• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.9 no.1 s.30
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• pp.51-63
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• 1997

Highly curved steel-box bridges are usually constructed as ramp structures for the highway interchange and metropolitan elevated highway junction, but a number of these bridges are deteriorated and damaged to a significant degree due to heavy traffic. The main objective of the study is to develop a practical reliability-based assessment of safety and residual load carrying-capacity of existing curved steel-box ramp bridges. In the paper, for the realistic assessment of safety and residual load carrying-capacity of deteriorated and/or damaged curved steel-box bridges, an interactive non-linear limit state model is formulated based on the von Mises's combined stress yield criterion. It is demonstrated that the proposed model is effective for the assessment of reliability-based safety and the evaluation of residual load carrying-capacity of curved steel-box bridges. In addition, this study comparatively shows the applicability of various reliability analysis methods, and suggests a practical and effective one to be used in practice.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2019

The use of non-linear analysis of structures in a functional way for evaluating the structural seismic behavior has attracted the attention of the engineering community in recent years. The most commonly used functional method for analysis is a non-linear static method known as the "pushover method". In this study, for the first time, a cyclic pushover analysis with different loading protocols was used for seismic investigation of curved bridges. The finite element model of 8-span curved bridges in plan created by the ZEUS-NL software was used for evaluating different pushover methods. In order to identify the optimal loading protocol for use in astatic non-linear cyclic analysis of curved bridges, four loading protocols (suggested by valid references) were used. Along with cyclic analysis, conventional analysis as well as adaptive pushover analysis, with proven capabilities in seismic evaluation of buildings and bridges, have been studied. The non-linear incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method has been used to examine and compare the results of pushover analyses. To conduct IDA, the time history of 20 far-field earthquake records was used and the 50% fractile values of the demand given the ground motion intensity were computed. After analysis, the base shear vs displacement at the top of the piers were drawn. Obtained graphs represented the ability of a cyclic pushover analysis to estimate seismic capacity of the concrete piers of curved bridges. Based on results, the cyclic pushover method with ISO loading protocol provided better results for evaluating the seismic investigation of concrete piers of curved bridges in plan.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2004

The horizontally curved bridges have been used to connect bridges and roads. Until 1960s, they had been constructed with straight girders, called 'kinked girder bridges', which requires much cost and time-consuming construction of substructure. In case of using curved girders, practiced later, they would have many advantages such as reduction in the total construction cost and time, and ability to make aesthetic bridges. In designing plate girder bridges, it is necessary to determine the spacings between vertical stiffeners and the allowable shear stresses based on shear buckling capacity because it plays a key role in preventing the premature local shear buckling. Compared with the straight web, the critical shear buckling stresses of curved web panels vary with both aspect ratio and curvature coefficient. For designing curved web panels, a simplified formula and shear buckling coefficients were proposed by parametric models with F.E.M in this study.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.185-191
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• 2002

In this study a 3-dimensional analytical model is developed, which can analyses dynamic responses of curved bridges subject to moving vehicles. A 5-axle semi-trailer is modeled to simulate the actual tire forces that are redistributed by vehicle rolling effect due to the centrifugal force. The 1-span curved bridge with two steel box girders is modeled using the frame elements. The dynamic response characteristics of curved box girder bridges are examined and compared for two different support conditions. One is the case that two shoes are arranged at the outer sides of box girders with larger space between the two shoes and the other is that two shoes at the center of each box girder. In the curved bridges, the dynamic effect of moving vehicles influences the reaction force much more than other responses, such as displacement or stress, especially the upward reaction of inner-radius shoes. It is more advantageous for the reaction considering dynamic effect when shoes are arranged further at the outer sides of box girders than when shoes at the center of each box. The shoes for curved bridges with two-box girder system should be arranged to have larger distance.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.498-501
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• 2006

R.C. Rahmen bridges have been widely constructed in the location of interchange or narrow road crossing. In addition, skewed or curved rahmen bridges are mostly constructed in comparison with normal rahmen bridges for the purpose of maintaining the route of road or considering the beauty of bridge. However, due to the functional characteristics, rahmen bridges are sustained under the direct vehicle loads and the side directional earth pressure so that the stress concentration with respect to the geometrical eccentricity can be occurred if rahmen bridges are constructed in large amount of skew. In this investigation, the behavior of skewed rahmen bridges which is located in curved route has been analysed to investigate the additional effects on the change of stress concentration. As a result, it is judged that the stress of curved rahmen bridges is more concentrated than the stress of straight rahmen bridges in the region of obtuse angle. However, in the middle of slab, the curve does not affect on the stress concentration.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.793-802
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• 2002

This study presented a finite element formulation for the dynamic analysis of horizontally curved I-girder bridges. The stiffness and mass matrices of the curved and the straight beam elements are formulated. Each node of both elements has seven degrees of freedom, including the warping degree of freedom. The curved beam element is derived from Kang and Yoo's theory of thin-walled curved beams. The computer program EQCVB has been developed to perform dynamic analyses of various horizontally curved I-girder bridges. The Gupta method is used to solve the eigenvalue problem efficiently, while the Wilson-${\theta}$ method is used for the seismic analysis. The efficiency of EQCVB is demonstrated by comparing solution time with ABAQUS. Using EQCVB, the study is applied to investigate the dynamic behavior of horizontally curved I-girder bridges under seismic loading.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.55-61
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• 1996

In the present study, a numerical formulation procedure fer free vibration analysis of thin-walled horizontally curved multi-girder bridges is presented. The presented finite element procedure consists of curved and straight beam elements including warping degree of freedom. The homogeneous solutions of curved beam equations were used for shape functions in numerical formulation to achieve good convergence. In the straight beam element, the third order hermite polynomials were used fer shape functions. The Gupta method was used to solve the eigenvalue problem efficiently. The developed numerical procedure was applied to investigate the characteristics of free vibration of horizontally curved multi-girder bridges with varing subtended angle.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1A
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• pp.105-113
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• 2008

Solar radiation induces non-uniform temperature distribution in the bridge structure depending on the shape of the structure and shadows cast on it. Especially in the case of curved steel box girder bridges, non-uniform temperature distribution caused by solar radiation may lead to unusual load effects enough to damage the support or even topple the whole curved bridge structure if not designed properly. At present, it is very difficult to design bridges in relation to solar radiation because it is not known exactly how varying temperature distribution affects bridges; at least not specific enough for adoption in design. Standard regulations related to this matter are likewise not complete. In this study, the thermal behavior of curved steel box girder bridges is analyzed while taking the solar radiation effect into consideration. For the analysis, a method of predicting the 3-dimensional temperature distribution of curved bridges was developed. It uses a theoretical solar radiation energy equation together with a commercial FEM program. The behavior of the curved steel box girder bridges was examined using the developed method, while taking into consideration the diverse range of bridge azimuth angles and radii. This study also provides reference data for the thermal design of curved steel box girder bridges under solar radiation, which can be used to develop design guidelines.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.297-315
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• 2010

This paper is concerned with free vibration characteristics and natural frequency of horizontally curved composite plate girder bridges. Three-dimensional finite element models are developed for the girders using the software package LUSAS and analyses carried out on the models. The validity of the finite element models is first established through comparison with the corresponding results published by other researchers. Studies are then carried out to investigate the effects of total number of girders, number of cross-frames and curvature on the free vibration response of horizontally curved composite plate girder bridges. The results confirm the fact that bending modes are always coupled with torsional modes for horizontally curved bridge girder systems. The results show that the first bending mode is influenced by composite action between the concrete deck and steel beam at low subtended angle but, on the girders with larger subtended angle at the centre of curvature such influence is non-existence. The increase in the number of girders results in higher natural frequency but at a decreasing rate. The in-plane modes viz. longitudinal and arching modes are significantly influenced by composite action and number of girders. If no composite action is taken into account the number of girders has no significant effect for the in-plane modes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1153-1179
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• 2015

This paper focuses on presenting modeling considerations and insight into the performance of typical straight, curved, and skewed box-girder bridges in California which form the bulk of the bridge inventory in the state. Three case study bridges are chosen: Meloland Road Overpass, Northwest Connector of Interstate 10/215 Interchange, and Painter Street Overpass, having straight, curved, and skewed superstructures, respectively. The efficacy of nonlinear dynamic analysis is established by comparing the response from analytical models to the recorded strong motion data. Finally insights are provided on the component behavioral characteristics and shift in vulnerability for each of the bridge types considered.