• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.203-223
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• 2014

The extensive use of prestressed reinforced concrete (PSC) highway bridges in marine environment drastically increases the sensitivity to both fatigue-and corrosion-induced damage of their critical structural components during their service lives. Within this scenario, an integrated method that is capable of evaluating the fatigue reliability, identifying a condition-based maintenance, and predicting the remaining service life of its critical components is therefore needed. To accomplish this goal, a procedure for fatigue reliability prediction of PSC highway bridges is proposed in the present study. Vehicle-bridge coupling vibration analysis is performed for obtaining the equivalent moment ranges of critical section of bridges under typical fatigue truck models. Three-dimensional nonlinear mathematical models of fatigue trucks are simplified as an eleven-degree-of-freedom system. Road surface roughness is simulated as zero-mean stationary Gaussian random processes using the trigonometric series method. The time-dependent stress-concentration factors of reinforcing bars and prestressing tendons are accounted for more accurate stress ranges determination. The limit state functions are constructed according to the Miner's linear damage rule, the time-dependent S-N curves of prestressing tendons and the site-specific stress cycle prediction. The effectiveness of the methodology framework is demonstrated to a T-type simple supported multi-girder bridge for fatigue reliability evaluation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.381-395
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• 2009

The paper presents a case study in which the structural condition assessment of the East Bay bridge in Gibsonton, Florida is evaluated with the help of remote health monitoring techniques. The bridge is a four-span, continuous, deck-type reinforced concrete structure supported on prestressed pile bents, and is instrumented with smart Fiber Optic Sensors. The sensors used for remote health monitoring are the newly emerged Fabry-Perot (FP), and are both surface-mounted and embedded in the deck. The sensing system can be accessed remotely through fast Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), which permits the evaluation of the bridge behavior under live traffic loads. The bridge was open to traffic since March 2005, and the collected structural data have been continuously analyzed since. The data revealed an increase in strain readings, which suggests a progression in damage. Recent visual observations also indicated the presence of longitudinal cracks along the bridge length. After the formation of these cracks, the sensors readings were analyzed and used to extrapolate the values of the maximum stresses at the crack location. The data obtained were also compared to initial design values of the bridge under factored gravity and live loads. The study showed that the proposed structural health monitoring technique proved to provide an efficient mean for condition assessment of bridge structures providing it is implemented and analyzed with care.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.151-161
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• 1998

In this study, an attempt is made to apply the concept of fuzzy-bayesian theory to the integrity assessment of RC highway bridge, and uncertainty states are represented in terms of fuzzy sets which define several linguistic variables such as "very good", "good", "average", "poor", "very poor", etc. Especially, the concept of fuzzy conditional probability aids to derive a new reliability analysis which includes the subjective assessment of engineers without introducing any additional correction factors. The fuzzy concept are also used as reliability indexes for the condition assessment based on the proposed models, the proposed fuzzy theory-based approach with the results of visual inspection and extensive field load tests are applied to the integrity assessment of a new RC highway bridge, namely, Jichok bridge.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.60-69
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• 2018

This study aims to investigate in the assessment of salt damage conditions in concrete structures under marine environment conditions. It aims also to improve the durability of new concrete bridge through applying the life prediction method of salt damaged bridges. As measuring chloride contents of these bridges on the southwest coastal area, it is shown that the average amount of chloride on these surfaces close to shore is $10.5kg/m^3$. This figure is much higher than that of the Standard Specification for Concrete($1.5kg/m^3{\sim}2.5kg/m^3$). In contrast, it is shown the average amount of chloride on these surfaces in tide zone is $13.1kg/m^3$. Its figure is much lower than that of the Standard Specification for Concrete($20kg/m^3$). And the life of bridges is estimated about 17 years. To improve the durability for salt damage, these bridges are applied to surface treatment method which the replacement rate of furnace slag is 60%. Under this condition, it is expected to be 110 years. Consequently, it is clear that the use of slag replacement rate, surface treatment agent, and anti-corrosion agent to control chloride penetration effects of a submerge-based concrete bridge will be required.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.357-369
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• 2014

In the existing bridge management systems, assessment of the structural behavior is based on the results of visual inspections in which corresponding condition states are assigned to individual elements. In this process, limited attention is given to the correlation between bridge elements from structural perspective. Also, the uncertainty of parameters which affect the structural capacity is ignored. A system reliability-based assessment model is potentially an appropriate replacement for the existing procedures. The aim of this research is to evaluate the system reliability of existing conventional Steel-Reinforced bridge decks over time. The developed method utilizes the reliability theory and evaluates the structural safety for such bridges based on their failure mechanisms. System reliability analysis has been applied to simply-supported concrete bridge superstructures designed according to the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC-S6) and the deterioration pattern is achieved based on the reliability estimates. Finally, the bridge condition index of an old existing bridge in Montreal has been estimated using the developed deterioration pattern. The results obtained from the developed reliability-based deterioration model and from the evaluation done by bridge engineers have been found to be in accordance.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.185-193
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• 2004

Reasonable prediction of bridge deterioration is the most important factor in the determination of repair time or optimized maintenance policy for bridges. To accomplish these purposes, the proposed method is composed of quantitative condition assessment, Markov chains and Bayesian estimates. Example predictions of concrete slab bridges in Korea were illustrated with higher reasonability than those of existing methods such as expert opinion and visual inspection only.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.147-155
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• 2011

The bridges where serious damages, defects, material degradations, etc. are not found can be presumed to have enough safety for the specified design loads, nevertheless, in many cases the loading carrying capacity is rated through loading tests. The safety specifications and manuals get no further than qualitative instructions for performing loading test or not. Some studies presented the improved appraisal methods for determining the load carrying capacity; however, the feasibility studies for loading test are scarcely carried out. This study examines an existing question, whether the loading tests are necessarily required in the safety assessment or not, and suggests an alternative for that via a statistical analysis for dozens of condition evaluation reports for concrete bridges.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.117-118
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• 2009

A systematic procedure is proposed that can be used to assess the span of PSC girder bridge for a given condition. The proposed scheme adopts a graphical approach that represents a relationship between the number of prestressing tendons and the span, and is derived on a basis of safety assessment equations of the girder in each stage of fabrication and in service.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.107-116
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• 2022

Recently, research has been actively conducted on the technology of inspection facilities through image-based analysis assessment of human-inaccessible facilities. This research was conducted to study the conditions of deep learning-based imaging data on bridges and to develop an evaluation prototype program for bridges. To develop a deep learning-based bridge damage detection prototype, the Semantic Segmentation model, which enables damage detection and quantification among deep learning models, applied Mask-RCNN and constructed learning data 5,140 (including open-data) and labeling suitable for damage types. As a result of performance modeling verification, precision and reproduction rate analysis of concrete cracks, stripping/slapping, rebar exposure and paint stripping showed that the precision was 95.2 %, and the recall was 93.8 %. A 2^nd performance verification was performed on onsite data of crack concrete using damage rate of bridge members.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.83-101
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• 2005

This paper summarizes the application of a rational methodology for the structural assessment of older reinforced concrete Tunisian bridges. This methodology is based on ambient vibration measurement of the bridge, identification of the structure's modal signature and finite element model updating. The selected case study is the Boujnah bridge of the Tunis-Msaken Highway. This bridge is made of a continuous four-span simply supported reinforced concrete slab without girders resting on elastomeric bearings at each support. Ambient vibration tests were conducted on the bridge using a data acquisition system with nine force-balance accelerometers placed at selected locations of the bridge. The Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition technique was applied to extract the dynamic characteristics of the bridge. The finite element model was updated in order to obtain a reasonable correlation between experimental and numerical modal properties. For the model updating part of the study, the parameters selected for the updating process include the concrete modulus of elasticity, the elastic bearing stiffness and the foundation spring stiffnesses. The primary objective of the paper is to demonstrate the use of the Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition technique combined with model updating to provide data that could be used to assess the structural condition of the selected bridge. The application of the proposed methodology led to a relatively faithful linear elastic model of the bridge in its present condition.