• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.643-654
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• 2018

Tunnel excavation leads to a disturbance on the initial stress balance of surrounding soils, which causes convergences around the tunnel and settlements at the ground surface. Considering the effective impact of settlements on the structures at the surface, it is necessary to estimate them, especially in urban areas. In the present study, ground settlements due to the excavation of East-West Line 7 of the Tehran Metro (EWL7) and the Abuzar tunnels are evaluated and the effect of the lateral earth pressure coefficient ($K_0$) on their extension is investigated. The excavation of the tunnels was performed by TBMs (Tunnel Boring Machines). The coefficient of lateral earth pressure ($K_0$) is one of the most important geotechnical parameters for tunnel design and is greatly influenced by the geological characteristics of the surrounding soil mass along the tunnel route. The real (in-situ) settlements of the ground surface were measured experimentally using leveling methods along the studied tunnels and the results were compared with evaluated settlements obtained from both semi-empirical and numerical methods (using the finite difference software FLAC3D). The comparisons permitted to show that the adopted numerical models can effectively be used to predict settlements induced by a tunnel excavation. Then a numerical parametric study was conducted to show the influence of the $K_0$ values on the ground settlements. Numerical investigations also showed that the shapes of settlement trough of the studied tunnels, in a transverse section, are not similar because of their different diameters and depths of the tunnels.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.3
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• pp.355-366
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• 2019

Self-centering wall (SCW) is a resilient and sustainable structural system which incorporates unbonded posttensioning (PT) tendons to provide self-centering (SC) capacity along with supplementary dissipators to dissipate seismic energy. Hysteretic energy dissipators are usually placed at two sides of SCWs to facilitate ease of postearthquake examination and convenient replacement. To achieve a good prediction for the skeleton curve of the wall, this paper firstly developed an analytical investigation on lateral load responses of self-centering walls with distributed vertical dampers (VD-SCWs) using the concept of elastic theory. A simplified method for the calculation of limit state points is developed and validated by experimental results and can be used in the design of the system. Based on the analytical results, parametric analysis is conducted to investigate the influence of damper and tendon parameters on the performance of VD-SCWs. The results show that the proposed approach has a better prediction accuracy with less computational effects than the Perez method. As compared with previous experimental results, the proposed method achieves up to 60.1% additional accuracy at the effective linear limit (DLL) of SCWs. The base shear at point DLL is increased by 62.5% when the damper force is increased from 0kN to 80kN. The wall stiffness after point ELL is reduced by 69.5% when the tendon stiffness is reduced by 75.0%. The roof deformation at point LLP is reduced by 74.1% when the initial tendon stress is increased from $0.45f_{pu}$ to $0.65f_{pu}$.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.273-283
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• 2019

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of anise flavor on the performance of lactating sows and suckling pigs at different weaning ages. A total of 120 sows (Landrace ${\times}$ Yorkshire) were used in this experiment. Sows were fed with a commercial lactation diet (60 sows) or diet with flavor (60 sows) during days 100 to 114 of gestation period and the whole lactation period. Piglets were allotted to 2 dietary treatments based on their initial body weight (BW) using a $2{\times}2$ factorial arrangement of treatments with 2 levels of anise flavor (0 or 0.5 g/kg) and weaning periods (weaned at 21 day or 28 day after birth). Sows fed with flavor supplemented diets had higher (p < 0.05) back fat and average daily feed intake (ADFI) at weaning, lower (p < 0.05) back fat loss than those fed with non-flavor diets. Sows weaned at 28 day had higher (p < 0.05) weaning back fat and lower (p < 0.05) back fat loss than those weaned on 21 day. During weaning, piglet average daily gain (ADG), ADFI, digestibility of dry matter (DM), nitrogen (N), and gross energy (GE) and fecal score were affected by anise flavor, respectively. In conclusion, dietary flavor supplementation could increase feed intake of lactating sows, improve growth performance and reduce weaning stress of piglets, especially effective in the early weanling piglets. Meanwhile, interactive effects were observed about the piglet performance between weaning ages and anise flavor supplementation after weaning.

• Yonsei Medical Journal
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• v.59 no.9
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• pp.1107-1114
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• 2018

Purpose: This study investigated the effectiveness of meaning-centered psychotherapy (MCP), which is known to be a helpful psychotherapeutic intervention in distressing conditions, for patients with pancreatobiliary cancer. Materials and Methods: We recruited 37 patients with pancreatobiliary cancer from three university general hospitals and assessed their psychological characteristics. Patients who reported clinically significant emotional distress were recommended to undergo MCP. Patients who consented to MCP were provided four sessions of the therapy. Patient psychological characteristics were assessed again 2 months after MCP. For statistical comparison, outcome variables included anxiety, depression, mental adjustment to cancer, and quality of life (QoL), as well as the degree of stress and physical symptoms. Results: Sixteen patients completed the MCP and the final assessment 2 months later. In the initial assessment, the patients receiving MCP showed higher levels of anxiety and depression than those not receiving MCP, and QoL was also lower in terms of role function, emotional function, social function, and global QoL. At the 2-month follow-up, the MCP group showed a significant improvement in anxiety (p=0.007), depression (p=0.010), and anxious preoccupation (p<0.001). In addition, QoL significantly improved in the MCP group, while there was no significant change in the non-MCP group. Conclusion: In this study, MCP showed potential therapeutic benefits against emotional distress in patients with pancreatobiliary cancer, improving their QoL.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.179-191
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• 2021

In this study, the strength and failure mechanism of red sandstones with combined defects were investigated by uniaxial compression tests on red sandstones with different crack angles using two-dimensional particle flow code numerical software, and their mechanical parameters and failure process were studied and analyzed. The results showed that the mechanical characteristics such as peak strength, peak strain, and elastic modulus of the samples with prefabricated combined defects were significantly inferior than those of the intact samples. With increasing crack angle from 15° to 60°, the weakening area of cracks increased, elastic modulus, peak strength, and peak strain gradually reduced, the total number of cracks increased, and more strain energy was released. In addition, the samples underwent initial brittle failure to plastic failure stage, and the failure form was more significant, leading to peeling phenomenon. However, with increasing crack angle from 75° to 90°, the crack-hole combination shared the stress concentration at the tip of the crack-crack combination, resulted in a gradual increase in elastic modulus, peak strain and peak strength, but a decrease in the number of total cracks, the release of strain energy reduced, the plastic failure state weakened, and the spalling phenomenon slowed down. On this basis, the samples with 30° and 45° crack-crack combination were selected for further experimental investigation. Through comparative analysis between the experimental and simulation results, the failure strength and final failure mode with cracks propagation of samples were found to be relatively similar.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.159-166
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• 2022

In this study, slender reinforced concrete columns subjected to high temperatures and eccentric axial loads are evaluated by finite element analysis employing Abaqus (a finite element analysis program). Subsequently, the analysis results are compared and assessed. The sequentially coupled thermal stress analysis provided by Abaqus was employed to reflect the condition of an axially loaded column exposed to fire. First, heat transfer analysis was performed on the column cross-section. After verifying the results, another analysis was conducted: the cross-section was transformed into a three-dimensional element and then structural analyzed. In the analysis process, the column was modeled by accounting for the effects of tension stiffening and initial imperfection that could affect convergence and accuracy. The analysis results were compared with 74 experimental records, and an average error of 6% was observed based on the fire exposure and resistance. The foregoing indicates that the fire resistance performance of reinforced concrete columns can be predicted through finite element analysis.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.319-330
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• 2022

In this study, the optimal driving frequency was derived through finite element analysis (FEA) to optimize the developed piezoelectric ultrasonic medical devices(PUMD) for bone surgery. The core of the PUMD is the piezoelectric ceramic (PZT), which is a vibrator that generates vibration energy. The piezoelectric ceramic shows the maximum current value with respect to the input voltage at the resonance frequency, which generates the maximum mechanical vibration. In the past, various studies have been conducted related to the analysis of PUMD, but most of the research so far has been limited to free vibration analysis. However, in order to derive the accurate resonant frequency, the initial stress generated by bolt tightening in the bolt-clamped Langevin type transducer (BLT) must be considered. In this study, after designing a PUMD, the driving performance according to the bolt tightening value was analyzed through FEA, and this was experimentally verified. First, the resonance mode and frequency response were confirmed through modal and harmonic analysis at 20-40 kHz, which is known as the optimal driving frequency band of PUMD for bone surgery. In addition, the design of the PUMD was confirmed by checking the mechanical behavior of the tip and the piezoelectric ceramic at the resonant frequency. Consequentially, the characteristic evaluation was performed, and it was confirmed that the resonant frequency result derived through the FEA was reasonable. Through this study, we presented a more rational FEA method than before for BLT transducers. We expect that this will shorten the time and cost of developing a PUMD, and will enable the development of more stable and high-quality products.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.281-290
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• 2022

The direct shear test is commonly used to evaluate the shear behavior of frozen soil-structure interfaces under normal stress. However, failure criteria, such as the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, are needed to obtain the unconfined shear strength. Hence, the punch shear test, which is usually used to estimate the shear strength of rocks without confinement, was examined in this study to directly determine the adfreezing strength. It is measured as the shear strength of the frozen soil-structure interface under unconfined conditions. Different soils of silica sand, field sand, and field clay were prepared inside the steel and concrete ring structures. Soil and ring structures were frozen at the target temperature for more than 24 h. A punch shear test was then conducted. The test results show that the adfreezing strength increased with a decrease in the target temperature and increase in the initial water content, owing to the increase in ice content. The adfreezing strength of field clay was the smallest when compared with the other soil specimens because of the large amount of unfrozen water content. The field sand with the larger normalized roughness showed greater adfreezing strength than the silica sand with a lower normalized roughness. From the experiment and analysis, the applicability of the punch shear test was examined to measure the adfreezing strength of the frozen soil-structure interface. To find a proper sample dimension, supplementary experiments or numerical analysis will be needed in further research.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.4
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• pp.473-484
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• 2021

Similar to other structures, ultimate strength values showing the maximum load that the structure can resist without damaging has great importance on ships. Therefore, increasing the ultimate strength values will be an important benefit for the structure. Low carbon steels used in ships due to their low cost and good weldability. Improving the ultimate strength values without interfering with the chemical composition to prevent of the weldability properties of these steels would be very beneficial for ships. Grain refinement via severe plastic deformation (SPD) is an essential strengthening mechanism without changing the chemical composition of metallic materials. Among SPD methods, equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) is one of the most commonly used one due to its capacity for achieving bulk ultrafine-grained (UFG) materials. When the literature is examined, it is seen that there is no study about ultimate strength calculation in ships after ECAP. Therefore, the mean purpose of this study is to apply ECAP to a shipbuilding low carbon steel to be able to achieve mechanical properties and investigate the alteration of ship hull girder grillage system's ultimate strength via finite element analysis approach. A fine-grained (FG) microstructure with a mean grain size of 6 ㎛ (initial grain size was 25 ㎛) was after ECAP. This microstructural evolution brought about a considerable increase in strength values. Both yield and tensile strength values increased from 280 MPa and 425 MPa to about 420 MPa and 785 MPa, respectively. This improvement in the strength values reflected a finite element method to determine the ultimate strength of ship hull girder grillage system. As a result of calculations, it was reached significantly higher ultimate strength values (237,876 MPa) compared the non-processed situation (192,986 MPa) on ship hull girder grillage system.

• Composites Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2021

Composite structures have components and joints. Theses connections or joints can be potentially weak points in the structure. The failure mode of the composite bolted joint is designed as a bearing failure mode for structural safety. The load-displacement relation exhibits bearing failure mode shows a nonlinear behavior after the initial failure and progressive failure behavior. In order to accurately predict the failure behavior of composite bolted joints, this study modified the shear damage variable calculation process in the existing progressive failure analysis model. The results of the bearing stress-bearing strain of the composite bolted joint were predicted using the modified progressive failure analysis model, and the modified model was verified through comparison with the previous progressive analysis model.