• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.65-75
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• 2015

Among the destruction instances of half-through arch bridges, the shorter hangers are more likely to be ruined. For a thorough investigation of the hanger system durability, we have studied vehicle impact effect on hangers with vehicle-bridge coupling method for a half-through concrete-filled-steel-tube arch bridge. A numerical method has been applied to simulate the variation of dynamic internal force (stress) in hangers under different vehicle speeds and road surface roughness. The characteristics and differences in impact effect among hangers with different length (position) are compared. The impact effect is further analyzed comprehensively based on the vehicle speed distribution model. Our results show that the dynamic internal force induced by moving vehicles inside the shorter hangers is significantly greater than that inside the longer ones. The largest difference of dynamic internal force among the hangers could be as high as 28%. Our results well explained a common phenomenon in several hanger damage accidents occurred in China. This work forms a basis for hanger system's fatigue analysis and service life evaluation. It also provides a reference to the design, management, maintenance, monitoring, and evaluation for this kind of bridge.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.5 s.45
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• pp.1-10
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• 2005

This study proposes a fatigue reliability evaluation procedure for steel-composite high-speed railway bridge based on dynamic analysis and investigates the effectiveness of Tuned Mass Damper(TMD) in terms of the extension of fatigue life of the bridge. For the fatigue reliability evaluation, the limit state is determined using S-N curve and linear fatigue-damage accumulation. Dynamic analyses are peformed repeatedly to consider the uncertainties of train-velocity and damping ratio of the bridge. The distribution of random variables related to fatigue damage for the intended service life is then statistically estimated from analytical results. Finally, the fatigue reliability indices are obtained by means of the Advanced First-Order Second-Moment (AFOSM) method. Through numerical simulation of a steel-composite bridge of 40m span, the effectiveness of TMD on fatigue life of the bridge is examined and the results are presented.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.249-271
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• 2014

This paper presents a unique study of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for the maintenance decision making about a real life movable bridge. The mechanical components of movable bridges are maintained on a scheduled basis. However, it is desired to have a condition-based maintenance by taking advantage of SHM. The main objective is to track the operation of a gearbox and a rack-pinion/open gear assembly, which are critical parts of bascule type movable bridges. Maintenance needs that may lead to major damage to these components needs to be identified and diagnosed timely since an early detection of faults may help avoid unexpected bridge closures or costly repairs. The fault prediction of the gearbox and rack-pinion/open gear is carried out using two types of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs): 1) Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Networks (MLP-NNs) and 2) Fuzzy Neural Networks (FNNs). Monitoring data is collected during regular opening and closing of the bridge as well as during artificially induced reversible damage conditions. Several statistical parameters are extracted from the time-domain vibration signals as characteristic features to be fed to the ANNs for constructing the MLP-NNs and FNNs independently. The required training and testing sets are obtained by processing the acceleration data for both damaged and undamaged condition of the aforementioned mechanical components. The performances of the developed ANNs are first evaluated using unseen test sets. Second, the selected networks are used for long-term condition evaluation of the rack-pinion/open gear of the movable bridge. It is shown that the vibration monitoring data with selected statistical parameters and particular network architectures give successful results to predict the undamaged and damaged condition of the bridge. It is also observed that the MLP-NNs performed better than the FNNs in the presented case. The successful results indicate that ANNs are promising tools for maintenance monitoring of movable bridge components and it is also shown that the ANN results can be employed in simple approach for day-to-day operation and maintenance of movable bridges.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.105-115
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• 2017

PURPOSES : The occurrence of unexpected disasters, including fire events, increases as the road network becomes complicated and traffic volume increases. When a fire event occurs on and under bridges, the damage extensively influences direct damage to structures, vehicles, and human life and secondary socioeconomic issues owing to traffic blockage. This study investigated potential fire-hazard risks on bridges of the Korean national route road. METHODS : The investigation was conducted using field investigation and analysis with satellite pictures and road views from commercial websites and the Bridge Management System (BMS). From the filed investigation, various potential fire resources were identified. The satellite pictures and road views were helpful in measuring and recognizing conditions underneath bridges, stowage areas, etc. RESULTS : There are various potential fire resources underneath bridges such as piled agricultural products, parked petroleum tanks, construction equipment, and attached high-voltage cables. A total of 94.6% of bridges have underneath clearances of less than 15 m. A bridge underneath volume that can stow a potential fire hazard resource was $7,332m^3$ on average, and most bridges have about $4,000m^3$ of space. Based on the BMS data, the amounts of PSC and steel girders were 29% and 25%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS : It was found that the amount of stowed potential fire hazard resources was proportional to the underneath space of bridges. Most bridges have less than 15 m of vertical clearance that can be considered as a critical value for a bridge fire. The fire risk investigation results should be helpful for developing bridge fire-protection tools.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.147-168
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• 2017

Over the past couple decades, externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have emerged as a repair and strengthening material for many concrete infrastructure applications. This paper presents an analytical investigation of the use of carbon FRP (CFRP) for a specific problem that occurs in concrete bridge girders wherein the girder ends are damaged by excessive exposure to deicing salts and numerous freezing/thawing cycles. A 3D finite element (FE) model of a full scale prestressed concrete (PC) I-girder is used to investigate the effect of damage to the cover concrete and stirrups in the end region of the girder. Parametric studies are performed using externally bonded CFRP shear laminates to determine the most effective repair schemes for the damaged end region under a short shear span-to-depth ratio. Experimental results on shear pull off tests of CFRP laminates that have undergone accelerated aging are used to calibrate a bond stress-slip model for the interface between the FRP and concrete substrate and approximate the reduced bond stress-slip properties associated with exposure to the environment that causes this type of end region damage. The results of these analyses indicate that this particular application of this material can be effective in recovering the original strength of PC bridge girders with damaged end regions, even after environmental aging.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.379-388
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• 2018

This study aims to identify the effect of both longitudinal reinforcement details and damage level on making a decision of repairing pre-damaged bridge columns using basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) jackets. Two RC bridge columns with improper details of the longitudinal and/or transverse reinforcement were tested under the effect of a constant axial load and increasing lateral cyclic loading. Test results showed that the lap-splice column exhibited an inferior performance where it showed rapid degradation of strength before achieving the theoretical strength and its deformation capacity was limited; however, quick restoration is possible through a suitable rehabilitation technique. On the other hand, expensive repair or even complete replacement could be the decision for the column with the confinement failure mode. After that, a rehabilitation technique using external BFRP jacket was adopted. Performance-based design details guaranteeing the enhancement in the inelastic performance of both damaged columns were addressed and defined. Test results of the repaired columns confirmed that both reparability and the required repairing time of damage structures are dependent on the reinforcement details at the plastic hinge zone. Furthermore, lap-splice of longitudinal reinforcement could be applied as a key design-tool controlling reparability and restorability of RC structures after massive actions.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.319-325
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• 2003

The fragility curves of seismic retrofitted bridges by steel jacketing of bridge columns and restrainers at expansion joints after the 1994 Northridge earthquake are developed. Fragility curves are represented by lognormal distribution functions with two parameters(fragility parameters consisting of median and log-standard deviation) and developed as a function of peak ground acceleration (PGA). Two parameters in the lognormal distribution are estimated by the maximum likelihood method. The sixty ground acceleration time histories for Los Angeles area developed for FEMA SAC project are used for the dynamic analysis of the bridges and a computer code is developed to calculate hysterestic parameters of bridge columns before and after steel jacketing. The effect of retrofit is expressed in terms of the increase of the median value of the fragility curve for the retrofitted bridge from that of the bridge before retrofit. The comparison of fragility curves of the bridges before and after column retrofit demonstrates that the improvement of the bridges with steel jacketing on the seismic performance is excellent for the damage states defined in this study. The comparison of fragility curves of the bridges before and after restrainers at expansion joints also shows the improvement in the seismic performance of restrained bridges for the severe damage states.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1992.10a
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• pp.240-244
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• 1992

The values of a linguistic variable are words, phrases, or sentences in a given language. For example, structural damage can be considered as linguistic variable with values such a 'severely damaged', 'moderately damaged', which are meaningful classifications but not clearly defined, This paper is to evaluate reasonably the correction factor of bridge capacity with the aid of fuzzy sets theory. By using the above mentioned fuzzy measure, the concept of fuzzy integral and linear membership function can be defined. It is concluded that the fuzzy sets theory cam be applied to determine reasonably the correction factor of bridge capacity.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.627-630
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• 1999

In this study, the usefulness of Radar method by means of assessing deck data-layer properties-was tested on the highway bridge. The obtained GPR data were compared with values measured from drilled cores and damage mapping by the visual survey. It is shown that GPR can provide the highly accurate measurements of layer properties of concrete decks and can map areas of deterioration in bridge by dielectric constants.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.871-876
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• 2001

Recent earthquakes in California and Japan caused extensive damage to highway bridge structures. It is also thought that during probable earthquakes bridge structures in Korea could be failed due to the structural deficiencies, which were nonseismically designed and constructed before 1992. In these regards, innovative strengthening methods have been developed to repair reinforced concrete bridge columns, especially by glassfiber sheet bonding methods which are widely used today. The primary objective of this research is to investigate the seismic behavior of RC bridge columns retrofitted with composite straps and to propose pertinent guidelines of repair and rehabilitation method for earthquake resistant design procedure of RC bridges which are located in low or moderate seismicity regions. Six scaled-down concrete test specimens were made with test variables such as lap splice ratio, axial force ratio, confinement ratio, composite straps in the plastic hinge region. Pertinent design guidelines could be developed for the earthquake resistant design of RC bridge piers retrofitted with glassfibers in low or moderate seismic region.