• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.1243-1249
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• 2010

Ground anchors can be good solution in large and deep excavation. Anchored supports generally provide larger workspace than strut supports and good performances. The major benefit provided by these anchored systems was the open excavation area created by eliminating horizontal or raked struts, which generally inhibit rapid construction within the site area. In loose soils, however, anchors are sometimes hard to get high pullout anchor capacity, so that the spacing of anchor both horizontally and vertically is frequently controlled, in which the construction costs of anchors are increased. In order to increase anchor capacity, therefore, conceptual introduction of the multi-strand anchor is presented in this paper. Also, this study shows an numerical study of predicting the load transfer of the multi-strand anchor and a beam-column analysis was performed by a Elastic-Plastic beam theory.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.415-433
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• 2015

Tendon failures in bonded post-tensioned bridges over the last two decades have motivated ongoing investigations on various aspects of unbonded tendons and their monitoring methods. Recent research shows that change of strain distribution in anchor heads can be useful in detecting wire breakage in unbonded construction. Based on this strain variation, this paper develops a damage detection model that enables an automated tendon monitoring system to identify and locate wire breaks. The first part of this paper presents an experimental program conducted to study the strain variation in anchor heads by generating wire breaks using a mechanical device. The program comprised three sets of tests with fully populated 19-strand anchor head and evaluated the levels of strain variation with number of wire breaks in different strands. The sensitivity of strain variation with wire breaks in circumferential and radial directions of anchor head in addition to the axial direction (parallel to the strand) were investigated and the measured axial strains were found to be the most sensitive. The second part of the paper focuses on formulating the wire breakage detection framework. A finite element model of the anchorage assembly was created to demonstrate the algorithm as well as to investigate the asymmetric strain distribution observed in experimental results. In addition, as almost inevitably encountered during tendon stressing, the effects of differential wedge seating on the proposed model have been analyzed. A sensitivity analysis has been performed at the end to assess the robustness of the model with random measurement errors.