• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.137-144
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• 2019

For the structures near the seismogenic fault, the evaluation of seismic performance against near-fault ground motions is important as well as for design ground motions. In this study, characteristics of seismic behaviors and seismic performance of the pile-bent bridge constructed on the thick soft soil site with various weak soil layers were analyzed. The input ground motions were synthesized by the directivity pulse parameters for intra-plate regions. The ground motion acceleration histories of each layer were obtained by one-dimensional site response analysis. Each soil layer was modeled by equivalent linear springs, and multi-support excitations with different input ground motions at each soil spring were applied for nonlinear seismic analyses. The analysis result by the near-fault ground motions and ground motions matched to design spectra were compared. In case of the near fault ground motion input, the bridge behaved within the elastic range but the location of the maximum moment occurred was different from the result of design ground motion input.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.425-434
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• 2019

It is important to ensure the seismic safety of pile-bent bridges constructed in areas with thick soft ground consisting of various soil layers against seismic motion in these layers. In this study, several synthetic seismic waves that are compatible with the seismic design spectrum for rock sites were generated, and the ground acceleration history of each soil layer was obtained based on ground analyses. Using these acceleration histories, each soil layer was modeled using equivalent linear springs, and multi-support excitation analyses were performed using the input motion obtained at each soil layer. Due to the nonlinear behavior of the soft soil layers, the intensity of the input ground motion was not amplified, which resulted in the elastic behavior of the bridge. In addition, inputting the acceleration history obtained from a particular layer simultaneously into all the ground springs reduced the response. Therefore, the seismic performance of this type of bridge might be overestimated if multi-excitation analysis is not performed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.549-562
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• 2017

The US railroad network carries 40% of the nation's total freight. Railroad bridges are the most critical part of the network infrastructure and, therefore, must be properly maintained for the operational safety. Railroad managers inspect bridges by measuring displacements under train crossing events to assess their structural condition and prioritize bridge management and safety decisions accordingly. The displacement of a railroad bridge under train crossings is one parameter of interest to railroad bridge owners, as it quantifies a bridge's ability to perform safely and addresses its serviceability. Railroad bridges with poor track conditions will have amplified displacements under heavy loads due to impacts between the wheels and rail joints. Under these circumstances, vehicle-track-bridge interactions could cause excessive bridge displacements, and hence, unsafe train crossings. If displacements during train crossings could be measured objectively, owners could repair or replace less safe bridges first. However, data on bridge displacements is difficult to collect in the field as a fixed point of reference is required for measurement. Accelerations can be used to estimate dynamic displacements, but to date, the pseudo-static displacements cannot be measured using reference-free sensors. This study proposes a method to estimate total transverse displacements of a railroad bridge under live train loads using acceleration and tilt data at the top of the exterior pile bent of a standard timber trestle, where train derailment due to excessive lateral movement is the main concern. Researchers used real bridge transverse displacement data under train traffic from varying bridge serviceability levels. This study explores the design of a new bridge deck-pier experimental model that simulates the vibrations of railroad bridges under traffic using a shake table for the input of train crossing data collected from the field into a laboratory model of a standard timber railroad pile bent. Reference-free sensors measured both the inclination angle and accelerations of the pile cap. Various readings are used to estimate the total displacements of the bridge using data filtering. The estimated displacements are then compared to the true responses of the model measured with displacement sensors. An average peak error of 10% and a root mean square error average of 5% resulted, concluding that this method can cost-effectively measure the total displacement of railroad bridges without a fixed reference.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.243-254
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• 2022

Reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams are critical structural elements used in offshore pile caps, rectangular cross-section water tanks, silo structures, transfer beams in high-rise buildings, and bent caps. As a result of the low shear span ratio to effective depth (a/d) in deep beams, arch action occurs, which leads to shear failure. Several studies have been carried out to improve the shear resistance of RC deep beams and avoid brittle fracture behavior in recent years. This study was performed to investigate the behavior of RC deep beams numerically and experimentally with different reinforcement arrangements. Deep beams with four different reinforcement arrangements were produced and tested under monotonic static loading in the study's scope. The horizontal and vertical shear reinforcement members were changed in the test specimens to obtain the effects of different reinforcement arrangements. However, the rebars used for tension and the vertical shear reinforcement ratio were constant. In addition, the behavior of each deep beam was obtained numerically with commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software ABAQUS, and the findings were compared with the experimental results. The results showed that the reinforcements placed diagonally significantly increased the load-carrying and energy absorption capacities of RC deep beams. Moreover, an apparent plastic plateau was seen in the load-displacement curves of these test specimens in question (DE-2 and DE-3). This finding also indicated that diagonally located reinforcements improve displacement ductility. Also, the numerical results showed that the FEM method could be used to accurately predict RC deep beams'behavior with different reinforcement arrangements.