• Wind and Structures
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.289-302
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• 2023

Insulating glass units (IGUs) have been widely used in buildings in recent years due to their superior thermal insulation performance. However, because of the panel reciprocating motion and fatigue deterioration of sealants under long-term wind loads, many IGUs have the problem of early failure of watertight properties in real usage. This study aimed to propose a statistical method for wind-induced deflection of IGU panels during the whole life service period, for further precise analysis of the accumulated fatigue damage at the sealed part of the edge bond. By the estimation of the wind occurrence regularity based on wind pressure return period, the events of each wind speed interval during the whole life were obtained for the IGUs at 50m height in Beijing, which are in good agreement with the measured data. Also, the wind-induced deflection analysis method of IGUs based on the formula of airspace coefficient was proposed and verified as an improvement of the original stiffness distribution method with the average relative error compared to the test being about 3% or less. Combining the two methods above, the deformation of the outer and inner panes under wind loads during 30 years was precisely calculated, and the deflection and stress state at selected locations were obtained finally. The results show that the compression displacement at the secondary sealant under the maximum wind pressure is close to 0.3mm (strain 2.5%), and the IGUs are in tens of thousands of times the low amplitude tensile-compression cycle and several times to dozens of times the relatively high amplitude tensile-compression cycle environment. The approach proposed in this paper provides a basis for subsequent studies on the durability of IGUs and the wind-resistant behaviors of curtain wall structures.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.114-123
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• 2024

Purpose: Appropriate scoring systems can help classify and treat polytrauma patients. This study aimed to validate chest trauma scoring systems in polytrauma patients. Methods: Data from 1,038 polytrauma patients were analyzed. The primary outcomes were one or more complications: pneumonia, chest complications requiring surgery, and mortality. The Thoracic Trauma Severity Score (TTSS), Chest Trauma Score, Rib Fracture Score, and RibScore were compared using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis in patients with or without head trauma. Results: In total, 1,038 patients were divided into two groups: those with complications (822 patients, 79.2%) and those with no complications (216 patients, 20.8%). Sex and body mass index did not significantly differ between the groups. However, age was higher in the complications group (64.1±17.5 years vs. 54.9±17.6 years, P<0.001). The proportion of head trauma patients was higher (58.3% vs. 24.6%, P<0.001) and the Glasgow Coma Scale score was worse (median [interquartile range], 12 [6.5-15] vs. 15 [14-15]; P<0.001) in the complications group. The number of rib fractures, the degree of rib fracture displacement, and the severity of pulmonary contusions were also higher in the complications group. In the area under the ROC curve analysis, the TTSS showed the highest predictive value for the entire group (0.731), head trauma group (0.715), and no head trauma group (0.730), while RibScore had the poorest performance (0.643, 0.622, and 0.622, respectively) Conclusions: Early injury severity detection and grading are crucial for patients with blunt chest trauma. The chest trauma scoring systems introduced to date, including the TTSS, are not acceptable for clinical use, especially in polytrauma patients with traumatic brain injury. Therefore, further revisions and analyses of chest trauma scoring systems are recommended.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.3-10
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• 2024

Background: Gunshot-related fractures near the elbow are challenging, and available data to guide the practitioner are lacking. This report analyzes injury patterns and treatment strategies in a case series from a high-volume urban trauma center. Methods: All periarticular gunshot fractures near the elbow treated at a level 1 trauma center from 2014 to 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Fracture location, patient demographics, concomitant injuries, treatment modalities, and complications were analyzed. Results: Twenty-four patients were identified. All patients received prophylactic antibiotics upon admission and underwent urgent surgical debridement. Open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) was performed with initial debridement in 22 of 24 patients. Seven patients sustained distal humerus fractures, 10 patients sustained isolated proximal ulna or proximal radius fractures, and seven had combined fracture patterns. Eleven patients presented with nerve palsy, and two had transected nerves. Two patients had vascular injury requiring repair. One patient required a temporary elbow-spanning external fixator and underwent staged debridement followed by ORIF. One patient with a grade IIIC fracture developed a deep infection that precluded ORIF. One patient required revision ORIF due to fracture displacement. Conclusions: This investigation reports on management of ballistic fractures near the elbow at a busy urban level I trauma center. Our management centered on rapid debridement, early definitive fixation, and intravenous antibiotic administration. We report on associated neurovascular injury, bone loss, and other challenges in this patient population. Level of evidence: IV.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.145-156
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• 2024

The mechanical properties of the concrete-frozen soil interface play a significant role in the stability and service performance of construction projects in cold regions. Current research mainly focuses on the precast concrete-frozen soil interface, with limited consideration for the more realistic cast-in-place concrete-frozen soil interface. The two construction methods result in completely different contact surface morphologies and exhibit significant differences in mechanical properties. Therefore, this study selects silty clay as the research object and conducts direct shear tests on the concrete-frozen soil interface under conditions of initial water content ranging from 12% to 24%, normal stress from 50 kPa to 300 kPa, and freezing temperature of -3℃. The results indicate that (1) both interface shear stress-displacement curves can be divided into three stages: rapid growth of shear stress, softening of shear stress after peak, and residual stability; (2) the peak strength of both interfaces increases initially and then decreases with an increase in water content, while residual strength is relatively less affected by water content; (3) peak strength and residual strength are linearly positively correlated with normal stress, and the strength of ice bonding is less affected by normal stress; (4) the mechanical properties of the cast-in-place concrete-frozen soil interface are significantly better than those of the precast concrete-frozen soil interface. However, when the water content is high, the former's mechanical performance deteriorates much more than the latter, leading to severe strength loss. Therefore, in practical engineering, cast-in-place concrete construction is preferred in cases of higher negative temperatures and lower water content, while precast concrete construction is considered in cases of lower negative temperatures and higher water content. This study provides reference for the construction of frozen soil-structure interface in cold regions and basic data support for improving the stability and service performance of cold region engineering.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.13 no.2 s.54
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• pp.223-230
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• 2009

In this study we deal with bending behaviors of a concrete filled tubular(CFT) with various diameter-thickness ratios and concrete strengths. In finite element analysis using a commercial package(LUSAS), the bonding effect between concrete and steel in CFT structures is modeled by applying a joint element for the bonding surface. In order to consider the nonlinearity of concrete and steel tubes, stress-strain curves of the concrete and steel are used for the increased stresses in a plastic domain. The numerical results obtained from the proposed method show good agreement with the experimental data from load-displacement curves of a steel tube under distributed loads. Several parametric studies are focused on structural characteristics of CFT under bending effects for different diameter-thickness ratios and concrete strengths.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1887-1894
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• 2024

Fatigue strength of the structural materials of lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) and accelerator-driven systems (ADS) may be degraded in liquid metal (Lead or lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE)) environments. The fatigue crack growth (FCG) data of structural materials in liquid LBE are necessary for damage tolerance design, safety assessment and life management of key equipment. A novel monitoring system for fatigue crack length was designed on the compliance method and the monitor technology of crack opening displacement (COD) of CT specimens by the linear variable differential transformers (LVDT) system. It can be used to predict the crack length by monitoring the COD of CT specimens in harsh high-temperature liquid LBE using a LVDT system. The prediction accuracy of this system was verified by FCG experiments in room temperature air and liquid LBE at 150, 250 and 350 ℃. The first results obtained in the FCG test for T91 steel in liquid LBE at 350 ℃ are presented.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.165-182
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• 2024

Grouted sleeve splice (GSS) is an effective type of connection applied in the precast concrete structures as it has the advantages of rapidly assembly and reliable strength. To decrease the weight and cost of vertical rebar connection in precast shear walls, a light-weight sleeve is designed according to the thick-cylinder theory. Mechanical behaviour of the light-weighted GSS is investigated through experimental analysis. Two failure modes, such as rebar fracture failure and rebar pull-out failure, are found. The load-displacement curves exhibit four different stages: elastic stage, yield stage, strengthening stage, and necking stage. The bond strength between the rebar and the grout increases gradually from outer position to inner position of the sleeve, and it reaches the maximum value at the centre of the anchorage length. A finite element model predicting the mechanical properties of the light-weighted GSS is developed based on the Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) model and the Brittle Cracking (BC) model. The effect of the rebar anchorage length is significant, while the increase of the thickness of sleeve and the grout strength are not very effective. A model for estimating ultimate load, including factors of inner diameter of sleeves, anchorage length, and rebar diameter, is proposed. The proposed model shows good agreement with various test data.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.399-414
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• 2024

This study discusses the long-term deformation monitoring and shape sensing of bridge girder surfaces with an automated extraction scheme for point clouds in the Region Of Interest (ROI), invariant to the position of a Light Detection And Ranging system (LiDAR). Advanced smart construction necessitates continuous monitoring of the deformation and shape of bridge girders during the construction phase. An automated scheme is proposed for reconstructing geometric model of ROI in the presence of noisy non-stationary background. The proposed scheme involves (i) denoising irrelevant background point clouds using dimensions from the design model, (ii) extracting the outer boundaries of the bridge girder by transforming and processing the point cloud data in a two-dimensional image space, (iii) extracting topology of pre-defined targets using the modified Otsu method, (iv) registering the point clouds to a common reference frame or design coordinate using extracted predefined targets placed outside ROI, and (v) defining the bounding box in the point clouds using corresponding dimensional information of the bridge girder and abutments from the design model. The surface-fitted reconstructed geometric model in the ROI is superposed consistently over a long period to monitor bridge shape and derive deflection during the construction phase, which is highly correlated. The proposed scheme of combining 2D-3D with the design model overcomes the sensitivity of 3D point cloud registration to initial match, which often leads to a local extremum.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.49-57
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• 2016

Even if an external forcing that will drive a climate change is given uniformly over the globe, the corresponding climate change and the feedbacks by the climate system differ by region. Thus the detection of global warming signal has been made on a regional scale as well as on a global average against the internal variabilities and other noises involved in the climate change. The purpose of this study is to estimate a timing of unprecedented climate due to global warming and to analyze the regional differences in the estimated results. For this purpose, unlike previous studies that used climate simulation data, we used an observational dataset to estimate a magnitude of internal variability and a future temperature change. We calculated a linear trend in surface temperature using a historical temperature record from 1880 to 2014 and a magnitude of internal variability as the largest temperature displacement from the linear trend. A timing of unprecedented climate was defined as the first year when a predicted minimum temperature exceeds the maximum temperature record in a historical data and remains as such since then. Presumed that the linear trend and the maximum displacement will be maintained in the future, an unprecedented climate over the land would come within 200 years from now in the western area of Africa, the low latitudes including India and the southern part of Arabian Peninsula in Eurasia, the high latitudes including Greenland and the mid-western part of Canada in North America, the low latitudes including Amazon in South America, the areas surrounding the Ross Sea in Antarctica, and parts of East Asia including Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, an unprecedented climate would come later after 400 years in the high latitudes of Eurasia including the northern Europe, the middle and southern parts of North America including the U.S.A. and Mexico. For the ocean, an unprecedented climate would come within 200 years over the Indian Ocean, the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic, parts of the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ross Sea, and parts of the Arctic Sea. In the meantime, an unprecedented climate would come even after thousands of years over some other regions of ocean including the eastern tropical Pacific and the North Pacific middle latitudes where an internal variability is large. In summary, spatial pattern in timing of unprecedented climate are different for each continent. For the ocean, it is highly affected by large internal variability except for the high-latitude regions with a significant warming trend. As such, a timing of an unprecedented climate would not be uniform over the globe but considerably different by region. Our results suggest that it is necessary to consider an internal variability as well as a regional warming rate when planning a climate change mitigation and adaption policy.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.278-283
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• 2013

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide and the number of women breast cancer patient was increased continuously. Most of breast cancer patient has suffered from unnecessary radiation exposure to heart, lung. Low radiation dose to the heart could lead to the worsening of preexisting cardiovascular lesions caused by radiation induced pneumonitis. Also, several statistical reports demonstrated that left-sided breast cancer patient showed higher mortality than right-sided breast cancer patient because of heart disease. In radiation therapy, Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) technique which the patient takes a deep inspiration and holds during treatment and could move the heart away from the chest wall and lung, has showed to lead to reduction in cardiac volume and to minimize the unnecessary radiation exposure to heart during treatment. In this study, we investigated the displacement of heart using DIBH CT data compared to free-breathing (FB) CT data and radiation exposure to heart. Treatment planning was performed on the computed tomography (CT) datasets of 10 patients who had received lumpectomy treatments. Heart, lung and both breasts were outlined. The prescribed dose was 50 Gy divided into 28 fractions. The dose distributions in all the plans were required to fulfill the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurement specifications that include 100% coverage of the CTV with ${\geq}95%$ of the prescribed dose and that the volume inside the CTV receiving >107% of the prescribed dose should be minimized. Scar boost irradiation was not performed in this study. Displacement of heart was measured by calculating the distance between center of heart and left breast. For the evaluation of radiation dose to heart, minimum, maximum and mean dose to heart were calculated. The present study demonstrates that cardiac dose during left-sided breast radiotherapy can be reduced by applying DIBH breathing control technique.