• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.209-233
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• 2013

With an annual growth rate of about 30%, wind energy systems, such as wind turbines, represent one of the fastest growing renewable energy technologies. Continuous structural health monitoring of wind turbines can help improving structural reliability and facilitating optimal decisions with respect to maintenance and operation at minimum associated life-cycle costs. This paper presents an integrated monitoring system that is designed to support structural assessment and life-cycle management of wind turbines. The monitoring system systematically integrates a wide variety of hardware and software modules, including sensors and computer systems for automated data acquisition, data analysis and data archival, a multiagent-based system for self-diagnosis of sensor malfunctions, a model updating and damage detection framework for structural assessment, and a management module for monitoring the structural condition and the operational efficiency of the wind turbine. The monitoring system has been installed on a 500 kW wind turbine located in Germany. Since its initial deployment in 2009, the system automatically collects and processes structural, environmental, and operational wind turbine data. The results demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach not only to ensure continuous safety of the structures, but also to enable cost-efficient maintenance and operation of wind turbines.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.339-352
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• 2015

Ancient masonry towers constitute a relevant part of the cultural heritage of humanity. Their earthquake protection is a topic of great concern among researchers due to the strong damage suffered by these brittle and massive structures through the history. The identification of the seismic behavior and failure of towers under seismic loading is complex. This strongly depends on many factors such as soil characteristics, geometry, mechanical properties of masonry and heavy mass, as well as the earthquake frequency content. A deep understanding of these aspects is the key for the correct seismic vulnerability evaluation of towers and to design the most suitable retrofitting measure. Recent tendencies on the seismic retrofitting of historical structures by means of prestressing are related to the use of smart materials. The most famous cases of application of prestressing in towers were discussed. Compared to horizontal prestressing, vertical post-tensioning is aimed at improving the seismic behavior of towers by reducing damage with the application of an overall distribution of compressive stresses at key locations.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.54-62
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• 2021

Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune rheumatic disease characterized by the presence of lymphocytic infiltration of exocrine glands and other organs. Due to the rarity of SS, it is frequently overlooked by dentists as a cause of xerostomia. Clinicians should be aware that patients may have oral complications from SS including oral mucosal pain caused by frictional damage. Use of the latest diagnostic criteria approved by the American College of Rheumatology/European League against Rheumatism in 2016 for SS diagnosis provides the advantage of early identification of patients who have not yet developed dry mouth symptoms. A case of primary SS with the chief complaint of oral mucosal pain caused by mucosal damage associated with dry mouth is presented here. This case represents the importance of recognizing oral complications of xerostomia caused by SS, and illustrates use of the latest diagnostic criteria to diagnose the suspected symptoms by dental clinicians, who typically might be the first medical professional to encounter these symptoms.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2023

The amount of money processed in medicine from the Korea Consumer Agency was studied by the various time series models. The medical data set from the Korea Consumer Agency were consisted of counseling, damage relief and conciliation. For the analysis of time series, autoregressive moving average model, vector autoregressive model and the transfer function model were used. We considered the stationarity and cross correlation function for the identification and fitting. As a result, the transfer function model showed a better prediction. Whereas, the vector autoregressive model also provided good information for the degree and duration of the influence of variables.

• Composites Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.31-36
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• 2007

A quantitative prediction method for initial crack length in a carbon/epoxy (CF/EP) composite beam using active piezoelectric transducers was established in this study. Wavelet Transform (WT)-based signal processing and identification technique in time-frequency domain was developed to facilitate the determination of damage presence and severity. Dynamic response of a CF/EP composites beam containing a continuously expanding crack, coupled with a pair of active piezoelectric disks, was examined under a narrow band excitation, and then applied with the proposed signal processing technique.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.409-424
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• 2015

Structural nonlinearity is a common phenomenon encountered in engineering structures under severe dynamic loading. It is necessary to localize and identify structural nonlinearities using structural dynamic measurements for damage detection and performance evaluation of structures. However, identification of nonlinear structural systems is a difficult task, especially when proper mathematical models for structural nonlinear behaviors are not available. In prior studies on nonparametric identification of nonlinear structures, the locations of structural nonlinearities are usually assumed known and all structural responses are measured. In this paper, an identification algorithm is proposed for locating and identifying model-free structural nonlinearities and systems using incomplete measurements of structural responses. First, equivalent linear structural systems are established and identified by the extended Kalman filter (EKF). The locations of structural nonlinearities are identified. Then, the model-free structural nonlinear restoring forces are approximated by power series polynomial models. The unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is utilized to identify structural nonlinear restoring forces and structural systems. Both numerical simulation examples and experimental test of a multi-story shear building with a MR damper are used to validate the proposed algorithm.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.351-366
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• 2010

A novel system identification and structural health assessment procedure of steel framed structures with semi-rigid connections is presented in this paper. It is capable of detecting damages at the local element level under normal operating conditions; i.e., serviceability limit state. The procedure is a linear time-domain system identification technique in which the structure responses are required, whereas the dynamic excitation force is not required to identify the structural parameters. The procedure tracks changes in the stiffness properties of all the elements in a structure. It can identify damage-free and damaged structural elements very accurately when excited by different types of dynamic loadings. The method is elaborated with the help of several numerical examples. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm identified the structures correctly and detected the pre-imposed damages in the frames when excited by earthquake, impact, and harmonic loadings. The algorithm can potentially be used for structural health assessment and monitoring of existing structures with minimum disruption of operations. Since the procedure requires only a few time points of response information, it is expected to be economic and efficient.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1087-1107
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• 2016

A method of damage detection based on the moving harmonic excitation and continuous wavelet transforms is presented. The applied excitation is used as a moving actuator and its frequency and speed parameters can be adjusted for an amplified response. The continuous wavelet transforms, CWT, is used for cracks detection based on the resulting amplified signal. It is demonstrated that this identification procedure is largely better than the classical ones based on eigenfrequencies or on the eigenmodes wavelet transformed. For vibration responses, free and forced vibration analyses of multi-cracked beams are investigated based on both analytical and numerical methodological approaches. Cracks are modeled through rotational springs whose compliances are evaluated using linear elastic fracture mechanics. Based on the obtained forced responses, multi-cracks positions are accurately identified and the CWT identification can be highly improved by adjusting the frequency and the speed excitation parameters.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.259-264
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• 2005

This paper presents a vital area identification (VAI) method based on the current fault tree analysis (FTA) and probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) techniques for the physical protection of nuclear power plants. A structured framework of a top event prevention set analysis (TEPA) application to the VAI of nuclear power plants is also delineated. One of the important processes for physical protection in a nuclear power plant is VAI that is a process for identifying areas containing nuclear materials, structures, systems or components (SSCs) to be protected from sabotage, which could directly or indirectly lead to core damage and unacceptable radiological consequences. A software VIP (Vital area Identification Package based on the PSA method) is being developed by KAERI for the VAI of nuclear power plants. Furthermore, the KAERI fault tree solver FTREX (Fault Tree Reliability Evaluation eXpert) is specialized for the VIP to generate the candidates of the vital areas. FTREX can generate numerous MCSs for a huge fault tree with the lowest truncation limit and all possible prevention sets.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.157-165
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• 1997

This research aims to develop an algorithm of optimal transducer placement for health monitoring of large structural system. The structural vibration response-based health monitoring is considered one of the best for the system which requires a long-term, continuous monitoring. In its experimental modal testing, however, it is difficult to decide on the measurement locations and their number, especially for complex structures, which have a major influence on the quality of the results. In order to minimize the number of sensing operations and optimize the transducer location while maximizing the accuracy of results, this paper discusses about an optimum transducer placement criterion suitable for the identification of structural damage for continuous health monitoring. As a criterion algorithm, it proposes the Kinetic Energy Optimization Technique (EOT), and then addresses the numerical issues which are subsequently applicable to actual experiment where a bridge model is used. By using the experimental data, it compares the EOT with the EIM(Effective Indefence Method) which is generally used to optimize the transducer placement for the damage identification and control purposes. The comparison conclusively shows that the EOT algorithm proposed in this paper is preferable when a structure is to be instrumented with fewer sensors for monitoring purpose.