• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.1003-1020
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• 2017

Estimation of groundwater inflow into underground opening is of critical importance for the design and construction of underground structures. Groundwater inflow into a pilot underground storage facility in China was estimated using analytical equations, numerical modeling and field measurement. The applicability of analytical and numerical methods was examined by comparing the estimated and measured results. Field geological investigation indicated that in local scale the high groundwater inflows are associated with the appearance of open joints, fractured zone or dykes induced by shear and/or tensile tectonic stresses. It was found that 8 groundwater inflow spots with high inflow rates account for about 82% of the total rate for the 9 caverns. On the prediction of the magnitude of groundwater inflow rate, it was found that could both (Finite Element Method) FEM and (Discrete Element Method) DEM perform better than analytical equations, due to the fact that in analytical equations simplified assumptions were adopted. However, on the prediction of the spatial distribution estimation of groundwater inflow, both analytical and numerical methods failed to predict at the present state. Nevertheless, numerical simulations would prevail over analytical methods to predict the distribution if more details in the simulations were taken into consideration.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.57-69
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• 2023

In this study, we simulated induced seismicity in the Groningen natural gas reservoir using 2D hydro-mechanical coupled discrete element modelling (DEM). The code used is PFC2D (Particle Flow Code 2D), a commercial software developed by Itasca, and in order to apply to this study we further developed 1)initialization of inhomogeneous reservoir pressure distribution, 2)a non-linear pressure-time history boundary condition, 3)local stress field monitoring logic. We generated a 2D reservoir model with a size of 40 × 50 km² and a complex fault system, and simulated years of pressure depletion with a time range between 1960 and 2020. We simulated fault system failure induced by pressure depletion and reproduced the spatiotemporal distribution of induced seismicity and assessed its failure mechanism. Also, we estimated the ground subsidence distribution and confirmed its similarity to the field measurements in the Groningen region. Through this study, we confirm the feasibility of the presented 2D hydro-mechanical coupled DEM in simulating the deformation of a complex fault system by hydro-mechanical coupled processes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 1993

A computational program ［TDET］ of the particle transport equation is developed on radiation shielding problem in two-dimensional cartesian geometry based on the discrete element method. Not like the ordinary discrete ordinates method, the quadrature set of angles is not fixed but steered by the spatially dependent angular fluxes. The angular dependence of the scattering source term in the particle transport equation is described by series expansion in spherical harmonics, and the energy dependence of the particles is considered as well. Three different benchmark tests are made for verification of TDET : For the ray effect analysis on a square absorber with a flat isotropic source, the results of TDET calculation are quite well conformed to those of MORSE-CG calculation while TDET ameliorates the ray effect more effectively than S$_{N}$ calculation. In the analysis of the streaming leakage through a narrow vacuum duct in a shield, TDET shows conspicuous and remarkable results of streaming leakage through the duct as well as MORSE-CG does, and quite better than S$_{N}$ calculation. In a realistic reactor shielding situation which treats in two cases of the isotropic scattering and of linearly anisotropic scattering with two groups of energy, TDET calculations show local ray effect between neighboring meshes compared with S$_{N}$ calculations in which the ray effect extends broadly over several meshes.eshes.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5A
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• pp.861-872
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• 2006

The element free Galerkin method is extended by the local partition of unity method to model the cohesive cracks in two dimensional continuum. The shape function of a particle whose domain of influence is completely cut by a crack is enriched by the step enrichment function. If the domain of influence contains a crack tip inside, it is enriched by a branch enrichment function which does not have the LEFM stress singularity. The discrete equations are obtained directly from the standard Galerkin method since the enrichment is only for the displacement field, which satisfies the local partition of unity. Because only particles whose domains of influence are influenced by a crack are enriched, the system matrix is still sparse so that the increase of the computational cost is minimized. The condition for crack growth in dynamic problems is obtained from the material instability; when the acoustic tensor loses the positive definiteness, a cohesive crack is inserted to the point so as to change the continuum to a discontiuum. The crack speed is naturally obtained from the criterion. It is found that this method is more accurate and converges faster than the classical meshless methods which are based on the visibility concept. In this paper, several well-known static and dynamic problems were solved to verify the method.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.577-598
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• 2018

The imperfect steel-concrete interface bonding is an important deficiency of the concrete-filled double skin tubular (CFDST) columns that led to separating concrete and steel surfaces under lateral loads and triggering buckling failure of the columns. To improve this issue, it is proposed in this study to use longitudinal and transverse steel stiffeners in CFDST columns. CFDST columns with different patterns of stiffeners embedded in the interior or exterior surfaces of the inner or outer tubes were analyzed under constant axial force and reversed cyclic loading. In the finite element modeling, the confinement effects of both inner and outer tubes on the compressive strength of concrete as well as the effect of discrete crack for concrete fracture were incorporated which give a realistic prediction of the seismic behavior of CFDST columns. Lateral strength, stiffness, ductility and energy absorption are evaluated based on the hysteresis loops. The results indicated that the stiffeners had determinant role on improving pinching behavior resulting from the outer tube's local buckling and opening/closing of the major tensile crack of concrete. The lateral strength, initial stiffness and energy absorption capacity of longitudinally stiffened columns with fixed-free end condition were increased by as much as 17%, 20% and 70%, respectively. The energy dissipation was accentuated up to 107% for fixed-guided end condition. The use of transverse stiffeners at the base of columns increased energy dissipation up to 35%. Axial load ratio, hollow ratio and concrete strength affecting the initial stiffness and lateral strength, had negligible effect of the energy dissipation of the columns. It was also found that the longitudinal stiffeners and transverse stiffeners have, respectively, negative and positive effects on ductility of CFDST columns. The conclusions, drawn from this study, can in turn, lead to the suggestion of some guidelines for the design of CFDST columns.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.330-339
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• 2008

Ground-based interceptors(GBI) comprise a major element of the strategic defense against hostile targets like Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles(ICBM) and reentry vehicles(RV) dispersed from them. An optimum design of the subsystems is required to increase the performance and reliability of these GBI. Propulsion subsystem design and optimization is the motivation for this effort. This paper describes an effort in which an entire GBI missile system, including a multi-stage solid rocket booster, is considered simultaneously in a Genetic Algorithm(GA) performance optimization process. Single goal, constrained optimization is performed. For specified payload and miss distance, time of flight, the most important component in the optimization process is the booster, for its takeoff weight, time of flight, or a combination of the two. The GBI is assumed to be a multistage missile that uses target location data provided by two ground based RF radar sensors and two low earth orbit(LEO) IR sensors. 3Dimensional model is developed for a multistage target with a boost phase acceleration profile that depends on total mass, propellant mass and the specific impulse in the gravity field. The monostatic radar cross section (RCS) data of a three stage ICBM is used. For preliminary design, GBI is assumed to have a fixed initial position from the target launch point and zero launch delay. GBI carries the Kill Vehicle(KV) to an optimal position in space to allow it to complete the intercept. The objective is to design and optimize the propulsion system for the GBI that will fulfill mission requirements and objectives. The KV weight and volume requirements are specified in the problem definition before the optimization is computed. We have considered only continuous design variables, while considering discrete variables as input. Though the number of stages should also be one of the design variables, however, in this paper it is fixed as three. The elite solution from GA is passed on to(Sequential Quadratic Programming) SQP as near optimal guess. The SQP then performs local convergence to identify the minimum mass of the GBI. The performance of the three staged GBI is validated using a ballistic missile intercept scenario modeled in Matlab/SIMULINK.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.247-270
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• 2019

Wind-resistant design of existing cooling tower structures overlooks the impacts of rainfall. However, rainstorm will influence aerodynamic force on the tower surface directly. Under this circumstance, the structural response of the super-large cooling tower (SLCT) will become more complicated, and then the stability and safety of SLCT will receive significant impact. In this paper, surrounding wind fields of the world highest (210 m) cooling tower in Northwest China underthree typical wind velocities were simulated based on the wind-rain two-way coupling algorithm. Next, wind-rain coupling synchronous iteration calculations were conducted under 9 different wind speed-rainfall intensity combinations by adding the discrete phase model (DPM). On this basis, the influencing laws of different wind speed-rainfall intensity combinations on wind-driving rain, adhesive force of rain drops and rain pressure coefficients were discussed. The acting mechanisms of speed line, turbulence energy strength as well as running speed and trajectory of rain drops on structural surface in the wind-rain coupling field were disclosed. Moreover, the fitting formula of wind-rain coupling equivalent pressure coefficient of the cooling tower was proposed. A systematic contrast analysis on its 3D distribution pattern was carried out. Finally, coupling model of SLCT under different working conditions was constructed by combining the finite element method. Structural response, buckling stability and local stability of SLCT under different wind velocities and wind speed-rainfall intensity combinations were compared and analyzed. Major research conclusions can provide references to determine loads of similar SLCT accurately under extremely complicated working conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.17-25
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• 2011

A fabric of soil media may change due to certain factors such as dissolution of soluble particles, desiccation, and cementation. The fabric changes affect the mechanical behavior of soils. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of geo-material dissolution on shear strength. Experiments and numerical simulations are carried out by using a conventional direct shear and the discrete element method. The dissolution specimens are prepared with different volumetric salt fraction in sand soils. The dissolution of the specimens is implemented by saturating the salt-sand mixtures at different confining stresses in the experimental study or reducing the sizes of soluble particles in the numerical simulations. Experimental results show that the angle of shearing resistance decreases with the increase in the soluble particle content and the shearing behavior changes from dilative to contractive behavior. The numerical simulations exhibit that macro-behavior matches well with the experimental results. From the microscopic point of view, the particle dissolution produces a new fabric with the increase of local void, the reduction of contact number, the increase of shear contact forces, and the anisotropy of contact force chains compared with the initial fabric. The shearing behavior of the mixture after the particle dissolution is attributed to the above micro-behavior changes. This study demonstrates that the reduction of shearing resistance of geo-material dissolution should be considered during the design and construction of the foundation and earth-structures.