• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.139-150
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• 2017

The structural strain plays a significant role in structural condition assessment of in-service bridges in terms of structural bearing capacity, structural reliability level and entire safety redundancy. Therefore, it has been one of the most important parameters concerned by researchers and engineers engaged in structural health monitoring (SHM) practices. In this paper, an SHM system instrumented on the Jiubao Bridge located in Hangzhou, China is firstly introduced. This system involves nine subsystems and has been continuously operated for five years since 2012. As part of the SHM system, a total of 166 fiber Bragg grating (FBG) strain sensors are installed on the bridge to measure the dynamic strain responses of key structural components. Based on the strain monitoring data acquired in recent two years, the strain-based structural condition assessment of the Jiubao Bridge is carried out. The wavelet multi-resolution algorithm is applied to separate the temperature effect from the raw strain data. The obtained strain data under the normal traffic and wind condition and under the typhoon condition are examined for structural safety evaluation. The structural condition rating of the bridge in accordance with the AASHTO specification for condition evaluation and load and resistance factor rating of highway bridges is performed by use of the processed strain data in combination with finite element analysis. The analysis framework presented in this study can be used as a reference for facilitating the assessment, inspection and maintenance activities of in-service bridges instrumented with long-term SHM system.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.868-880
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• 2020

One of the main concerns in the structural integrity of offshore pipelines is mechanical damage from external loads. Pipelines are exposed to fatigue failure in welded joints due to geometric discontinuity. In addition, fatigue loads such as currents, waves, and platform motions may cause significant plastic deformation and fracture or leakage within a relatively low-cycle regime. The 2007 ASME Div. 2 Code adopts the master S―N curve for the fatigue evaluation of welded joints based on the mesh-insensitive structural stress. An extension to the master S―N curve was introduced to evaluate the low-cycle fatigue strength. This structural strain method uses the tensile properties of the material. However, the monotonic tensile properties have limitations in describing the material behavior above the elastic range because most engineering materials exhibit hardening or softening behavior under cyclic loads. The goal of this study is to extend the cyclic stress-strain behavior to the structural strain method. To this end, structural strain-based procedure was established while considering the cyclic stress-strain behavior and compared to the structural strain method with monotonic tensile properties. Finally, the improved prediction method was validated using fatigue test data from full-scale girth-welded pipes.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.388-399
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• 2003

Light losses in optical fibers are investigated by a fiber optic OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometry) sensor system to develop fiber optic probes for structural strain measurement. The sensing fibers are manufactured 3 kinds of fibers: one is single mode fiber, and second is multimode fiber, and the third is low-cladding-index fiber. Fiber bending tests are performed to determine the strain sensitivity according to the strain of gage length of optical fibers. In the result of this experiments, the strain sensitivity of the single mode fiber was shown the highest value than others. The fiber optic strain probe was manufactured to verify the feasibility of the structural strain measurement. In this test, the fiber optic strain probe of the OTDR sensor could be easily made by the single mode fiber.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.231-244
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• 2013

An efficient method is proposed here to identify multiple damage cases in structural systems using the concepts of flexibility matrix and strain energy of a structure. The flexibility matrix of the structure is accurately estimated from the first few mode shapes and natural frequencies. Then, the change of strain energy of a structural element, due to damage, evaluated by the columnar coefficients of the flexibility matrix is used to construct a damage indicator. This new indicator is named here as flexibility strain energy based index (FSEBI). In order to assess the performance of the proposed method for structural damage detection, two benchmark structures having a number of damage scenarios are considered. Numerical results demonstrate that the method can accurately locate the structural damage induced. It is also revealed that the magnitudes of the FSEBI depend on the damage severity.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.237-243
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• 1999

Recently, there has been considerable interest in the development of fiber-optic sensors based on fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), which can be made into Ge-doped fiber's core by UV phase mask or holographic methods. A good sensitivity and small size of this sensor make it an ideal candidate for distributed sensing in smart structures or other structural monitoring applications. In this study, fiber optic Bragg grating sensor, which could be applied to measure the absolute strains, was constructed and the strain sensitivity of this sensor was investigated in order to apply to the structural health monitoring. Fiber Fabry-Perot (FFP) filter has been used to detect the optical signals instead of optical spectrum analyzer. It has been convenient to determine the structural strains from the output signal of FBGs. The fiber optic Bragg grating sensor was attached on the aluminum beam near the electrical strain gage to measure the same strain. The relationship between strain and fiber signal was linearly fitted. The strain sensitivity of the fiber optic Bragg grating sensor was determined as $l.57{\mu}{\varepsilon}/{\mu}sec$ from the aluminum beam test.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.392-396
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• 2018

Structural color has many advantages over pigment based color. In recent years, researches are being conducted to apply these advantages to applications such as wearable devices. In this study, strain sensor, a kind of wearable device, was developed using structural color. The use of structural color has the advantage of not using energy and complex measuring equipment to measure strain rate. Wrinkle structure was fabricated on the surface of Poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and used it as a sensor which color changes according to the applied strain. In addition, a transmittance-changing sensor was developed and fabricated by synthesizing additional glass nanoparticles. Furthermore, a strain sensor was developed that is largely transparent at the target strain and opaque otherwise.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.327-336
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• 2018

In this study, an efficient damage index is proposed to identify multiple damage cases in structural systems using the concepts of frequency response function (FRF) matrix and strain energy of a structure. The index is defined based on the change of strain energy of an element due to damage. For obtaining the strain energy stored in elements, the columnar coefficients of the FRF matrix is used. The new indicator is named here as frequency response function strain energy based index (FRFSEBI). In order to assess the performance of the proposed index for structural damage detection, some benchmark structures having a number of damage scenarios are considered. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed index even with considering noise can accurately identify the actual location and approximate severity of the damage. In order to demonstrate the high efficiency of the proposed damage index, its performance is also compared with that of the flexibility strain energy based index (FSEBI) provided in the literature.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.541-553
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• 2015

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems can provide valuable information regarding the safety of structures during and after ground motions which can be used by authorities to reduce post-earthquake hazards. Strain gages as a key element play an important role in the success of SHM systems. Reducing the number of required strain gages while keeping the efficiency of SHM system not only can reduce the cost of structural health monitoring but also avoids storage and process of uninformative data. In this study, a method based on performance based seismic design of structures is proposed for ideal placement of stain gages in structures. The robustness and efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated through installation of strain gages on an Airport Traffic Control (ATC) Tower. The obtained results show that the number of required strain gages decrease significantly.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.147-155
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• 2002

To find the safety and serviceability of bridges, it must consider the behaviour of structural member and evaluation of the exact resistance of the member subjected to external loads. To evaluate the behaviour and the resistance of the structural member, it must measure the strains and displacements of the structures. Usually we use the strain gauge to measure the strains. When, the bridge is long span and high pier, the setting of strain gauge is very difficult and not economic. It is not recommendable for the use of strain gauge, when the structural member has many cracks and moisture. Thus, to make up for this demerits, the algorithm of strain analysis by measured displacements data is proposed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.80-89
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• 1998

The measuring method of structural strain by a 3*3 passive-demodulated fiber optic interferometric sensor was developed to implement the real-time monitoring of structural status. A 3*3 fiber optic Michelson interferometric sensor was constructed to sense the value and the direction of structural strain. This sensor was applied on the cantilevered aluminum beam to experiment the sensing of the structural deformation. The digital signal processing was programmed by LabVIEW to determine the structural strain from the fiber optic signals. This program was verified by various simulated fiber optic signals. Finally, the structural was well determined by this developed program from real fiber optic signals.