• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.129-150
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• 2018

This paper presents the structural performance monitoring of an urban footbridge located in Hangzhou, China. The structural health monitoring (SHM) system is designed and implemented for the footbridge to monitor the structural responses of the footbridge and to ensure the structural safety during the period of operation. The monitoring data of stress and displacement measured by the fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensors installed at the critical locations are used to analyze and assess the operation performance of the footbridge. A linear regression method is applied to separate the temperature effect from the stress monitoring data measured by the FBG-based strain sensors. In addition, the static vertical displacement of the footbridge measured by the FBG-based hydrostatic level gauges are presented and compared with the dynamic displacement remotely measured by a machine vision-based measurement system. Based on the examination of the monitored stress and displacement data, the structural safety evaluation is executed in combination with the defined condition index.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-38
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• 2018

Negative stiffness dampers (NSDs) have been proven an efficient solution to vibration control of stay cables. Although previous studies usually assumed a linear negative stiffness behavior of NSDs, many negative stiffness devices produce negative stiffness with nonlinear behavior. This paper systematically evaluates the impact of nonlinearity in negative stiffness on vibration control performance for stay cables. A linearization method based on energy equivalent principle is proposed, and subsequently, the impact of two types of nonlinear stiffness, namely, displacement hardening and softening stiffness, is evaluated. Through the Hilbert transform (HT) of free vibration responses, the effects of nonlinear stiffness of an NSD on the modal frequencies, damping ratios and frequency response functions of a stay cable is also investigated. The HT analysis results validate the accuracy of the linearization method.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.167-193
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• 2020

In this paper, the behavior of interior steel fiber reinforced concrete beam - column joints (BCJs) under cyclic loading is investigated. An experimental program including tests on twelve reinforced concrete (BCJs) specimens under cyclic loading was carried out. The test specimens are divided into two groups having different geometry: group (G1) (symmetrical BCJs specimens) and group (G2) (nonsymmetrical BCJs specimens). The parameters considered in this study are the steel fibers (SFs) content by volume of concrete (V_f), the spacing of shear reinforcement at the joint region, and the area of longitudinal flexural reinforcement. Test results show that the addition of 0.5% SFs with stirrups spacing S=S_max has effectively enhanced the overall performance of BCJs with respect to energy dissipation, ductility ratio, spreading and width of cracks. The failure of specimens is governed mainly by the formation of a plastic hinge at the face column and outside the beam-column junction. Secondary shear cracks were also observed in the beam-column junctions.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.195-213
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• 2020

In this paper an extension to the method for the identification of mechanical parameters of nonlinear systems proposed in Breccolotti and Materazzi (2007) for MDoF systems is presented. It can be used for damage identification purposes when damage modifies the linear characteristics of the investigated structure. It is based on the following two main features: the solution of the Fokker-Planck equation that describes the response probabilistic properties of the system when it is excited by external Gaussian loads; and a model updating technique that minimizes the differences between the response of the actual system and that of a parametric system used to identify the unknown parameters. Numerical analysis, that simulate virtual experimental tests, are used in the paper to show the capabilities of the method and to analyse the conditions required for its application.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.427-449
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• 2014

A hybrid optimization method for the identification of state-space models is presented in this study. Hybridization is succeeded by combining the advantages of deterministic and stochastic algorithms in a superior scheme that promises faster convergence rate and reliability in the search for the global optimum. The proposed hybrid algorithm is developed by replacing the original stochastic mutation operator of Evolution Strategies (ES) by the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) quasi-Newton algorithm. This substitution results in a scheme where the entire population cloud is involved in the search for the global optimum, while single individuals are involved in the local search, undertaken by the LM method. The novel hybrid identification framework is assessed through the Monte Carlo analysis of a simulated system and an experimental case study on a shear frame structure. Comparisons to subspace identification, as well as to conventional, self-adaptive ES provide significant indication of superior performance.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.393-409
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• 2014

Across-wind response is often the cause of significant structural vibrations that in turn cause fatigue damage to welded and other connections. The efficacy of low-cost helical strakes to mitigate such adverse response is presented for a traffic signal structure. Field observations are made on a prototype structure in a natural wind environment without and with helical strakes installed on the cantilevered arm. Through continuous monitoring, the strakes were found to be effective in reducing across-wind response at wind speeds less than 10 m/s. Estimates of fatigue life are made for four different geographical locations and wind environments. Results for the class of traffic signal structure show that helical arm strakes are most effective in locations with benign wind environments where the average annual wind speed is not more than the vortex shedding wind speed, which for this investigation is 5 m/s. It is concluded that while strakes may be effective, it is not the panacea to mitigating connection fatigue at all locations.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.411-425
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• 2014

A relatively low frequency Lamb wave-based damage identification method called damage imaging method for rectangular composite plate is presented. A damage index (DI) is generated from the delay matrix of the Lamb wave response signals, and it is used to indicate the location and approximate area of the damage. The viability of this method is demonstrated by analyzing the numerical and experimental Lamb wave response signals from rectangular composite plates. The technique only requires the response signals from the plate after damage, and it is capable of performing near real time damage identification. This study sheds some light on the application of Lamb wave-based damage detection algorithm for plate-type structures by using the relatively low frequency (e.g., in the neighborhood of 100 kHz, more suitable for the best capability of the existing fiber optic sensor interrogator system with the sampling frequency of 500 kHz) Lamb wave response and a reference-free damage detection technique.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.189-204
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• 2018

This paper examines the seismic responses of a reinforced concrete (RC) frame core-tube building with pre-pressed spring self-centering energy dissipation (PS-SCED) braces. The PS-SCED brace system consists of friction devices for energy dissipation, pre-pressed combination disc springs for self-centering and tube members as guiding elements. A constitutive model of self-centering flag-shaped hysteresis for PS-SCED brace is developed to better simulate the seismic responses of the RC frame core-tube building with PS-SCED braces, which is also verified by the tests of two braces under low cyclic reversed loading. Results indicate that the self-centering and energy dissipation capabilities are well predicted by the proposed constitutive model of the PS-SCED brace. The structure with PS-SCED braces presents similar peak story drift ratio, smaller peak acceleration, smaller base shear force and much smaller residual deformations as compared to the RC frame core-tube building with bucking-restrained braces (BRBs).

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.261-272
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• 2018

The commonly used TMD design method in the project assumes the TMD has pure linearity. However, in real engineering TMD will exhibit nonlinear behaviors. Without considering the nonlinearity of TMD, the control effect of the TMD that is designed by the linear design method, may be worse and even enlarge the structural response. In this paper, based on the previous study results of nonlinear TMD, the improved design method for engineering application is proposed. The linear design method and the improved design method are compared. Taking the best parameter obtained by the improved design method is less than or equal to 90% of that obtained by the original design method as the dividing line. The critical nonlinear coefficient, reaching which value the improved design method needs to be used, is given. Finally, numerical simulations on two engineering examples are conducted to proof the results.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.173-187
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• 2018

Performance evaluation of RC frame building by nonlinear static pushover analysis that accounts for elastic and post elastic behavior is becoming very popular as a valid decision making tool in seismic hazard resistant designs. Available literature suggests great amount of interest has shown by researchers in suggesting refinements to geometric and material modelling to bridge the gap between analytical predictions and observed performances. Notwithstanding the attempts gaps still exists. Sequence of plastic hinge formation which has great influence on pushover analysis results is an area less investigated. This paper attempts to highlight the importance of hinge sequence considerations to make analysis results more meaningful. Variation in analysis results due to different hinge sequences have been quantified, compared and bounds on analysis results have been presented.