• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.185-196
• /
• 2019

One of the shortcomings of seismic bridge design codes is the lack of clarity in defining the role of different seismic isolation systems with linear or nonlinear behavior in terms of R-factor. For example, based on AASHTO guide specifications for seismic isolation design, R-factor for all substructure elements of isolated bridges should be half of those expressed in the AASHTO standard specifications for highway bridges (i.e., R=3 for single columns and R=5 for multiple column bent) but not less than 1.50. However, no distinction is made between two commonly used types of seismic isolation devices, i.e., elastomeric rubber bearing (ERB) with linear behavior, and lead rubber bearing (LRB) with nonlinear behavior. In this paper, five existing bridges located in Iran with two types of deck-pier connection including ERB and LRB isolators, and two bridge models with monolithic deck-pier connection are developed and their R-factor values are assessed based on the Uang's method. The average R-factors for the bridges with ERB isolators are calculated as 3.89 and 4.91 in the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively, which are not in consonance with the AASHTO guide specifications for seismic isolation design (i.e., R=3/2=1.5 for the longitudinal direction and R=5/2=2.5 for the transverse direction). This is a clear indicator that the code-prescribed R-factors are conservative for typical bridges with ERB isolators. Also for the bridges with LRB isolators, the average computed R-factors equal 1.652 and 2.232 in the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively, which are in a good agreement with the code-specified R-factor values. Moreover, in the bridges with monolithic deck-pier connection, the average R-factor in the longitudinal direction is obtained as 2.92 which is close to the specified R-factor in the bridge design codes (i.e., 3), and in the transverse direction is obtained as 2.41 which is about half of the corresponding R-factor value in the specifications (i.e., 5).

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.78 no.1
• /
• pp.41-52
• /
• 2021

Inelastic static pushover analysis has been used in the academic-research widely for seismic analysis of structures. Nowadays, the variety pushover analysis methods have been developed, including Modal pushover, Adaptive pushover, and Cyclic pushover, in which some weaknesses of the conventional pushover method have been rectified. In the conventional pushover analysis method, the effects of cumulative growth of cracks are not considered on the reduction of strength and stiffness of RC members that occur during earthquake or cyclic loading. Therefore, the Cyclic Pushover Analysis Method (CPA) has been proposed. This method is a powerful technique for seismic evaluation of regular reinforced concrete buildings in which the first mode of them is dominant. Since the bridges have different structures than buildings, their results cannot necessarily be attributed to bridges, and more research is needed. In this study, a cyclic pushover analysis with four loading protocols (suggested by valid references) by the Opensees software was conducted for seismic evaluation of two regular reinforce concrete bridges. The modeling method was validated with the comparison of the analytical and experimental results under both cyclic and dynamic loading. The failure mode of the piers was considered in two-mode of flexural failure and also a flexural-shear failure. Along with the cyclic analysis, conventional analysis has been studied. Also, the nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method has been used to examine and compare the results of pushover analyses. The time history of 20 far-field earthquake records was used to conduct IDA. After analysis, the base shear vs. displacement in the middle of the deck was drawn. The obtained results show that the cyclic pushover analysis method is able to evaluate an accurate seismic behavior of the reinforced concrete piers of the bridges. Based on the results, the cyclic pushover has proper convergence with IDA. Its accuracy was much higher than the conventional pushover, in which the bridge piers failed in flexural-shear mode. But, in the flexural failure mode, the results of each two pushover methods were close approximately. Besides, the cyclic pushover method with ACI loading protocol, and ATC-24 loading protocol, can provided more accurate results for evaluating the seismic investigation of the bridges, specially if the bridge piers are failed in flexural-shear failure mode.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.493-496
• /
• 2008

The risk of transverse cracking in concrete decks of composite bridges is affected by many factors related to the bridge design, materials, and construction. Among others, the thermal and shrinkage stresses are the most important factors that affect the transverse cracking in early-age concrete decks. The thermal stress at the concrete deck is mainly affected by both ambient temperature and solar radiation. The shrinkage stress at the general strength concrete deck is mainly affected by drying shrinkage and the high strength concrete deck is mainly affected by autogeneous shrinkage. Three-dimensional finite element models of composite bridges were made to investigate the stress due to thermal and shrinkage stress.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.135-144
• /
• 1993

A fatigue analysis procedure for prestressed concrete composite girder bridges is established, which includes the time-dependent effects of component materials. The procedure can take into account the movement of neutral axis depth as crack develops and give quite good agreement with experimental results available. It is also assured that Korean Standard prestressed concrete composite girder has enough fatigue resistance. The procedure in this paper gives a way to express the fatigue capacity of prestressed concrete beams in the form of S-N curve, which can be utilized under variable amplitude fatigue load.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.89-95
• /
• 2016

Lately, the high-strength concrete is often used to increase the lifespan of bridges. The benefits of using the high-strength concrete are that it increases the durability and strength. On the contrary, it reduces the cross-section of the bridges. This study conducted structural performance tests of the bridge deck slabs applying high-strength concrete. As result of the tests, specimens of bridge deck slabs were destroyed through punching shear. Moreover, the tests exposed that the high-strength concrete bridge deck slabs satisfy the flexural strength and the punching shear strength at ultimate limit state(ULS). Also, limiting deflection of the concrete fulfilled serviceability limit state(SLS) criteria. These results indicated that the bridge deck slabs designed by high-strength concrete were enough to secure the safety factor despite of its low thickness.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2002.05a
• /
• pp.279-284
• /
• 2002

Prestressed concrete(PSC) bridge structures with a number of continuous spans has been segmentally built in many countries. These methods include incremental launching method, movable scaffolding method, full staging method and balanced cantilever method. In these segmentally constructed prestressed concrete bridges, many construction joints exist and these construction joints are weak points in PSC bridges. The prestress force can be introduced prestress force continuously through the construction joints of PSC bridge superstructure using tendon couplers. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the structural behavior and ultimate flexural strength of construction joints in PSC girder bridge members. To this end, a comprehensive experimental program has been set up and a series of full-scale tests have been performed. Ultimate flexural strength of construction joint in PSC members with tendon couplers is decreased by approximately 10% for non-coupled members.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2005.11a
• /
• pp.335-338
• /
• 2005

This paper describes a proposal for evaluation load carrying capacity of reinforced concrete slab bridges considering the moment redistribution. Recognition of redistribution of moments can be important because it permits a more realistic appraisal of the actual load-carrying capacity of a structure, thus leading to improved economy. In addition, it permits the designer to modify, within limits, the moment diagrams for which members are to be designed. The predicted results shows that moment redistribution are different from estimated by the current KCI, ACI 318-02, EC2 provisions, and propose reasonable load carrying capacity of the reinforced concrete slab bridge.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2009.05a
• /
• pp.49-50
• /
• 2009

We developed a new FRP-concrete composite deck applied to cable-stayed bridges, and verified the feasibility of design concept for negative moment zone in case of composition between this deck system and girder.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.1 no.3
• /
• pp.355-369
• /
• 2004

This paper presents a study of four finite element techniques that can be used to model slabon-beam highway bridges. The feasibility and correctness of each modeling technique are examined by applying them to a prestressed concrete I-beam bridge and a prestressed concrete box-beam bridge. Other issues related to bridge modeling such as torsional constant, support conditions, and quality control check are studied in detail and discussed in the paper. It is found that, under truck loading, the bending stress distribution in a beam section depends on the modeling technique being utilized. It is observed that the behavior of the bridge superstructure can be better represented when accounting for composite behavior between the supporting beams and slab.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.37-60
• /
• 2008

Structural health monitoring of existing infrastructure is currently an important field of research, where elaborate experimental programs and advanced analytical methods are used in identifying the current state of health of critical and important structures. The paper outlines two methods of system identification of beam-like reinforced concrete structures representing bridges, through static measurements, in a distributed damage scenario. The first one is similar to the stiffness method, re-cast and the second one to flexibility method. A least square error (LSE) based solution method is used for the estimation of flexural rigidities and damages of simply supported, cantilever and propped cantilever beam from the measured deformation values. The performance of both methods in the presence of measurement errors is demonstrated. An experiment on an un-symmetrically damaged simply supported reinforced concrete beam is used to validate the developed method. A method for damage prognosis is demonstrated using a generalized, indeterminate, propped cantilever beam.