• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.88 no.4
• /
• pp.311-322
• /
• 2023

Riverine flood is one of the critical natural threats to river-crossing bridges. As floods are the most-occurred natural hazard worldwide, survival probability of bridges due to floods must be assessed in a speedy but precise manner. In this regard, the paper presents a reliability-based approach for a rapid assessment of failure probability of vulnerable bridge components under floods. This robust method is generic in nature and can be applied to both concrete and steel girder bridges. The developed methodology essentially utilizes limit state performance functions, expressed in terms of capacity and flood demand, for probable failure modes of various vulnerable components of bridges. Advanced First Order Reliability Method (AFORM), Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS), and Latin Hypercube Simulation (LHS) techniques are applied for the purpose of reliability assessment and developing flood fragility curves of bridges in which flow velocity and water height are taken as flood intensity measures. Upon validating the proposed method, it is applied to a case study bridge that experiences the flood scenario of a river in Gujarat, India. Research outcome portrays how effectively and efficiently the proposed reliability-based method can be applied for a quick assessment of flood vulnerability of bridges in any flood-prone region of interest.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.995-1015
• /
• 2016

In the design and condition assessment of bridges, it is usually necessary to take into consideration the extreme conditions which are not expected to occur within a short time period and thus require an extrapolation from observations of limited duration. Long-term structural health monitoring (SHM) provides a rich database to evaluate the extreme conditions. This paper focuses on the extrapolation of extreme traffic load effects on bridges using long-term monitoring data of structural strain. The suspension Tsing Ma Bridge (TMB), which carries both highway and railway traffic and is instrumented with a long-term SHM system, is taken as a testbed for the present study. Two popular extreme value extrapolation methods: the block maxima approach and the peaks-over-threshold approach, are employed to extrapolate the extreme stresses induced by highway traffic and railway traffic, respectively. Characteristic values of the extreme stresses with a return period of 120 years (the design life of the bridge) obtained by the two methods are compared. It is found that the extrapolated extreme stresses are robust to the extrapolation technique. It may owe to the richness and good quality of the long-term strain data acquired. These characteristic extremes are also compared with the design values and found to be much smaller than the design values, indicating conservative design values of traffic loading and a safe traffic-loading condition of the bridge. The results of this study can be used as a reference for the design and condition assessment of similar bridges carrying heavy traffic, analogous to the TMB.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.117-126
• /
• 2015

The development of railway roadbed for 600km/h train speed level is very difficult because unpredictable static and dynamic interaction occurs between the ultra-high speed train and the infrastructure. Especially, an earthwork-bridge transition zone is a section in which influential factors react, such as bearing capacity, compression, settlement, drainage, and track irregularity; these interactions can include complicated dynamic interaction. Therefore, if static and dynamic stability are secured in transition zones, it is possible to develop roadbeds for ultra-high speed railways. In the present paper, design parameters for transition reinforcement applied to present railway design criteria are analytically examined for ultra-high speed usage on a preferential basis. Design parameters are the presence of reinforcing materials, geometric shape, stiffness of materials, and so on. Analysis is focused on the deformation response of the track and running stability at ultra-high speed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.13-24
• /
• 2019

This paper brings up fallacy of material factors specified for the design of concrete members in the current Korean limit state design code for highway bridges, and proposes new material factors based on a robust optimization scheme to overcome the fallacy. It is shown that the current load factors in the code and the proposed material factors lead to a much higher reliability index than the target index. The load factors are adjusted to yield the target reliability index using the inverse reliability analysis. A reliability-based approach following the basic concept of Eurocode is formulated to determine material factors as well as load factors. The load-material factors obtained by the proposed reliability-based approach yield a lower reliability level than the target index. Drawbacks of the basic concept of Eurocode are discussed. It is pointed out that differences in the uncertainties between materials and members may cause the lower reliability index of concrete member than the target.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.661-671
• /
• 2022

Stayed cables are the key components for transmitting loads in cable-stayed bridges. Therefore, it is very important to evaluate the cable force condition to ensure bridge safety. An online condition assessment and anomaly localization method is proposed for cables based on the spatiotemporal correlation of grouped cable forces. First, an anomaly sensitive feature index is obtained based on the distribution characteristics of grouped cable forces. Second, an adaptive anomaly detection method based on the k-nearest neighbor rule is used to perform dissimilarity measurements on the extracted feature index, and such a method can effectively remove the interference of environment factors and vehicle loads on online condition assessment of the grouped cable forces. Furthermore, an online anomaly isolation and localization method for stay cables is established, and the complete decomposition contributions method is used to decompose the feature matrix of the grouped cable forces and build an anomaly isolation index. Finally, case studies were carried out to validate the proposed method using an in-service cable-stayed bridge equipped with a structural health monitoring system. The results show that the proposed approach is sensitive to the abnormal distribution of grouped cable forces and is robust to the influence of interference factors. In addition, the proposed approach can also localize the cables with abnormal cable forces online, which can be successfully applied to the field monitoring of cables for cable-stayed bridges.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.515-526
• /
• 2007

In this study, the models and methods for the safety assessment of Steel-Concrete Hybrid Cable-Stayed Bridge, which consists of steel composite girder and concrete girder erected by the FCM(Free Cantilever Method) and FSM(Full Staging Method) are proposed for the assurance of structural safety and the prevention against bridge collapse during construction. By the structural reliability approach that reasonably considers the uncertainties associated with the resistance and the load effect, the resistance and the load distribution characteristics of Steel-Concrete Hybrid Cable-Stayed Bridgeare defined and the strength limit state equations of permanent structures and temporary structures during construction are suggested. An AFOSM algorithm and MCS technique are used for the reliability analysis of cables, pylons, girders, steel-concrete conjunction part and temporary bents. Also, component reliability analyses are performed at the construction stages based on the structural system model. To demonstrate their rationality and practicality, the proposed models and approaches are applied to a real bridge. The sensitivity analyses of main parameters are performed in order to identify the critical factors that control the safety of similar bridges. As a result, it may be stated that the proposed models could be implemented as a rational and practical approach for the safety assessment of Steel-Concrete Hybrid Cable-stayed bridges erected by FCM and FSM during construction.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.635-642
• /
• 2003

Although the strengthening effect of deteriorated concrete bridge decks has been studied by various authors, most researches are focused on the experimental works on the pulsating loading in laboratory in spite of deterioration of deck caused by moving vehicle loads. In this research, a theoretical live load model that was proposed to reflect an effect of moving vehicle loads is formulated from a statistical approach on the measurement of real traffic loads for various time periodsin Korea. Fatigue life and strengthening effect of strengthened bridge decks strengthened with either Carbon Fiber Sheet or Grid typed Carbon Fiber Polymer Plastic by the probabilistic and the reliability analyses are assessed. As a results, secondary bridge deck (DB18) strengthened with FRP ensures a sufficient fatigue resistance against the increased traffic loads as well as load carrying capacity in life cycle.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.549-559
• /
• 2017

As few multi-tower single-box multi-cell cable-stayed bridges with corrugated steel webs have been built, analysis is mostly achieved by combining single-girder model, beam grillage model and solid model in support of the design. However, such analysis methods usually suffer from major limitations in terms of the engineering applications: single-girder model fails to account for spatial effect such as shear lag effect of the box girder and the relevant effective girder width and eccentric load coefficient; owing to the approximation in the principle equivalence, the plane grillage model cannot accurately capture shear stress distribution and local stress state in both top and bottom flange of composite box girder; and solid model is difficult to be practically combined with the overall calculation. The usual effective width method fails to provide a uniform and accurate "effective length" (and the codes fail to provide a unified design approach at those circumstance) considering different shear lag effects resulting from dead load, prestress and cable tension in the construction. Therefore, a novel spatial grid model has been developed to account for shear lag effect. The theoretical principle of the proposed spatial grid model has been elaborated along with the relevant illustrations of modeling parameters of composite box girder with corrugated steel webs. Then typical transverse and longitudinal shear lag coefficient distribution pattern at the side-span and mid-span key cross sections have been analyzed and summarized to provide reference for similar bridges. The effectiveness and accuracy of spatial grid analysis methods has been finally validated through a practical cable-stayed bridge.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.680-685
• /
• 2006

Bridges are an integral part of Transportation that is always open to traffic.To effectively manage bridges today, more needs to be done to assess the day-to-day condition and behavior of bridges, and the deterioration rates of their components, so that efficient and proactive measures can be taken. Conventional methods consumemore time and they lack flexibility to reach all locations in high convoluted structures which most bridges offer. Instead, this work uses a new concept of robot, termed as Bridge inspecting robot, which, as its name suggests, possesses superior ability to flex, reach, and approach all points on the bridge. This study also provides economical feasibility model for the same and a comparison with existing bridge inspection and automated inspection work. Finally, we have uncovered few issues and did not analyze some information because of limitation to data.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.23-31
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this study is to investigate the size effect on inelastic behavior of reinforced concrete bridge piers. A computer program, named RCAHEST(reinforced concrete analysis in higher evaluation system technology), for the analysis for reinforced concrete structures was used. 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. To determine the size effect on bridge pier inelastic behavior, a 1/4-scale replicate model was also loaded for comparison with the full-scale bridge pier behavior.