• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.649-673
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• 2012

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of accounting for aging and deterioration of bridges when estimating their seismic vulnerability. Effects of structural degradation of multiple bridge components, variations in bridge geometry, and comparison of different environmental exposure conditions have traditionally been ignored in the development of seismic fragility curves for aging concrete highway bridges. This study focuses on the degradation of multiple bridge components of a geometrically varying bridge class, as opposed to a single bridge sample, to arrive at time-dependent seismic bridge fragility curves. The effects of different exposure conditions are also explored to assess the impact of severity of the environment on bridge seismic vulnerability. The proposed methodology is demonstrated on a representative class of aging multi-span reinforced concrete girder bridges typical of the Central and Southeastern United States. The results reveal the importance of considering multiple deterioration mechanisms, including the significance of degrading elastomeric bearings along with the corroding reinforced concrete columns, in fragility modeling of aging bridge classes. Additionally, assessment of the relative severity of exposure to marine atmospheric, marine sea-splash and deicing salts, and shows 5%, 9% and 44% reduction, respectively, in the median value bridge fragility for the complete damage state relative to the as-built pristine structure.

• 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.

• KIPS Transactions on Computer and Communication Systems
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.357-362
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• 2023

Bridges are important transportation infrastructure, but they are subject to damage and cracking due to various environmental factors and constant traffic loads, which accelerate their aging. With many bridges now older than their original construction, there is a need for systems to ensure safety and diagnose deterioration. Bridges are already utilizing structural health monitoring (SHM) technology to monitor the condition of bridges in real time or periodically. Along with this technology, the development of intelligent bridge monitoring technology utilizing artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technology is underway. In this paper, we study an edge system technique for predicting bridge safety using fast Fourier transform and dimensionality reduction algorithm for maintenance of aging bridges. In particular, unlike previous studies, we investigate whether it is possible to form a dataset using sensor data collected from actual bridges and check the safety of bridges.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.2A
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• pp.109-116
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• 2012

The dynamic properties of lead rubber bearings, which are used as isolator, are dependent on the main rubber's dynamic behaviors and nonlinear qualities. Rubber materials tend to undergo an aging process under the influence of mechanical or environmental factors, so they can end up inevitably facing damage. A main cause of such aging 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 with each other before and after thermal aging occurs. As a result of this experiment, it was found that a thermal aging phenomenon could have an effect on shear stiffness, energy absorption, and equivalent damping coefficients. Furthermore, a decline in the dynamic properties of the lead rubber bearings by means of the thermal aging process was applied to an actual bridge and 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 lead rubber bearings have a minor effect on the seismic performance of bridges.

• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2019

PURPOSE. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of aging and various risk factors on the oral environment and to analyze them in 3-dimensions. MATERIALS AND METHODS. A total of 800 patients were enrolled in this study, and subjects were divided into 4 groups by age-under 55, 56 - 65, 66 - 75, and over 76. Based on their most recent visit, the number of crowns, bridges, implants, and the remaining natural teeth were recorded. Smoking habits, along with presence of diabetes and hypertension, were surveyed, as risk factors were also set as a variable. Comparisons among the groups or within the groups were performed by independent t-test, and one-way and two-way ANOVA. Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for analysis. It was assumed to be statistically significant when P value is below .05. RESULTS. Changes in the number of crowns, bridges, implants, and the remaining natural teeth by age were statistically significant. When we examined the effect of risk factors on the change of variables with age, hypertension was found to affect the number of bridges. Diabetes and smoking were found to affect the number of the remaining natural teeth. The other variables were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION. Aging is considered to be an important variable affecting the change of oral environment. Among the risk factors, the presence of smoking habit and diabetes is thought to have a great influence on the change of the number of the remaining natural teeth.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.131-138
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• 2003

This paper presents an analytical prediction of the prestress losses of prestressed concrete bridges. In this study a numerical procedure and computer program is developed to analyze the behavior of prestressed concrete bridges considering the time-dependent properties of material. It accounts for the aging, creep and shrinkage of concrete and the stress relaxation of prestressed steel. The structural model uses two dimensional plane frame elements with three nodal degree of freedom and is analyzed based on the finite element method. Member cross section can consist of concrete, reinforcement and prestressing steel. Two different set of equations for the prediction of time-dependent material properties of concrete are presented, which are ACI, CEB-FIP. The proposed numerical method for the prestress losses of prestressed concrete bridges is verified by comparison with reliable experimental results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.673-693
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• 2005

A general step-by-step simulation for the time-dependent analysis of segmentally-erected prestressed concrete box-girder bridges is presented. A three dimensional finite-element model for the balanced-cantilever construction of segmental bridges, including effects of the load history, material nonlinearity, creep, shrinkage, and aging of concrete and the relaxation of prestressing steel was developed using ABAQUS software. The models included three-dimensional shell elements to model the box-girder walls and Rebar elements representing the prestressing tendons. The step-by-step procedure allows simulating the construction stages, effects of time-dependent deformations of materials and changes in the structural system of the bridges. The structural responses during construction and throughout the service life were traced. A comparison of the developed computer simulation with available experimental results was conducted and good agreement was found. Deflection of the bridge deck, changes in stresses and strains and the redistribution of internal forces were calculated for different examples of bridges, built by the balanced-cantilever method, over thirty-year duration. Significant time-dependent effects on the bridge deflections and redistribution of internal forces and stresses were observed. The ultimate load carrying capacities of the bridges and the behavior before collapse were also determined. It was observed that the ultimate load carrying capacity of such bridges decreases with time as a result of time-dependent effects.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.615-642
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• 2013

In this paper a study on prestressed concrete slab bridges is presented. A design philosophy based on the concept of load balancing through prestressing is proposed in order to minimize the effects of delayed deformations due to creep. Aspects related to the stress redistribution inside these bridges for time-dependent phenomena are analyzed and discussed, by applying the principles of aging linear visco-elasticity. Prestressing is seen as an equivalent external load which counterbalances the permanent loads applied to the bridge, nullifying the elastic deflections due to sustained loads, and thus avoiding the related delayed deformations. An optimization of the structural behavior through the use of one-way prestressing is achieved. The determination of a convenient variable depth of slab bridges and the correspondent layout of tendons is considered as a useful means for applying the load balancing concept in actual cases of structures like long cantilevers or bridge decks. A case-study related to the slab bridges built 30 years ago at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia is presented and discussed, in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach to the conceptual design of prestressed concrete bridges.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1998.10b
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• pp.737-742
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• 1998

Non-destructive field tests of the concrete has achieved increasing acceptance for the evaluation of existing concrete structures. But the application of this test has not still accomplished to guarantee perfectly the durability of the concrete bridges in Korea. As two major testing methods, this paper recommends the proper empirical relationship between the rebound number together with the ultrasonic pulse velocity and the core strength. Also, this paper recommend the relationships as the aging and as the element.

• Journal of KIBIM
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.29-38
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• 2016

Road bridges are deteriorating gradually, and it is forecasted that the number of road bridges aging over 30 years will increase by more than 3 times of the current number. To maintain road bridges in a safe condition, current safety conditions of the bridges must be estimated for repair or reinforcement. However, budget and professional manpower required to perform in-depth inspections of road bridges are limited. This study proposes an estimation model for safety rating of road bridges by analyzing the data from Facility Management System (FMS) and Yearbook of Road Bridges and Tunnel. These data include basic specifications, year of completion, traffic, safety rating, and others. The distribution of safety rating was imbalanced, indicating 91% of road bridges have safety ratings of A or B. To improve classification performance, five safety ratings were integrated into two classes of G (good, A and B) and P (poor ratings under C). This rearrangement was set because facilities with ratings under C are required to be repaired or reinforced to recover their original functionality. 70% of the original data were used as training data, while the other 30% were used for validation. Data of class P in the training data were oversampled by 3 times, and Repeated Incremental Pruning to Produce Error Reduction (RIPPER) algorithm was used to develop the estimation model. The results of estimation model showed overall accuracy of 84.8%, true positive rate of 67.3%, and 29 classification rule. Year of completion was identified as the most critical factor on affecting lower safety ratings of bridges.