• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권2호
• /
• pp.117-132
• /
• 2023

The most prevalent and oldest type of structure is unreinforced masonry (URM) structures; URM walls are still a widely used construction material in India and many other developing countries due to their simplicity, ease of construction, economic sustainability, and ability to be built with locally available materials. URM walls are significantly weak while carrying lateral loads. The poor performance of URM walls during earthquakes has necessitated investigating an effective method for strengthening a newly built masonry building or retrofitting an old structure. Wire mesh, being cost-effective and easily available, satisfies the requirements to strengthen new and old URM buildings. The use of wire mesh to strengthen and retrofit the URM structure is simple to use, quick to construct, and inexpensive, especially in developing nations where heavy machinery and highly qualified labour are lacking. The current paper reviews the effectiveness of steel wire mesh as a reinforcing material for enhancing masonry strength. The finding gave encouraging results for the field application of wire mesh.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권2호
• /
• pp.133-154
• /
• 2023

Obscured structural members are mostly under-evaluated during condition assessment due to lack of visual inspection capability. Insufficient information about the integrity of these structural members poses a significant risk for public safety. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is a novel approach in structural health monitoring (SHM). Ordinary coaxial cables "as is" without a major modification are not suitable for SHM with TDR. The objective of this study is to propose a practical and cost-effective modification approach to commercially available coaxial cables in order to use them as a "cable sensor" for damage detection with the TDR equipment for obscured structural members. The experimental validation and assessment of the proposed modification approach was achieved by conducting 3-point bending tests of the model piles as a representative obscured structural member. It can be noted that the RG59/U-6 and RG6/U-4 cable sensors expose higher strain sensitivity in comparison with non-modified "as is" versions of the cables used. As a result, the cable sensors have the capability of sensing both the presence and the location of a structural damage with a maximum aberration of 3 cm. Furthermore, the crack development can be monitored by the RG59/U-6 cable sensor with a simple calibration.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권2호
• /
• pp.155-174
• /
• 2023

High performance concrete (HPC) has been extensively used in thin overlay for repair purpose due to its excellent strength and durability. This paper presents an experiment, where the sensor-instrumented HPC overlays have been followed by dynamic strain and moisture content monitoring for 1 year, under normal traffic. The vibrating wire and soil moisture sensors were embedded in overlay before construction. Four given HPC mixes (2 original mixes and their shrinkage-modified mixes) were used for overlays to contrast the strain and moisture results. A calibration method to accurately measure the moisture content for a given concrete mixture using soil moisture sensor was established. The monitoring results indicated that the modified mixes performed much better than the original mixes in shrinkage cracking control. Weather condition and concrete maturity at early age greatly affected the strain in concrete. The strain in HPC overlay was primarily in longitudinal direction, leading to transverse cracks. Additionally, the most moisture loss in concrete occurred at early age. Its rate was very dependent on weather. After one year, cracking survey was carried out by vision to verify the strain direction and no cracks observed in shrinkage modified mixes.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권2호
• /
• pp.107-116
• /
• 2023

The health condition of of deep water high pile foundation is vital to the safe operation of bridges. However, pier foundations are vulnerable to damage in deep water due to exposure to sea torrents and corrosive environments over an extended period. In this paper, combined with aninvestigation and analysis of the typical damage characteristics of main pier group pile foundations, we study the safety monitoring and real-time early warning technology of the deep water high pile foundations, we propose an early warning index item and early warning threshold of deep water high pile foundation by utilizing a numerical simulation analysis and referring to domestic and foreign standards and literature. First, we combine the characteristics of structures and draw on more mature evaluation theories and experience in civil engineering-related fields such as dam and bridge engineering. Then, we establish a scheme consisting of a Early Warning Index Systemand evaluation model based on the analytic hierarchy process and constant weight evaluation method and apply the research results to a project based on the Jiashao bridge in Zhejiang province, China. Finally, we verify the rationality and reliability of the Early Warning Index Systemof the Deep Water High Pile Foundations.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권3호
• /
• pp.243-260
• /
• 2023

Indonesia has had seismic codes for earthquake-resistant structures designs since 1970 and has been updated five times to the latest in 2019. In updating the Indonesian seismic codes, seismic hazard maps for design also update, and there are changes to the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA). Indonesian seismic design uses the concept of building performance levels consisting of Immediate occupancy (IO), Life Safety (LS), and Collapse Prevention (CP). Related to this performance level, cases still found that buildings were damaged more than their performance targets after the earthquake. Based on the above issues, this study aims to analyze the performance of base isolation design on existing target buildings and analyze the seismic fragility for a case study in Indonesia. The target building is a prototype design 8-story medium-rise residential building using the reinforced concrete moment frame structure. Seismic fragility analysis uses Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) with Nonlinear Time History Analysis (NLTHA) and eleven selected ground motions based on soil classification, magnitude, fault distance, and earthquake source mechanism. The comparison result of IDA shows a trend of significant performance improvement, with the same performance level target and risk category, the base isolation structure can be used at 1.46-3.20 times higher PGA than the fixed base structure. Then the fragility analysis results show that the fixed base structure has a safety margin of 30% and a base isolation structure of 62.5% from the PGA design. This result is useful for assessing existing buildings or considering a new building's performance.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권3호
• /
• pp.221-242
• /
• 2023

Internal and external corrosion are common in pressure pipes used in a variety of industries, often resulting in defects that compromise their integrity. This economically and industrially significant problem calls for both preventive and curative technical solutions to guarantee the reliability of these structures. With this in mind, our study focuses on the influence of composite and metallic patch repairs on the limit loads of pipes, particularly elbows, the critical component of piping systems. To this end, we used the nonlinear extended finite element method (X-FEM) to study elbows, a priori corroded on the internal surface of the extrados section, then repaired with composite and metallic patches. In addition, the effect of the geometry of composite materials and metal patches was examined, in particular the effect of their thickness and material on the increase in limit loads of repaired structures. The results obtained provide information on the effectiveness and optimization of patch repair of corroded elbows, with the aim of increasing their service life.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권3호
• /
• pp.261-281
• /
• 2023

Magnetic flux sensors are commonly used in monitoring the cable force, but the application of the sensors in large diameter non-closed Galfan cables, as those adopted in Yueqing Gymnasium which is located in Yueqing City, Zhejiang Province, China and is the largest span hybrid space structure in the world, is seldom done in engineering. Based on the construction of Yueqing Gymnasium, this paper studies the cable tension monitoring using the magnetic flux method across two stages, namely, the pre-calibration stage before the cable leaves the rigging factory and the field tension formation stage of the cable system. In the pre-calibration stage in the cable factory, a series of 1:1 full-scale comparative tests were carried out to study the feasibility and relability of this kind of monitoring method, and the influence on the monitoring results of charging and discharging voltage, sensor location, cable diameter and fitting method were also studied. Some meaningful conclusions were obtained. On this basis, the real-time cable tension monitoring system of the structure based on the magnetic flux method is established. During the construction process, the monitoring results of the cables are in good agreement with the data of the on-site pressure gauge.The work of this paper will provide a useful reference for cable force monitoring in the construction process of long-span spatial structures.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권4호
• /
• pp.283-297
• /
• 2023

This research aims to simulate and investigate the efficiency of strengthening damaged concrete columns using concrete jacketing.The numerical program included unjacketed reference column made of ordinary RC concrete had a cross-sectional dimension of (100×100) mm and 560 mm long reinforced concrete. These cores were damaged by loading them with approximately 60% of their actual ultimate load capacities as a service load. Then, column specimens were strengthened by applying two types of self-compacting concrete SCC jacketing, which were 25 and 30 mm thick, on all four sides. Exposed to external loads at different directions vertically and horizontally simulate to the seismic load. The 3D Finite Element (FE) simulation is used to predict of three structural criteria that were selected and evaluated (deflection, stress, cracks). The results show that the failure of the strengthening columns is interesting and corresponds to the characteristics of the cracks formed in the concrete section,which was documented numerically using 3D Finite Element (FE). A significant improvement of deflection has been noted at the values at the top SECTION of columns compared to the reference sample reaching an average of up to 36.6% when using a 25 mm thick SCC-3500 jacket.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권4호
• /
• pp.299-314
• /
• 2023

Long-gauge carbon fiber line (CFL) sensors have received considerable attention in the past decade. However, there is still a need for an in-depth investigation of their measuring accuracy. This study investigates the accuracy of carbon fiber line sensors to monitor and differentiate the flexural behavior of two beams, one reinforced with steel bars alone and the other reinforced with steel and basalt fiber-reinforced polymer bars. A distributed set of long-gauge carbon fiber line, Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG), and traditional strain gauge sensors was mounted on the tensile concrete surface of the studied beams to compare the results and assess the accuracies of the proposed sensors. The test beams were loaded monotonically under four-point bending loading until failure. Results indicated the importance of using long-gauge sensors in providing useful, accurate, and reliable information regarding global structural behavior, while point sensors are affected by local damage and strain concentrations. Furthermore, long-gauge carbon fiber line sensors demonstrated good agreement with the corresponding Fiber Bragg Grating sensors with acceptable accuracy, thereby exhibiting potential for application in monitoring the health of large-scale structures.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• 제10권4호
• /
• pp.361-379
• /
• 2023

In cable structure maintenance, particularly for cable-stayed bridges, cable safety assessment relies on estimating cable tension. Conventionally, in Japan, cable tension is estimated from the natural frequencies of the cable using the higher-order vibration method. In recent years, dampers have been installed on cables to reduce cable vibrations. Because the higher-order vibration method is a method for damper-free cables, the damper must be removed to measure the natural frequencies of a cable without a damper. However, cables on some cable-stayed bridges have two dampers: one on the girder side and another on the tower side. Notably, removing and reinstalling the damper on the tower side are considerably more time- and labor-intensive. This paper introduces a tension estimation method for cables with two dampers, using natural frequencies. The proposed method was validated through numerical simulation and experiment. In the numerical tests, without measurement error in the natural frequencies, the maximum estimation error among 100 models was 3.3%. With measurement error of 2%, the average estimation error was within 5%, with a maximum error of 9%. The proposed method has high accuracy because the higher-order vibration method for a damper-free cable still has an estimation error of 5%. The experimental verification emphasizes the importance of accurate damper modeling, highlighting potential discrepancies between existing damper design formula and actual damper behavior. By revising the damper formula, the proposed method achieved accurate cable tension estimation, with a maximum estimation error of approximately 10%.