• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.1045-1067
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• 2016

Concrete bridges with corrugated steel webs and prestressed by both internal and external tendons have emerged as one of the promising bridge forms. In view of the different behaviour of components and the large shear deformation of webs with negligible flexural stiffness, the assumption that plane sections remain plane may no longer be valid, and therefore the classical Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam models may not be applicable. In the design of this type of bridges, both the ultimate load and ductility should be examined, which requires the estimation of full-range behaviour. An analytical sandwich beam model and its corresponding beam finite element model for geometric and material nonlinear analysis are developed for this type of bridges considering the diaphragm effects. Different rotations are assigned to the flanges and corrugated steel webs to describe the displacements. The model accounts for the interaction between the axial and flexural deformations of the beam, and uses the actual stress-strain curves of materials considering their stress path-dependence. With a nonlinear kinematical theory, complete description of the nonlinear interaction between the external tendons and the beam is obtained. The numerical model proposed is verified by experiments.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.165-172
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• 2003

The fatigue problem of Prestressed Concrete(PSC) bridges are more serious than the other type of concrete bridges, because the cross sectional area and self weight of PSC bridges are smaller. The endurance of strengthening methods for PSC bridges are tested in this study. Glass fiber sheeting and external post-tensioning methods were applied. 1/5 scale PSC beams were made for fatigue test, same as static test. The range of repeated load is from 10% to 80% of yielding load with sine curve. The experimental results show that the failure cycle of strengthened members are increased compare to non-strengthened members. The members strengthened with glass fiber show better enhancement in fatigue problem than the members strengthened with external post-tensioning method, though the adhesion of glass fiber and concrete is failed, as increase of crack. With these experimental results, it can be said that the strengthening methods used in this study are efficient at extending the life time of aged PSC bridges.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.353-362
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• 2022

Bridge fire hazard has become a growing concern over the last decade due to the rapid increase of ground transportation of hazardous materials and resulting fire incidents. The lack of fire safety provisions in steel bridges can be a significant issue owing steel thermal properties that lead to fast degradation of steel properties at elevated temperatures. Alternatively, the development of composite action between steel girders and concrete decks can increase the fire resistance of steel bridges and meet fire safety requirements in some applications. This paper reviews the fire problem in steel bridges and the fire behavior of composite steel-concrete bridge girders. A numerical model is developed to trace the fire response of a typical bridge girder and is validated using measurements from fire tests. The selected bridge girder is composed by a hot rolled steel section strengthened with bearing stiffeners at midspan and supports. A concrete slab sitting on the top of the girder is connected to the slab through shear studs to provide full composite action. The validated numerical model was used to investigate the fire resistance of real scale bridge girders and the effect of the composite action under different scenarios (standard and hydrocarbon fires). Results showed that composite action can significantly increase the fire resistance of steel bridge girders. Besides, fire severity played an important role in the fire behavior of composite girders and both factors should be taken into consideration in the design of steel bridges for fire safety.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.487-495
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• 2021

The use of prestressed concrete box girder bridges built by segmentally balanced cantilevers has bloomed in the last decades due to its significant structural and construction advantages in complex topographies. In Colombia, this typology is the most common solution for structures with spans ranging of 80-200 m. Despite its popularity, excessive deflections in bridges worldwide evidenced that time-dependent effects were underestimated. This problem has led to the constant updating of the creep and shrinkage models in international code standards. Differences observed between design processes of box girder bridges of the Colombian code and Eurocode, led to the need for a validation of in-service status of these structures. This study analyzes the long-term behavior of the Tablazo bridge with data scarcity. The measured leveling of this structure is compared with a finite-element model that consider the most widely used creep and shrinkage models in the literature. Finally, an adjusted model evidence excessive deflection on the bridge after six years. Monitoring of this bridge typology in Colombia and updating of the current design code is recommended.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.10 no.2 s.35
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• pp.233-251
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• 1998

This paper deals with the prediction of behavior of composite girder bridges according to the placing sequences of concrete deck. Based on a degenerate kernel of compliance function in the form of Dirichlet series, the time-dependent behaviors of bridges are simulated, and the layer approach is adopted to determine the equilibrium condition in a section. The variation of bending moments along the bridge length caused by the slab casting sequence is reviewed and correlation studies between section types and placing sequences are conducted with the objective to establish the validity of the continuous placing of concrete deck on the closed steel box-girder which is broadly used in practice.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.649-673
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• 2012

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of accounting for aging and deterioration of bridges when estimating their seismic vulnerability. Effects of structural degradation of multiple bridge components, variations in bridge geometry, and comparison of different environmental exposure conditions have traditionally been ignored in the development of seismic fragility curves for aging concrete highway bridges. This study focuses on the degradation of multiple bridge components of a geometrically varying bridge class, as opposed to a single bridge sample, to arrive at time-dependent seismic bridge fragility curves. The effects of different exposure conditions are also explored to assess the impact of severity of the environment on bridge seismic vulnerability. The proposed methodology is demonstrated on a representative class of aging multi-span reinforced concrete girder bridges typical of the Central and Southeastern United States. The results reveal the importance of considering multiple deterioration mechanisms, including the significance of degrading elastomeric bearings along with the corroding reinforced concrete columns, in fragility modeling of aging bridge classes. Additionally, assessment of the relative severity of exposure to marine atmospheric, marine sea-splash and deicing salts, and shows 5%, 9% and 44% reduction, respectively, in the median value bridge fragility for the complete damage state relative to the as-built pristine structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.365-381
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• 2012

Recent earthquakes have damaged some bridges located on the Pacific Coast of Mexico; these bridges have been retrofitted or rebuilt. Based on the fact that the Pacific Coast is a highly active seismic zone where most of the strong earthquakes in the country occur, one fertile and important area of research is the study of the vulnerability of both new and existent bridges located in this area that can be subjected to strong earthquakes. This work is focused on estimating the contribution of some parameters identified to have major influence on the seismic vulnerability of reinforced concrete bridges. Ten models of typical reinforced concrete (RC) bridges, and two existing bridges located close to the Pacific Coast of Mexico are considered. The group of structures selected for the study is based on two span bridges, two pier heights and two substructure types. The bridges were designed according to recent codes in Mexico. For the vulnerability study, the capacity of the structure was evaluated based on the FEMA recommendations. On the other hand, the demand was evaluated using a group of more than one hundred accelerograms recorded close to the subduction zone of Mexico. The results show that the two existent bridges analyzed show similar trends of behavior of the group of bridge models studied. In spite of the contribution that traditional variables (height and substructure type) had to the bridge seismic response, the bridge length was also found to be one of the parameters that most contributed to the seismic vulnerability of these RC medium-length bridges.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.718-723
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• 2000

Reinforced concrete is in general, known as high durability construction material under normal environments due to strong alkalinity of cement. It is, however, well known that moderate or minor cracks in reinforced concrete should be most serious causes to deteriorate the durability of RC structures. Futhermore, chloride contents penetrating through unexpected cracks in reinforced concrete bridges get to weaken corrosion resistance of reinforcement steel in concrete and then to accelerate the deterioration of concrete durability. The objective of this experimental research is 1) to evaluate the effect of various corrosion protection systems for reinforced concrete specimens with moderate or minor cracks which are exposed to cyclic wet and dry seawater, and then 2) to develop effective corrosion protection systems for reinforced concrete bridges under the exposure of various detrimental environments such as seawater, deicing and etc.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.11-18
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• 1992