• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.683-698
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• 2015

Railroad bridges form an integral part of railway infrastructure throughout the world. To accommodate increased axel loads, train speeds, and greater volumes of freight traffic, in the presence of changing structural conditions, the load carrying capacity and serviceability of existing bridges must be assessed. One way is through system identification of in-service railroad bridges. To dates, numerous researchers have reported system identification studies with a large portion of their applications being highway bridges. Moreover, most of those models are calibrated at global level, while only a few studies applications have used globally and locally calibrated model. To reach the global and local calibration, both ambient vibration tests and controlled tests need to be performed. Thus, an approach for system identification of a railroad bridge that can be used to assess the bridge in global and local sense is needed. This study presents system identification of a railroad bridge using free vibration data. Wireless smart sensors are employed and provided a portable way to collect data that is then used to determine bridge frequencies and mode shapes. Subsequently, a calibrated finite element model of the bridge provides global and local information of the bridge. The ability of the model to simulate local responses is validated by comparing predicted and measured strain in one of the diagonal members of the truss. This research demonstrates the potential of using measured field data to perform model calibration in a simple and practical manner that will lead to better understanding the state of railroad bridges.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제12권3_4호
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• pp.415-426
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• 2013

Condition assessment and monitoring of bridges is critical for safe passenger travel, public transportation, and efficient freight. In monitoring, displacement measurement capability is important to keep track of performance of bridge, in part or as whole. One of the most important parts of a bridge is the expansion joint, which accommodates continuous cyclic thermal expansion of the whole bridge. Though expansion joint is critical for bridge performance, its inspection and monitoring has not been considered significantly because the monitoring requires long-term data using cost intensive equipment. Recently, a wireless smart sensor network (WSSN) has drawn significant attention for transportation infrastructure monitoring because of its merits in low cost, easy installation, and versatile on-board computation capability. In this paper, a rapid wireless displacement monitoring system, wireless hybrid sensor (WHS), has been developed to monitor displacement of expansion joints of bridges. The WHS has been calibrated for both static and dynamic displacement measurement in laboratory environment, and deployed on an in-service highway bridge to demonstrate rapid expansion joint monitoring. The test-bed is a continuous steel girder bridge, the Founders Bridge, in East Hartford, Connecticut. Using the WHS system, the static and dynamic displacement of the expansion joint has been measured. The short-term displacement trend in terms of temperature is calculated. With the WHS system, approximately 6% of the time has been spent for installation, and 94% of time for the measurement showing strong potential of the developed system for rapid displacement monitoring.

• 한국소음진동공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소음진동공학회 2003년도 추계학술대회논문집
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• pp.21-32
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• 2003

Developments and applications of the structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have become active particularity for long-span bridges in Korea. They are composed of sensors, data acquisition system, data transmission system, information processing, damage assessment, and information management. In this paper, current status of research and application activities on SHM systems for civil infra-structures in Korea are briefly introduced by 4 parts: (1) current status of bridge monitoring systems on existing and newly constructed bridges, (2) research and development activities on smart sensors such as optical fiber sensors and piezo-electric sensors, (3) structural damage detection methods using measured data, and (4) a test road project for pavement design verification and enhancement by the Korea Highway Corporation. Finally the R＆D activities of a new engineering research center entitled Smart Infra-Structure Technology Center at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology are also briefly described.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제33권4호
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• pp.537-550
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• 2019

Korea and Japan have done a lot of research on composite girders with corrugated steel webs and built many bridges with corrugated steel webs due to the significant advantages of this type of bridges. Considering the demanding on the calculation method of such types of bridges and lack of relevant reinforcement design method, this paper proposes the spatial grid analysis theory and tensile stress region method. First, the accuracy and applicability of spatial grid model in analyzing composite girders with corrugated steel webs was validated by the comparison with models using shell and solid elements. Then, in a real engineering practice, the reinforcement designs from tensile stress region method based on spatial grid model, design empirical method and specification method are compared. The results show that the tensile stress region reinforcement design method can realize the inplane and out-of-plane reinforcement design in the top and bottom slabs in bridges with corrugated steel webs. The economy and precision of reinforcement design using the tensile stress region method is emphasized. Therefore, the tensile stress region reinforcement design method based on the spatial grid model can provide a new direction for the refined design of composite box girder with corrugated steel webs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제45권3호
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• pp.425-436
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• 2022

The mechanical behaviors of the prefabricated steel-concrete composite beams are usually affected by the strength and the number of shear studs. Furthermore, the discrete degree of the arrangement for shear stud clusters, being defined as the clustering degree of shear stud λ in this paper, is an important factor for the mechanical properties of composite beams, even if the shear connection degree is unchanged. This paper uses an experimental and calculation method to investigate the influence of λ on the mechanical behavior of the composite beam. Five specimens (with different λ but having the same shear connection degree) of prefabricated composite beams are designed to study the ultimate supporting capacity, deformation, slip and shearing stiffness of composite beams. Experimental results are compared with the conventional slip calculation method (based on the influence of λ) of prefabricated composite beams. The results showed that the stiffness in the elastoplastic stage is reduced when λ is greater than 0.333, while the supporting capacity of beams has little affected by the change in λ. The slip distribution along the beam length tends to be zig-zagged due to the clustering of studs, and the slip difference increases with the increase of λ.

• 한국도로학회논문집
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• 제19권6호
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• pp.105-115
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• 2017

PURPOSES : The occurrence of unexpected disasters, including fire events, increases as the road network becomes complicated and traffic volume increases. When a fire event occurs on and under bridges, the damage extensively influences direct damage to structures, vehicles, and human life and secondary socioeconomic issues owing to traffic blockage. This study investigated potential fire-hazard risks on bridges of the Korean national route road. METHODS : The investigation was conducted using field investigation and analysis with satellite pictures and road views from commercial websites and the Bridge Management System (BMS). From the filed investigation, various potential fire resources were identified. The satellite pictures and road views were helpful in measuring and recognizing conditions underneath bridges, stowage areas, etc. RESULTS : There are various potential fire resources underneath bridges such as piled agricultural products, parked petroleum tanks, construction equipment, and attached high-voltage cables. A total of 94.6% of bridges have underneath clearances of less than 15 m. A bridge underneath volume that can stow a potential fire hazard resource was $7,332m^3$ on average, and most bridges have about $4,000m^3$ of space. Based on the BMS data, the amounts of PSC and steel girders were 29% and 25%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS : It was found that the amount of stowed potential fire hazard resources was proportional to the underneath space of bridges. Most bridges have less than 15 m of vertical clearance that can be considered as a critical value for a bridge fire. The fire risk investigation results should be helpful for developing bridge fire-protection tools.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.139-150
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• 2017

The structural strain plays a significant role in structural condition assessment of in-service bridges in terms of structural bearing capacity, structural reliability level and entire safety redundancy. Therefore, it has been one of the most important parameters concerned by researchers and engineers engaged in structural health monitoring (SHM) practices. In this paper, an SHM system instrumented on the Jiubao Bridge located in Hangzhou, China is firstly introduced. This system involves nine subsystems and has been continuously operated for five years since 2012. As part of the SHM system, a total of 166 fiber Bragg grating (FBG) strain sensors are installed on the bridge to measure the dynamic strain responses of key structural components. Based on the strain monitoring data acquired in recent two years, the strain-based structural condition assessment of the Jiubao Bridge is carried out. The wavelet multi-resolution algorithm is applied to separate the temperature effect from the raw strain data. The obtained strain data under the normal traffic and wind condition and under the typhoon condition are examined for structural safety evaluation. The structural condition rating of the bridge in accordance with the AASHTO specification for condition evaluation and load and resistance factor rating of highway bridges is performed by use of the processed strain data in combination with finite element analysis. The analysis framework presented in this study can be used as a reference for facilitating the assessment, inspection and maintenance activities of in-service bridges instrumented with long-term SHM system.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.71-78
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• 2013

Prestressed concrete (PC) is the predominant material in highway bridge construction. The use of high-strength concrete has gained wide acceptance in the PC industry. The main target in the highway industry is to increase the durability and the life-span of bridges. Cracking of elements is one aspect which affects durability. Recently, nine 7.62 meter long PC I-beams made with different concrete strength were designed according to a simple, semi-empirical equation developed at the University of Houston (UH) (Laskar et al., ACI Journal 107(3): 330-339, 2010). The UH Method is a function of shear span-to-depth ratio (a/d), concrete strength $\sqrt{f^{\prime}_c}$, web area $b_wd$, and amount of transverse steel. Based on testing these girders, the shear cracking strength of girders with different concrete strength and different shear span-to-depth ratio was investigated and compared to the available approaches in current codes such as ACI 318-11 (2011) and AASHTO LRFD Specifications (2010).

• 한국강구조학회 논문집
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• 제9권1호통권30호
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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.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.133-143
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• 2015

This paper describes the test results and nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete T-beams strengthened by bonded steel plates under increasing static loading conditions. The first part of this paper discusses the flexural tests on five T-beams, including the test model design (based on similarity principles), test programs, and test procedure. The second part discusses the nonlinear numerical analysis of the strengthened beams, in which a concrete damage plasticity model and a cohesive behavior were adopted. The numerical analysis results are compared with experimental data and show good agreement. The area of bonded steel plate and the anchor bolt spacing were found to have an impact on the cracking load, yield load, and ultimate load. An increase in the area of steel plate and a reduction of the anchor spacing could significantly improve the cracking and ultimate loads and decrease the damage of the beam.