• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.165-175
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• 2008

Line type rigid bearings for Open-Steel-Plate-Girder railway bridges have several problems in service, and they are unstable structurally. A series of lateral resistance tests were performed for a retrieved line type bearing. A spherical bearing with advanced maintenance-capability and a device to resist the up-lift was developed and replaced the existing ones. An experiment of maintenance for a new spherical bearing under real Open-Steel-Plate-Girder bridge was conducted and their good maintenance performance was proved. Also, a test against up-lift was performed for the bearing. The dynamic behavior of the bridge was measured and analyzed for the two cases of the existing and replaced bearings. Therefore, the suitability of the new spherical bearings on the railway bridge was improved.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.195-219
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• 2015

A partial (hybrid) seismic isolation scheme for precast girder bridges in the form of a "buffer-gap-elastomeric bearings" system has been endorsed in the literature as an efficient seismic design system. However, no guides exist to detail an optimal gap size for different configurations. A numerical study is established herein for different scenarios according to Euro code seismic requirements in order to develop guidelines for the selection of optimal buffer-gap arrangements for various design cases. Various schemes are hence designed for ductile and limited ductility behavior of the bridge piers for different seismic demand levels. Seven real ground records are selected to perform incremental dynamic analysis of the bridges up to failure. Bridges with typical short and high piers are studied; and different values of initial gaps at piers are also investigated varying from a zero gap (i.e., fully locked) condition up to an initial gap at piers that is three quarters the gap left at abutments. Among the main conclusions is that the as-built initial gaps at piers (and especially large gap sizes that are ${\geq}1/2$ as-built gaps at abutments) do not practically reduce the seismic design demand and do not affect the reserve capacity of the bridge against failure for bridges featuring long piers, especially when these bridges are designed a priori for ductile behavior. To the contrary, the "buffer-gap-elastomeric bearings" system is more effective for the bridge schemes with short piers having a large difference between the stiffness of the bearings and that of their supporting (much stiffer) squat piers, particularly for designs with limited ductility. Such effectiveness is even amplified for the case of larger initial as-built gap sizes at piers.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.777-784
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• 2000

During past earthquakes several bridges have failed due to a loss of support at their bearings, seats, and/or expansion joints. Most efforts to prevent this have been directed toward tying bridges together at their bearings and expansion joints. Longitudinal restrainers are installed to limit the relative displacement at joints and thus decrease the chance of a loss of support as these locations. Transverse restrainers are necessary in many cases to keep the superstructure from sliding off in the transverse direction. Vertical restrainers are used at bearings to prevent uplifting deck, but usually not economically justified unless additional bearing retrofit is being performed. To obtain this three function of restrainer, a universal restrainer is developed. The load capacities were evaluated in static and dynamic experimental test. The test results show that the measured capacity or strength of the bridge deck restrainer is similar to that of design value.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.969-999
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• 2014

Aim of the paper is the definition of optimal design parameters characterizing the isolation system of a bridge, both in the case of elastomeric (VI) and sliding bearings (SI), having viscoelastic or rigid-plastic behavior, respectively, installed between the piers and the deck. The problem is treated by means of an analytical approach. Using the frequency response analysis, a simple procedure is proposed to determine the optimal value of the viscous coefficient or the yield displacement of the isolators. The adequacy of the proposed procedure is finally verified through time-history analyses performed on a practical case under natural earthquakes.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.39-46
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• 2023

In this study, the dynamic behavior of friction bearings of PSC (Pre-Stressed Concrete) box train continuous bridge was numerically analyzed at 10 km/h intervals up to 600 km/h according to the increasing speed of the next-generation high-speed train. A frame model was generated targeting the 40-meter single-span and two-span continuous PSC box bridges in the Gyeongbu High-Speed Railway section. The interaction forces including the inertial mass vehicle model with 38 degrees of freedom and the irregularities of the bridge and track were considered. It was calculated the longitudinal displacement, cumulative sliding distance and displacement speed of the bridge bearings at each running speed so that compared with the dynamic behavior trend analysis of the bridge. In addition, long-term friction test standards were applied to evaluate the durability of friction plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.241-257
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• 2003

The first seismically isolated structure in Taiwan was completed in early 1999. Seven new bridges of the Second National Freeway located at Bai-Ho area, a region which is considered to be of high seismic risk, have been designed and constructed with lead-rubber seismic isolation bearings. Since this is the first application of seismic isolation method to the practical construction in Taiwan, field tests were conducted for one of the seven bridges to evaluate the assumptions and uncertainties in the design and construction. The test program is composed of ambient vibration tests, forced vibration tests, and free vibration tests. For the free vibration tests, a special test setup composed of four 1000 kN hydraulic jacks and a quick-release mechanism was designed to perform the function of push-and-quick release. Valuable results have been obtained based on the correlation between measured and analytical data so that the analytical model can be calibrated. Based on the analytical correlation, it is concluded that the dynamic characteristics and free vibration behavior of the isolated bridge can be well captured when the nonlinear properties of the bearings are properly considered in the modeling.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.585-599
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• 2023

Field monitoring techniques offer an attractive approach for understanding bridge behavior under in-service loads. However, the investigations on bridge behavior under high-speed train load using field monitoring data are limited. The focus of this study is to explore the structural behavior of an in-service long-span steel truss arch bridge based on field monitoring data. First, the natural frequencies of the structure, as well as the train driving frequencies, are extracted. Then, the train-induced bearing displacement and structural strain are explored to identify the effects of train loads and bearings. Subsequently, a sensitivity analysis is performed for the impact factor of strain responses with respect to the train speed, train weight, and temperature to identify the fundamental issues affecting these responses. Additionally, a similar sensitivity analysis is conducted for the peak acceleration. The results indicate that the friction force in bearings provides residual deformations when two consecutive trains are in opposite directions. In addition, the impact factor and peak acceleration are primarily affected by train speed, particularly near train speeds that result in the resonance of the bridge response. The results can provide additional insight into the behavior of the long-span steel truss bridges under in-service high-speed train loads.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.299-307
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• 2017

High Damping Rubber bearings (HDR bearings) have been used in the seismic design of bridge structures widely in China. In earthquakes, structural natural periods will be extended, seismic energy will be dissipated by this kind of bearing. Previously, cyclic loading method was used mainly for test studies on mechanical properties of HDR bearings, which cannot simulate real seismic responses. In this paper, Real-Time Substructure (RTS) test study on mechanical properties of HDR bearings was conducted and it was found that the loading rate effect was not negligible. Then the influence of peak acceleration of ground motion was studied. At last test results were compared with a numerical simulation in the OpenSees software framework with the Kikuchi model. It is found that the Kikuchi model can simulate real mechanical properties of HDR bearings in earthquakes accurately.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 1998

Experimental work undertaken to investigate the behaviour of lead-rubber bearings under compression and a combination of compression and shear or rotation has been reported on elsewhere. However, it is difficult to determine the state of stress within the bearings in terms of the applied forces and the interaction between the lead plug and the steel shims and elastomeric layers. In order to supply some of the missing information about the stress-strain state within the bearings, an analytical study using the finite element method was carried out. The available experimental results were used to validate the model and although agreement was not as good as expected (on account of difficulties in modelling the lead plug), the analyses did provide some information about the state of the stress within the bearing.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2018

Taking three types of bridge bearings with diameter being 100 mm as examples, the theoretical analysis, the experimental research as well as the numerical simulation of these bearings is conducted. Since the normal compression and shear machines cannot be applied to the small-size bearings, an improved equipment to test the properties of these bearings is proposed and fabricated. Besides, the simulation of the bearings is conducted based on the explicit finite element software ANSYS/LS-DYNA, and some parameters of the bearings are modified in the finite element model to reduce the computation cost effectively. Results show that all the research methods are capable of revealing the fundamental properties of the small-size bearings, and a combined use of these methods can better catch both the integral properties and the inner detailed mechanical behaviors of the bearings.