• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.21-44
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• 2014

The aim of this study is to determine the dynamic characteristics of long reinforced concrete highway bridges with post-tension tendons using analytical and experimental methods. It is known that the deck length and height of bridges are affected the dynamic characteristics considerably. For this purpose, Berta Bridge constructed in deep valley, in Artvin, Turkey, is selected as an application. The Bridge has two piers with height of 109.245 m and 85.193 m, and the total length of deck is 340.0 m. Analytical and experimental studies are carried out on Berta Bridge which was built in accordance with the balanced cantilever method. Finite Element Method (FEM) and Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) which considers ambient vibration data were used in analytical and experimental studies, respectively. Finite element model of the bridge is created by using SAP2000 program to obtain analytical dynamic characteristics such as the natural frequencies and mode shapes. The ambient vibration tests are performed using Operational Modal Analysis under wind and human loads. Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition (EFDD) and Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI) methods are used to obtain experimental dynamic characteristics like natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios. At the end of the study, analytical and experimental dynamic characteristic are compared with each other and the finite element model of the bridge was updated considering the material properties and boundary conditions. It is emphasized that Operational Modal Analysis method based on the ambient vibrations can be used safely to determine the dynamic characteristics, to update the finite element models, and to monitor the structural health of long reinforced concrete highway bridges constructed with the balanced cantilever method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.665-682
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• 2015

Structural identification or St-Id is 'the parametric correlation of structural response characteristics predicted by a mathematical model with analogous characteristics derived from experimental measurements'. This paper describes a St-Id exercise on Humber Bridge that adopted a novel two-stage approach to first calibrate and then validate a mathematical model. This model was then used to predict effects of wind and temperature loads on global static deformation that would be practically impossible to observe. The first stage of the process was an ambient vibration survey in 2008 that used operational modal analysis to estimate a set of modes classified as vertical, torsional or lateral. In the more recent second stage a finite element model (FEM) was developed with an appropriate level of refinement to provide a corresponding set of modal properties. A series of manual adjustments to modal parameters such as cable tension and bearing stiffness resulted in a FEM that produced excellent correspondence for vertical and torsional modes, along with correspondence for the lower frequency lateral modes. In the third stage traffic, wind and temperature data along with deformation measurements from a sparse structural health monitoring system installed in 2011 were compared with equivalent predictions from the partially validated FEM. The match of static response between FEM and SHM data proved good enough for the FEM to be used to predict the un-measurable global deformed shape of the bridge due to vehicle and temperature effects but the FEM had limited capability to reproduce static effects of wind. In addition the FEM was used to show internal forces due to a heavy vehicle to to estimate the worst-case bearing movements under extreme combinations of wind, traffic and temperature loads. The paper shows that in this case, but with limitations, such a two-stage FEM calibration/validation process can be an effective tool for performance prognosis.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.1478-1485
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• 2007

In this paper, a meteorological system including a wind speed & direction module and the DSP(Digital Signal Processor) sensor interface circuit board are proposed. This DSP system accepts and process the informations from a wind speed & direction module, the atmospheric pressure sensor, the ambient air temperature sensor and transfers it to the PC monitoring system. Especially, a wind speed & direction module and a DSP hardware are directly designed and applied. A wind speed & direction module have a construction that it have four film type RID(Resistive Temperature Detectors) resistive sensor adhered around the circular metal body heated constantly by heating coil for obtaining vector informations about wind. By this structure, the module is enabled precise measurement having a robustness about vibration, humidity, corrosion. A sensor signal processing circuit is using TMS320F2812 TI(Texas Instrument) Corporation high speed DSP. An economical meteorological system could be constructed through the data from wind speed & direction module and by the fast processing of DSP interface circuit board.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.31-40
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• 2023

We installed temporary strong motion seismometers at the ground surface, 1 m, 2 m, and 9 m at an existing seismic station that houses permanent seismometers installed at 20 m and 100 m, to investigate the influence of installation depth on the recorded ambient and anthropogenic noise level and the characteristics of earthquake signals. Analysis of the ambient noise shows that anthropogenic noise dominates where vibration period T < 1 s at the studied site, whereas wind speed appears to be strongly correlated with the noise level at T > 1 s. Frequency-wavenumber analysis of 2D seismometer array suggests that ambient noise in short periods are predominantly body waves, rather than surface waves. The level of ambient noise was low at 9 m and 20 m, but strong amplification of noise level at T < 0.1 s was observed at the shallow seismometers. Both the active-source test result and the recorded earthquake data demonstrated that the signal level is decreased with the increase of depth. Our result also shows that recorded motions at the ground and 1 m are strongly amplified at 20 Hz (T = 0.05 s), likely due to the resonance of the 3 m thick soil layer. This study demonstrates that analysis of ambient and active-source vibration may help find optimal installation depth of strong motion seismometers. We expect that further research considering various noise environments and geological conditions will be helpful in establishing a guideline for optimal installation of strong motion seismometers.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.363-389
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• 2016

Deficient modes that cannot be always identified from different sets of measurement data may exist in the application of operational modal analysis such as the stochastic subspace identification techniques in large-scale civil structures. Based on a recent work using the long-term ambient vibration measurements from an instrumented cable-stayed bridge under different wind excitation conditions, a benchmark problem is launched by taking the same bridge as a test bed to further intensify the exploration of mode identifiability. For systematically assessing this benchmark problem, a recently developed SSI algorithm based on an alternative stabilization diagram and a hierarchical sifting process is extended and applied in this research to investigate several sets of known and blind monitoring data. The evaluation of delicately selected cases clearly distinguishes the effect of traffic excitation on the identifiability of the targeted deficient mode from the effect of wind excitation. An additional upper limit for the vertical acceleration amplitude at deck, mainly induced by the passing traffic, is subsequently suggested to supplement the previously determined lower limit for the wind speed. Careful inspection on the shape vector of the deficient mode under different excitation conditions leads to the postulation that this mode is actually induced by the motion of the central tower. The analysis incorporating the tower measurements solidly verifies this postulation by yielding the prevailing components at the tower locations in the extended mode shape vector. Moreover, it is also confirmed that this mode can be stably identified under all the circumstances with the addition of tower measurements. An important lesson learned from this discovery is that the problem of mode identifiability usually comes from the lack of proper measurements at the right locations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.111-122
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• 2020

Researchers up to date have introduced several Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) techniques with varying advantages and drawbacks for each. Satellite positioning systems (GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO) based techniques proved to be promising, especially for high natural period structures. Particularly, the GPS has proved sufficient performance and reasonable accuracy in tracking real time dynamic displacements of flexible structures independent of atmospheric conditions, temperature variations and visibility of the monitored object. Tall structures are particularly sensitive to oscillations produced by different sources of dynamic actions; such as typhoons. Wind forces induce in the structure both longitudinal and perpendicular displacements with respect to the wind direction, resulting in torsional effects, which are usually more complex to be detected. To efficiently track the horizontal rotations of the in-plane sections of such flexible structures, two main issues have to be considered: a suitable sensor topology (i.e., location, installation, and combination of sensors), and the methodology used to process the data recorded by sensors. This paper reports the contributions of the measurements recorded from dual frequency GPS receivers and uni-axial accelerometers in a full-scale experimental campaign. The Canton tower in Guangzhou-China is the case study of this research, which is instrumented with a long-term structural health monitoring system deploying both accelerometers and GPS receivers. The elaboration of combining the obtained rather long records provided by these two types of sensors in detecting the torsional behavior of the tower under ambient vibration condition and during strong wind events is discussed in this paper. Results confirmed the reliability of GPS receivers in obtaining the dynamic characteristics of the system, and its ability to capture the torsional response of the tower when used alone or when they are combined with accelerometers integrated data.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2015

It is important to accurately predict structural responses to external excitations such as typhoons and earthquakes when designing structures for serviceability. One of the key procedures to predict reliable vibration responses is to evaluate accurate structural dynamic properties using finite element (FE) models, which properly represent the realistic behavior of buildings. In the case of historic masonry buildings, structural damage could also be caused by ambient vibrations or impacts. Therefore, the preservation plans of historic buildings for low-level vibrations or impacts should be provided by analyzing structural damages within serviceability levels. For this purpose, it is required to provide FE model construction and response analysis methods verified with field measurement data. In this research, long-term field measurement was performed for a cathedral and its dynamic properties were evaluated using measured data. Then, the model was calibrated based on the measured dynamic properties and an overall construction method for the masonry cathedral was proposed. Using the measured accelerations, the vibrations of the belfry were analyzed using the calibrated FE model and finally, the FE model for the cathedral was verified by comparing the measured accelerations with the modeled results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.221-232
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• 2008

This paper represents the final results of a research program sponsored by the European Commission through project WIND-CHIME ($\underline{W}$ide Range Non-$\underline{IN}$trusive $\underline{D}$evices toward $\underline{C}$onservation of $\underline{HI}$storical Monuments in the $\underline{ME}$diterranean Area), in which the possibility of using advanced seismic protection technologies to preserve historical monuments in the Mediterranean area is investigated. In the current research, the dynamic characteristics of two outstanding Mamluk-Style minarets, which similar minarets were reported to experience extensive damage during Dahshur 1992 earthquake, are investigated. The first minaret is the Qusun minaret (1337 A.D, 736 Hijri Date (H.D)) located in El-Suyuti cemetery on the southern side of the Salah El-Din citadel. The minaret is currently separated from the surrounding building and is directly resting on the ground (no vaults underneath). The total height of the minaret is 40.28 meters with a base rectangular shaft of about 5.42 ${\times}$ 5.20 m. The second minaret is the southern minaret of Al-Sultaniya (1340 A.D, 739 H.D). It is located about 30.0 meters from Qusun minaret, and it is now standing alone but it seems that it used to be attached to a huge unidentified structure. The style of the minaret and its size attribute it to the first half of the fourteenth century. The minaret total height is 36.69 meters and has a 4.48 ${\times}$ 4.48 m rectangular base. Field investigations were conducted to obtain: (a) geometrical description of the minarets, (b) material properties of the minarets' stones, and (c) soil conditions at the minarets' location. Ambient vibration tests were performed to determine the modal parameters of the minarets such as natural frequencies and mode shapes. A $1/16^{th}$ scale model of Qusun minaret was constructed at Cairo University Concrete Research Laboratory and tested under free vibration with and without SMA wire dampers. The contribution of SMA wire dampers to the structural damping coefficient was evaluated under different vertical loads and vibration amplitudes. Experimental results were used along with the field investigation data to develop a realistic 3-D finite element model that can be used for seismic risk evaluation of the minarets. Examining the updated finite element models under different seismic excitations indicated the vulnerability of such structures to earthquakes with medium to high a/v ratio. The use of SMA wire dampers was found feasible for reducing the seismic risk for this type of structures.