• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.183-200
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• 2014

The expansivity of clayey soils is a complicated phenomenon which may affect the stability of geotechnical structures and geo-environmental projects. In all common factors for the monitoring of soil expansion, less attention is given to anion type of pore space solutions. Therefore, this paper is concerned with the impact of various concentrations of different inorganic salts including NaCl, $Na_2SO_4$, and $Na_2CO_3$ on the macro and microstructure behavior of the expandable smectite clay. Comparison of the responses of the smectite/NaCl and smectite/$Na_2SO_4$ mixtures indicates that the effect of anion valance on the soil engineering properties is not very pronounced, regardless of the electrolyte concentration. However, at presence of carbonate as potential determining ions (PDIs) the swelling power increases up to 1.5 times compared to sulfate or chloride ions. The samples with $Na_2CO_3$ are also more deformable and show lower osmotic compressibility than the other mixtures. This demonstrates that the barrier performance of smectite greatly decreases in case of anions with the non-specific adsorption (e.g., $Cl^-$ and $SO{_4}^{2-}$) as the salinity of solution increases. Based on the results of the X-ray diffraction and sedimentation tests, the high soil volumetric changes upon exposure to carbonate is attributed to an increase in the repulsive forces between smectite basic unit layers due to the PDI effect of $CO{_3}^{2-}$ and increasing the pH level which enhance the buffering capacity of smectite. The study concluded that the nature of anion through its influence on the re-arrangement of soil microstructure and osmotic phenomena governs the hydro-mechanical parameters of expansive clays. It seems not coinciding with the double layer theory of the Gouy-Chapman double layer model.

• Journal of Institute of Convergence Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2018

We developed nano-porous $TiO_2-SiO_2$ composites (commercial name : PTI, porous titania insulator) with low thermal conductivity as thermal insulating material as well as function of photocatalyst. The objectives of this paper are, firstly, to evaluate of the thermal conductivity of the PTI powder in the temperature range from -160 to $250^{\circ}C$, secondly to evaluate of thermal conductivities of insulation materials that is applied PTI powder. The structure of the PTI powder that has the pores size of 20-30 nm and the particle diameter of 2-10 nm. The PTI had a high surface area of $400m^2/g$ and a mean pore size of $45{\AA}$, which was fairly uniform. The thermal conductivity was measured by GHP(guarded hot plate) method and HFM(heat flux method). The PTI structure is a three-dimensional network nano-structures composed by a pearl-necklace that involved a precious stone in the center of the necklace. The thermal conductivities of PTI-PX powder by the GHP and HFM were 0.0366 W/m.K, 0.0314 W/m.K at $20^{\circ}C$, respectively. This is similar to values that are proportional to the square of the absolute temperature of the thermal conductivity of static air. The thermal conductivities of insulating sheets coated with PTI powder were similar results with that of the PTI powder.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.675-687
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• 2018

In the previous studies on the porous rock strength the effect of pore number and its diameter is not explicitly defined. In this paper crack initiation, propagation and coalescence in Brazilian model disc containing a single cylindrical hole and or multiple holes have been studied numerically using PFC3D. In model with internal hole, the ratio of hole diameter to model diameter was varied between 0.03, 0.17, 0.25, 0.33, and 0.42. In model with multiple hole number of holes was different in various model, i.e., one hole, two holes, three holes, four holes, five holes, six holes, seven holes, eight holes and nine holes. Diameter of these holes was 5 mm, 10 mm and 12 mm. The pre-holed Brazilian discs are numerically tested under Brazilian test. The breakage load in the ring type disc specimens containing an internal hole with varying diameters is measured. The mechanism of cracks propagation in the wall of the ring type specimens is also studied. In the case of multi-hole Brazilian disc, the cracks propagation and b cracks coalescence are also investigated. The results shows that breaking of the pre-holed disc specimens is due to the propagation of radially induced tensile cracks initiated from the surface of the central hole and propagating toward the direction of diametrical loading. In the case of disc specimens with multiple holes, the cracks propagation and cracks coalescence may occur simultaneously in the breaking process of model under diametrical compressive loading. Finally the results shows that the failure stress and crack initiation stress decreases by increasing the hole diameter. Also, the failure stress decreases by increasing the number of hole which mobilized in failure. The results of these simulations were comprised with other experimental and numerical test results. It has been shown that the numerical and experimental results are in good agreement with each other.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.208-215
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• 2021

Metal three-dimensional (3D) printing is an important emerging processing method in powder metallurgy. There are many successful applications of additive manufacturing. However, processing parameters such as laser power and scan speed must be manually optimized despite the development of artificial intelligence. Automatic calibration using information in an additive manufacturing database is desirable. In this study, 15 commercial pure titanium samples are processed under different conditions, and the 3D pore structures are characterized by X-ray tomography. These samples are easily classified into three categories, unmelted, well melted, or overmelted, depending on the laser energy density. Using more than 10,000 projected images for each category, convolutional neural networks are applied, and almost perfect classification of these samples is obtained. This result demonstrates that machine learning methods based on X-ray tomography can be helpful to automatically identify more suitable processing parameters.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.369-378
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• 2022

The recycling of solid waste materials to fabricate carbon-based electrode materials is of great interest for low-cost green supercapacitors. In this study, porous carbon foam (PCF) was prepared from waste floral foam (WFF) as an electrode material for supercapacitors. WFF was directly carbonized at various temperatures of 600, 800, and 1,000 ℃ under an inert atmosphere. The WFF-derived PCF (C-WFF) was found to have a specific surface area of 458.99 m²/g with multi-modal pore structures. The supercapacitive behavior of the prepared C-WFF was evaluated using a three-electrode system in a 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte. As a result, the prepared C-WFF as an active material showed a high specific capacitance of 206 F/g at 1 A/g, a rate capability of 36.4 % at 20 A/g, a specific power density of 2,500 W/kg at an energy density of 2.68 Wh/kg, and a cycle stability of 99.96 % at 20 A/g after 10,000 cycles. These results indicate that the C-WFF prepared from WFF could be a promising candidate as an electrode material for high-performance green supercapacitors.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.270-279
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• 2022

In this study, N/S co-doped carbon felt (N/S-CF) was prepared and characterized as an electrode material for electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). A commercial carbon felt (CF) was immersed in an aqueous solution of thiourea and then thermally treated at 800 ℃ under an inert atmosphere. The prepared N/S-CF showed a large specific surface area with hierarchical pore structures. The electrochemical performance of the N/S-CF-based electrode was evaluated using both 3-electrode and 2-electrode systems. In the 3-electrode system, the N/S-CF-based electrode showed a good specific capacitance of 177 F/g at 1 A/g and a good rate capability of 41% at 20 A/g. In the 2-electrode system (symmetric capacitor), the freestanding N/S-CF-based electrode showed a specific capacitance of 275 mF/cm² at 2 mA/cm², a rate capability of 62.5 % at 100 mA/cm², a specific power density of ~ 25,000 mW/cm² at an energy density of 23.9 mWh/cm², and a cycling stability of ~ 100 % at 100 mA/cm² after 20,000 cycles. These results indicate the N/S co-doped carbon felts can be a promising candidate as a new electrode material in a symmetric capacitor.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.255-270
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• 2023

One of the main parameters that affect the design of suction caisson-supported offshore structures is uplift behavior. Pull-out of suction caissons is profoundly utilized as the offshore wind turbine foundations accompany by a tensile resistance that is a function of a complex interaction between the caisson dimensions, geometry, wall roughness, soil type, load history, pull-out rate, and many other parameters. In this paper, a parametric study using a 3-D finite element model (FEM) of a single offshore suction caisson (SOSC) surrounded by saturated soil is performed to examine the effect of some key factors on the tensile resistance of the suction bucket foundation. Among the aforementioned parameters, caisson geometry and uplift loading as well as the difference between the tensile resistance and suction pressure on the behavior of the soil-foundation system including tensile capacity are investigated. For this purpose, a full model including 3-D suction caisson, soil, and soil-structure interaction (SSI) is developed in Abaqus based on the u-p formulation accounting for soil displacement (u) and pore pressure, P.The dynamic responses of foundations are compared and validated with the known results from the literature. The paper has focused on the effect of geometry change of 3-D SOSC to present the soil-structure interaction and the tensile capacity. Different 3-D caisson models such as triangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, and octagonal are employed. It is observed that regardless of the caisson geometry, by increasing the uplift loading rate, the tensile resistance increases. More specifically, it is found that the resistance to pull-out of the cylinder is higher than the other geometries and this geometry is the optimum one for designing caissons.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.61-71
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• 2006

A numerical procedure is presented fur evaluating seismic liquefaction on sloping ground sites. The procedure uses a fully coupled dynamic effective stress analysis with a plastic constitutive model called UBCSAND. The model was first calibrated against laboratory element behavior. This involved cyclic simple shear tests performed on loose sand with and without initial static shear stress. The numerical procedure is then verified by predicting a centrifuge test with a slope performed on loose Fraser River sand. The predicted excess pore pressures, accelerations and displacements are compared with the measurements. The results are shown to be in good agreement. The shear stress reversal patterns depend on static and cyclic shear stress levels and are shown to play a key role in evaluating liquefaction response in sloping ground sites. The sand near the slope has low effective confining stress and dilates more. When no stress reversals occur, the sand behaves in a stiffer manner that curtails the accumulated downslope displacements. The numerical procedure using UBCSAND can serve as a guide for design of new soil structures or retrofit of existing ones.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.113-123
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• 2007

In order to ensure the stability of reinforced structures backfilled with low permeability soil, it is very important to determine the change in undrained pullout capacity compared to drained pullout capacity prior to design. In this research, a series of numerical analyses on laboratory pullout tests have been performed on different materials (clean sand, 5, 10, and 15% silty sand), different overburden pressures (30, 100 and 200 kPa), and different drainage conditions (drained and undrained) in order to compare drained pullout capacity with undrained pullout capacity. The results of numerical analysis also have been compared with the results of the laboratory pullout tests. The analysis results show that both drained and undrained pullout capacity are influenced by silt contents and increase with increase of friction angle of the soil and overburden pressure. In undrained condition, the effective stresses acting on the reinforcement decrease as excessive pore pressures are generated, resulting in decrease in pullout capacity; 57% for 30 kPa, and 70% for 100 and 200 kPa. These results show a good agreement with the results of the laboratory pullout tests performed under the same condition.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.430-438
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• 2023

In this study, we synthesized pH-controlled resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) gels through the polymerization of two starting materials: resorcinol and formaldehyde. The prepared RF gels were dried using an acetone substitution method, and they were subsequently carbonized under nitrogen atmosphere to obtain carbon xerogels (CX_Y) prepared at different pH (Y). The carbon xerogels were utilized as active materials for coin-type organic supercapacitor electrodes to investigate the influence of pH on the electrochemical properties of the carbon xerogels. The carbon xerogels prepared at lower pH (CX_9.5 and CX_10) exhibited sufficient particle growth, with a three-dimensional network of particles during the RF gel formation, resulting in the development of abundant mesopores. Conversely, the carbon xerogels prepared at higher pH (CX_11 and CX_12) retained densely packed structures of small particles, leading to pore collapse and low specific surface areas. Consequently, CX_9.5 and CX_10 showed high specific surface areas, and provided ample adsorption sites for the formation of electric double layers with electrolyte ions. Moreover, the three-dimensional particle network in CX_9.5 and CX_10 significantly enhanced electrical conductivity. The presence of well-developed mesopores in these materials further facilitated the effective transport of electrolyte ions, contributing to their superior performance as organic supercapacitor electrodes. This study confirmed that pH-controlled carbon xerogels are one of the promising active materials for organic supercapacitor electrodes. Furthermore, we concluded that pH during RF gel formation is a crucial factor determining the electrode performance of the carbon xerogels, highlighting the need for precise pH control to obtain high-performance carbon xerogel electrodes.