in JN final effluent implying potential effects of estrogenic compounds in the STP effluents. Conclusions: Conventional wastewater treatment process reduced some organics and nutritional compounds from wastewater, and it results in toxicity reduction in lethal effect and positive reproductive effect but not showing correlation. Unknown estrogenic compounds could be a reason causing the increase of brood size. This study suggests that pharmaceutical residues and nanoparticles in STP effluents are one of the major micropollutants and underline as one of estrogenic effect factors.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.19-31
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• 2014

In order to investigate ground state change visually in physical model during centrifuge testing, electrical resistivity survey was adopted. Commercial resistivity survey equipment verified at various in-situ sites was utilized. The resistivity survey equipment installed in centrifuge facility was remotely controlled through intranet and electrical resistivity images obtained while centrifuge testing was being checked by real-time inversion. To verify the stable operation of the developed resistivity survey system, preliminary tests were conducted. Model ground was uniformly constructed using unsaturated soil and saline water was dropped on the ground surface to simulate contaminant flow situation. During the 10 g centrifuge tests, electrical resistivity was continuously detected and the testing results were compared with those of identically carried out 1 g centrifuge tests. In addition, the electrical resistivity was directly measured immediately after the centrifuge test by open cutting the model. Finally, reliability of electrical resistivity survey in the centrifuge test was verified by comparing those testing results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2018

Damping ratio and frequency have influence on dynamic serviceability or instability such as vortex-induced vibration and displacement amplification due to earthquake and critical flutter velocity, and it is thus important to make determination of damping ratio and frequency accurate. As bridges are getting longer, small scale model test considering similitude law must be conducted to evaluate damping ratio and frequency. Analysis conditions modified by similitude law are applied to experimental test considering different scale ratios. Generally, Nyquist frequency condition based on natural frequency modified by similitude law has been used to determine sampling rate for different scale ratios, and total time length has been determined by users arbitrarily or by considering similitude law with respect to time for different scale ratios. However, Nyquist frequency condition is not suitable for multimode system with noisy signals. In addition, there is no specified criteria for determination of total time length. Those analysis conditions severely affect accuracy of damping ratio. The focus of this study is made on the determination of minimum analysis conditions for different scale ratios. Influence of signal to noise ratio is studied according to the level of noise level. Free initial value problem is proposed to resolve the condition that is difficult to know original initial value for free vibration. Ambient and free vibration tests were used to analyze the dynamic properties of a system using data collected from tests with a two degree-of-freedom section model and performed on full bridge 3D models of cable stayed bridges. The free decay is estimated with the stochastic subspace identification method that uses displacement data to measure damping ratios under noisy conditions, and the iterative least squares method that adopts low pass filtering and fourth order central differencing. Reasonable results were yielded in numerical and experimental tests.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1085-1101
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• 2015

Changes in substructure conditions, such as ballast fouling and subgrade settlement may cause the railway quality deterioration, including the differential geometry of the rails. The objective of this study is to develop and apply a hybrid cone penetrometer (HCP) to characterize the railway substructure. The HCP consists of an outer rod and an inner mini cone, which can dynamically and statically penetrate the ballast and the subgrade, respectively. An accelerometer and four strain gauges are installed at the head of the outer rod and four strain gauges are attached at the tip of the inner mini cone. In the ballast, the outer rod provides a dynamic cone penetration index (DCPI) and the corrected DCPI (CDCPI) with the energy transferred into the rod head. Then, the inner mini cone is pushed to estimate the strength of the subgrade from the cone tip resistance. Laboratory application tests are performed on the specimen, which is prepared with gravel and sandy soil. In addition, the HCP is applied in the field and compared with the standard dynamic cone penetration test. The results from the laboratory and the field tests show that the cone tip resistance is inversely proportional to the CDCPI. Furthermore, in the subgrade, the HCP produces a high-resolution profile of the cone tip resistance and a profile of the CDCPI in the ballast. This study suggests that the dynamic and static penetration tests using the HCP may be useful for characterizing the railway substructure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.613-618
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• 2008

Because the flat dilatometer (DMT) is operated in appropriate strain level, it has been known as an adoptable in-situ tool to evaluate the compressibility of soils compare with other in-situ test tools, such as SPT and CPT. This study is concerned about prediction method of constrained modulus by DMT, and a series of DMT and consolidation tests are performed at Busan new-port, Yangsan and Noksan test sites. By comparing DMT results with lab tests, the suitability of constrained modulus correlation, which is suggested by Marchetti, is investigated in Busan clay and new correlation is suggested. In lab test result, the compression indices ($C_c$) of Busan clay are turned out to be 0.4~0.12, and the constrained moduli are found out 0.5MPa~3MPa and these are increase with depth. The predicted constrained moduli using Marchetti's correlation are turned out 0.5MPa~4MPa, and these are bigger than measured constrained moduli by lab tests. By analyzing lab test and DMT results, it is shown that the correlation coefficient ($R_M=M/E_D$) has a linear relationship with (1/$I_D$) in Busan.