• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.17 no.2 s.75
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• pp.227-241
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• 2005

This paper presents a practical and realistic Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) optimum design methodology for steel bridges considering the long-term effect of environmental stressors such as corrosion and heavy truck traffics on bridge reliability. The LCC functions considered in the LCC optimization consist of initial cost, expected life-cycle maintenance cost, and expected life-cycle rehabilitation costs including repair/replacement costs, loss of contents or fatality and injury losses, road user costs, and indirect socio-economic losses. For the assessment of the life-cycle rehabilitation costs, the annual probability of failure, which depends upon the prior and updated load and resistance histories, should be accounted for. For the purpose, Nowak live load model and a modified corrosion propagation model, which takes into consideration corrosion initiation, corrosion rate, and repainting effect, are adopted in this study. The proposed methodology is applied to the LCC optimum design problem of an actual steel box girder bridge with 3 continuous spans (40m+50m+40m=130m). Various sensitivity analyses are performed to investigate the effects of various design parameters and conditions on the LCC-effectiveness. From the numerical investigation, it has been observed that local corrosion environments and the volume of truck traffic significantly influence the LCC-effective optimum design of steel bridges. Thus, these conditions should be considered as crucial parameters for the optimum LCC-effective design.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1A
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• pp.75-89
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• 2006

This paper presents a practical and realistic Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) optimum design methodology of steel bridges considering time effect of bridge reliability under environmental stressors such as corrosion and heavy truck traffics. The LCC functions considered in the LCC optimization consist of initial cost, expected life-cycle maintenance cost and expected life-cycle rehabilitation costs including repair/replacement costs, loss of contents or fatality and injury losses, road user costs, and indirect socio-economic losses. For the assessment of the life-cycle rehabilitation costs, the annual probability of failure which depends upon the prior and updated load and resistance histories should be accounted for. For the purpose, Nowak live load model and a modified corrosion propagation model considering corrosion initiation, corrosion rate, and repainting effect are adopted in this study. The proposed methodology is applied to the LCC optimum design problem of an actual steel box girder bridge with 3 continuous spans (40 m+50 m+40 m=130 m), and various sensitivity analyses of types of steel, local corrosion environments, average daily traffic volume, and discount rates are performed to investigate the effects of various design parameters and conditions on the LCC-effectiveness. From the numerical investigation, it has been observed that local corrosion environments and the number of truck traffics significantly influence the LCC-effective optimum design of steel bridges, and thus realized that these conditions should be considered as crucial parameters for the optimum LCC-effective design.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.57-65
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• 2016

This study found a proper parametric life distribution based on maintenance history data of each bridge member under the jurisdiction of the Korea Expressway Corporation for the past 10 years by introducing the concept of reliability and suggested a measure to calculate the mean life and reliability of each bridge member using the parameter obtained with the maximum-likelihood classification. As a result of analyzing the exponential distribution, weibull distribution and log normal distribution being utilized frequently in order to find the parametric life distribution type which well described the life data of each bridge member, it was found that the log normal distribution and weibull distribution described the characteristics of the relevant life data the best. As a result of calculating the mean life of each bridge member based on the estimated parameter, the average life of the steel bridge coating was 18.51 years which was the longest, followed by the bridge deck as 17.56 years. The mean life of the drainage facility and the bridge bearing were 12.27 years and 12.57 years respectively, showing the shortest life.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.313-321
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• 2008

Recently in Japan, fracturing was observed on the diagonal member of a through truss bridge at the boundary region with the concrete slab. Local corrosion damage where the diagonal member was enclosed in the concrete slab is an important factor in the fracture. In this study, accelerated exposure tests were carried out on concrete-steel model specimens simulating steel members at the boundary with concrete. Fatigue tests were then performed on the corroded model specimens. Accelerated exposure tests of the S6-cycle, which is carried out on the model specimens for 150, 300, 450 and 600 da ys. Their surface geometry was then measured. From the accelerated exposure test results, change in maximum and mean corrosion depths was determined according to the testing periods. The effect of local corrosion on fatigue strength was also presented based on the fatigue test results.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2007

The corrosion durability of steel bridge coatings, such as organic and metallic coatings, is often evaluated by field exposure tests, but such tests take from several years to decades to complete. As a potential method for fast corrosion testing, accelerated exposure tests were considered in this study. The S6-cycle accelerated exposure test, specified in the Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS K5621), was carried out on uncoated structural steels for 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 days, and the resultant weight loss was determined. The weight loss was compared with that obtained from previous field exposure tests, and acceleration factors of the S6-cycle test to field exposure test sites were determined. The application of the S6-cycle accelerated exposure tests to field environments was presented based on the acceleration factor and the amount of flying salt.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1731-1741
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• 2014

Recently, many overpasses, highway, and advanced transit systems have been constructed to distribute the traffic congestion, thus small size of curved bridges with small curvature such as ramp structures have been increasing. Many of early curved bridges had been constructed by using straight beams with curved slabs, but curved steel beams have replaced them due to the cost, aesthetic and the advantage in building the section form and manipulating the curvature of beams, thereby large portion of curved bridges were applied with steel box girders. However, steel box girder bridges needs comparatively high initial costs and continuous maintenance such as repainting, which is the one of the reason for increasing the cost. Moreover, I-type steel plate girder which is being studied by many researchers recently, seem to have problems in stability due to the low torsional stiffness, resulting from the section characteristics with thin plate used for web and open section forms. Therefore, in recent studies, researchers have proposed curved precast PSC girders with low cost and could secured safety which could replace the curved steel girder type bridges. Hence, this study developed a Smart Mold system to manufacture efficient curved precast PSC girders. And by using this mold system a 40 m 2-girder bridge was constructed for a static flexural test, to evaluate the safety and performance under ultimate load. At the manufacturing stage, each single girder showed problems in the stability due to the torsional moment, but after the girders were connected by cross beams and decks, the bridge successfully distributed the stress, thereby the stability was confirmed. The static loading test results show that the initial crack was observed at 1,400 kN when the design load was 450 kN, and the load at the allowable deflection by code was 1,800 kN, which shows that the safety and usability of the curved precast PSC bridge manufactured by Smart Mold system is secured.