• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.25-36
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• 2017

Subsidies are an instrumental policy making tool for many governments, but their importance depends on the market situation of the national economy. Efficient subsidy implementation would allow the government to correct market failure thereby aligning social and private costs and benefit. The general objective of this study is to justify the need to rationalise subsidies for food items such as flour. This study assessed the structure and conducts of the general purpose flour market in Malaysia; and analysed the impact of subsidies on market performance to recommend policies to increase market efficiency under the subsidy rationalisation program. To accomplish these objectives, the study adopted a microeconomics market analysis as well as the standard structure and performance analysis method. These two approaches showed the characteristics of an industry's consumer behaviour, competition, as well as the efficiency associated with government regulatory policies on the flour industry. One of the biggest influences on the domestic market is related to the food consumption behaviour of the general population. Food consumption behaviour reflects global trends. As income rises, food trends tend to be consumed in processed form or in such a way that adds value in another manner such as the preparation of food products.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.219-225
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• 2006

Although the round length for tunnel excavation has a major technical and economical impact in conventional tunnelling, there is no coherent procedure available for its determination. In this study, the influence of round length on the behaviour modes of weak rock tunnel was investigated by numerical analyses. Quantitative estimation of the behaviour modes of the face and the unsupported span was established by use of the safety factor for the face stability and the conditional chart. In addition, the optimum round length in the tunnel design stage was investigated based on the detail construction information such as cycle time and material costs. Although this proposed method has some restrictions, it is expected to provide useful information for the optimization of the tunnel excavation, especially in design stage.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.93-109
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• 2020

Developed from conventional concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) members, concrete-encased CFST has attracted growing attention in building and bridge practices. In actual construction, the inner CFST is erected prior to the casting of the outer reinforced concrete part to support the construction preload, after which the whole composite member is under sustained service load. The complex loading sequence leads to highly nonlinear material interaction and consequently complicated structural performance. This paper studies the full-range behaviour of concrete-encased CFST columns with initial preload on inner CFST followed by sustained service load over the whole composite section. Validated against the reported data obtained from specifically designed tests, a finite element analysis model is developed to investigate the detailed structural behaviour in terms of ultimate strength, load distribution, material interaction and strain development. Parametric analysis is then carried out to evaluate the impact of significant factors on the structural behaviour of the composite columns. Finally, a simplified design method for estimating the sectional capacity of concrete-encased CFST is proposed, with the combined influences of construction preload and sustained service load being taken into account. The feasibility of the developed method is validated against both the test data and the simulation results.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.265-275
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• 2021

This study's motivation is to investigate the association between the stock market, remittance, and the pandemic of COVID-19 for the period from March 3, 2020, to December 14, 2020. For evaluating the impact of COVID-19 and remittances on stock market behaviour during the pandemic, the study applies Autoregressive Distributed lagged (ARDL) for magnitudes estimation and directional association through the Toda-Yamamoto causality test. Study findings from ARDL estimation revealed that COVID-19 measured by detecting new cases negatively influences the stock market both in the long-term and short-term. Remittance positively influences the stock market behaviour, particularly in the long-term. Furthermore, the directional causality test disclosed unidirectional causal effects between COVID-19 and the stock market behaviour, which establishes all proxy measures for the equation's stock market. The hypothesis results explain the causal relationship between remittance inflows and the stock market in Bangladesh. The study's application will help policymakers rethink the policies for channelizing remittances for productive investment areas. Furthermore, the study's findings will reinstate the widely perceived notions, which is the critical role of remittance in the economy even though the economy passes through a great pandemic.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.5
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• pp.487-498
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• 2023

Unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings are extensively adopted in many of the growing nations, particularly in India. Window or door openings are required for architectural or functional reasons, which pose a threat to the building's safety. The past earthquakes have shown that the seismic capability of these structures was very weak. Strengthening these unreinforced masonry walls using welded wire mesh (WWM) is one of the most commonly and economical methods. The present experimental study investigates the impact of openings on the shear behaviour of URM walls and the effectiveness of WWM in enhancing the shear performance of masonry wall. In the experimental program 16 specimens were cast, 8 unstrengthen and 8 strengthened specimens, under 8 unstrengthen and strengthened specimens, every 2 specimens had 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% openings and all these walls were tested under diagonal compression. The results show that the shear carrying capacity reduces as the opening percentage increases. However, strengthening the URM specimens using WWM significantly improves the peak load, shear strength, ductility, stiffness, and energy dissipation. Furthermore, the strengthening of the URM walls using WWM compensated the loss of wall capacity caused by the presence of the openings.

• Composites Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.42-46
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• 2014

In the present study, impact tests were carried out to investigate the crashworthy behaviour of the expanded polypropylene under the constant incident energy (100 J and 200 J) with five different combinations of striker mass and velocity. Also, preliminary quasi-static test was performed to obtain basic characteristics of the expanded polypropylene. MTS 858 and Instron dynatup 9250 HV were used for the quasi-static test and impact tests, respectively. In consequence, it was found that the impact energy absorption characteristics of the expanded polypropylene was more influenced by the striker mass instead of the velocity of the striker.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.590-597
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• 2016

In this study, six kinds of low-carbon steel specimens with different ferrite-pearlite microstructures were fabricated by varying the Nb content and the transformation temperature. The microstructural factors of ferrite grain size, pearlite fraction, interlamellar spacing, and cementite thickness were quantitatively measured based on optical and scanning electron micrographs; then, Charpy impact tests were conducted in order to investigate the correlation of the microstructural factors with the impact toughness and the ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT). The microstructural analysis results showed that the Nb4 specimens had ferrite grain size smaller than that of the Nb0 specimens due to the pinning effect resulting from the formation of carbonitrides. The pearlite interlamellar spacing and the cementite thickness also decreased as the transformation temperature decreased. The Charpy impact test results indicated that the impact-absorbed energy increased and the ductile-brittle transition temperature decreased with addition of Nb content and decreasing transformation temperature, although all specimens showed ductile-brittle transition behaviour.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.3 no.2_3
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• pp.79-90
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• 2006

This paper describes the results of an investigation into high mass-low velocity impact behaviour of reinforced concrete beams. Tests have been conducted on fifteen 2.7 m or 1.5 m span beams under drop-weight loads. A high-speed video camera has been used at rates of up to 4,500 frames per second in order to record the crack formation, propagation, particle spallation and scabbing. In some tests the strain in the reinforcement has been recorded using "Durham" strain gauged bars, a technique developed by Scott and Marchand (2000) in which the strain gauges are embedded in the bars, so that the strains in the reinforcement can be recorded without affecting the bond between the concrete and the reinforcement. The impact force acting on the beams has been measured using a load cell placed within the impactor. A high-speed data logging system has been used to record the impact load, strains, accelerations, etc., so that time histories can be obtained. This research has led to the development of computational techniques based on combined continuum/discontinuum methods (finite/discrete element methods) to permit the simulation of impact loaded reinforced concrete beams. The implementation has been within the software package ELFEN (2004). Beams, similar to those tested, have been analysed using ELFEN a good agreement has been obtained for both the load-time histories and the crack patterns.

• Composites Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.27-32
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• 2009

Characterisation of the stress-strain relationship as well as crashworthiness of cellular polymer was investigated under constant impact energy with different velocities, considering inertia and strain rate effects simultaneously during the impact testing. Quasi-static and impact tests were carried out for two different density (64 $kg/m^3$, 89 $kg/m^3$) cellular polymer specimens. Also, the equations, coupled with the Sherwood-Frost model and the Impulse-Momentum theory, were employed to build the constitutive relation of the cellular polymer. The nominal stress-strain curves obtained from the constitutive relation were compared with results from impact tests and showed to be in good agreement.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.151-155
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• 1998

The Anyang river drains a highly polluted industrial area and enters the lower part of Han river. In this preliminary study for the comprehensive understanding of geochemical behaviour of elements in the stream sediments and its implications on the river chemistry and ecology, major and trace elements in stream sediments, suspended solids and stream water were analysed to look into elemental enrichments and elemental behaviour with distance from upper part of the stream. Chemical analyses of the stream sediments show enrichements of heavy metals including Cr, Zn, Ni, Co between 10 to 100 times. Other trace elements, Cd, Pb and As are also enriched between several to 10 times, based on relative ratio with Al in fresh rock. Chemical analyses of the sediments, suspended solids and water show indications of anthroporgenic impact for the heavy metal accumulation. It was nortworth Hg is detected between 2 and 4 ppb in the water.