• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.19-27
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• 2002

Dynamic responses of a multi-span simply supported bridge are investigated to examine the effect of bearing damage under seismic excitations. The damaged bearings are modeled as sliding elements with friction between the superstructure and the top of the pier. Various values of the friction coefficients are examined to figure out the effect of damaged bearings with various levels of peak ground accelerations. It is found that the global seismic behaviors are significantly influenced by the occurrence of bearing damage. It should be noticed that the most possible location of unseating failure of superstructures differs from that in the bridge model without considering the bearing damage. It can be concluded that the bearing damage may play the major role in the unseating failure of a bridge system, so that the damage of bearings should be included to achieve more rational seismic safety evaluation.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.19-26
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• 2021

The seismic isolation system have been applied in order to protect the collapse of bridge by seismic load and the vertical load transmitted from the superstructure. However, the failure and damages of non-shrinkage mortar, isolator and wedge in total 12 bridge were reported by Pohang Earthquake. In this study, the damage mechanism and behavior characteristics of elastomeric bearing by an earthquake were evaluated to consider the seismic isolation system including non-shrinkage mortar and the seat concrete of pier. To discuss the effect of installed wedge and damage mode of elastomeric bearing, the compressive-shear tests were carried out. Also, the mechanical behaviors and damage mechanism for each component of elastomeric bearing were evaluated by using finite element analysis. From the test results, the cracks were created at boundary between non-shrinkage mortar and seismic isolator and the shear loads were rapidly increased after bump into wedge. The cause for damage mechanism of seismic isolation system was investigated by comparing stress distribution of anchor socket and non-shrinkage mortar depending on wedge during earthquake.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2009

More than 40% of railway bridges on the conventional lines in Korea consist of track-on-steel plate girder (TOSPG) bridges. This type of bridge is typically designed without considering seismic loadings, as most of them were built before 1970. The seismic performance of this particular type of bridge could be upgraded through various seismic retrofit schemes, and seismic risk assessment could play a key role in decision-making on the level of the seismic retrofit. This study performed a seismic risk assessment of TOSPG bridges in Korea. The seismic damage of several crucial components of TOSPG bridges--fixed bearings, free bearings, and piers--were probabilistically estimated, and their seismic fragility curves were developed. The probability that the components would exceed their predefined limit states was also calculated by combining the fragility curves and the seismic hazard function. The analysis showed that the piers of TOSPG bridges, which are made of plain concrete without rebars, have relatively low risk against seismic loadings in Korea. This is because the mass of the superstructures of TOSPG bridges is relatively small, and hence, the seismic loading being transferred to the piers is minimal. The line-type bearings typically used for TOSPG bridges, however, are exposed to a degree of seismic risk. Among the bearings, the probability of the free-end bearings and the fixed-end bearings exceeding the slight damage state in 50 years was found to be 12.78% and 4.23%, respectively. The gap between these probability values lessened towards more serious damage states. This study could effectively provide an engineering background for decision-making activities on the seismic retrofit of railway bridges.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.96-106
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• 2014

The increased vibration level of the railway bridge could make significant noise and, also, cause structural damages such as fatigue cracks. Related to these subjects, a spherical elastomeric bridge bearing, which is layered by hemispherical rubber and steel plates, was investigated in terms of its vibration performance. Several different shape factors could be considered by changing the curvature of hemispherical surface and size in rubber and steel plate thicknesses in the manufacturing stage. The performance of the spherical elastomeric bearing for the reduction in vibration was compared with that of the conventional bearing by performing vibration experiments on a scale-downed model. The rubber material characteristics and spherical shape are found to be important parameters in reducing the bridge vibration.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.171-180
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• 2011

As a great earthquake hit east Japan recently, the interests for the necessity of earthquake resistant design and earthquake resistance ability of existent structures are much increased. The damage or collapse of a bridge, as a social overhead capital structure affects socially and economically. Thus the evaluation of earthquake resistance ability of these structures is very important. The reviewing methods for earthquake resistance ability are mostly deterministic. Although the deterministic methods are fit for the evaluation of safety of each member, they are not practical for the whole structure. For the evaluation of structural safety for earthquake, the method for the evaluation of fragility or damage is needed for some stages of damage. In this paper, fragility curves of steel box bridge using RFPB bearing for PGA, PGV, SA, SV, SI are constructed, and these are compared with the cases of FPB.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.251-258
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• 2024

This study investigated the effect of bearing aging on the seismic response of a three-span continuous concrete girder bridge with pot bearings installed. The pot bearings were modeled as elastic springs in the longitudinal, transverse, and vertical directions of the bridge to reflect the stiffness of fixed and movable supports. The effect of bearing aging on the seismic response of the bridge was examined by considering two factors: a decrease in the horizontal stiffness of the fixed bearings and an increase in the horizontal stiffness of the movable bearings. The finite element model of the three-span continuous girder bridge was validated by comparing its numerical natural frequencies with the designed natural frequencies. Using artificial ground motions that conform to the design response spectrum specified by the KDS bridge seismic design code, the seismic responses of the bridge's girders and bearings were calculated, considering the bearing stiffness variation due to aging. The results of a numerical analysis revealed that a decrease in the horizontal stiffness of the fixed bearings led to an increase in the absolute maximum relative displacement of the bearings during an earthquake. This increases the risk of the mortar block that supports the bearing cracking and the anchor bolt breaking. However, an increase in the horizontal stiffness of the movable bearings due to aging decreased the absolute maximum shear on the fixed bearings. Despite the shear reduction in the fixed bearings, the aging of the pot bearings change could cause additional tensile bending stress in the girder section above the free bearings, which could lead to unexpected structural damage to the continuous bridge during an earthquake.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.36-46
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• 2012

After the east Japan earthquake last March 2011, social interests are intensified in the area of increasing the earthquake resistant ability and the necessity of design method that can minimize the damage from earthquake. If bridges are damaged or collapsed, the social and economic effects are so severe that the evaluation of earthquake resistant ability becomes very important. The reviewing methods for earthquake resistant ability are many, but majority of these methods are deterministic. Thus, for the safety assessment of structures for earthquake, the method for evaluating fragility according to the stage of damage is necessary. In this paper, the fragility curves for PSC Box Girder bridge using LRB and RFPB are constructed for PGA, PGV, SA, SV, SI and the two isolators are compared.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.440-446
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• 2010

This paper was investigated on the laminated rubber bearing, which mitigates damages of bridges from threat of earthquakes. Laminated rubber bearing can bear large loads for long periods of time and be capable of large deformations during an earthquake. To evaluate seismic isolation with laminated rubber bearing on several earthquake waves, we performed a shaking table test. In this test, deck acceleration was measured by accelerometers and shear force on piers was surveyed by load cells. Furthermore, seismic capacity of isolated systems with laminated rubber bearing was compared with non-isolated systems through shaking table test. The results show that deck acceleration and shear force were relatively reduced by laminated rubber bearing.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.5A
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• pp.417-424
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• 2010

The dynamic properties of laminated rubber bearings used as isolators in structures could be significantly deteriorated because of the change of microstructure in rubber caused by thermal aging. As a result, a catastrophic failure of bridges and buildings unexpectedly occurs when they are subjected to earthquake attack. Here, the dynamic properties of laminated rubber bearings before and after different of compression-shear loading and repeated cycles loadings, ultimated failure test with thermal aging were first measured and compared to each other. The experimental results, the effects of thermal aging on the shear stiffness, energy absorption, and equivalent damping coefficient of laminated rubber bearings are investigated. It is found that the deterioration of dynamic properties of laminated rubber bearings caused by thermal aging is significant and should be taken into account in designing rubber bearings.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.855-864
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• 2013

The dynamic characteristics of natural rubber bearings, which are used as isolator, are dependent on the main rubber's dynamic behaviors and nonlinear properties. Rubber materials tend to undergo an aging process under the influence of mechanical or environmental factors, so they inevitably end up facing damage. A main cause of aging like this is known to be oxidization, which occurs through the heat of reaction at high temperatures. Accordingly, in this study an accelerated thermal aging test was carried out in order to compare the characteristic values of the bearings before and after thermal aging occurs. As a result of this experiment, it was found that a thermal aging phenomenon could have some effects on shear stiffness, energy absorption, and equivalent damping coefficients of the bearings. Furthermore, a deterioration in the dynamic properties of the natural rubber bearings caused by the thermal aging was applied to an actual bridge and then the effects of such thermal aging on the seismic performance of the bridge were also compared and analyzed based on numerical analysis. As a result of this analysis, it was found that the changes in the basic properties of the natural rubber bearings caused by the thermal aging bring only a minor effect on the seismic performance of bridges.