• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.367-392
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• 2020

The specific characteristics of near-field earthquake records can lead to different dynamic responses of bridges compared to far-field records. However, the effect of near-field strong ground motion has often been neglected in the seismic performance assessment of the bridges. Furthermore, damage to horizontally curved multi-frame RC box-girder bridges in the past earthquakes has intensified the potential of seismic vulnerability of these structures due to their distinctive dynamic behavior. Based on the nonlinear time history analyses in OpenSEES, this article, assesses the effects of near-field versus far-field earthquakes on the seismic performance of horizontally curved multi-frame RC box-girder bridges by accounting the vertical component of the earthquake records. Analytical seismic fragility curves have been derived thru considering uncertainties in the earthquake records, material and geometric properties of bridges. The findings indicate that near-field effects reasonably increase the seismic vulnerability in this bridge sub-class. The results pave the way for future regional risk assessments regarding the importance of either including or excluding near-field effects on the seismic performance of horizontally curved bridges.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.107-113
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• 2008

As it recently appears that LCC (Life Cycle Cost) analysis may be considered as an essential method for economic evaluation of infrastructures. Many researches have been made to assess LCC of each facility based on reasonable methods. However, expected maintenance repair cost must be reasonably estimated to enhance the reliability of LCC analysis through systematic and rational methods. This study is intended to propose a rational approach to reliability-based LCC analysis of high-speed railway steel bridges considering lifetime corrosion and fatigue damage. However in Korea, since high speed railway steel bridges are only recently constructed, no direct statistical data are available for the account of the maintenance cost and thus their maintenance characteristics are not clear yet. In this paper, for the assessment of expected maintenance/repair cost, the fatigue system reliability analysis incorporating the corrosion effect is proposed by considering the corrosion and fatigue damage using measured data of high speed railway steel bridges. A model proposed by Rahgozar, of at for fatigue notch factor considering the corrosion effect is used in order to incorporate the corrosion effect into the fatigue strength reduction and S-N curve. Finally, the effectiveness of LCC model proposed for high-speed railway steel bridges is demonstrated by a numerical example.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.237-249
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• 2016

There are constraints on truck weight, axle configurations and size imposed by departments of transportation around the globe due to structural capacity limitations of highway pavements and bridges. In spite of that, freight movers demand some vehicles that surpass the maximum size and legal weight limits to use the transportation network. Oversized trucks serve the purpose of spreading the load on the bridge; thus, reducing the load effect on the superstructure. For such vehicles, often a quick structural analysis of the existing bridges along the traveled route is needed to ensure that the structural capacity is not exceeded. For a wide vehicle having wheel gage larger than the standard 1830 mm, the girder distribution factors in the design specifications cannot be directly used to estimate the live load in the supporting girders. In this study, a simple approach that is based on finite element analysis is developed by modifying the AASHTO LRFD's girder distribution factors for slab-on-steel-girder bridges to overcome this problem. The proposed factors allow for determining the oversized vehicle bending moment and shear force effect in the individual girders as a function of the gage width characteristics. Findings of the study showed that the relationship between the girder distribution factor and gage width is more nonlinear in shear than in flexure. The proposed factors yield reasonable results compared with the finite element analysis with adequate level of conservatism.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.241-256
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• 2015

Channel girder bridges that consist of a deck slab and two side beams are good choices for railway bridges and urban rail transit bridges when the vertical clearance beneath the bridge is restricted. In this study, the behavior of simply supported channel girder bridges was theoretical studied based on the theory of elasticity. The accuracy of the theoretical solutions was verified by the finite element analysis. The global bending of the channel girder and the local bending of the deck slab are two contributors to the deformations and stresses of the channel girder. Because of the shear lag effect, the maximum deflection due to the global bending could be amplified by 1.0 to 1.2 times, and the effective width of the deck slab for determining the global bending stresses can be as small as 0.7 of the actual width depending on the width-to-span ratio of the channel girder. The maximum deflection and transversal stress due to the local bending are obtained at the girder ends. For the channel girders with open section side beams, the side beam twist has a negligible effect on the deflections and stresses of the channel girder. Simplified equations were also developed for calculating the maximum deformations and stresses.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.389-403
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• 2021

Skewed bridges, being irregular structures with complicated dynamic behavior, are more susceptible to earthquake damage. Reliable seismic-resistant design of skewed bridges can be achieved by accurate determination of nonlinear seismic demands. However, the effect of geometric characteristics on the response modification factor (R-factor) is not accounted for in bridge design practices. This study attempts to investigate the effects of changes in the number of spans, skew angle and bearing stiffness on R-factor values and to assess the seismic fragility of skewed bridges. Results indicated that changes in the skew angle had no significant effect on R-factor values which were in consonance with code-prescribed R values. Also, unlike the increase in the number of spans that resulted in a decrease in the R-factor, the increase in bearing stiffness led to higher R-factor values. Findings of the fragility analysis implied that although the increase in the number of spans, as well as the increase in the skew angle, led to a higher failure probability, greater values of bearing stiffness reduced the collapse probability. For practicing design engineers, it is recommended that maximum demands on substructure elements to be calculated when the excitation angle is applied along the principal axes of skewed bridges.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.1069-1089
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• 2015

Arch bridges consist of some important components for structural behavior such as arches, sidewalls, filling materials and foundations. But, arches are the most important part for this type of bridges. For this reason, investigation of arch is come into prominence. In this paper, it is aimed to investigate the arch thickness effect on the structural behavior of masonry arch bridges. For this purpose, Goderni historical arch bridge which was located in Kulp town, Diyarbakir, Turkey and the bridge restoration process has still continued is selected as an application. The construction year of the bridge is not fully known, but the date is estimated to be the second half of the 19th century. The bridge has two arches with the 0.52 cm and 0.69 cm arch thickness, respectively. Finite element model of the bridge is constructed with ANSYS software to reflect the current situation using relievo drawings. Then the arch thickness is changed by increasing and decreasing respectively and finite element models are reconstructed. The structural responses of the bridge are obtained for all arch thickness under dead load and live load. Maximum displacements, maximum-minimum principal stresses and maximum-minimum elastic strains are given with detail using contours diagrams and compared with each other to determine the arch thickness effect. At the end of the study, it is seen that the maximum displacements, tensile stresses and strains have a decreasing trend, but compressive stress and strain have an increasing trend by the increasing of arch thickness.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.257-276
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• 1996

In North America, a large number of concrete old slab-on-steel girder bridges, classified noncomposite, were built without any mechanic connections. The stablizing effect due to slab/girder interface contact and friction on the steel girders was totally neglected in practice. Experimental results indicate that this effect can lead to a significant underestimation of the load-carrying capacity of these bridges. In this paper, the two major components-concrete slab and steel girders, are treat as two deformable bodies in contact. A finite element procedure with considering the effect of friction and contact for the analysis of concrete slab-on-steel girder bridges is presented. The interface friction phenomenon and finite element formulation are described using an updated configuration under large deformations to account for the influence of any possible kinematic motions on the interface boundary conditions. The constitutive model for frictional contact are considered as slip work-dependent to account for the irreversible nature of friction forces and degradation of interface shear resistance. The proposed procedure is further validated by experimental bridge models.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.487-495
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• 2003

Bearings at the obtuse corner are subjected to much larger vertical reactions than other bearings because of the geometric shape of skew bridges. The current relevant specifications require that additional bars should be disposed at the bottom of concrete deck slabs to deal with the large vertical reaction on bearings at the obtuse corner. In this study, new methods of reducing the magnitude of the vertical reaction on bearings at the obtuse corner by the stiffness adjustment of bearings were proposed. The basic concept of proposed methods was to redistribute support reactions by reducing the vertical stiffness of bearings at the obtuse corner showing a relatively large vertical reaction. For 45 simply supported skew bridges designed according to the current relevant specifications, the redistribution effect of vertical reactions by the stiffness adjustment of bearings was investigated. Parameters such as skew angle, girder spacing, and deck aspect ratio that affect the distribution of support reactions were considered. The results of the analyses show that the magnitude of the vertical reaction on bearings at the obtuse corner can be reduced to the levels of straight bridges by replacing the existing bearings at the obtuse corner with new ones having the value of 1/10 or 1/20 of the vertical stiffness of the existing bearings. The reduction effect of the vertical reaction on bearings at the obtuse corner increases as the girder spacing decreases and it is more pronounced when the deck aspect ratio is 2.0.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.1451-1465
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• 2016

The effectiveness of base isolation (BI) systems for mitigation of seismic vibration of bridges have been extensively studied in the past. It is well established in those studies that the performance of BI system is largely dependent on the characteristics of isolator yield strength. For optimum design of such systems, normally a standard nonlinear optimization problem is formulated to minimize the maximum response of the structure, referred as Stochastic Structural Optimization (SSO). The SSO of BI system is usually performed with reference to a problem of unconstrained optimization without imposing any restriction on the maximum isolator displacement. In this regard it is important to note that the isolator displacement should not be arbitrarily large to fulfil the serviceability requirements and to avoid the possibility of pounding to the adjacent units. The present study is intended to incorporate the effect of excessive isolator displacement in optimizing BI system to control seismic vibration effect of bridges. In doing so, the necessary stochastic response of the isolated bridge needs to be optimized is obtained in the framework of statistical linearization of the related nonlinear random vibration problem. A simply supported bridge is taken up to elucidate the effect of constraint condition on optimum design and overall performance of the isolated bridge compared to that of obtained by the conventional unconstrained optimization approach.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.337-349
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• 2001

This study present an optimum deck and girder system design for minimizing the life-cycle cost (LCC) of orthotropic steel deck bridges. The problem of optimum LCC design of orthotropic steel deck bridges is formulated as that of minimization of the expected total LCC that consists of initial cost, maintenance cost, expected retrofit costs for strength, deflection, and fatigue. To demonstrate the effect of LCC optimum design of orthotropic steel deck bridges, the proposed optimum LCC design is compared with the conventional method for orthotropic steel deck bridges design. From the numerical investigations, it may be positively stated that the proposed optimum design procedure for orthotropic steel deck bridges based on the LCC will lead to more rational, economical and safer design.