• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.623-640
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• 2015

This paper presents techniques to harvest higher voltage from piezoelectric cantilever energy harvester by structural alteration. Three different energy harvesting structures are considered namely, stepped cantilever beam, stepped cantilever beam with rectangular and trapezoidal cavity. The analytical model of three energy harvesting structures are developed using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The thickness, position of the rectangular cavity and the taper angle of the trapezoidal cavity is found to shift the neutral axis away from the surface of the piezoelectric element which in turn increases the generated voltage. The performance of the energy harvesters is evaluated experimentally and is compared with regular piezoelectric cantilever energy harvester. The analytical and experimental investigations reveal that, the proposed energy harvesting structures generate higher output voltage as compared to the regular piezoelectric cantilever energy harvesting structure. This work suggests that through simple structural modifications higher energy can be harvested from the widely reported piezoelectric cantilever energy harvester.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.93-112
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• 2009

In this study seismic analyses of steel structures were carried out to examine the effect of ground motion characteristics and structural properties on energy demands using 100 earthquake ground motions recorded in different soil conditions, and the results were compared with those of previous works. Analysis results show that ductility ratios and the site conditions have significant influence on input energy. The ratio of hysteretic to input energy is considerably influenced by the ductility ratio and the strong motion duration. It is also observed that as the predominant periods of the input energy spectra are significantly larger than those of acceleration response spectra used in the strength design, the strength demand on a structure designed based on energy should be checked especially in short period structures. For that reason framed structures with buckling-restrained-braces (BRBs) were designed in such a way that all the input energy was dissipated by the hysteretic energy of the BRBs, and the results were compared with those designed by conventional strength-based design procedure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Advanced Composite Structures
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.36-46
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• 2012

Structure Insulated Panel (SIP) is an wooden structure material with which structure and insulation functions are satisfied. Hence, it would be a cost-effective model to implement low energy house which has higher insulation and structure performance and which the wall thickness is able to be reduced. In this study, performance of thermal insulation and fire resistance were evaluated in order to verify applicability to low energy house. Fire resistance test is performed on vertical load bearing members for partitions, and the test results satisfy one hour of fire resistance condition according to KS F 2257. The members include two layers of fireproof gypsum board with thicknesses of 12.5mm attached to SIP. Thermal insulation performance is satisfied with the 2012 standard ($0.225W/m^2{\cdot}K$). As the performance of resistance and thermal insulation are satisfied, SIP is expected to be applied to low energy building materials. In the future, the structural safety will be confirmed by structural performance and seismic performance test and the guidelines for distribution will be drawn up.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.135-146
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• 2020

This paper deals with an application of adaptive blind source separation (BSS) method, equivariant adaptive separation via independence (EASI), and Teager Energy Operator (TEO) for online identification of structural modal parameters. The aim of adaptive BSS methods is recovering a set of independent sources from their unknown linear mixtures in each step when a new sample is received. In the proposed approach, firstly, the EASI method is used to decompose structural responses into independent sources at each instance. Secondly, the TEO based demodulation method with discrete energy separation algorithm (DESA-1) is applied to each independent source, and the instantaneous frequencies and damping ratios are extracted. The DESA-1 method can provide the fast time response and has high resolution so it is suitable for online problems. This paper also compares the performance of DESA-1 algorithm with Hilbert transform (HT) method. Compared to HT method, the DESA-1 method requires smaller amounts of samples to estimate and has a smaller computational complexity and faster adaption due to instantaneous characteristic. Furthermore, due to high resolution of the DESA-1 algorithm, it is very sensitive to noise and outliers. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been validated using synthetic examples and a benchmark structure.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.8
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• pp.821-827
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• 2015

This study concentrates on a wave energy converter with floaters that extracts the ocean's energy by moving up and down with the wave motion. The floater is connected to an arm structure, including a hydraulic cylinder that drives a hydraulic generator. This study focuses on a structural analysis of the floater unit, including arm and cylinder components, platform and jack-up system, along with spud columns. Previous studies have been conducted for miniature models for experimentation, but this study focuses on the full-scale model structural analysis. Static structural analysis is conducted using fine numerical grids. Due to the complexity of the whole model, it is analyzed in separate pieces. The floater unit, with arm and cylinder, are combined into one system. The platform is analyzed separately as a single system. There are four jack-up systems for each spud column; only one jack-up system is analyzed, as uniform loads are assumed on each system. There are several load cases for each system, all of which are analyzed thoroughly for stress (von Mises, shear, and normal) and deformation. Acceptable results were obtained for most of the components; unsafe components were redesigned.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.187-194
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• 2003

This paper presents an energy method for the analysis of the in-plane ultimate load capacity of cable-stayed bridges considering deck and pylon connection. The potential energy of the whole bridge, including bridge deck, stayed cables, and pylons, and the work done by external loads are considered in the development of the bridge energy equation. Both geometric and material nonlinearities are taken into account in the analysis. The method is simple to use and has a high convergence rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.155-156
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• 2017

In this study, the structural integrity of the spent nuclear fuel assemblies was evaluated by carrying out a 0.3 m drop impact analysis, one of the normal transportation conditions of the nuclear fuel assemblies. For this purpose, the spent nuclear fuel assembly was modeled in detail as beam elements, and a coupled model for impact analysis was developed by inserting the modeled nuclear fuel assemblies into a cask.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.347-362
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• 2005

The input energy to a base-isolated (BI) building during an earthquake is considered and formulated in the frequency domain. The frequency-domain approach for input energy computation has some notable advantages over the conventional time-domain approach. Sensitivities of the input energy to the BI building are derived with respect to uncertain parameters in the base-isolation system. It is demonstrated that the input energy can be of a compact form via the frequency integration of the product between the input component (Fourier amplitude spectrum of acceleration) and the structural model component (so-called energy transfer function). With the help of this compact form, it is shown that the formulation of earthquake input energy in the frequency domain is essential for deriving the sensitivities of the input energy to the BI building with respect to uncertain parameters. The sensitivity expressions provide us with information on the most unfavorable combination of the uncertain parameters which leads to the maximum energy input.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.spc
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• pp.21-36
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• 2020

With respect to spent nuclear fuels, disposal containers and bentonite buffer blocks in deep geological disposal systems are the primary engineered barrier elements that are required to isolate radioactive toxicity for a long period of time and delay the leakage of radio nuclides such that they do not affect human and natural environments. Therefore, the thermal stability of the bentonite buffer and structural integrity of the disposal container are essential factors for maintaining the safety of a deep geological disposal system. The most important requirement in the design of such a system involves ensuring that the temperature of the buffer does not exceed 100℃ because of the decay heat emitted from high-level wastes loaded in the disposal container. In addition, the disposal containers should maintain structural integrity under loads, such as hydraulic pressure, at an underground depth of 500 m and swelling pressure of the bentonite buffer. In this study, we analyzed the thermal stability and structural integrity in a deep geological disposal environment of the improved deep geological disposal systems for domestic light-water and heavy-water reactor types of spent nuclear fuels, which were considered to be subject to direct disposal. The results of the thermal stability and structural integrity assessments indicated that the improved disposal systems for each type of spent nuclear fuel satisfied the temperature limit requirement (< 100℃) of the disposal system, and the disposal containers were observed to maintain their integrity with a safety ratio of 2.0 or higher in the environment of deep disposal.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.333-347
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• 2009

Due to structural complicacy, structural health monitoring for civil engineering needs more accurate and effectual methods of damage identification. This study aims to import multi-source information fusion (MSIF) into structural damage diagnosis to improve the validity of damage detection. Firstly, the essential theory and applied mathematic methods of MSIF are introduced. And then, the structural damage identification method based on multi-mode information fusion is put forward. Later, on the basis of a numerical simulation of a concrete continuous box beam bridge, it is obviously indicated that the improved modal strain energy method based on multi-mode information fusion has nicer sensitivity to structural initial damage and favorable robusticity to noise. Compared with the classical modal strain energy method, this damage identification method needs much less modal information to detect structural initial damage. When the noise intensity is less than or equal to 10%, this method can identify structural initial damage well and truly. In a word, this structural damage identification method based on multi-mode information fusion has better effects of structural damage identification and good practicability to actual structures.