• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.1261-1278
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• 2015

Due to their low intrinsic damping, stay cables in cable-stayed bridges have often exhibited unanticipated and excessive vibrations which result in increasing maintenance frequency and disruption to normal operations of the entire bridges. Mitigation of undesired cable vibration can be achieved by attaching an external damping device near the anchorage. High Damping Rubber (HDR) dampers have many advantages such as compact size, better aesthetics, easy maintenance, temperature stability, and cost benefits; therefore, they have been widely used to increase cable damping. Although a single damper has been shown to reduce cable vibrations, it is not the most effective method due to geometric constraints. This paper proposes the use of two HDR dampers to improve effectiveness and robustness in suppressing cable vibration. Oscillation parameters of the cable-dampers system were investigated in detail by modeling the stay cable as a taut string and each HDR damper as complex-valued impedance and by using an analytical formulation of the complex eigenvalue problem. The problem of two HDR dampers arbitrarily located along a cable is solved and the solution is discussed. Asymptotic formulas to calculate the damping ratios of the cable with two HDR dampers installed near the anchorage(s) are proposed and compared with the exact solutions. Further, a design example is presented in order to justify the methodology. The results of this study show that when the two HDR dampers are installed close to each other on the same end of the cable, some interaction between the dampers leads to reduced damping ratio. When the dampers are on the opposite ends of the cable, they are effective in increasing damping ratio and can provide better vibration reduction to multiple modes.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.177-184
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• 2021

In recent years, large-scale earthquake activity has occurred in Korea, and thus public interest in earthquakes is increasing. Accordingly, the importance of seismic performance management of structures is emerging. In particular, the collapse of a bridge, one of main road facilities, directly leads to many casualties. Therefore, engineers need to evaluate the seismic fragility of the bridge and prepare for the earthquake event. The service life of these bridges has been over 30 years, which requires a study on the aging effect on bridges. In this study, seismic analysis of the target RC slab bridge was performed considering the aging effects of each component of the bridge. Components of the bridge included pier and bearing, which dominate the seismic response of the bridge. The seismic performance of the bridge was evaluated using nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. In addition, the limit state and dynamic response of each component were used to evaluate the seismic fragility according to the aging of each component.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.531-543
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• 2023

The existing concrete bridges are time-varying working systems, where the maintenance strategy should be planned according to the time-varying performance of the bridge. This work proposes a time-dependent residual capacity assessment procedure, which considers the non-stationary bridge load effects under growing traffic and non-stationary structural deterioration owing to material degradations. Lifetime bridge load effects under traffic growth are predicated by the non-stationary peaks-over-threshold (POT) method using time-dependent generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) models. The non-stationary structural resistance owing to material degradation is modeled by incorporating the Gamma deterioration process and field inspection data. A three-span continuous box-girder bridge is illustrated as an example to demonstrate the application of the proposed procedure, and the time-varying reliability indexes of the bridge girder are calculated. The accuracy of the proposed non-stationary POT method is verified through numerical examples, where the shape parameter of the time-varying GPD model is constant but the threshold and scale parameters are polynomial functions increasing with time. The case study illustrates that the residual flexural capacities show a degradation trend from a slow decrease to an accelerated decrease under traffic growth and material degradation. The reliability index for the mid-span cross-section reduces from 4.91 to 4.55 after being in service for 100 years, and the value is from 4.96 to 4.75 for the mid-support cross-section. The studied bridge shows no safety risk under traffic growth and structural deterioration owing to its high design safety reserve. However, applying the proposed numerical approach to analyze the degradation of residual bearing capacity for bridge structures with low safety reserves is of great significance for management and maintenance.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.58-66
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• 2023

In this study, cable tension was measured using the vibration method, and a vision-based system was applied as a sensor to measure the displacement response of a cable in a non-contact method. In the vision-based system, the camera is installed in a location that considers the target structure and the field of view of the camera. However, it can be difficult to recognize the control points required to measure the displacement response of a structure as the target structure and other structures such as vehicles may be included in the image at the intended installation location. In this study, a distorted image including a vehicle shows inaccurate results in image analysis due to the installation position of the vision-based system. Accordingly, the image including the vehicle was eliminated by calculating the similarity between the two images. To verify the validity of the method of estimating the cable tension of cable-stayed bridges using the proposed method, the vibration method was applied to cable-stayed bridges in service to measure the tension.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.77-93
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• 2015

The idea of using measured dynamic characteristics for damage detection is attractive because it allows for a global evaluation of the structural health and condition. However, vibration-based damage detection for complex structures such as long-span cable-supported bridges still remains a challenge. As a suspension or cable-stayed bridge involves in general thousands of structural components, the conventional damage detection methods based on model updating and/or parameter identification might result in ill-conditioning and non-uniqueness in the solution of inverse problems. Alternatively, methods that utilize, to the utmost extent, information from forward problems and avoid direct solution to inverse problems would be more suitable for vibration-based damage detection of long-span cable-supported bridges. The auto-associative neural network (ANN) technique and the probabilistic neural network (PNN) technique, that both eschew inverse problems, have been proposed for identifying and locating damage in suspension and cable-stayed bridges. Without the help of a structural model, ANNs with appropriate configuration can be trained using only the measured modal frequencies from healthy structure under varying environmental conditions, and a new set of modal frequency data acquired from an unknown state of the structure is then fed into the trained ANNs for damage presence identification. With the help of a structural model, PNNs can be configured using the relative changes of modal frequencies before and after damage by assuming damage at different locations, and then the measured modal frequencies from the structure can be presented to locate the damage. However, such formulated ANNs and PNNs may still be incompetent to identify damage occurring at the deck members of a cable-supported bridge because of very low modal sensitivity to the damage. The present study endeavors to enhance the damage identification capability of ANNs and PNNs when being applied for identification of damage incurred at deck members. Effort is first made to construct combined modal parameters which are synthesized from measured modal frequencies and modal shape components to train ANNs for damage alarming. With the purpose of improving identification accuracy, effort is then made to configure PNNs for damage localization by adapting the smoothing parameter in the Bayesian classifier to different values for different pattern classes. The performance of the ANNs with their input being modal frequencies and the combined modal parameters respectively and the PNNs with constant and adaptive smoothing parameters respectively is evaluated through simulation studies of identifying damage inflicted on different deck members of the double-deck suspension Tsing Ma Bridge.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.303-310
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• 2021

Cracks in bridges are important factors that indicate the condition of bridges and should be monitored periodically. However, a visual inspection conducted by a human expert has problems in cost, time, and reliability. Therefore, in recent years, researches to apply a deep learning model are started to be conducted. Deep learning requires sufficient data on the situations to be predicted, but bridge crack data is relatively difficult to obtain. In particular, it is difficult to collect a large amount of crack data in a specific situation because the shape of bridge cracks may vary depending on the bridge's design, location, and construction method. This study developed a crack detection model that generates and trains insufficient crack data through a Generative Adversarial Network. GAN successfully generated data statistically similar to the given crack data, and accordingly, crack detection was possible with about 3% higher accuracy when using the generated image than when the generated image was not used. This approach is expected to effectively improve the performance of the detection model as it is applied when crack detection on bridges is required, though there is not enough data, also when there is relatively little or much data f or one class.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.59-67
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• 2022

In this study, the monthly airborne chlorides flying into the offshore bridges were investigated depending on the sea level. The target structures were 9 bridges located on the western and southern coast of South Korea. The airborne chlorides were measured at different sea levels on each bridge every month during 1 year. The results showed that the strongest seasonal wind from the northwest in winter expecially have led increase of the airborne chlorides, and its effect was more significant in the western coast than the southern coast. It was also found that the airborne chlorides declined with the increase of sea level. Three types of curves were suggested for analyzing the decrease trend with the sea level, based on the airborne chlorides at the lowest measurement height of main tower. The trend was varied depending on the sea area, and even in the same sea area, the local topographic condition affected the airborne chlorides. It means that the location and local topography should be considered simultaneously for durability management in the framework of the chloride source, and then the influence of the chloride source should be classified, e.g. safe and dangerous. From these results, it is expected that it could be used as baseline data for the evaluation of the deterioration environment in the Detailed guidelines for safety and maintenance of facilities [Performance evaluation]_Bridge.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.751-762
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• 2022

Welded head studs are mainly used as shear connectors to bond steel girders and concrete slabs in steel-concrete composite bridges. For welded shear connectors, environmental problems include noise and scattering dust which are generated during the removal of damaged or aged slabs. Therefore, it is necessary to develop demountable shear connectors that can easily replace aged concrete slabs for efficient maintenance and thus for better management of environmental problems and life cycle costs. The buried nut method is commonly studied in relation to bolted shear connectors, but this method is not used in civil structures such as bridges due to low rigidity, low shear resistance, and increased initial slip. In this study, in order to mitigate these problems, a demountable bolted shear connector is proposed in which the buried nut is integrated into the stud column and has a tapered shape at the bottom of an enlarged column shank. To verify the performance of the proposed demountable stud bolts in terms of static shear strength and slip displacement, a horizontal shear test was conducted, with the performance outcomes compared to those of conventional welded studs. It was confirmed that the proposed demountable bolted shear connector is capable of excellent shear performance and that it satisfies the slip displacement and ductility design criteria, meaning that it is feasible as a replacement for existing welding studs.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.700-706
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• 2009

Bridges are vital components of any road network which demand crucial and timely decision-making for Maintenance, Repair and Rehabilitation (MR&R) activities. Bridge Management Systems (BMSs) as a decision support system (DSS), have been developed since the early 1990's to assist in the management of a large bridge network. Historical condition ratings obtained from biennial bridge inspections are major resources for predicting future bridge deteriorations via BMSs. Available historical condition ratings in most bridge agencies, however, are very limited, and thus posing a major barrier for obtaining reliable future structural performances. To alleviate this problem, the verified Backward Prediction Model (BPM) technique has been developed to help generate missing historical condition ratings. This is achieved through establishing the correlation between known condition ratings and such non-bridge factors as climate and environmental conditions, traffic volumes and population growth. Such correlations can then be used to obtain the bridge condition ratings of the missing years. With the help of these generated datasets, the currently available bridge deterioration model can be utilized to more reliably forecast future bridge conditions. In this paper, the prediction accuracy based on 4 and 9 BPM-generated historical condition ratings as input data are compared, using deterministic and stochastic bridge deterioration models. The comparison outcomes indicate that the prediction error decreases as more historical condition ratings obtained. This implies that the BPM can be utilised to generate unavailable historical data, which is crucial for bridge deterioration models to achieve more accurate prediction results. Nevertheless, there are considerable limitations in the existing bridge deterioration models. Thus, further research is essential to improve the prediction accuracy of bridge deterioration models.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.106-114
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• 2012

As Incheon International Airport(IIA) is located in an island 50-km away from Seoul, various travel equipments for access are required. So far two connecting bridges are constructed funded by civilian funds. For the further bridge construction, the reduction of forecast traffic amount and the government subsidy for the civilian funds are big issues. Comparing the access traffics of IIA to those other competing airports, traffic conditions inside the airport are superior to other competing airports from the management point of view, as utilization conditions and equipment capacities are periodically monitored and evaluated to set up comprehensive countermeasures following constructing by stages. However, while the accessability to IIA is very important, as IIA is built on an island the conflicts between near-by developers and traffic facility operators make further bridge construction difficult. As improving the accessibility to an airport is not easy to achieve only by the IIA management's efforts, the central government level authorities should organize a committee with agencies concerned and analyze the characteristics of access traffic periodically to suggest reform measures for each organization concerned to implement appropriate undertakings at apt timing. For the future, central government's level empirical research on the airport accessibility for synthetic and systematic plan set-up is expected.