• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2009

Blast cleaning has been applied in steel bridges for cleaning forged surface and increasing adhesive property of applied coating systems. Blasting is the operation of cleaning or preparing a surface by forcible propelling a stream of abrasive metals against it. Blast cleaning may improve surface geometry and induce compressive residual stress, and eventually may increase fatigue life of weld joints. In this paper, fatigue tests were carried out on three types of non-load-carrying fillet welded cruciform joints, as-welded joints, blast-treated joints, and stress-relieved joints after blasting, in order to investigate effect of blast cleaning on fatigue behavior of the weld joints. By Blast cleaning, the weld toe radius was increased by 29% and compressive residual stress was induced near weld toes. Blast cleaning increased fatigue life and fatigue endurance limit of the weld joints. When the applied stress ranges decreased, the increment in fatigue life became larger. About a 150% increase in fatigue limit could be realized by using blast cleaning.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.48-58
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• 2014

In this study, quasi-static according to the displacement-controlled (strain control) method tests on RC columns for seismic reinforcement performance in accordance with the provisions of the seismic design and construction before 1992 design code for highway bridges in korea. Used reinforcement that improves the performance of Inorganic Helical Bar, a kind of alloy steel, circular columns were tested outside the seismic reinforcing. In the experiment, fracture behavior, lateral load-displacement relation, ductility and energy assessment evaluation was performed through tests. The variables in experimental are section force of reinforcement, spiral reinforcement spacing, reinforcement method. Improved seismic performance and effect were confirmed through quasi-static test experiments. The results of study confirmed determination the appropriate size of reinforcement, reinforcement forces, spacing and selection of the type required, furthermore, not only mechanical reinforcement but also substitution of high-strength concrete reinforced with concrete cover improved seismic performance.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.178-186
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• 2005

In this study, the PSC girder bridge retrofitted with external tendons is tested to verify the strengthening effects. We measure the variations of the displacement and strain at mid-span of each beam as external tendons are removed in sequence. The structural behavior of the bridge are examined using controlled truck load tests for the systems before and after all external tendons were removed. From the test results, the characteristics of structural behavior of the bridge do not change significantly, but the natural frequency is decreased after the external tendons are removed. The strengthening effects of bridges can be exactly estimated by analytical methods some extent. As a result of this study, when a PSC girder bridge is deteriorated, the bridge can be retrofitted effectively by External Prestressing Strengthening Method, and the strengthening effects can be predicted through accurate structural analysis.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.111-118
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• 2010

Reinforced steel corrosion due to concrete carbonation is one of main factors on the durability of RC structure. The carbonation velocity have an effect on carbon dioxide density, concrete quality and structural shape. Specially, these problems have increased in urban area. This study investigates the carbonation status of the bridges and quantifies the effect of carbonation based on various domestic field data. The failure probability of durability is evaluated on the basis of reliability concept. According to experimental results of the carbonation depth, the carbonation depth increased with structural age and carbonation velocity decreased with high strength of concrete. In most cases, the failure probability of durability by carbonation was more than 10%. Also, The results requires the minimum cover thickness of 70-80mm for target safety index(${\beta}$=1.3) proposed by Korean concrete specification.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.71-88
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• 2016

Metakaolin, a dehydroxylated product of the mineral kaolinite, is one of the most valuable admixtures for high-performance concrete applications, including constructing reinforced concrete bridges and impact- and fire-resistant structures. Concretes produced using metakaolin become more homogeneous and denser compared to normal-strength concrete. Yet, these changes cause a change of volume throughout hardening, and increase the brittleness of hardened concrete significantly. In order to examine how the use of metakaolin affects the fracture and mechanical behavior of high-performance concrete we produced concretes using a range of water to binder ratio (0.42, 0.35 and 0.28) at three different weight fractions of metakaolin replacement (8%, 16% and 24%). The results showed that the rigidity of concretes increased with using 8% and 16% metakaolin, while it decreased in all series with 24% of metakaolin replacement. Similar effect has also been observed for other mechanical properties. While the peak loads in load-displacement curves of concretes decreased significantly with increasing water to binder ratio, this effect have been found to be diminished by using metakaolin. Pore structure analysis through mercury intrusion porosimetry test showed that the addition of metakaolin decreased the critical pore size of paste phases of concrete, and increasing the amount of metakaolin reduced the total porosity for the specimens with low water to binder ratios in particular. To determine the optimal values of water to binder ratio and metakaolin content in producing high-strength and high-performance concrete we applied a multi-objective optimization, where several responses were simultaneously assessed to find the best solution for each parameter.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.2
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• pp.157-173
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• 2020

In the finite element modelling of long-span cable-stayed bridges, there are a lot of uncertainties brought about by the complex structural configuration, material behaviour, boundary conditions, structural connections, etc. In order to reduce the discrepancies between the theoretical finite element model and the actual static and dynamic behaviour, updating is indispensable after establishment of the finite element model to provide a reliable baseline version for further analysis. Traditional sensitivity-based updating methods cannot support updating based on static and dynamic measurement data at the same time. The finite element model is required in every optimization iteration which limits the efficiency greatly. A convenient but accurate Kriging surrogate model for updating of the finite element model of cable-stayed bridge is proposed. First, a simple cable-stayed bridge is used to verify the method and the updating results of Kriging model are compared with those using the response surface model. Results show that Kriging model has higher accuracy than the response surface model. Then the method is utilized to update the model of a long-span cable-stayed bridge in Hong Kong. The natural frequencies are extracted using various methods from the ambient data collected by the Wind and Structural Health Monitoring System installed on the bridge. The maximum deflection records at two specific locations in the load test form the updating objective function. Finally, the fatigue lives of the structure at two cross sections are calculated with the finite element models before and after updating considering the mean stress effect. Results are compared with those calculated from the strain gauge data for verification.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.117-136
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• 2020

Curved steel-concrete composite box girder has been widely adopted in urban overpasses and ramp bridges. In order to investigate its mechanical behavior under complicated and combined bending, shear and torsion load, two large-curvature composite box girders with interior angles of 25° and 45° were tested under static hogging moment. Based on the strain and deflection measurement on critical cross-sections during the static loading test, the failure mode, cracking behavior, load-displacement relationship, and strain distribution in the steel plate and rebar were investigated in detail. The test result showed the large-curvature composite box girders exhibited notable shear lag in the concrete slab and steel girder. Also, the constraint torsion and distortion effect caused the stress measured at the inner side of the composite beam to be notably higher than that of the outer side. The strain distribution in the steel web was approximately linear; therefore, the assumption that the plane section remains plane was approximately validated based on strain measurement at steel web. Furthermore, the full-process non-linear elaborate finite element (FE) models of the two specimens were developed based on commercial FE software MSC.MARC. The modeling scheme and constitutive model were illustrated in detail. Based on the comparison between the FE model and test results, the FE model effectively simulated the failure mode, the load-displacement curve, and the strain development of longitudinal rebar and steel girder with sufficient accuracy. The comparison between the FE model and the test result validated the accuracy of the developed FE model.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.3_4
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• pp.251-269
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• 2013

Measurement of deflections of certain bridges is usually hampered by corruption of the GPS signal by multipath associated with passing vehicles, resulting to unrealistically large apparent displacements. Field data from the Gorgopotamos train bridge in Greece and systematic experiments revealed that such bias is due to superimposition of two major effects, (i) changes in the geometry of satellites because of partial masking of certain satellites by the passing vehicles (this effect can be faced with solutions excluding satellites that get temporarily blocked by passing vehicles) and (ii) dynamic multipath caused from reflection of satellite signals on the passing trains, a high frequency multipath effect, different from the static multipath. Dynamic multipath seems to have rather irregular amplitude, depending on the geometry of measured satellites, but a typical pattern, mainly consisting of a baseline offset, wide base peaks correlating with the sequence of main reflective surfaces of the vehicles passing next to the antenna. In cases of limited corruption of GPS signal by dynamic multipath, corresponding to scale distortion of the short-period component of the GPS waveforms, we propose an algorithm which permits to reconstruct the waveform of bridge deflections using a weak fusion of GPS and RTS data, based on the complementary characteristics of the two instruments. By application of the proposed algorithm we managed to extract semi-static and dynamic displacements and oscillation frequencies of a historical railway bridge under train loading by using noisy GPS and RTS recordings. The combination of GPS and RTS is possible because these two sensors can be fully collocated and have complementary characteristics, with RTS and GPS focusing on the long- and short-period characteristics of the displacement, respectively.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.43-57
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• 2022

One of the instances which demand structural engineer's greatest attention and upgradation is the changing live load requirement in bridge design code. The challenge increases in developing countries as the pace of infrastructural growth is being catered by the respective country codes with bigger and heavier vehicles to be considered in the design. This paper presents the case study of India where Indian Roads Congress (IRC) codes in its revised version from 2014 to 2017 introduced massive Special vehicle (SV) around 40 m long and weighing 3850 kN to be considered in the design of road bridges. The code does not specify the minimum distance between successive special vehicles unlike other loading classes and hence the consequences of it form the motivation for this study. The effect of SV in comparison with Class 70R, Class AA, Class A, and Class B loading is studied based on the maximum bending moment with moving load applied in Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis. The spans considered in the analysis varied from 10 m to 1991 m corresponding to the span of Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (longest bridge span in the world). A total of 182 analyses for 7 types of vehicles (class B, class A, class 70R tracked, class 70R wheeled, class AA tracked, AA wheeled, and Special vehicle) on 26 different span lengths is carried out. The span corresponding to other vehicles which would equal the bending moment of a single SV is presented along with a comparison relative to Standard Uniformly Distributed Load. Further, the results are presented by introducing a new parameter named Intensity Factor which is proven to relate the effect of axle spacing of vehicle on the normalized bending moment developed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.117-133
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• 2022

Determination of the mechanical behaviour of jointed rock masses has been a challenge for rock engineers for decades. This problem is more pronounced for non-persistent jointed rock masses due to complicated interaction of rock bridges on the overall behaviour. This paper aims to study the effect of a non-persistent joint set configuration on the mechanical behaviour of rock materials under both uniaxial and biaxial compression tests using a discrete element code. The numerical simulation of biaxial compressive strength of rock masses has been challenging in the past due to shortcomings of bonded particle models in reproducing the failure envelope of rock materials. This problem was resolved in this study by employing the flat-joint contact model. The validity of the numerical model was investigated through a comprehensive comparative study against physical uniaxial and biaxial compression experiments. Good agreement was found between numerical and experimental tests in terms of the recorded peak strength and the failure mode in both loading conditions. Studies on the effect of joint orientation on the failure mode showed that four zones of intact, transition to block rotation, block rotation and transition to intact failure occurs when the joint dip angle varies from 0° to 90°. It was found that the applied confining stress can significantly alter the range of these zones. It was observed that the minimum strength occurs at the joint dip angle of around 45 degrees under different confining stresses. It was also found that the joint orientation can alter the post peak behaviour and the lowest brittleness was observed at the block rotation zone.