• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.62 no.6
• /
• pp.663-674
• /
• 2017

This paper presents an approach for evaluating performance of prestressed concrete (PC) bridge girders exposed to fire. A finite element based numerical model for tracing the response of fire exposed T girders is developed in ANSYS. The analysis is carried out in three stages, namely, fire temperature calculation, cross sectional temperature evaluation, and then strength, deformation and effective prestress analysis on girders exposed to elevated temperatures. The applicability of the computer program in tracing the response of PC bridge girders from the initial preloading stage to failure stage, due to combined effects of fire and structure loading, is demonstrated through a case study, and validated by test data of a scaled PC box girder under ISO834 fire condition. Results from the case study show that fire severity has a significant influence on the fire resistance of PC T girders and hydrocarbon fire is most dangerous for the girder. The prestress loss caused by elevated temperature is about 10% under hydrocarbon fire till the girder failure, which can lead to the increase in deflection of the PC girder. The rate of deflection failure criterion is suggested to determine the failure of PC T girder under fire.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.317-323
• /
• 2020

A novel approach is presented to improve dynamic responses of a pedestrian bridge by utilizing decorative wind chimes. Through wind tunnel tests, it was verified that wind chimes can provide stabilization effects against flutter instability, especially at positive or negative wind angles of attack. At zero degrees of angle of attack, the wind chimes can change the flutter pattern from rapid divergence to gradual divergence. The decorative wind chimes can also provide damping effects to suppress the lateral sway motion of the bridge caused by pedestrian footfalls and wind forces. For this purpose, the swing frequency of the wind chimes should be about the same as the structural frequency, which can be achieved by adjusting the swing length of the wind chimes. The mass and the swing damping level are other two important and mutually interactive parameters in addition to the swing length. In general, 3% to 5% swing damping is necessary to achieve favorite results. In the study case, the equivalent damping level of the entire system can be increased from originally assumed 1% up to 5% by using optimized wind chimes.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2005.03a
• /
• pp.308-315
• /
• 2005

The capacity protection is normally related with slenderness effect of the columns, force transfer in connections between columns and adjacent elements, and shear design of columns. It is intends to prevent brittle failure of the structural components of bridges, so that the whole bridge system may show ductile behavior and failure during earthquake events. For bridge systems, this means it is necessary to assess the overstrength capacity of columns prior to proceeding with the design of foundation and superstructure. The objective of this paper is to develop a capacity design approach that applies an overstrength factor for determination of possible maximum shear force in the plastic hinge zone of reinforced concrete bridge columns. In order to estimate and determine overstrength factor, material strength was developed to investigate for actual material strength total 3,407 steel and 5,405 concrete by domestic product. Based on actual material strength, this paper was conducted on moment overstrength factors using moment-curvature analysis program. And also design recommendations for capacity design are presented to revise the annual report, KEERC 2002.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.151-158
• /
• 2007

The failure of injured axons to regenerate in the mature central nervous system (CNS) has devastating consequences for victims of spinal cord injury (SCI). Traditional strategies to treat spinal cord injured people by using drug therapy and assisting devices that can not help them to recover fully various vital functions of the spinal cord. Many researches have been focused on accomplishing re-growth and reconnection of the severed axons in the injured region. Using cell transplantation to promote neural survival or growth has had modest success in allowing injured neurons to re-grow through the area of the lesion. Strategies for successful regeneration will require tissue engineering approach. In order to persuade sufficient axons to regenerate across the lesion to bring back substantial neurological function, it is necessary to construct an efficient biocompatible bridge (cell-free or implanted with different cell lines as hybrid implant) through the injured area over which axons can grow. Therefore, in this paper, spinal cord and its injury, different strategies to help regeneration of an injured spinal cord are reviewed. In addition, different aspects of designing a biocompatible bridge and its applications and challenges surrounding these issues are also addressed. This knowledge is very important for the development and optimalization of therapies to repair the injured spinal cord.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.901-925
• /
• 2014

The reliability of a Bridge management System depends on the quality of visual inspection and the reliable estimation of bridge condition rating. However, the current practices of visual inspection have been identified with several limitations, such as: they are time-consuming, provide incomplete information, and their reliance on inspectors' experience. To overcome such limitations, this paper presents an approach of automating the prediction of condition rating for bridges based on digital image analysis. The proposed methodology encompasses image acquisition, development of 3D visualization model, image processing, and condition rating model. Under this method, scaling defect in concrete bridge components is considered as a candidate defect and the guidelines in the Ontario Structure Inspection Manual (OSIM) have been adopted for developing and testing the proposed method. The automated algorithms for scaling depth prediction and mapping of condition ratings are based on training of back propagation neural networks. The result of developed models showed better prediction capability of condition rating over the existing methods such as, Naïve Bayes Classifiers and Bagged Decision Tree.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.387-410
• /
• 2008

The fatigue damage accumulation rates of horizontally curved thin walled box-girder bridge have been estimated from vehicle-induced dynamic stress history using rain flow cycle counting method in the time domain approach. The curved box-girder bridge has been numerically modeled using computationally efficient thin walled box-beam finite elements, which take into account the important structural actions like torsional warping, distortion and distortional warping in addition to the conventional displacement and rotational degrees of freedom. Vehicle model includes heave-pitch-roll degrees of freedom with longitudinal and transverse input to the wheels. The bridge deck unevenness, which is taken as inputs to the vehicle wheels, has been assumed to be a realization of homogeneous random process specified by a power spectral density (PSD) function. The linear damage accumulation theory has been applied to calculate fatigue life. The fatigue life estimated by cycle counting method in time domain has been compared with those found by estimating the PSD of response in frequency domain. The frequency domain method uses an analytical expression involving spectral moment characteristics of stress process. The effects of some of the important parameters on fatigue life of the curved box bridge have been studied.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.75 no.2
• /
• pp.271-282
• /
• 2020

The preservation of historic masonry-arch railway bridges is of paramount importance due to their economic benefits. These bridges which belong to past centuries may nowadays be expected to carry loads higher than those for which they were designed. Such an increase in loads may be because of increase in transportation speed or in the capacity of freight-wagons. Anyway, adequate increase in their load-carrying-capacity through structural-strengthening is required. Moreover, the increasing costs of material/construction urge engineers to optimize their designs to obtain the minimum-cost one. This paper proposes a novel numerical optimization method to minimize the costs associated with strengthening of masonry-arch railway bridges. To do so, the stress/displacement responses of Sahand-Goltappeh bridge are assessed under ordinary train pass as a case study. For this aim, 3D-Finite-Element-Model is created and calibrated using experimental test results. Then, it is strengthened such that following goals are achieved simultaneously: (1) the load-carrying-capacity of the bridge is increased; (2) the structural response of the bridge is reduced to a certain limit; and, (3) the costs needed for such strengthening are minimized as far as possible. The results of the case study demonstrate the applicability/superiority of the proposed approach. Some economic measures are also recommended to further reduce the total strengthening cost.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2003.07b
• /
• pp.507-510
• /
• 2003

This paper presents a novel prototype of tile three-phase bridge power block module type a auxiliary resonant AC link snubber circuit, which is effectively used for the three-phase voltage source type sinewave soft switching PWM inverter using IGBTs. Its operating principle Is described for current source load model, along with its practical design approach based on the simulation data. The performance evaluation of the three-phase voltage source type snewave soft switching PWM inverter incorporating a single three-phase bridge mo여le of active auxiliary resonant AC link snubber treated here Is illustrated, which is concerned with power duality efficiency power loss analysis. This inverter is discussed as compared with those of tile three-phase voltage source type sinewave hard switching PWM inverter. The power loss analysis of this soft switching PWM Inverter using IGBT power modules is evaluated on the basis of the measured v-i characteristics and switching power losses of IGBT, and antiparaliel diodes. The practical effectiveness of this inverter is proven by the power loss analysis for distributed power supply.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.389-396
• /
• 2001

This paper presents an analytical prediction of the fatigue behavior of reinforced concrete bridge piers under earthquake. Material nonlinearity is taken into account by comprising tensile, compressive and shear models of cracked concrete and a model of reinforcing steel. The smeared crack approach is incorporated. In boundary plane at which each member with different thickness is connected, local discontinuous deformation due to the abrupt change in their stiffness can be taken into account by introducing interface element. The effect of number of load reversals with the same displacement amplitude has been also taken into account to model the reinforcing steel. The proposed numerical method for fatigue behavior of reinforced concrete bridge piers under earthquake will be verified by comparison with reliable experimental results.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.179-191
• /
• 2002

This paper presents a systematic approach to the seismic nonlinear analysis and retrofit strategies for existing bridges with isolation system using retrofit slate function newly proposed in this study. A seismic retrofit scheme using sliding base isolation system was presented to reduce the seismic hazard for bridge structures. In this study, two types of isolation systems such as lead bearings and sliding isolators were used. The behavior of sliding isolators was modeled by a triaxial interaction model. And three types of earthquakes such as El Centro, San Fernando, and the artificial were used as earthquake ground excitations. Seismic response analyses of the bridge before and after retrofit were effectively carried out by using a three-dimensional nonlinear seismic analysis program, IDARC-Bridge. Also, this paper proposes a retrofit state function for easily representing the efficiency of a retrofit scheme.