• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.5 no.6
• /
• pp.679-702
• /
• 2013

During an earthquake, soils filter and send out the shaking to the building and simultaneously it has the role of bearing the building vibrations and transmitting them back to the ground. In other words, the ground and the building interact with each other. Hence, soil-structure interaction (SSI) is a key parameter that affects the performance of buildings during the earthquakes and is worth to be taken into consideration. Columns are one of the most crucial elements in RC buildings that play an important role in stability of the building and must be able to dissipate energy under seismic loads. Recent earthquakes showed that formation of plastic hinges in columns is still possible as a result of strong ground motion, despite the application of strong column-weak beam concept, as recommended by various design codes. Energy is dissipated through the plastic deformation of specific zones at the end of a member without affecting the rest of the structure. The formation of a plastic hinge in an RC column in regions that experience inelastic actions depends on the column details as well as soil-structure interaction (SSI). In this paper, 854 different scenarios have been analyzed by inelastic time-history analyses to predict the nonlinear behavior of RC columns considering soil-structure interaction (SSI). The effects of axial load, height over depth ratio, main period of soil and structure as well as different characteristics of earthquakes, are evaluated analytically by finite element methods and the results are compared with corresponding experimental data. Findings from this study provide a simple expression to estimate plastic hinge length of RC columns including soil-structure interaction.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.341-351
• /
• 2020

Steel plate shear wall with self-centering energy dissipation braces (SPSW-SCEDB) is a lateral force-resisting system that exhibits flag-shaped hysteretic responses, which consists of two pre-pressed spring self-centering energy dissipation (PS-SCED) braces and a wall plate connected to horizontal boundary elements only. The present study conducted a series of cyclic tests to study the hysteretic performances of braces in SPSW-SCEDB and the effects of braces on the overall hysteretic characteristics of this system. The SPSW-SCEDB with PS-SCED braces only exhibits excellent self-centering capability and the energy loss caused by the large inclination angle of PS-SCED braces can be compensated by appropriately increasing the friction force. Under the combined effect of the two components, the SPSW-SCEDB exhibits a flag-shaped hysteretic response with large lateral resistance, good energy dissipation and self-centering capabilities. In addition, the wall plate is the primary energy dissipation component and the PS-SCED braces provide supplementary energy dissipation for system. The PS-SCED braces can provide up to 90% self-centering capability for the SPSW-SCEDB system. The compressive bearing capacity of the wall plate should be smaller than the horizontal remaining restoring force of the braces to achieve better self-centering effect of the system.

• Journal of IKEEE
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.265-273
• /
• 2012

Data stability and leakage power dissipation have become a critical issue in scaled SRAM design. In this paper, an advanced 8T SRAM cell improving the read and write stability of data storage elements as well as reducing the leakage current in the idle mode is presented. During the read operation, the bit-cell keeps the noise-vulnerable data 'low' node voltage close to the ground level, and thus producing near-ideal voltage transfer characteristics essential for robust read functionality. In the write operation, a negative bias on the cell facilitates to change the contents of the bit. Unlike the conventional 6T cell, there is no conflicting read and write requirement on sizing the transistors. In the standby mode, the built-in stacked device in the 8T cell reduces the leakage current significantly. The 8T SRAM cell implemented in a 130 nm CMOS technology demonstrates almost 100 % higher read stability while bearing 20 % better write-ability at 1.2 V typical condition, and a reduction by 45 % in leakage power consumption compared to the standard 6T cell. The stability enhancement and leakage power reduction provided with the proposed bit-cell are confirmed under process, voltage and temperature variations.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.19 no.11
• /
• pp.1529-1535
• /
• 2006

Leptin has been investigated as a candidate gene for fat characteristics in beef cattle. Previously, we have reported 57 sequence variants discovered in Korean cattle (Bos Taurus coreanae). In this study, we examined the association between polymorphisms of leptin and carcass traits (cold carcass weight (CWT) and marbling score (Marb)) in Korean cattle. Among 57 polymorphisms, 11 common polymorphic sites were genotyped in our beef cattle (n = 437). Statistical analysis revealed that one single nucleotide polymorphism in coding exon (c.+411T>C (A137A)) showed a significant association with the yield trait, CWT. The C-bearing genotypes (CC or CT) of c.+411T>C (A137A) showed the higher CWT (p = 0.006). c.+150C>G (S50S) also showed a significant association with the quality trait, Marb (p = 0.01). Our findings suggest that polymorphisms in leptin might be one of the important genetic factors that influence carcass yield and quality in beef cattle, especially in CWT and Marb.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.563-570
• /
• 2018

Ballast layer has an important role in vertical stiffness and stability of railway track. In most of the Middle East countries and some of the Asian ones, significant parts of railway lines pass through desert areas where the track (particularly ballast layer) is contaminated with sands. Despite considerable number of derailments reported in the sand contaminated tracks, there is a lack of sufficient studies on the influences of sand contamination on the ballast vertical stiffness as the main indicator of track stability. Addressing this limitation, the effects of sand contamination on the mechanical behavior of ballast were experimentally investigated. For this purpose, laboratory tests (plate load test) on ballast samples with different levels of sand contamination were carried out. The results obtained were analyzed leading to derive mathematical expressions for the strain modulus ($E_V$) as a function of the ballast level of contamination. The $E_V$ was used as an index for evaluation of the load-deformation characteristics and bearing capacity of track substructure. The critical limit of sand contamination, after which the $E_V$ of the ballast reduces drastically, was obtained. It was shown that the obtained research results improve the current track maintenance approach by providing key guides for the optimization of ballast maintenance planning (the timing of ballast cleaning or renewal).

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.23-33
• /
• 2017

Variable Curvature Friction Pendulum (VCFP) bearing is one of the alternatives to control excessive induced responses of isolated structures subjected to near-fault ground motions. The curvature of sliding surface in this isolator is varying with displacement and its function is non-spherical. Selecting the most appropriate function for the sliding surface depends on the design objectives and ground motion characteristics. To date, few polynomial functions have been experimentally tested for VCFP however it needs comprehensive parametric study to find out which one provides the most effective behavior. Herein, seismic performance of the isolated structure mounted on VCFP is investigated with two different polynomial functions of the sliding surface (Order 4 and 6). By variation of the constants in these functions through changing design parameters, 120 cases of isolators are evaluated and the most proper function is explored to minimize floor acceleration and/or isolator displacement under different hazard levels. Beside representing the desire sliding surface with adaptive behavior, it was shown that the polynomial function with order 6 has least possible floor acceleration under seven near-field ground motions in different levels.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.103-111
• /
• 2017

Saudi Arabia coastal area is highly valuable construction as a flat area covered by sabkha deposit. However, sabkha deposit has some geotechnical problems because of high groundwater level, high salt contents in groundwater, loose density, and possibility of collapsible settlement due to presence of crystals vulnerable to moisture, and ground improvement is needed to improve the bearing capacity. In this study, the characteristics of the sabkha soils in the coastal area of Saudi Arabia were analyzed and the applicability of dynamic compaction method was evaluated. Parametric study was conducted to analyze the behavior of sabkha deposit during dynamic compaction. The appropriateness of the proposed analytical solutions to estimate the depth of improvement was evaluated, and the troubles and notes in applying dynamic compaction in sabkha deposit were discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Applied Superconductivity and Cryogenics Conference
• /
• 2002.02a
• /
• pp.173-176
• /
• 2002

Fundamental failure mode in a laminated composite pinned joint is proposed to assess damage resulting from stress concentration in the plate. The joint area is a region with stress concentrations thus a complicated stress state exists. The modeling of damage in a laminated composite pinned joint presents many difficulties because of the complexity of the failure process. In this study, the effect on the bearing strength of the pin jointed Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) composites for magnet support structure of KSTAR tokamak with various parameters such as edge distance to diameter, width to diameter, and the temperature of $23^{\circ}C$, $-76^{\circ}C$, and $-196^{\circ}C$ was examined by comparing the experimental results with finite element analysis.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.43-50
• /
• 2000

This paper presents the engineering property of light weight soil made of soil mixed with recycled stylofoam and stabilizer. Recycled stylofoam beads is able to use by lightweight fill materials because it is light, adiabatic, and effective for vibration interception. Especially, recycled stylofoam beads is easy to supply because stylofoam have been recycle item in 1996. In this study, physical and geotechnical properties of the light weight mixed soil(weathered granite soil mixed with Stylofoam Beads) were analyzed by laboratory experiments to examine its suitability for backfill materials. Laboratory tests were performed to evaluated strength, bearing capacity, weight, permeability, microphotograph analysis with variation of mixing ratio. Based on the results, it is concluded that the use of recycled stylofoam beads is acceptable lightweight fill.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.19-25
• /
• 2007

Stone columns is the ground improvement method which composed of compacted gravel or crushed stone inserted into the soft ground consisting of loose sand and clay. There are many difficulties in quantitative analysis of soil-pile interaction because settlement behavior of stone columns is affected by various parameters. In this study, various parameters of behavior of end-bearing group piles are investigated by load tests. Finally, the improved characteristics of soft ground and the influence of design parameters are investigated in this study using PR (performance ratio) value. From the PR value calculation and test results, we know that settlement behavior of stone columns is affected by area replacement ratio of composite ground, diameter of column rather than embedment ratio and mat.