• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1325-1335
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• 2018

This study dealt with investigating the seismic performance of the smart and shape memory alloy (SMA) and magnets plus rubber-spring (MRS) dampers and their effects on the seismic resistance of multiple-span simply supported bridges. The rubber springs in the MRS dampers were pre-compressed. For this aim, a set of experimental works was performed together with developing nonlinear analytical models to investigate dynamic responses of the bridges subjected to earthquakes. Fragility analysis and probabilistic assessment were conducted to assess the seismic performance for the overall bridge system. Fragility curves were then generated for each model and were compared with those of as-built. Results showed dampers could increase the seismic capacity of bridges. Furthermore, from system fragility curves, use of damper models reduced the seismic vulnerability in comparison to the as-built bridge model. Although the SMA damper showed the best seismic performance, the MRS damper was the most appropriate one for the bridge in that the combination of magnetic friction and pre-compressed rubber springs was cheaper than the shape memory alloy, and had the similar capability of the damper.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.229-236
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavior and characteristics of rubber springs and calculate the compressive stiffness by performing dynamic compression tests of rubber springs. In order to carry out the dynamic compression test of rubber spring, total 9 rubber springs were tailored by calculating the shape factor of L80-D55, L90-D58, and L100-D60, and used for the experiments. Experiments were performed by controlling the compression according to the length of the rubber spring, and the compression was increased in the order of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% of the strain. From the experimental results, the force-strain curves were obtained and it was confirmed that strength decrease and strength increase phenomenon occurred as the strain increased. In addition, it was confirmed that the decrease of stiffness and the increase of stiffness were clearly observed according to the size and diameter of the rubber spring, and the effective compression stiffness was estimated using the slope of the force-strain curve. By using the effective compressive stiffness, design values that can be used in actual design were presented.