• Title/Summary/Keyword: structural condition assessment

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A Study on the Slope Stability Assessment of Seokguram Region in Gyeongju (경주 석굴암 주변 비탈면의 안정성에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Kwang-Wu;Kim, Seung-Hyun;Cho, Sam-Deok
    • Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.139-149
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    • 2017
  • The maintenance, repair, and reinforcement projects and structural stability assessments of Seokguram have primarily focused on examining the condition of stone members of Seokguram and the concrete dome structure for Seokguram. However, a 12 m-high rock slope located behind Seokguram raises a concern of slope failure and rockfall, which may reduce stability of Seokguram. It is also unclear whether the soil slopes and masonry wall at the side and the front of Seokguram have sufficient long-term stability against localized heavy rains and earthquakes, which have been frequent in recent years. The present study investigates the ground and the slopes around Seokguram using detailed field survey to identify geographical and geological risk factors, and assess structural stability of the exposed rock mass behind and the slope in front of Seokguram and the masonry wall using stability analysis.

Lifespan assessment of piezoelectric sensors under disposal condition of high-level nuclear waste repository

  • Changhee Park;Hyun-Joong Hwang;Chang-Ho Hong;Jin-Seop Kim;Gye-Chun Cho
    • Geomechanics and Engineering
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    • v.38 no.5
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    • pp.529-539
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    • 2024
  • A high-level nuclear waste (HLW) repository is designed for the long-term disposal of high-level waste. Positioned at depths of 500-1000 meters, it offers an alternative to the insufficient storage space for spent fuels, providing a long-term solution. High-level waste emits heat and radiation, causing structural deterioration, including strength reduction and cracks. Therefore, the use of piezoelectric sensors for structural health monitoring is essential for evaluating the safety of the structure over time. Unlike other structures, the HLW repository restricts human access after the disposal of HLW, rendering sensor replacement impossible. Therefore, it is necessary to assess both the lifespan and suitability of sensors under the disposal conditions in the HLW repository. This study employed an accelerated life test (ALT) to assess the sensor's lifespan under disposal conditions. Failure modes, failure mechanisms, and operational limits were analyzed through accelerated stress test (AST). Additionally, the parameters of the Weibull life probability distribution and the Arrhenius accelerated life model were estimated through statistical methods, including the likelihood ratio test, maximum likelihood estimation, and hypothesis testing. Results confirmed that the sensor's lifespan decreases significantly with the increase in the temperature limit of the HLW repository. The findings of this study can be used for improving sensor lifespan through shielding, development of alternative sensors, or lifespan evaluation of alternative monitoring sensors.

Risk evaluation of steel frames with welded connections under earthquake

  • Song, Jianlin;Ellingwood, Bruce R.
    • Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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    • v.11 no.6
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    • pp.663-672
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    • 2001
  • Numerous failures in welded connections in steel moment-resisting building frames (SMRF) were observed when buildings were inspected after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. These observations raised concerns about the effectiveness of such frames for resisting strong earthquake ground motions. The behavior of SMRFs during an earthquake must be assessed using nonlinear dynamic analysis, and such assessments must permit the deterioration in connection strength to capture the behavior of the frame. The uncertainties that underlie both structural and dynamic loading also need to be included in the analysis process. This paper describes the analysis of one of approximately 200 SMRFs that suffered damage to its welded beam-to-column connections from the Northridge Earthquake is evaluated. Nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of this SMRF in the time domain is performed using ground motions representing the Northridge Earthquake. Subsequently, a detailed uncertainty analysis is conducted for the building using an ensemble of earthquake ground motions. Probability distributions for deformation-related limit states, described in terms of maximum roof displacement or interstory drift, are constructed. Building fragilities that are useful for condition assessment of damaged building structures and for performance-based design are developed from these distributions.

Vehicle-bridge coupling vibration analysis based fatigue reliability prediction of prestressed concrete highway bridges

  • Zhu, Jinsong;Chen, Cheng;Han, Qinghua
    • Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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    • v.49 no.2
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    • pp.203-223
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    • 2014
  • The extensive use of prestressed reinforced concrete (PSC) highway bridges in marine environment drastically increases the sensitivity to both fatigue-and corrosion-induced damage of their critical structural components during their service lives. Within this scenario, an integrated method that is capable of evaluating the fatigue reliability, identifying a condition-based maintenance, and predicting the remaining service life of its critical components is therefore needed. To accomplish this goal, a procedure for fatigue reliability prediction of PSC highway bridges is proposed in the present study. Vehicle-bridge coupling vibration analysis is performed for obtaining the equivalent moment ranges of critical section of bridges under typical fatigue truck models. Three-dimensional nonlinear mathematical models of fatigue trucks are simplified as an eleven-degree-of-freedom system. Road surface roughness is simulated as zero-mean stationary Gaussian random processes using the trigonometric series method. The time-dependent stress-concentration factors of reinforcing bars and prestressing tendons are accounted for more accurate stress ranges determination. The limit state functions are constructed according to the Miner's linear damage rule, the time-dependent S-N curves of prestressing tendons and the site-specific stress cycle prediction. The effectiveness of the methodology framework is demonstrated to a T-type simple supported multi-girder bridge for fatigue reliability evaluation.

Study of Rehabilitation Priority Order of Pipes for Water Distribution Systems using Utopian Approach (Utopian Approach를 이용한 상수관망 개별관로 개량우선순위 산정에 관한 연구)

  • Yoo, Do-Guen;Jun, Hwan-Don;Kim, Joong-Hoon
    • Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.183-193
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    • 2010
  • Well planned rehabilitation order of pipes is essential for efficient maintenance and management of Water Distribution Systems. In this study, not only deterioration rate of pipes but also structural and nonstructural failure which causes abnormal condition of WDS is considered to determine rehabilitation order. Probabilistic Neural Network is used for calculating deterioration rate at present and the importance of pipes is computed under structural and nonstructural failure by using Pipe by Pipe Failure Analysis and Effect Index. Utopian Approach, one of the Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods, is used for assessment of final rehabilitation order based on distance measure between utopian point and alternative one. Developed model in this study shows that it gives more reliable results than existing methods considering hydraulic relative importance does in application to real networks. In this point, the newly developed model, which gives advantages over existing models, can make a credible decision and simple application.

Fatigue Life Assessment of Ship Structures based on Crack Propagation Analysis -Simplified Prediction Method of Stress Intensity Factors- (균열전파해석에 의한 선체의 피로수명 평가법 -응력강도계수의 간이추정법-)

  • C.W. Kim;I.S. Nho;D.S. Kim
    • Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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    • v.39 no.1
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    • pp.90-99
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    • 2002
  • The prediction of stress intensity factor(SIF) is one of the most important factors to analyse the propagation behavior of cracks in hull structural members. Up to now, however, simplified prediction method of SIF has not yet been established for the cracks experienced in large complex structures. As a first step to predict crack propagation behavior in a ship structure with very large structural redundancies, simplified SIF prediction formulas for various crack shapes were derived based on the results of the stress analysis under a non-crack condition in this study. The adequacy of the proposed method was then verified in comparison with other experimental and analysis results.

Development of the Expert System for Management on Slab Bridge Decks (슬래브교 상판의 전문가 시스템 개발)

  • Ahn, Young-Ki;Lee, Cheung-Bin;Yim, Jung-Soon;Lee, Jin-Wan
    • Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.267-277
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    • 2003
  • The purpose of this study makes a retrofit and rehabilitation practice trough the analysis and the improvement for the underlying problem of current retrofit and rehabilitation methods. Therefore, the deterioration process, the damage cause, the condition classification, the fatigue mechanism and the applied quantity of strengthening methods for slab bridge decks were analysed. Artificial neural networks are efficient computing techniqures that are widely used to solve complex problems in many fields. In this study, a back-propagation neural network model for estimating a management on existing slab bridge decks from damage cause, damage type, and integrity assessment at the initial stsge is need. The training and testing of the network were based on a database of 36. Four different network models werw used to study the ability of the neural network to predict the desirable output of increasing degree of accuracy. The neural networks is trained by modifying the weights of the neurons in response to the errors between the actual output values and the target output value. Training was done iteratively until the average sum squared errors over all the training patterms were minimized. This generally occurred after about 5,000 cycles of training.

Development of the Expert System for Management on Existing RC Bridge Decks (기존RC교량 바닥판의 유지관리를 위한 전문가 시스템 개발)

  • 손용우;강형구;이중빈
    • Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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    • 2002.10a
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    • pp.227-236
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    • 2002
  • The purpose of this study makes a retrofit and rehabilitation practice trough the analysis and the improvement for the underlying problem of current retrofit and rehabilitation methods. Therefore, the deterioration process, the damage cause, the condition classification, the fatigue mechanism and the applied quantity of strengthening methods for RC deck slabs were analyzed. Artificial neural networks are efficient computing techniques that are widely used to solve complex problems in many fields. In this study, a back-propagation neural network model for estimating a management on existing reinforced concrete bridge decks from damage cause, damage type, and integrity assessment at the initial stage is need. The training and testing of the network were based on a database of 36. Four different network models were used to study the ability of the neural network to predict the desirable output of increasing degree of accuracy. The neural networks is trained by modifying the weights of the neurons in response to the errors between the actual output values and the target output value. Training was done iteratively until the average sum squared errors over all the training patterns were minimized. This generally occurred after about 5,000 cycles of training.

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Approaching the assessment of ageing bridge infrastructure

  • Boller, Christian;Starke, Peter;Dobmann, Gerd;Kuo, Chen-Ming;Kuo, Chung-Hsin
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.593-608
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    • 2015
  • In many of the industrialized countries an increasing amount of infrastructure is ageing. This has become specifically critical to bridges which are a major asset with respect to keeping an economy alive. Life of this infrastructure is scattering but often little quantifiable information is known with respect to its damage condition. This article describes how a damage tolerance approach used in aviation today may even be applied to civil infrastructure in the sense that operational life can be applied in the context of modern life cycle management. This can be applied for steel structures as a complete process where much of the damage accumulation behavior is known and may even be adopted to concrete structures in principle, where much of the missing knowledge in damage accumulation has to be substituted by enhanced inspection. This enhanced and continuous inspection can be achieved through robotic systems in a first approach as well as built in sensors in the sense of structural health monitoring (SHM).

Mechanical Property of Fiber Reinforced Concrete according to the Change of Curing Method (양생방법 변화에 따른 섬유보강콘크리트의 역학적 특성)

  • Kim, Chun-Ho;Kim, Nam-Wook
    • Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.67-73
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    • 2016
  • When assessing crack initiation of fiber reinforced concrete, usually tensile strength or flexural strength is becomes indicator, but also depend on the curing effect take place during the production of specimen. In general, after conducting concrete specimen is cured by water at temperature $20{\pm}3^{\circ}C$ in laboratory, and accomplished the assessment of strength, but most of concrete structure is kept in drying condition after moist curing through the prescribed period. However, unlike these trends that technological advances have been made, influence of the difference of curing method on crack strength is not yet clear. Therefore, in this study, it is examined on the effect of curing methods affecting the mechanical property of fiber reinforced concrete, especially crack strength.