• Title/Summary/Keyword: Civil infrastructure

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Sensor placement for structural health monitoring of Canton Tower

  • Yi, Ting-Hua;Li, Hong-Nan;Gu, Ming
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.10 no.4_5
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    • pp.313-329
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    • 2012
  • A challenging issue in design and implementation of an effective structural health monitoring (SHM) system is to determine where a number of sensors are properly installed. In this paper, research on the optimal sensor placement (OSP) is carried out on the Canton Tower (formerly named Guangzhou New Television Tower) of 610 m high. To avoid the intensive computationally-demanding problem caused by tens of thousands of degrees of freedom (DOFs) involved in the dynamic analysis, the three dimension finite element (FE) model of the Canton Tower is first simplified to a system with less DOFs. Considering that the sensors can be physically arranged only in the translational DOFs of the structure, but not in the rotational DOFs, a new method of taking the horizontal DOF as the master DOF and rotational DOF as the slave DOF, and reducing the slave DOF by model reduction is proposed. The reduced model is obtained by IIRS method and compared with the models reduced by Guyan, Kuhar, and IRS methods. Finally, the OSP of the Canton Tower is obtained by a kind of dual-structure coding based generalized genetic algorithm (GGA).

Analysis and design of demountable embedded steel column base connections

  • Li, Dongxu;Uy, Brian;Patel, Vipul;Aslani, Farhad
    • Steel and Composite Structures
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.303-315
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    • 2017
  • This paper describes the finite element model for predicting the fundamental performance of embedded steel column base connections under monotonic and cyclic loading. Geometric and material nonlinearities were included in the proposed finite element model. Bauschinger and pinching effects were considered in the simulation of embedded column base connections under cyclic loading. The degradation of steel yield strength and accumulation of plastic damage can be well simulated. The accuracy of the finite element model is examined by comparing the predicted results with independent experimental dataset. It is demonstrated that the finite element model accurately predicts the behaviour and failure models of the embedded steel column base connections. The finite element model is extended to carry out evaluations and parametric studies. The investigated parameters include column embedded length, concrete strength, axial load and base plate thickness. Moreover, analytical models for predicting the initial stiffness and bending moment strength of the embedded column base connection were developed. The comparison between results from analytical models and those from experiments and finite element analysis proved the developed analytical model was accurate and conservative for design purposes.

Development of a Functional Mortar for Restraining Surface Algal Growth

  • Park, Soon-young;Kim, Jinhyun;Kang, Hojeong
    • Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.82-87
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    • 2018
  • Proliferation of algae on the surface of concrete or mortar in aquatic habitat has a negative impact on maintenance of concrete-based structures. Growth of algae may decrease stability of structure by bio-deterioration. In this study, we developed a functional mortar for restraining bio-deterioration by using $Cu^{2+}$ ion. The mortar contains soluble glass beads made of $Cu^{2+}$ ion, which can dissolve into water slowly. Mortars prepared with different ratio of glass beads (0, 2, 5, 10, and 15%) were placed in a culture medium with algae and incubated over a month period. Water chemistry, chlorophyll-a, and extracellular enzyme activities were measured. The incubation was conducted in both freshwater and seawater conditions, to assess applicability to both aquatic conditions. Overall, mortar with Cu glass exhibited lower chlorophyll-a content, suggesting that the functional mortar reduced algal growth. DOC concentration increased because debris of dead algae increased. Cu glass also decreased phosphatase activity, which is involved in the regeneration of inorganic P from organic moieties. Since, P is often a limiting nutrient for algal production, algal growth may be inhibited. Activities of ${\beta}$-glucosidase and N-acetylglucosaminidase were not significantly affected because carbon and nitrogen mineralization may not be influenced by the Cu glass beads. Our study suggests that functional mortar with Cu glass beads may reduce the growth of algae on the surface, while it has little environmental impact.

Chemical coagulation and sonolysis for total aromatic amines removal from anaerobically pre-treated textile wastewater: A comparative study

  • Verma, Akshaya K.;Bhunia, Puspendu;Dash, Rajesh R.
    • Advances in environmental research
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    • v.3 no.4
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    • pp.293-306
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    • 2014
  • The present study primarily focuses on the evaluation of the comparative effect of chemical coagulation and ultrasonication for elimination of aromatic amines (AAs) present in anaerobically pretreated textile wastewater containing different types of dyes including azo dyes. Color and COD reduction was also monitored at the optimized conditions. The production of AAs was measured spectrophotometrically in the form of total aromatic amines (TAAs) and also verified with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) selectively. A composite coagulant, magnesium chloride (MC) aided with aluminium chlorohydrate (ACH) in an equal ratio (MC + ACH) was utilized during the coagulation process, which yielded 31% of TAAs removal along with 85% of color and 52% of COD reduction. At optimized power (200 W) and sonication time (5 h), an appreciable TAAs degradation efficiency (85%) was observed along with 51% color reduction and 62% COD removal using ultrasonication. The chromatographic data indicate that sulphanilic acid and benzidine types of aromatic amines were produced after the reductive cleavage of utilized textile dyes, which were effectively mineralized after ultrasonication. The degradation followed the first order kinetics with a correlation coefficient ($R^2$) of 0.89 and a first-order kinetic constant (k) of $0.0073min^{-1}$.

Multi-stage structural damage diagnosis method based on "energy-damage" theory

  • Yi, Ting-Hua;Li, Hong-Nan;Sun, Hong-Min
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.12 no.3_4
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    • pp.345-361
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    • 2013
  • Locating and assessing the severity of damage in large or complex structures is one of the most challenging problems in the field of civil engineering. Considering that the wavelet packet transform (WPT) has the ability to clearly reflect the damage characteristics of structural response signals and the artificial neural network (ANN) is capable of learning in an unsupervised manner and of forming new classes when the structural exhibits change, this paper investigates a multi-stage structural damage diagnosis method by using the WPT and ANN based on "energy-damage" theory, in which, the wavelet packet component energies are first extracted to be damage sensitive feature and then adopted as input into an improved back propagation (BP) neural network model for damage diagnosis in a step by step mode. To validate the efficacy of the presented approach of the damage diagnosis, the benchmark structure of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is employed in the case study. The results of damage diagnosis indicate that the method herein is computationally efficient and is able to detect the existence of different damage patterns in the simulated experiment where minor, moderate and severe damages corresponds to involving in the loss of stiffness on braces or the removal bracing in various combinations.

Wavelet based multi-step filtering method for bridge health monitoring using GPS and accelerometer

  • Yi, Ting-Hua;Li, Hong-Nan;Gu, Ming
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.331-348
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    • 2013
  • Effective monitoring, reliable data analysis, and rational data interpretations are challenges for engineers who are specialized in bridge health monitoring. This paper demonstrates how to use the Global Positioning System (GPS) and accelerometer data to accurately extract static and quasi-static displacements of the bridge induced by ambient effects. To eliminate the disadvantages of the two separate units, based on the characteristics of the bias terms derived from the GPS and accelerometer respectively, a wavelet based multi-step filtering method by combining the merits of the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) with the discrete stationary wavelet transform (SWT) is proposed so as to address the GPS deformation monitoring application more efficiently. The field measurements are carried out on an existing suspension bridge under the normal operation without any traffic interference. Experimental results showed that the frequencies and absolute displacements of the bridge can be accurate extracted by the proposed method. The integration of GPS and accelerometer can be used as a reliable tool to characterize the dynamic behavior of large structures such as suspension bridges undergoing environmental loads.

Differences in Biogeochemical Properties and Microbial Activities in Stream Segments with Changes in Land-use Type

  • Kim, Jinhyun;Jang, Inyoung;Lee, Hyunjin;Kang, Hojeong
    • Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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    • v.2 no.3
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    • pp.247-254
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    • 2015
  • Changes in land-use type can affect soil and water properties in stream ecosystems. This study examined the effects of different land-use types on biogeochemical properties and microbial activities of a stream. We collected water and sediment samples in a stream at three different sites surrounded by varying land-use types; a forest, a radish field and a rice paddy. Nitrogen contents, such as nitrate, nitrite and total nitrogen in the stream water body, showed significant differences among the sampling sites. The highest nitrogen values were recorded at the site surrounded by cropland, as fertilizer runoff impacted the stream. Soil organic matter content in the sediment showed significant differences among sites, with the highest content exhibited at the forest mouth site. These differences might be due to the organic matter in surrounding terrestrial ecosystems. Microbial activities determined by extracellular enzyme activities showed similar values throughout all sites in the water body; however, the activities in the sediments exhibited the highest values near the forest site and mirrored the soil organic matter content values. From these results, we conclude that different land-use types are important factors affecting water and sediment properties in stream ecosystems.

Analysis for Removal Efficiency of Non-point Pollution Sources by Constructed Wetlands (인공습지 형태에 따른 비점오염저감효율 분석)

  • Lee, Sang Hyuk;Kim, Lee Hyung;Cho, Hye Jin
    • Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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    • v.1 no.2
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    • pp.102-108
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    • 2014
  • Studies of non-point pollutant treatment facilities have widely been conducted for a decade, but natural non-point pollutant treatment facilities implemented on roads have not been carried out for the removal efficiency of non-point pollution sources. This study analyzed the removal efficiency of non-point pollution sources from constructed wetlands using monitoring and event mean concentration method. As a result of this study, removal efficiency of general non-point pollution sources as TSS, COD, BOD is relatively good, but removal efficiency of TN, TP, Cr, Zn, Pb is very small or nothing.

Monitoring of Strength Gain in Concrete Using Smart PZT Transducers

  • Qureshi, Adeel Riaz;Shin, Sung-Woo;Yun, Chung-Bang
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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    • v.27 no.6
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    • pp.501-508
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    • 2007
  • This paper presents the feasibility of using electromechanical impedance based active sensing technique for nondestructive strength gain monitoring of early-age concrete by employing piezoelectric lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) patches on concrete surface. The strength development of early age concrete is actively monitored by performing a series of experiments on concrete specimens under moist curing condition. The electrical admittance signatures are acquired for five different curing ages and compared with each other. The resonant frequency shifts of PZT patches with increasing days is observed which is on account of additional stiffening due to strength gain of concrete during curing and level of stiffening being related to strength obtained from compression tests on companion cylinder specimens. The proposed approach is found to be suitable for monitoring the development of compressive strength in early-age concrete. It is also observed in this study that root mean square deviation (RMSD) in admittance signatures of the PZT patches can also be used as an indicator of concrete strength development.