• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.267-274
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• 2021

Seismic fragility analysis of a structure is generally performed for the expected critical component of a structure. The seismic fragility analysis assumes that all the components behave independently in a structural system. A bridge system consists of many inter-connected components. Thus, for an accurate evaluation of the seismic fragility of a bridge, the seismic fragility analysis requires the composition of probabilities considering the correlation between structural components. This study presented a procedure to obtain the seismic fragility curve of a bridge system, considering the correlation between bridge components. Seismic fragility analysis was performed on a PSC bridge that is considered as the central infrastructure. The analysis results showed that the probability of the seismic fragility curve of the bridge system was higher than that of each bridge component.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.93-110
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• 2018

In order to provide a novel strategy for long-span bridge health monitoring system design, this paper proposes a novel ultimate bearing capacity ratios based bridge internal force monitoring design method. The bridge ultimate bearing capacity analysis theories are briefly described. Then, based on the ultimate bearing capacity of the structural component, the component ultimate bearing capacity ratio, the uniformity of ultimate bearing capacity ratio, and the reference of component ultimate bearing capacity ratio are defined. Based on the defined indices, the high bearing components can then be found, and the internal force monitoring system can be designed. Finally, the proposed method is applied to the bridge health monitoring system design of the second highway bridge of Wuhu Yangtze river. Through the ultimate bearing capacity analysis of the bridge in eight load conditions, the high bearing components are found based on the proposed method. The bridge internal force monitoring system is then preliminary designed. The results show that the proposed method can provide quantitative criteria for sensors layout. The monitoring components based on the proposed method are consistent with the actual failure process of the bridge, and can reduce the monitoring of low bearing components. For the second highway bridge of Wuhu Yangtze river, only 59 components are designed to be monitored their internal forces. Therefore, the bridge internal force monitoring system based on the ultimate bearing capacity ratio can decrease the number of monitored components and the cost of the whole monitoring system.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.89-104
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• 2015

In current bridge management systems (BMSs), load and speed restrictions are applied on unhealthy bridges to keep the structure safe and serviceable for as long as possible. But the question is, whether applying these restrictions will always decrease the internal forces in critical components of the bridge and enhance the safety of the unhealthy bridges. To find the answer, this paper for the first time in literature, looks into the design aspects through studying the changes in demand by capacity ratios of the critical components of a bridge under the train loads. For this purpose, a structural model of a simply supported bridge, whose dynamic behaviour is similar to a group of real railway bridges, is developed. Demand by capacity ratios of the critical components of the bridge are calculated, to identify their sensitivity to increase of speed and magnitude of live load. The outcomes of this study are very significant as they show that, on the contrary to what is expected, by applying restriction on speed, the demand by capacity ratio of components may increase and make the bridge unsafe for carrying live load. Suggestions are made to solve the problem.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.155-169
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• 2023

The quasi-static component of the moving vehicle-induced dynamic response is promising in damage detection as it is sensitive to bridge damage but insensitive to environmental changes. However, accurate extraction of quasi-static component from the dynamic response is challenging especially when the vehicle velocity is high. This paper proposes an adaptive quasi-static component extraction method based on the modified variational mode decomposition (VMD) algorithm. Firstly the analytical solutions of the frequency components caused by road surface roughness, high-frequency dynamic components controlled by bridge natural frequency and quasi-static components in the vehicle-induced bridge response are derived. Then a modified VMD algorithm based on particle swarm algorithm (PSO) and mutual information entropy (MIE) criterion is proposed to adaptively extract the quasi-static components from the vehicle-induced bridge dynamic response. Numerical simulations and real bridge tests are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed extraction method. The results indicate that the improved VMD algorithm could extract the quasi-static component of the vehicle-induced bridge dynamic response with high accuracy in the presence of the road surface roughness and measurement noise.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.53-70
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• 2003

Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong is the longest suspension bridge in the world carrying both highway and railway. It has two H-shape concrete towers, each of which is composed of two reinforced concrete legs and four deep transverse prestressed concrete beams. A series of wind tunnel tests have been performed to measure the aerodynamic coefficients of the tower legs and transverse beams in various arrangements. A 1:100 scaled 3D rigid model of the full bridge tower assembled from various tower components has been constructed for different test cases. The aerodynamic coefficients of the lower and upper segments of the windward and leeward tower legs and those of the transverse beams at different levels, with and without the dummy bridge deck model, were measured as a function of yaw wind angle. The effects of wind interference among the tower components and the influence of the bridge deck on the tower aerodynamic coefficients were also investigated. The results achieved can be used as the pertinent data for the comparison of the computed and field-measured fully coupled buffeting responses of the entire bridge under yaw winds.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.127-145
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• 2012

One of the most important and challenging steps in seismic vulnerability and performance assessment of highway bridges is the determination of the bridge component damage parameters and their corresponding limit states. These parameters are very essential for defining bridge damage state as well as determining the performance of highway bridges under a seismic event. Therefore, realistic damage limit states are required in the development of reliable fragility curves, which are employed in the seismic risk assessment packages for mitigation purposes. In this article, qualitative damage assessment criteria for ordinary highway bridges are taken into account considering the critical bridge components in terms of proper engineering demand parameters (EDPs). Seismic damage of bridges is strongly related to the deformation of bridge components as well as member internal forces imposed due to seismic actions. A simple approach is proposed for determining the acceptance criteria and damage limit states for use in seismic performance and vulnerability assessment of ordinary highway bridges in Turkey constructed after the 1990s. Physical damage of bridge components is represented by three damage limit states: serviceability, damage control, and collapse prevention. Inelastic deformation and shear force demand of the bent components (column and cap beam), and superstructure displacement are the most common causes for the seismic damage of the highway bridges. Each damage limit state is quantified with respect to the EDPs: i.e. curvature and shear force demand of RC bent components and superstructure relative displacement.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.810-819
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• 2007

Usually the status of a bridge is determined by its structural capability and material strength. Consequently a lot of researchers have studied the failure, the fatigue, and the deterioration of the structure in terms of the structural function of a bridge. However, the overall performance of a bridge may be affected simply by the damage of one of its components. Therefore this study utilized a systematic classification and statistical analysis based on the existing bridge inspection data collected in Taiwan to reach the following goals: (1) assess the performance distribution and deterioration rate for bearing and expansion joint of bridge; (2) find out the right time to do the preventive and essential maintenance for the component of bridge with an empirical method, and to decide what time and which component of a bridge will receive preventive maintenance or regular maintenance.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.521-539
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• 2011

Jilin highway concrete bridge is located in the center of Jilin City, which is positioned in the middle part in Jilin Province in the east north of China. This bridge crosses the Songhua River and connects the north and the south of Jilin City. The main purpose of damages inspection of the bridge components is to ensure the safety of a bridge and to identify any maintenance, repair, or strengthening which that need to be carried out. The damages that occur in reinforced concrete bridges include different types of cracks, scalling and spalling of concrete, corrosion of steel reinforcement, deformation, excessive deflection, and stain. The main objectives of this study are to inspect the appearance of Jilin highway concrete bridge and describe all the damages in the bridge structural members, and to evaluate the structural performance of the bridge structure under dead and live loads. The tests adopted in this study are: (a) the depth of concrete carbonation test, (b) compressive strength of concrete test, (c) corrosion of steel test, (d) static load test, and (e) dynamic load test. According to the damages inspection of the bridge structure appearance, most components of the bridge are in good conditions with the exception arch waves, spandrel arch, deck pavement of new arch bridge, and corbel of simply supported bridge which suffer from serious damages. Load tests results show that the deflection, strain, and cracks development satisfy the requirements of the standards.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.386-397
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• 2007

One major development in bridge life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) in recent years is to develop deterioration model for bridge components so that the times of repair/replacement throughout a component's life span can be properly determined. Taiwan also developed her own bridge LCCA model in 2003, integrating with the bridge inspection database in the local bridge management system (T-BMS). Under the framework of the local LCCA model, this study employs the reliability method in developing a deterioration model of bridge components. A component deteriorates through time in its reliability, which represents the probability of a component's condition index exceeds a user specified threshold. Model assumptions and rationale are described in the paper. The steps for applying the developed model are explained in detail. Results and findings are reported.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.249-271
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• 2014

This paper presents a unique study of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for the maintenance decision making about a real life movable bridge. The mechanical components of movable bridges are maintained on a scheduled basis. However, it is desired to have a condition-based maintenance by taking advantage of SHM. The main objective is to track the operation of a gearbox and a rack-pinion/open gear assembly, which are critical parts of bascule type movable bridges. Maintenance needs that may lead to major damage to these components needs to be identified and diagnosed timely since an early detection of faults may help avoid unexpected bridge closures or costly repairs. The fault prediction of the gearbox and rack-pinion/open gear is carried out using two types of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs): 1) Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Networks (MLP-NNs) and 2) Fuzzy Neural Networks (FNNs). Monitoring data is collected during regular opening and closing of the bridge as well as during artificially induced reversible damage conditions. Several statistical parameters are extracted from the time-domain vibration signals as characteristic features to be fed to the ANNs for constructing the MLP-NNs and FNNs independently. The required training and testing sets are obtained by processing the acceleration data for both damaged and undamaged condition of the aforementioned mechanical components. The performances of the developed ANNs are first evaluated using unseen test sets. Second, the selected networks are used for long-term condition evaluation of the rack-pinion/open gear of the movable bridge. It is shown that the vibration monitoring data with selected statistical parameters and particular network architectures give successful results to predict the undamaged and damaged condition of the bridge. It is also observed that the MLP-NNs performed better than the FNNs in the presented case. The successful results indicate that ANNs are promising tools for maintenance monitoring of movable bridge components and it is also shown that the ANN results can be employed in simple approach for day-to-day operation and maintenance of movable bridges.