• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2007

The purpose of this paper is the assessment of the capacity of the reinforced concrete (RC) elements of an arch bridge when they are subjected to contact and near-contact explosive charges of various amounts, and the estimation of the critical charges for these components. The bridge considered is the Tenza Viaduct, a decommissioned structure south of Naples, Italy. Its primary elements, deck, piers and arches were analyzed. The evaluation was accomplished via numerical analyses that made possible to obtain the elements dynamic response when they are exposed to blast loading conditions. To evaluate the member's capacities, failure criteria for deck, piers and arches were proposed based on concrete damage parameters. Additionally, curves relating the explosive charge to the residual capacity and to damage level of the elements were also developed. The results of this work were taken into account to investigate the progressive collapse of the global structure.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.449-464
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• 2016

Catastrophe models appraise the natural risk of the built-infrastructure simulating the interaction of its exposure and vulnerability with a hazard. Because of unique configurations and reduced number, mid/high-rise buildings present singular challenges to the assessment of their damage vulnerability. This paper presents a novel approach to estimate the vulnerability of mid/high-rise buildings (MHB) which is used in the Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model, a catastrophe model developed for the state of Florida. The MHB vulnerability approach considers the wind pressure hazard exerted over the building's height as well as accompanying rain. The approach assesses separately the damages caused by wind, debris impact, and water intrusion on building models discretized into typical apartment units. Hurricane-induced water intrusion is predicted combining the estimates of impinging rain with breach and pre-existing building defect size estimates. Damage is aggregated apartment-by-apartment and story-by-story, and accounts for vertical water propagation. The approach enables the vulnerability modeling of regular and complex building geometries in the Florida exposure and elsewhere.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2024

This paper investigates the impact of local joint flexibility (LJF) on the fatigue life of jacket-type offshore platforms. Four sample platforms with varying geometric properties are modeled and analyzed using the Opensees software. The analysis considers the LJF of tubular joints through the equivalent element and flexible link approaches, and the results are compared to rigid modeling. Initially, modal analysis is conducted to examine the influence of LJF on the frequency content of the structure. Subsequently, fatigue analysis is performed to evaluate the fatigue life of the joints. The comparison of fatigue life reveals that incorporating LJF leads to reduced fatigue damage and a significant increase in the longevity of the joints in the studied platforms. Moreover, as the platform height increases, the effect of LJF on fatigue damage becomes more pronounced. In conclusion, considering LJF in fatigue analysis provides more accurate results compared to conventional methods. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate the effects of LJF in the analysis and design of offshore jacket platforms to ensure their structural integrity and longevity.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.336-350
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• 2013

This paper proposes a mathematical modeling-based approach for assessing disaster effects and selecting suitable mitigation alternatives to provide humanitarian relief (HR) supplies, shelter, rescue services, and long-term services after a disaster event. Mitigation steps, such as arrangement of shelter and providing HR items (food, water, medicine, etc.) are the immediate requirements after a disaster. Since governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) providing humanitarian aid need to know the requirements of relief supplies and resources for collecting relief supplies, organizing and initiating mitigation steps, a quick assessment of the requirements is the precondition for effective disaster management. Based on satellite images from weather forecasting channels, an area/dimension of the disaster-affected zones and the extent of the overall damage may often be obtained. The proposed approach then estimates the requirements for HR supplies, supporting resources, and rescue services using the census and other government data. It then determines reliable transportation routes, optimum collection and distribution centers, alternatives for resource support, rescue services, and long-term help needed for the disaster-affected zones. A numerical example illustrates the applicability of the model in disaster mitigation planning.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2933-2940
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• 2022

Approximations such as the delete-term approximation, rare event approximation, and minimal cutset upper bound (MCUB) need to be prudently applied for the quantification of a seismic probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) model. Important characteristics of seismic PSA models indicate that preserving the success branches in a primary seismic event tree is necessary. Based on the authors' experience in modeling and quantifying plant-level seismic PSA models, the effects of applying negate-down to the success branches in primary seismic event trees on the quantification results are summarized along with the following three insights gained: (1) there are two competing effects on the MCUB-based quantification results: one tending to increase and the other tending to decrease; (2) the binary decision diagram does not always provide exact quantification results; and (3) it is identified when the exact results will be obtained, and which combination provides more conservative results compared to the others. Complicated interactions occur in Boolean variable manipulation, approximation, and the quantification of a seismic PSA model. The insights presented herein can assist PSA analysts to better understand the important theoretical principles associated with the quantification of seismic PSA models.

• 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.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.117-126
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• 1996

Damage detection methods using structural tests can be divided into two methods, i.e., static and dynamic. The static methods which use the stiffness properties of the structure are simpler than the dynamic methods. However, static approaches are very sensitive to the displacement measurement noises and modeling errors. The dynamic methods also have limitations in acquiring the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the high frequencies. In this study, a method for the structural damage assessment using sensitivity matrices is developed, in which the drawbacks of the static and dynamic methods can be compensated. Based on the measurement data for the static displacements and dynamic modal properties, the damage locations and the degree of damage are determined using the presented sensitivity matrix method. The efficiency of the proposed method has been examined through numerical simulation studies on truss type structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.809-824
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• 2017

The accurate evaluation of wind characteristics and wind-induced structural responses during a typhoon is of significant importance for bridge design and safety assessment. This paper presents an expectation maximization (EM) algorithm-based angular-linear approach for probabilistic modeling of field-measured wind characteristics. The proposed method has been applied to model the wind speed and direction data during typhoons recorded by the structural health monitoring (SHM) system instrumented on the arch Jiubao Bridge located in Hangzhou, China. In the summer of 2015, three typhoons, i.e., Typhoon Chan-hom, Typhoon Soudelor and Typhoon Goni, made landfall in the east of China and then struck the Jiubao Bridge. By analyzing the wind monitoring data such as the wind speed and direction measured by three anemometers during typhoons, the wind characteristics during typhoons are derived, including the average wind speed and direction, turbulence intensity, gust factor, turbulence integral scale, and power spectral density (PSD). An EM algorithm-based angular-linear modeling approach is proposed for modeling the joint distribution of the wind speed and direction. For the marginal distribution of the wind speed, the finite mixture of two-parameter Weibull distribution is employed, and the finite mixture of von Mises distribution is used to represent the wind direction. The parameters of each distribution model are estimated by use of the EM algorithm, and the optimal model is determined by the values of $R^2$ statistic and the Akaike's information criterion (AIC). The results indicate that the stochastic properties of the wind field around the bridge site during typhoons are effectively characterized by the proposed EM algorithm-based angular-linear modeling approach. The formulated joint distribution of the wind speed and direction can serve as a solid foundation for the purpose of accurately evaluating the typhoon-induced fatigue damage of long-span bridges.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.573-589
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• 2015

In order to investigate the seismic behavior of highway bridges under near-fault earthquakes, a parametric study was conducted for different regular and irregular bridges. To this end, an existing regular viaduct Highway Bridge was used as a reference model and five irregular samples were generated by varying span length and pier height. The seismic response of the six highway bridges was evaluated by three dimensional non-linear response history analysis using an ensemble of far-fault and scenario-based near-fault records. In this regard, drift ratio, input and dissipated energy as well as damage index of bridges were compared under far- and near-fault motions. The results indicate that the drift ratio under near-fault motions, on the average, is 100% and 30% more than far-fault motions at DBE and MCE levels, respectively. The energy and damage index results demonstrate a dissipation of lower energy in piers and a significant increase of collapse risk, especially for irregular highway bridges, under near-fault ground motions.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2012

This study is to evaluate flood inundation and to recommend measures of damage reduction on sediment by concentrated torrential rainfall at Gonjiamcheon Watershed (183.4 $km^2$). Firstly, the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was simulated streamflow and sediment at upstream. Then, we produced a map of floodplain boundary by using HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis System) at downstream. The SWAT model was calibrated with 2 years (2008~2009) daily streamflow and validated for another years (2010~2011. 7. 31). The SWAT model was simulated with 3 years (2008~2010) by monthly water quality (Sediment) at Gonjiamcheon water quality station. The streamflow and sediment from SWAT model were input as boundary conditions to HEC-RAS. The results of HEC-RAS indicated that mapping of floodplain boundary was Jiwol and Jiwol 2 district. Additionally, inundation area and depth were assessed and applied BMPs scenario for managing the sediment yield.