• Macromolecular Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.210-219
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• 2001

Quenched and slow cooled as well as isothermally crystallized poly(tetramethylene succinate)(PTMS) films at two different temperatures were prepared. In the process of hydrolysis of the four specimens, structural changes such as the crystallinity, crystal size distribution, lattice parameter, lamellar thickness, long period and surface morphology were investigated by using wide and small angle X-ray scattering (WAXS and SAXS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The hydrolytic degradation of quenched film was faster than that of slow cooled and isothermally crystallized films. The film crystallized at 100$\^{C}$ exhibited extensive micro voids and thus showed faster degradation than that crystallized at 75$\^{C}$, demonstrating surface morphology is another important factor to govern degradation rate. The crystallinity of the specimen increased by 5-10% and long period decreased after hydrolysis for 20 days. At the initial stage of degradation, the lamellar thickness of quenched film rather increased, while that of slow cooled and isothermally crystallized films decreased. The hydrolytic degradation preferentially occurred in the amorphous region. The hydrolytic degradation in crystal lamellae are mainly at the crystal surfaces.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.601-613
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• 2000

Existing models for the shear strength degradation of reinforced concrete members present varied conceptual approaches to interpreting test data. The relative superiority of one approach over the others is difficult to determine, particularly given the sparseness of ideal test data. Nevertheless, existing models are compared using a suite of test data that were used for the development of one such model, and significant differences emerge. Rather than relying purely on column test data, the body of knowledge concerning degradation of concrete as a material is considered. Confined concrete relations are examined to infer details of the degradation process, and to establish a framework for developing phenomenologically-based models for shear strength degradation in reinforced concrete members. The possibility of linking column shear strength degradation with material degradation phenomena is explored with a simple model. The model is applied to the results of 7 column tests, and it is found that such a link is sustainable. It is expected that models founded on material degradation phenomena will be more reliable and more broadly applicable than the current generation of empirical shear strength degradation models.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.1111-1133
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• 2015

Rebar corrosion in concrete is one of the main causes of reduction of service life of reinforced concrete buildings. This paper presents the influence of rebar corrosion on the structural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings subjected to strong earthquake ground motion. Different levels of rebar corrosion scenarios were applied on a typical four story RC frame. The deteriorated conditions as a result of these scenarios include loss in cross-sectional area and loss of mechanical properties of the reinforcement bars, loss in bond strength, and loss in concrete strength and its modulus of elasticity. Dynamic analyses of the frame with different corrosion scenarios are performed with selected strong earthquake ground motion records. The influences of degradation in both concrete and reinforcement on structural behavior are investigated by comparing the various parameters of the frame under different corrosion scenarios with respect to each other. The results show that the progressive deterioration of the frame due to rebar corrosion causes serious structural behavior changes such as change in failure mode. The intensity, propagation time, and extensity of rebar corrosion have very important effects on the level of degradation of steel and concrete, as well as on the earthquake behavior of the structure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.531-543
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• 2023

The existing concrete bridges are time-varying working systems, where the maintenance strategy should be planned according to the time-varying performance of the bridge. This work proposes a time-dependent residual capacity assessment procedure, which considers the non-stationary bridge load effects under growing traffic and non-stationary structural deterioration owing to material degradations. Lifetime bridge load effects under traffic growth are predicated by the non-stationary peaks-over-threshold (POT) method using time-dependent generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) models. The non-stationary structural resistance owing to material degradation is modeled by incorporating the Gamma deterioration process and field inspection data. A three-span continuous box-girder bridge is illustrated as an example to demonstrate the application of the proposed procedure, and the time-varying reliability indexes of the bridge girder are calculated. The accuracy of the proposed non-stationary POT method is verified through numerical examples, where the shape parameter of the time-varying GPD model is constant but the threshold and scale parameters are polynomial functions increasing with time. The case study illustrates that the residual flexural capacities show a degradation trend from a slow decrease to an accelerated decrease under traffic growth and material degradation. The reliability index for the mid-span cross-section reduces from 4.91 to 4.55 after being in service for 100 years, and the value is from 4.96 to 4.75 for the mid-support cross-section. The studied bridge shows no safety risk under traffic growth and structural deterioration owing to its high design safety reserve. However, applying the proposed numerical approach to analyze the degradation of residual bearing capacity for bridge structures with low safety reserves is of great significance for management and maintenance.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 2001

The prestressed concrete containment is one of the most important structures in nuclear power plants, which is required to prevent release of radioactive or hazardous effluents to the environment even in the case of a severe accident. Numerical analyses are carried out by using the ABAQUS finite element program to assess the ultimate pressure capacity of the Y prestressed concrete containment with light water reactor at design criteria condition and aging condition considering varied properties of time-dependant materials respectively. From the results, it is verified that the structural capacity of the Y prestressed concrete containment building under the present, aging condition is still robust. In addition, the parameter studies for the reduction of the ultimate pressure capacity of containment building according to the degradation levels of the main structural materials are carried out. The results show that when the degradations of each materials are considered as individual and combined forms, the influence is large in the order of tendon, rebar and concrete degradation, and tendon-rebar, tendon-concrete and rebar-concrete degradation respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.70-76
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• 1967

Structural changes attending polyacrylonitrile(PAN) upon heating and treating with nucleophilic reagents have been studied for some time and a few authors have studied on the thermal degradation, particularly on the characterization of degradation products in PAN. It is the purpose of this paper to report the kinetic study on the thermal degradation above $250^{\circ}C$ and make some suggestions as to the degradation process and mechanism in PAN. The degradation process in PAN is considered that three reactions are combined in two steps. Random chain scission accompanying the naphthylidine-type ring formation is the first step and the degradation of naphthylidine-type ring occurred as the next step. The reactions in the first step are competitive so that the maximum weight loss on pyrolysis of PAN, under such a condition that the degradation of naphthylidine-type ring is negligible, is depended on the relative reaction rate of these two competitive reactions.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.292-299
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• 2014

Iopromide is an X-ray contrast agent that has been detected frequently with high concentration level in surface waters. Structural characterization of degradation products and measurement of degradation efficiency of iopromide by an electron beam irradiation were performed. For the fortified sample with iopromide, electron beam irradiation (UELV-10-10S, klysotrn, 10 MeV, 1 mA and 10 kW) was performed. The chemical structures of I_D_665 and I_D_663, which are degradation products of iopromide, were proposed by interpretation of mass spectra and chromatograms by LC/ESI-MS/MS. The mass fragmentation pathways of mass spectra in tandem mass spectrometry were also proposed. Iopromide was degraded 30.5~98.4% at dose of 0.3~5 kGy, and 97.8~30% in the concentration range $0.5{\sim}100{\mu}g/kg$ at electron beam dose of 0.3 kGy, respectively. Thus, increased degradation efficiency of iopromide by electron beam irradiation was observed with a higher dose of electron beam and lower concentration.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.1123-1132
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• 1996

It has been reported that high temperature structural components represent the phenomenon of material degradation according to a long term service under high temperature and pressure. Especially, fossile power plant components using the fossil fuel and heavy oil are affected by dewpoint corrosion of $H_2SO_4$produced during a combustion. Therefore, the service materials subjected to high temperature and pressure may occur the stress corrosion cracking. The object of this paper is to investigate SCC susceptibility according to the material degradation of the high temperature structural materials in dewpoint corrosive environment-$H_2SO_4$.The obtained results are summarized as follows : 1) In case of secondary superheater tube, the fractograph of dimple is observed at the concentration of $H_2SO_4$-5%. When the concentration of $H_2SO_4$ is above 10%, the fracture mode is shifted from a transgranular fracture to an quasi-intergranular fracture according to the increment of concentration. 2) In the relationship between [$\Delta$DBTT]$_sp$ and SCC susceptibility, it is confirmed that the greater material degradation degree is, the higher SCC susceptibility is. In addition, it can be known that SP test is useful test method to evaluate SCC susceptibility for high temperature structural components. 3) When [$\Delta$DBTT]$_sp$ is above 17$17^{\circ}C$ the SCC fracture behavior is definitely observed with SCC susceptibility of above 0.4.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.69-91
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• 2010

Current seismic design codes do not contemplate explicitly some variables that are relevant for the design of structures subjected to ground motions exhibiting large energy content. Particularly, the lack of explicit consideration of the cumulative plastic demands and of the degradation of the hysteretic cycle may result in a significant underestimation of the lateral strength of reinforced concrete structures built on soft soils. This paper introduces and illustrates the use of a numerical performance-based methodology for the predesign of standard-occupation reinforced concrete ductile structures. The methodology takes into account two limit states, the performance of the non-structural system, and in the case of the life safety limit state, the effect of cumulative plastic demands and of the degradation of the hysteretic cycle on the assessment of structural performance.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.288-295
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• 2004

Concentrically braced steel frames are considered as being quite pone to soft-story response due to the degradation in brace compressive resistance after buckling under severe ground motions. When combined with the system P-Delta effects, collapse of the concentrically brsced frames by dynamic instability becomes highly probable. In this stidy, a new, relatively simple dynamic instability coefficient was proposed for diagonally braced steel flames by explicitly considering the strength degradation of the brace after buckling. Nonlinear dynamic analysis results showed that the dynamic instability coefficient proposed in this study predicted collapse limit state more consistently than the conventional one which ignores the strength degradation of the brace.