• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.156-162
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• 2008

The fatigue durability test using the actual size beam was performed with a cramp joint in order to apply to the highway bridge deck slab. Three types of beam were investigated for durability performance by considering stress conditions in real bridge deck slabs, 1) A beam with major shear force applied at the joint (RC Type) 2) A beam with major bending moments applied at the joint (PSC Type) 3) A beam with the pure shear applied at the joint. The experiment for beams with cramp joints showed that the cramp joint had enough durability for fatigue regardless of the overlaid length of the looped distribution bars under the current design strength level. Moreover, it was clarified that the enough durability for fatigue under the load repetition was achieved by increasing the joint span grater than 1.5D with the consideration of the deformation due to reduction in joint stiffness.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.1 s.85
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• pp.27-34
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the structural behavior of RC Piers using high strength concrete and high strength rebars. The high strength concrete offers many advantages such as enhanced mechanical performance and durability, in addition to member size reduction. The high strength rebars are used here to reduce the amount of rebars, which facilitates the placement of concrete and labor works. Five RC piers were tested under a constant axial load and a cyclically reversed horizontal load. The seismic design of piers were implemented, according to the current Korean Bridge Design Code. The test variables include concrete compressive strength, steel strength, and steel ratio. The test results indicate that RC piers using the high strength concrete and high strength rebars exhibit ductile behavior and appropriate seismic performance, in compliance with the design code. The present study allows more realistic application of high strength rebars and concrete to RC piers, which will provide enhanced durability as well as more economy.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.325-354
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• 2004

Slabs in buildings and bridge decks, which are restrained against lateral displacements at the edges, have ultimate strengths far in excess of those predicted by analytical methods based on yield line theory. The increase in strength has been attributed to membrane action, which is due to the in-plane forces developed at the supports. The benefits of compressive membrane action are usually not taken into account in currently available design methods developed based on plastic flow theories assuming concrete to be a rigid-plastic material. By extending the existing knowledge of compressive membrane action, it is possible to design slabs in building and bridge structures economically with less than normal reinforcement. Recent research on building and bridge structures reflects the importance of membrane action in design. This paper describes the finite element modelling of membrane action in reinforced concrete slabs through optimisation of a simple concrete model. Through a series of parametric studies using the simple concrete model in the finite element simulation of eight fully clamped concrete slabs with significant membrane action, a set of fixed numerical model parameter values is identified and computational conditions established, which would guarantee reliable strength prediction of arbitrary slabs. The reliability of the identified values to simulate membrane action (for prediction purposes) is further verified by the direct simulation of 42 other slabs, which gave an average value of 0.9698 for the ratio of experimental to predicted strengths and a standard deviation of 0.117. A 'deflection factor' is also established for the slabs, relating the predicted peak deflection to experimental values, which, (for the same level of fixity at the supports), can be used for accurate displacement determination. The proposed optimised concrete model and finite element procedure can be used as a tool to simulate membrane action in slabs in building and bridge structures having variable support and loading conditions including fire. Other practical applications of the developed finite element procedure and design process are also discussed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.745-757
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• 2018

The inclusion of a ductile steel bracing as means of repairing an earthquake-damaged bridge bent is evaluated and experimentally assessed for the purposes of restoring the damaged bent's strength and stiffness and further improving the energy dissipation capacity. The study is focused on substandard reinforced concrete multi-column bridge bents constructed in the 1950 to mid-1970 in the United States. These types of bents have numerous deficiencies making them susceptible to seismic damage. Large-scale experiments were used on a two-column reinforced concrete bent to impose considerable damage of the bent through increasing amplitude cyclic deformations. The damaged bent was then repaired by installing a ductile fuse steel brace in the form of a buckling-restrained brace in a diagonal configuration between the columns and using post-tensioned rods to strengthen the cap beam. The brace was secured to the bent using steel gusset plate brackets and post-installed adhesive anchors. The repaired bent was then subjected to increasing amplitude cyclic deformations to reassess the bent performance. A subassemblage test of a nominally identical steel brace was also conducted in an effort to quantify and isolate the ductile fuse behavior. The experimental data from these large-scale experiments were analyzed in terms of the hysteretic response, observed damage, internal member loads, as well as the overall stiffness and energy dissipation characteristics. The results of this study demonstrated the effectiveness of utilizing ductile steel bracing for restoring the bent and preventing further damage to the columns and cap beams while also improving the stiffness and energy dissipation characteristics.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.2 s.42
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• pp.29-36
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the inelastic behavior of reinforced concrete bridge columns with unbonding of main reinforcements at plastic hinge region. A computer program, named RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology), for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures was used. Material nonlinearity is taken into account by comprising tensile, compressive and shear models of cracked concrete and a model of reinforcing steel. The smeared crack approach is incorporated. The effect of unbonding of main reinforcements at plastic hinge region has been also taken into account to model the concrete and reinforcing steel. The proposed numerical method for the inelastic behavior of reinforced concrete bridge columns with unbonding of main reinforcements at plastic hinge region is verified by comparison with reliable experimental results.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.39-49
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• 2003

This research is a part of a research program to develope a new design method for reinforced concrete bridge columns under axial load and cyclic lateral load. A nonlinear analytical method is proposed to obtain moment-curvature relationship and lateral load-displacement relationship. Various analytical models that contribute seismic behavior of reinforced concrete bridge columns are adopted and modified by comparing quasi-static test results of reinforced concrete columns with spirals of circular hoops. The analysis adopts confined concrete model, longitudinal reinforcement test result of reinforced concrete columns with spirals or circular hoops. The analysis adopts confined concrete model, etc. The results obtained using the propose analytical method agree well with test results and give conservative estimations particularly for deformation capacity and ductility.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.51-61
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• 2003

This research is a park of a research program to develope a new design method for reinforced concrete bridge columns under axial load and cyclic lateral load. The objectives of this paper are to investigate the relationship between curvature ductility and displacement ductility and to propose a correlation equation for designing of reinforced concrete bridge columns under axial load and cyclic lateral load. Computer program NARCC was used for parametric study, which was proved to provide good and conservative analytical result especially for deformation capacity and ductility factor compared with test result. A total of 7,200 spirally reinforced concrete columns were selected considering the main variables such as section diameter, aspect ratio, concrete strength, yielding strength of longitudinal and confinement steel, longitudinal steel ratio, axial load ratio, and confinement steel ratio. A new equation between curvature ductility factor displacement ductility factor with the aspect ratio was proposed by investigation of 21,600 data produced from the selected column models by applying 3 different definitions of yield displacement.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.71-82
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• 2014

Chloride ion ingress is one of the major problems that affect the durability of concrete structures such as bridge decks, concrete pavements, and other structures exposed to harsh saline environments. Therefore, durability based design of concrete structures in severe condition has gained great significance in recent decades and various mathematical models for estimating the service life of rein-forced concrete have been proposed. In spite of comprehensive researches on the corrosion of rein-forced concrete, there are still various controversial concepts in quantitation of durability parameters such as chloride diffusion coefficient and surface chloride content. Effect of environment conditions on the durability of concrete structures is one of the most important issues. Hence, regional investigations are necessary for durability based design and evaluation of the models. Persian Gulf is one of the most aggressive regions of the world because of elevated temperature and humidity as well as high content of chloride ions in seawater. The aim of this study is evaluation of some parameters of durability of RC structures in marine environment from viewpoint of corrosion initiation. For this purpose, some experiments were carried out on the real RC structures and in laboratory. The result showed that various uncertainties in parameters of durability were existed.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.173-180
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• 2001

In the past few years, the nondestructive inspection technology has greatly developed due to the increased necessity to gain a complete understanding of the bridge behavior. Especially, the deformations of bridges contain a lot of informations about its health state. By measuring these deformations it is possible to analyze the loading and aging behavior of the structure. However, the current, methods (such as LVDT, dial gage, optical displacement transducer, etc) are often of changeable application on site and have the limitations of installation. In this paper, the classical beam theory was reviewed and the deflections of structure are estimated using measured strain which is easy to acquire. The applicability of this algorithm is verified by laboratory(simple reinforced concrete beam) and field test. By this test, we proposed correction factor to estimate deflection of reinforced concrete beam after cracking, and analyze about the generation of correction factor. Also fiber optic sensors as well as resistive strain gages were installed in the concrete beams to establish the applicability of fiber optic sensors in the field of civil engineering.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.407-416
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• 2021

The checking stresses in the Chinese codes for reinforced concrete (RC) or prestressed concrete (PC) bridges are aimed for the thin-web beam, which cannot reflect the actual behavior of the modern structures. The incompleteness of the checking stresses could give rise to the deficiency in the design and calculation, and unable to reveal the reason of some common cracks in the structure. In this paper, the complete stress checklist for RC or PC girder bridges are listed, as well as the corresponding crack shapes. The expression of the complete checking stresses is proposed in details. Spatial Grid Model can reflect all the concerned stresses in the structure. Through the comparison of the calculation results from the spatial grid model and the solid model, it is seen that the spatial grid model can reflect load effects such as shear lag effect, thin-wall effect and local effect. The stresses obtained from the spatial grid model could help engineers to have a good understanding of the structural behavior. Meanwhile, the stress checklist provides the information for analyzing and solving the deficiency in the structure.