• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.349-359
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• 2024

This study aims to investigate the effect of restraint configuration on crack formation due to shrinkage-and-creep-induced volumetric change in unbonded post-tensioned slabs. The first part of this study focuses on the comparison of existing shrinkage and creep calculation models that are used to predict the volume-changing behavior of concrete. The second part of this study presents the finite element analysis of a series of architectural configuration prototypes subjected to shrinkage and creep, which comprise unbonded post-tensioned slabs with various restraint configurations. The shrinkage and creep effects were simulated in the analysis by imposing strains obtained from one selected calculation model. The results suggest that a slab up to 300 ft. (90 m) in length does not require a closure strip if it is unrestrained by perimeter walls, and that the most effective restraint crack mitigation strategy for a slab restrained by perimeter walls is a partial wall release.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.247-252
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• 1996

In the concrete structures, cracks occur in various causes and the cracks seriously affect the functions of structures. The analysis techniques of progressive crack in the concrete have been improved with the advance of numerical techniques. The discrete crack model used in finite element program for the analysis of progressive failure is very effective, but it can not be easily implemented into numerical procedures because of difficult handing of nodal points in finite element meshes for crack growth. This paper introduces one of the techniques which skips the difficulty. In this paper, the modeling of progressive failure using finite element formulation is explained for the analysis of concrete fracture. The discontinuous element using the discontinuous shape function and the dual mapping technique in the numerical integration are implemented into finite element code for this purpose. It is shown that developed finite element program can predict the quasi-brittle behavior of concrete including ultimate load. The comparisons of the analysis results with other data are also shown.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.257-273
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• 2015

Numerical value of correlation between effective parameters in the strength of a structure is as important as its stochastic properties in determining the safety of the structure. In this article investigation is made about the variation of coefficient of correlation between effective parameters in corrosion initiation time of reinforcement and the time of concrete cover cracking in reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Presence of many parameters and also error in measurement of these parameters results in uncertainty in determination of corrosion initiation and the time to crack initiation. In this paper, assuming diffusion process as chloride ingress mechanism in RC structures and considering random properties of effective parameters in this model, correlation between input parameters and predicted time to corrosion is calculated using the Monte Carlo (MC) random sampling. Results show the linear correlation between corrosion initiation time and effective input parameters increases with increasing uncertainty in the input parameters. Diffusion coefficient, concrete cover, surface chloride concentration and threshold chloride concentration have the highest correlation coefficient respectively. Also the uncertainty in the concrete cover has the greatest impact on the coefficient of correlation of corrosion initiation time and the time of crack initiation due to the corrosion phenomenon.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.283-291
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• 2018

Cracks in soil provide significant preferential pathways for contaminant transport and rainfall infiltration. Water exchange between the soil matrix and crack is crucial to characterize the preferential flow, which is often quantitatively described by a water exchange ratio. The water exchange ratio is defined as the amount of water flowing from the crack into the clay matrix per unit time. Most of the previous studies on the water exchange ratio mainly focused on cracked sandy soils. The water exchange between cracks and clay matrix were rarely studied mainly due to two reasons: (1) Cracks open upon drying and close upon wetting. The deformable cracks lead to a dynamic change in the water exchange ratio. (2) The aperture of desiccation crack in clay is narrow (generally 0.5 mm to 5 mm) which is difficult to model in experiments. This study will investigate the water exchange between a deformable crack and the clay matrix using a newly developed experimental apparatus. An artificial crack with small aperture was first fabricated in clay without disturbing the clay matrix. Water content sensors and suction sensors were instrumented at different places of the cracked clay to monitor the water content and suction changes. Results showed that the water exchange ratio was relatively large at the initial stage and decreased with the increasing water content in clay matrix. The water exchange ratio increased with increasing crack apertures and approached the largest value when the clay was compacted at the water content to the optimal water content. The effective hydraulic conductivity of the crack-clay matrix interface was about one order of magnitude larger than that of saturated soil matrix.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.61-71
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• 2017

The flexural behavior of composite ring stiffened by GFRP and steel pipe is presented in this paper. The effective width is required to construct FEM beam element model to verify the composite flexural behavior of stiffened ring of cylindrical shell structure. The experimental results are compared with the theoretical and FEM results by commercial program ABAQUS to verify the effective width coefficient. The yield, crack and ultimate loads is calculated using theoretical strains that varies depending on yield state and compared with experiment result and FEM results by ABAQUS solid model.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.125-130
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• 2010

Model blast experiments of mortar blocks were performed to investigate the effect of the guide hole on crack growth. The mortar block specimens have a blast charge hole and 8 guide holes. Two of circular guide hole, notched guide hole, diamond shaped guide hole and diamond shaped guide holder are installed around 110 mm, 165 mm and 220 mm apart from the charge hole for each specimen. From the blast experiments, it was revealed that all the guide hole used in this study were effective for controlling the crack growth at the fracture control.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.125-137
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• 2009

Acoustic emission-based techniques are being used for the nondestructive inspection of mechanical systems used in service. For reliable fault monitoring related to the crack growth, it is important to identify the dynamical characteristics as well as transient crack-related signals. Widely used methods which are based on physical phenomena of the three damage stages for detecting the crack growth have a problem that crack-related acoustic emission activities overlap in time, therefore it is insufficient to estimate the exact crack growth time. The proposed pattern recognition method uses the dynamical characteristics of acoustic emission as inputs for minimizing false alarms and miss alarms and performs the temporal clustering to estimate the crack growth time accurately. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective for practical use because of its robustness to changes of acoustic emission caused by changes of pressure levels.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.104-112
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• 2015

Non-contact surface wave transmission (SWT) measurements are used to evaluate the depth of a surface-breaking crack in concrete slabs. The author propose a measurement model that includes an appropriate configuration of the source and receivers, and a transmission function for the given configuration. A series of numerical simulations using a 3D finite element model is used to obtain the transmission function. Then, validity of a proposed model is verified through experimental studies. Two air-coupled sensors are used to measured surface waves across surface-breaking cracks with varying depths from 0mm to 100mm with intervals of 10mm in a concrete slab ($1500{\times}1500{\times}180mm^3$) in laboratory. As a result, the proposed method is demonstrated as to be effective for charactering the depth of a surface-breaking crack in concrete bridge deck with an average error of 10%. A discussion on practical applications of the proposed method is also included in this article.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.3 s.174
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• pp.567-580
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• 2000

This paper proposes an integrated approach, which is independent of specimen geometry and loading type, for predicting the fatigue life of spot welded specimens. We first establish finite element models reflecting the actual specimen behaviors observed on the experimental load-deflection curves of 4 types of single spot welded specimens. Using finite element models elaborately established, we then evaluate fracture parameter J-integral to describe the effects of specimen geometry and loading type on the fatigue life in a comprehensive manner. It is confirmed, however, that J-integral concept alone is insufficient to clearly explain the generalized relationship between load and fatigue life of spot welded specimens. On this ground, we introduce another effective parameter $J_e$ composed of $J_I$, $J_{II}$, $J_{III}$, which has been demonstrated here to more sharply define the relationship between load and fatigue life of 4 types of spot welded specimens. The crack surface displacement method is adopted for decomposition of J, and the mechanism of the mixed mode fracture is also discussed in detail as a motivation of using $J_e$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.4 s.181
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• pp.116-123
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• 2006

During the last two decades, many researchers investigated influences of stress triaxiality on ductile fracture for various specimens and structures. With respect to a transferability issue, the local approach reflecting micro-mechanical specifics is one of effective methods to predict constraint effects. In this paper, the applicability of the local approach was examined through a series of finite element analyses incorporating modified GTN (Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman) and Rousselier models as well as fracture toughness tests. To achieve this goal, fracture resistance (J-R) curves of several types of compact tension (CT) specimens with various crack length, with various thickness and with/without 20% side- grooves were estimated. Then. the constraint effects were examined by comparing the numerically estimated J-R curves with experimentally determined ones. The assessment results showed that the damage models might be used as useful tool for fracture toughness estimation and both the crack length and thickness effects should be considered for realistic structural integrity evaluation.