• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.205-215
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• 2006

In this study 3-D shell FEM model was applied to analyze the behavior of curved steel box girders stiffened by diaphragms. The reliability of the analytical method has been proved by comparing with the existing results. It was also found from this analysis that main factors affecting a distortional stress are length of a girder, curvature of the girder, and spacing of diaphragms. A modelled bridge with 30m of span length and 40m of radius was analyzed to find an optimum spacing of diaphragm, and as a result of applying different spacings, 5m was found to be most appropriate to control the stress ratio regulated by specifications. In the effect of diaphragm shape, the rhamen-typed diaphragm is found to be more effective than the fully filled-up one in the range of opening ratio of 0.4 to 0.6. But, the fully filled-up diaphragm had more efficiency in terms of reducing the distortional stress than X-truss typed diaphragm.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.231-239
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• 2003

Many box girder bridges have been constructed during the past several decades due to their large bending and torsional rigidities as well as aesthetic considerations. However, box girders have shortcoming in that the cross section distorts under an eccentric loading and warps out of the section plane. Therefore, in order to reduce distortional stresses such as distortional warping and transverse bending normal stresses, diaphragms were generally installed in the box girders. Shapes of the diaphragms in steel-box-girder bridges constructed up to date were solid-plate, frame, and truss types. The objectives of this study using parametric study were to evaluate the appropriate stiffness ratio of intermediate diaphragms and then to propose the effective spacing and numbers of intermediate diaphragms based on the evaluated stiffness ratio. Target bridges for this study were straight continuous span bridges with a single-cell steel box section. The parameters for the parametric study were the shape of box section, the span numbers, the equivalent span length, the stiffness of intermediate diaphragms, and the spacing of intermediate diaphragms. From the results of the parametric study, the effective spacing and numbers as well as the stiffness ratio of the intermediate diaphragms will be presented.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.6325-6332
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• 2015

Although distortions of horizontally curved box girder are more susceptible than which of the straight girder due to curvature effect, current domestic design standards does not present spacing of intermediate diaphragms for the curved box girder. In this study, parametric studies for straight and curved box girder considering distortional warping normal stresses based on linear finite element analysis were carried out. Single span curved girders were chosen for analysis based on current domestic bridge data with 1-6 of solid intermediate diaphragms, 0-30 degree of subtended angle, 30m and 60m of span length and 2-3m of flange width and web height. The adequate spacing of diaphragms for the box girder were suggested considering subtended angles and bending and distortional warping normal stress ratios with 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. The analysis results were also compared to a current design standard and suggested spacing of diaphragm were evaluated.