• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.997-1018
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• 2015

Structural health monitoring along with damage detection and assessment of its severity level in non-accessible reinforced concrete members using piezoelectric materials becomes essential since engineers often face the problem of detecting hidden damage. In this study, the potential of the detection of flexural damage state in the lower part of the mid-span area of a simply supported reinforced concrete beam using piezoelectric sensors is analytically investigated. Two common severity levels of flexural damage are examined: (i) cracking of concrete that extends from the external lower fiber of concrete up to the steel reinforcement and (ii) yielding of reinforcing bars that occurs for higher levels of bending moment and after the flexural cracking. The purpose of this investigation is to apply finite element modeling using admittance based signature data to analyze its accuracy and to check the potential use of this technique to monitor structural damage in real-time. It has been indicated that damage detection capability greatly depends on the frequency selection rather than on the level of the harmonic excitation loading. This way, the excitation loading sequence can have a level low enough that the technique may be considered as applicable and effective for real structures. Further, it is concluded that the closest applied piezoelectric sensor to the flexural damage demonstrates higher overall sensitivity to structural damage in the entire frequency band for both damage states with respect to the other used sensors. However, the observed sensitivity of the other sensors becomes comparatively high in the peak values of the root mean square deviation index.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.36-43
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• 2023

In this study, a four-point bending test was conducted to assess and detect the damage to reinforced concrete structures using the acoustic emission (AE) technique. Based on the crack investigation results, flexural failure was classified into four stages and compared with the characteristic analysis results of AE parameters. The parametric characterization indicated that the activity of the primary AE signal was high in the early stage, and that of the second signal increased after the flexural cracks stabilized. Because the secondary AE signal included noise generated by friction, parameter-based analysis for damage assessment was performed using the primary signal; the secondary signal was used as complement. The activity analyses of the primary and secondary signals effectively classified crack propagation; however, determining the macrocracks and yielding of reinforcing bars had certain limitations. Nevertheless, applying the damage index with cumulative AE energy is a complementary technique for detecting and assessing structure damage that well detects the occurrence of macrocracks.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 2002

Concrete containing discontinuous discrete steel fiber in a normal concrete is called steel fiber reinforced concrete(SFRC). Tensile as well as flexural strengths of concrete could be substantially increased by introducing closely spaced fibers which delay the onset of tension cracks and increase the tension strength of cracks. However, many properties of SFRC have not been investigated, especially properties on repeated loadings. Thus, the purposes of this dissertation is to study the flexural fatigue characteristics of SFRC considering cumulative damage. A series of experimental tests such as compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, flexural fatigue, and two steps stress level fatigue were conducted to clarify the basic properties and fatigue-related properties of SFRC. The main experimental variables were steel fiber fraction (0, 0.4, 0.7, 1, 1.5%), aspect ratio (60, 83). The principal results obtained through this study are as follows: The results of flexural fatigue tests showed that the flexural fatigue life of SFRC is approxmately 65% of ultimate strength, while that of plain is less than 58%. Especially, the behavior of flexural fatigue life shows excellent performance at 1.0% of steel-fiber volume fraction. The cumulative damage test of high-low two stress levels is within the value of 0.6 ∼ 1.1, while that of low-high stress steps is within the value of 2.4 ∼ 4.0.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1A
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• pp.135-146
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• 2008

In this paper, a hybrid damage monitoring scheme for prestressed concrete (PSC) girder bridges by using sequential acceleration and impedance signatures is newly proposed. Damage types of interest include prestress-loss in tendon and flexural stiffness-loss in a concrete girder. The hybrid scheme mainly consists of three sequential phases: damage alarming, damage classification, and damage estimation. In the first phase, the global occurrence of damage is alarmed by monitoring changes in acceleration features. In the second phase, the type of damage is classified into either prestress-loss or flexural stiffness-loss by recognizing patterns of impedance features. In the third phase, the location and the extent of damage are estimated by using two different ways: a mode shape-based damage detection to detect flexural stiffness-loss and a natural frequency-based prestress prediction to identify prestress-loss. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is evaluated on a laboratory-scaled PSC girder model for which hybrid vibration-impedance signatures were measured for several damage scenarios of prestress-loss and flexural stiffness-loss.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.75-83
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to improve the previous damage evaluation model for RC members which is proposed by Igarashi[1] in 2010.The previous model was not confirmed by enough data of damage such as, residual crack length, width and area for exfoliation of concrete, etc. In addition, validation of the model is still insufficient. Therefore, experiment of a real-scale RC structure and experiment of RC columns using the high-strength concrete were conducted to gather the data of damage in RC members. The investigation has been conducted gathering the data not only additional experiments data but also existing data for modification of damage evaluation model. It has been investigated on changing damage in RC due to axial force ratio, shear reinforcement and shear span ratio. As a result, several problems were founded in the previous model, such as, hinge length($l_p$), spacing of flexural crack($S_{av,f}$), total width of flexural cracks regulated by maximum width of flexural crack($n_f$) and total width of shear cracks regulated by maximum width of shear crack($n_s$). New model is proposed and evaluated the damage properly.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.799-813
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• 2012

Five two-span reinforced concrete (RC) slabs and seven two-span RC beams were tested under the ISO 834 standard fire with different durations. CFRP strengthening was then applied to some of the specimens after the damaged concrete was removed from the specimens and replaced with polymer mortar. All the specimens were loaded to failure to investigate the influence of fire-damage and the effectiveness of strengthening methods. Test results indicated that the flexural capacities of specimens decrease with the fire duration increases. Moreover, fire exposure had more significant effect on the flexural rigidity than on the bearing capacity of the specimens. After rehabilitation, the bearing capacities of specimens reached or even exceeded that of the reference RC specimen, and the strengthening methods seemed to have limited effect on flexural rigidity recovery. From the analysis of moment redistribution of tested beams, elevated temperature is found having different impacts on sagging moment region and hogging moment region. The damage of RC continuous member is definitely a comprehensive response of different regions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.353-369
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• 2020

Eight cold-formed thin-walled steel beams were performed to investigate the effect of corrosion damage on the flexural behavior of steel beams. The relationships between failure modes or load-displacement curves and corrosion degree of steel beams were investigated. A series of parametric analysis with more than forty finite element models were also performed with different corrosion degrees, types and locations. The results showed that the reduction of cross-section thickness as well as corrosion pits on the surface would lead to a decline in the stiffness and flexural capacity of steel beams, and gradually intensified with the corrosion degree. The yield load, ultimate load and critical buckling load of the corroded specimen IV-B46-4 decreased by 22.2%, 26% and 45%, respectively. The failure modes of steel beams changed from strength failure to stability failure or brittle fracture with the corrosion degree increasing. In addition, thickness damage and corrosion pits at different locations caused the degradation of flexural capacity, the worst of which was the thickness damage of compression zone. Finally, the method for calculating flexural capacity of corroded cold-formed thin-walled steel beams was also proposed based on experimental investigation and numerical analysis results.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.60-63
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• 2004

The paper deals with the damage assessment of the concrete beam using static displacements and the flexural stiffness reduction of the beam was evaluated. Simply supported concrete beams were loaded at the mid-span, and the applied load level ranged $20\%,\;40\%,\;80\%$ of the flexural strength of the beam. When the displacements from the tests were increased more than $10\%$ of the initial values, flexural cracks occured. Judging from the observed cracks, damaged area of the beams were assumed and the stiffness reduction using the smeared-cracking concept was estimated to minimize the error between the test results and analytical results. Four stages of the behavior of a RC beam, which are uncracked, initial cracking, stabilized cracking and post-yielding, can be considered to assess the damage of RC beams. Main parameters for the assessment were cracking area and the stiffness reduction ratio. In each stage, damaged elements and their stiffness reduction were estimated to minimized the error.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.255-265
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• 2022

In order to determine fragility curves, the limit state of piers for each damage level is suggested in this paper based on the previous test results in Korea, including our test results. In previous studies, the quantitative measures for damage levels of piers have been represented by curvature ductility, lateral drift ratio, or displacement ductility. These measures are transformed to lateral drift ratios of piers for consistency, and the transformed values are compared and verified with our push-over test results for flexural RC piers with a circular cross-section. The test specimens are categorized concerning the number of lap-splices in the plastic hinge region and whether seismic design codes are satisfied or not. Based on the collected test results in Korea, including ours, the lateral drift ratio for each pier damage level is suggested.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.43-59
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• 2014

Many bridges are subject to lateral damage for their girders due to impact by over-height vehicles collision. In this study, the optimum configurations of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) laminates were investigated to repair the laterally damaged prestressed concrete (PS) bridge girders. Experimental and analytical investigations were conducted to study the flexural behavior of 13 half-scale AASHTO type II PS girders under both static and fatigue loading. Lateral impact damage due to vehicle collision was simulated by sawing through the concrete of the bottom flange and slicing through one of the prestressing strands. The damaged concrete was repaired and CFRP systems (longitudinal soffit laminates and evenly spaced transverse U-wraps) were applied to restore the original flexural capacity and mitigate debonding of soffit CFRP longitudinal laminates. In addition to the static load tests for ten girders, three more girders were tested under fatigue loading cycles to investigate the behavior under simulated traffic conditions. Measurements of the applied load, the deflection at five different locations, strains along the cross-section height at mid-span, and multiple strains longitudinally along the bottom soffit were recorded. The study investigated and recommended the proper CFRP repair design in terms of the CFRP longitudinal layers and U-wrapping spacing to obtain flexural capacity improvement and desired failure modes for the repaired girders. Test results showed that with proper detailing, CFRP systems can be designed to restore the lost flexural capacity, sustain the fatigue load cycles, and maintain the desired failure mode.