• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
• /
• v.4 no.1 s.11
• /
• pp.49-59
• /
• 2004

A previous study evaluated the seismic response of typical multi-span simply supported (MSSS) and multi-span continuous (MSC) steel-girder bridges in the central and southeastern United States. The results showed that the bridges were vulnerable to damage resulting from impact between decks, and large ductility demands on nonductile columns. Furthermore, fixed and expansion bearings were likely to fail during strong ground motion. In this paper, several retrofit measures to improve the seismic performance of typical multi-span simply supported and multi-span continuous steel girder bridges are evaluated, including the use of elastomeric bearings, lead-rubber bearings, and restrainer cables. It is determined that iead-rubber bearings are the most effective retrofit measure for reducing the seismic vulnerability of typical bridges. While isolation provided by elastomeric bearings limits the forces into the columns, the added flexibility results in pounding between decks in the MSSS steel-girder bridge. Restrainer cables, which are becoming a common retrofit measure, are only moderately effective in reducing the seismic vulnerability of MSSS and MSC steel girder bridges.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.30 no.2A
• /
• pp.121-129
• /
• 2010

In this paper, the characteristics of high damping rubber bearing were studied through various prototype test. The characteristics of HDRB were dependent on displacements, repeated cycles, frequencies, vertical pressure, temperature, the capability of shear deformation and the vertical stiffness. The prototype test showed that the displacement was the most governing factor influencing on characteristics of HDRB. The effective stiffness and equivalent damping of HDRB were decreased with displacement, and increased with frequency. The effective stiffness was decreased with high vertical pressure, while the equivalent damping was increased. In which, the equivalent damping was more dependent on the vertical pressure than the effective stiffness. According to the results of this study, more careful examination is required to design the effective stiffness and equivalent damping ratio considering the dependencies of design displacement and exciting velocity.

• 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).

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.47-62
• /
• 1998

The laminated elastomeric bearing and the lead-rubber bearing were designed to isolate one bay-two story steel frame which is designed for only gravity load. The seismic performance is evaluated for the designed steel frame before and after application of these seismic isolators between the super structure and the foundation. These isolators can improve the seismic capacity of the steel frame. Especially, by inserting the lead plug into the center of the laminated elastomeric bearing, the initial stiffness of th bearing can be increased, thus rather large lateral displacement can be prevented under the frequent service lateral load. During the strong earthquake, yielding of the lead can increase the capacity of the energy dissipation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.389-403
• /
• 2021

Skewed bridges, being irregular structures with complicated dynamic behavior, are more susceptible to earthquake damage. Reliable seismic-resistant design of skewed bridges can be achieved by accurate determination of nonlinear seismic demands. However, the effect of geometric characteristics on the response modification factor (R-factor) is not accounted for in bridge design practices. This study attempts to investigate the effects of changes in the number of spans, skew angle and bearing stiffness on R-factor values and to assess the seismic fragility of skewed bridges. Results indicated that changes in the skew angle had no significant effect on R-factor values which were in consonance with code-prescribed R values. Also, unlike the increase in the number of spans that resulted in a decrease in the R-factor, the increase in bearing stiffness led to higher R-factor values. Findings of the fragility analysis implied that although the increase in the number of spans, as well as the increase in the skew angle, led to a higher failure probability, greater values of bearing stiffness reduced the collapse probability. For practicing design engineers, it is recommended that maximum demands on substructure elements to be calculated when the excitation angle is applied along the principal axes of skewed bridges.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.533-540
• /
• 2012

Rubber laminated bearings with lead core are highly affected by changes in temperature because key materials which are rubber and lead have temperature dependencies. In this study, two full scale LRB(D800, S=5) are manufactured and temperature dependency tests on shear properties are accomplished. The shear properties at the 3rd cycle are used at $-10^{\circ}C$, $0^{\circ}C$, $10^{\circ}C$, $20^{\circ}C$, $30^{\circ}C$, $40^{\circ}C$ respectively. The double shear configuration, simultaneously testing two pieces, is applied for compression shear test in order to minimize the friction effects due to the test machine, described in ISO 22762-1:2010. Characteristic strength, post-yield stiffness, effective stiffness, equivalent damping ratio are estimated and presented coefficient due to the temperature changes.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.235-243
• /
• 2023

This paper presents the fabrication process of water-lubricated plastic bearings. Plastic bearings require good mechanical properties and tribological properties as well as elasticity and shock resistance, especially when lubricated in dirty water conditions. In this study, sleeve-type plastic bearings are produced by winding a prepreg sheet, which primary contains nitrile rubber (NBR)-modified epoxy, self-lubricating fillers, and various types of lattice-structured reinforcing fibers such as carbon, Aramid, and polyethylene terephthalate. A thermosetting epoxy is chemically modified with NBR to impart elasticity and low-friction characteristics in water conditions. Experimental investigations are conducted to examine the mechanical and tribological characteristics of the developed bearing materials, and the results are compared with the characteristics of a commercial plastic bearing (Thordon SXL), well known as a water-lubricated bearing. A Thordon bearing (mainly composed of polyurethane) exhibits an extremely low load-bearing capacity and is thus only suitable for medium loading (1~10MPa). The tribological characteristics of the test materials are evaluated through Falex block-on-ring (LFW-1) friction and wear tests. The results indicate that friction exhibited by the carbon-fiber-reinforced NBR-10wt.%-modified epoxy composite material, incorporated with the addition of 20wt.% UHMWPE and 6wt.% paraffin wax, is lower than that of the Thorden bearings, whereas its wear resistance surpass that of Thorden ones. Because of these features, the load carrying capacity of the fabricated composite (>10MPa) is higher than that of the Thorden bearings. These results confirm the applicability of water-lubricated plastic bearing materials developed in this study.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.79-89
• /
• 1997

The objective of this paper is to investigate the mechanical characteristics of the laminated rubber bearings (LRBs) for the seismic isolation. The evaluations of the proposed equations of the LRB horizontal stiffness are carried out and these equations are extended to the visco-elastic problems to investigate the damping amplifications of LRBs. The stability evaluation of LRBs is also performed. For investigation of the dynamic characteristics of LRBs, the horizontal stiffness equations of the LRBs considering the P-delta effects are applied to the modeling of a seismically isolated structure and the earthquake response time history analyses are carried out. From this research, the proposed simple equation of the horizontal stiffness of LRB is so useful for the design loads and easily extended to the visco-elastic problems. Through the stability evaluation of LRB, the increasing ratio of the total rubber thickness of the LRB severely decrecises the bucking load than the increasing ratio of unit rubber thickness. From the comparison of the dynamic shear deflection of LRB, the analysis results are in good agreement with those of the experiments.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.271-282
• /
• 2022

Seismic resisting self-centering bridge piers with high energy dissipation and negligible residual displacement after an earthquake event are focus topics of current structural engineering. The energy dissipation components of typical bridge piers are often relatively single; and exhibit a certain level of damage under earthquakes, leading to large residual displacements and low cumulative energy dissipation. In this paper, a novel socket self-centering bridge pier with a hybrid energy dissipation system is proposed. The seismic resilience of bridge piers can be improved through the rational design of annular grooves and rubber cushions. The seismic response was evaluated through the finite element method. The effects of rubber cushion thickness, annular groove depth, axial compression ratio, and lateral strength contribution ratio of rubber cushion on the seismic behavior of bridge piers are systematically studied. The results show that the annular groove depth has the greatest influence on the seismic performance of the bridge pier. Especially, the lateral strength contribution ratio of the rubber cushion mainly depends on the depth of the annular groove. The axial compression ratio has a significant effect on the ultimate bearing capacity. Finally, the seismic design method is proposed according to the influence of the above research parameters on the seismic performance of bridge piers, and the method is validated by an example. It is suggested that the range of lateral strength contribution ratio of rubber cushion is 0.028 ~ 0.053.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.35 no.6
• /
• pp.779-788
• /
• 2020

Multi-Walled Carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) coupled with Silicone Rubber (SR) can represent applicable strain sensors with accessible materials, which result in good stretchability and great sensitivity. Employing these materials and given the fact that the combination of these two has been addressed in few studies, this study is trying to represent a low-cost, durable and stretchable strain sensor that can perform excellently in a high number of repeated cycles. Great stability was observed during the cyclic test after 2000 cycles. Ultrahigh sensitivity (GF>1227) along with good extensibility (ε>120%) was observed while testing the sensor at different strain rates and the various number of cycles. Further investigation is dedicated to sensor performance in the detection of human body movements. Not only the sensor performance in detecting the small strains like the vibrations on the throat was tested, but also the larger strains as observed in extension/bending of the muscle joints like knee were monitored and recorded. Bearing in mind the applicability and low-cost features, this sensor may become promising in skin-mountable devices to detect the human body motions.