• Survey Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-30
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• 2007

Several corporations are adopting the 6 Sigma program. Not all corporations are yielding intended results. The inconsistent results may due to the absence of an adequate strategy formulation of 6 Sigma implementation. The 6 Sigma is a qualify control program but its implications are not confined only to qualify improvement. The 6 Sigma program is a change program to bring about changes in organizations. The thesis focuses on developing an installation strategy or model of 6 Sigma program. The utility of the model developed in this research is supported by the empirical evidence. The validity of the model is tested and verified based on the questionnaire survey conducted at 281 business firms. Few research has adopted the empirical survey. The previous researches are mostly centered around identifying success factors. Unlike the present methodology adopted in this research, the past research methodologies are mainly case studies. The distinctive feature of this research does not confine only to the methodology. This research attempted to identify an installation model that would help enterprises get maximum output from the 6 Sigma program. The suggested model is named as Sequential Model(SM). The SM consists of three stages: the preparation stage, the acceptance stage, and the maturity stage. The model is based on the assumption that organizations should follow three stages sequentially to yield the desired output effectively, The preparation stage is further defined including the organizational change factor, the driving system factor, and the promotion factor. The result variable, the organizational performance, is also further defined including the market competitiveness, the employees competitiveness, and the financial performance. The Structural Equation Model was used to test the validity of the Sequential Model(SM). Several alternatives models were developed and compared. The test results consistently show that the suggested model is a valid one and proves its superiority over alternative models. Through this empirical research, we have shown that the strategies of enterprises in line with the proposed model gained better results over others. The research results would be useful information for enterprises that consider formulation of installation strategy of 6 Sigma program.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2014

Recently, the building of an intermodal transportation system has become the most important policy in the establishment of a national-wide sustainable transport system. In the case of rail and public transport, an intermodal connecting improvement policy is essential due to the lack of trip completeness. In particular, high-speed rail has brought dramatic changes to the transportation system in Korea and the idea of high-speed rail stations as major transportation nodes to be linked to various travel modes needs to be analyzed in terms of an intermodal network. Thus, this study proposes a new connectivity analysis method to objectively and quantitatively evaluate intermodal connecting performance for high-speed rail in terms of an intermodal network around high-speed rail stations. Seoul, Busan, Ulsan, and Sin-gyeongju stations were designated for a range of spatial analyses; detailed connecting performance indexes of travel modes connecting high-speed rail stations, and the influence sphere of these stations are analyzed, except for internal transfer facilities. Finally, this study proposes a connectivity analysis method that applies the structural equation model and develops a connectivity index.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.1-6
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• 2015

The actual condition is that environmental pollution due to the development of various industries has recently become a serious issue. An interest in improving the gas mileage is rising due to an increase in the number of vehicles in the era of high oil price in particular. In order to solve this problem, priority should be given to light-weight design of car body, However, at present, a design method enabling the conventional steel plate to be replaced is direly needed in order to guarantee passengers' safety according to excessive light-weight design of car body. In this study, in order to apply a design method that could realize fuel savings and environmental pollution prevention through an improvement in gas mileage together with meeting the safety requirements for vehicles, it was supposed that CFRP/Al composites member would be used as primary structural member. And to this end, it was intended to obtain optimum design data by experimentally implementing external impulsive load applied to the car body. According to results of impact test of CFRP/Al composites member, a collapsed shape of folding, crack, and bending occurred. So, it was possible to find that energy was observed. And in case of specimen having an angle of $90^{\circ}$ in the outermost layer and stack sequence of $[90^{\circ}{_2}/0^{\circ}2]s$, its collapsed length was shown to be short. Therefore, it was possible to find that the absorbed energy was shown to be higher by 20% or above at the maximum.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.91 no.2
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• pp.211-225
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• 2024

Soft bending actuators have gained significant interest in robotic applications due to their compliance and lightweight nature. Their compliance allows for safer and more natural interactions with humans or other objects, reducing the risk of injury or damage. However, the nonlinear behaviour of soft actuators presents challenges in accurately predicting their bending motion and force exertion. In this research, a new comprehensive study has been conducted by employing a developed 3D finite element model (FEM) to investigate the effect of geometrical and material parameters on the bending behaviour of a soft pneumatic actuator reinforced with Kevlar fibres. A series of experiments are designed to validate the FE model, and the FE model investigates the improvement of actuator performance. The material used for fabricating the actuator is RTV-2 silicone rubber. In this study, the Cauchy stress was expanded for hyperelastic models and the best model to express the stress-strain behaviour based on ASTM D412 Type C tensile test for this material has been obtained. The results show that the greatest bending angle was achieved for the semi-elliptical actuator made of RTV2 material with a pitch of 1.5 mm and second layer thickness of 1 mm. In comparison, the maximum response force was obtained for the semi-elliptical actuator made of RTV2 material with a pitch of 6 mm and a second layer thickness of 2 mm. Additionally, this research opens up new possibilities for development of safer and more efficient robotic systems that can interact seamlessly with humans and their environment.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 2018

Three-dimensional panels are one of the modern construction systems which can be placed in the category of industrial buildings. There have always been a lot of studies and efforts to identify the behavior of these panels and improve their capacity due to their earthquake resistance and high speed of performance. This study will provide a comparative evaluation of behavior of updated three-dimensional panel's structural components under lateral load in both independent and dependent modes. In fact, this study tries to simultaneously evaluate strengthening effect of three-dimensional panels and the effects of system state (independent, L-shaped and BOX shaped Walls) with reinforcement armatures with different angles on the three-dimensional panels. Overall, six independent wall model, L-shaped, roofed L-shaped, BOX-shaped walls with symmetric loading, BOX -shaped wall with asymmetrical loading and roofed BOX-shaped wall were built. Then the models are strengthened without strengthened reinforcement and with strengthened reinforcements with an angle of 30, 45 and 60 degrees. The applied lateral loading, is exerted by changing the location on the end wall. In BOX-shaped wall, in symmetric and asymmetric loading, the load bearing capacity will be increased about 200 and 50% respectively. Now, if strengthened, the load bearing capacity in symmetric and asymmetric loading will be increased 3.5 and 2 times respectively. The effective angle of placement of strengthened reinforcement in the independent wall is 45 and 60 degrees. But in BOX-shaped and L-shaped walls, the use of strengthened reinforcement 45 degrees is recommended.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.633-647
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• 2022

This paper presents the results from reliability analyses of the current Eurocode 4 (EN 1994-1-1) and AISC 360-16 design models for predicting the resistance of headed stud shear connectors within profiled steel sheeting, when the ribs are oriented transverse to the supporting beam. For comparison purposes, the performance of the alternative "Luxembourg" and "Stuttgart" model were also considered. From an initial database of 611 push-out tests, 269 cases were included in the study, which ensured that the results were valid over a wide range of geometrical and material properties. It was found that the current EN 1994-1-1 design rules deliver a corrected partial safety factor γ_M^* of around 2.0, which is significantly higher than the target value 1.25. Moreover, 179 tests fell within the domain of the concrete-related failure design equation. Notwithstanding this, the EN 1994-1-1 equations provide satisfactory results for re-entrant profiled sheeting. The AISC 360-16 design equation for steel failure covers 263 of the tests in the database and delivers 𝛾_M^*≈2.0. Conversely, whilst the alternative "Stuttgart" model provides an improvement over the current codes, only a corrected partial safety factor of 𝛾_M^*=1.47 is achieved. Finally, the alternative "Luxembourg" design model was found to deliver the required target value, with a corrected partial safety factor 𝛾_M^* between 1.21 and 1.28. Given the fact that the Luxembourg design model is the only model that achieved the target values required by EN 1990, it is recommended as a potential candidate for inclusion within the second generation of Eurocodes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.1007-1013
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• 2013

This study aims to analyze the aerodynamics when the geometry of the turbine rotor is modified. The turbine used in this study is a small engine used in the APU of a helicopter. It is difficult to improve the performance of small engines owing to the structural weakness of the blade tip. Therefore, the improvement of the hub geometry is investigated in many ways. The working fluid of a turbine is a high-temperature and high-pressure gas. The heat transfer rate of the turbine surface should be considered to avoid the destruction of blade owing to the heat load. The SST turbulence model gives an excellent prediction of the aerodynamic behavior and heat transfer characteristics when the numerical simulations are compared with the experimental results. In conclusion, the aerodynamic efficiency is improved when a bulbous design is applied to the leading edge near the hub. The endwall loss is reduced by 15%.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.150-158
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• 2010

There are lots of buildings with their deterioration in wholesale markets which have high concentration that can cause big fire due to difficulty of installing fire protection system in fire compartment, absence of safety awareness, access by many and unspecified people. There had been big fire that caused by these kind of fire weakness such as Seomun Market's in 2005 which costed tens of millions dollar, Dongmun Shopping District’s with 7 casualties. Now counter-measure against these fire is urgently needed. This study drew characteristic of current condition of wholesale markets and the one classified by main agent, fire cases and prevention of fire through statistical data. Also, current condition of fire prevention management and actual state were investigated by conducting a survey of person in charge of fire prevention and current practician. As a result, it was shown that securing professionalism of fire prevention, improvement of structural weakness of buildings, obtaining reliability on performance of fire protection system and internal fire education against practician in the market are needed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.89-99
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• 2012

The expansion of a road on soft ground could induce an additional settlement to the existing road because of the consolidation characteristics of the soft soil layer subjected to additional load by an adjacent banking. In such case, the existing road could be faced with various problems during the stages of the construction and maintenance, such as deterioration of not only the surface smoothness yielding the decrease in automobile performance safety but also the structural stability of the embankment. These kinds of problems are expected to occur more freguently especially for the deep ground level with a fairly thick soft soil layer. Therefore, they should be examined and studied adequately during the design stage. As a reference case study, this paper deals with the project named Namhae Expressway of 2nd Branch with the soft soil layer with the thickness upto about 50m. After a lengthy review of the original design, an improved design is proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.267-287
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• 2016

The seismic performance of the ordinary steel reinforced concrete (SRC) columns has no significant improvement compared to the reinforced concrete (RC) columns mainly because I, H or core cross-shaped steel cannot provide sufficient confinement for core concrete. Two improved SRC columns by constructing with new-type shaped steel were put forward on this background, and they were named as enlarging cross-shaped steel and diagonal cross-shaped steel for short. The seismic behavior and carrying capacity of new-type SRC columns have been researched theoretically and experimentally, while the shear behavior remains unclear when the new-type columns are joined onto SRC beams. This paper presents an experimental study to investigate the shear capacity of new-type SRC joints. For this purpose, four new-type and one ordinary SRC joints under low reversed cyclic loading were tested, and the failure patterns, load-displacement hysteretic curves, joint shear deformation and steel strain were also observed. The ultimate shear force of joint specimens was calculated according to the beam-end counterforce, and effects of steel shape, load angel and structural measures on shear capacity of joints were analyzed. The test results indicate that: (1) the new-type SRC joints display shear failure pattern and has higher shear capacity than the ordinary one; (2) the oblique specimens have good bearing capacity if designed reasonably; and (3) the two proposed construction measures have little effect on the shear capacity of SRC joints embedded with diagonal cross-shaped steel. Based on the mechanism observed from the test, the formulas for calculating ultimate shear capacity considering the main factors (steel web, stirrup and axial compression ratio) were derived, and the calculated results agreed well with the experimental and simulated data.