• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.51-69
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• 2015

In recent years, the use of fiber reinforced polymer composites has increased because of their unique features. They have been used widely in the aircraft and space industries, medical and sporting goods and automotive industries. Thanks to their beneficial and various advantages over traditional materials such as high strength, high rigidity, low weight, corrosion resistance, low maintenance cost, aesthetic appearance and easy demountable or moveable construction. In this paper, it is aimed to determine and compare the geometrically nonlinear static and dynamic analysis results of footbridges using steel and glass fiber reinforced polymer composite (GFRP) materials. For this purpose, Halgavor suspension footbridge is selected as numerical examples. The analyses are performed using three identical footbridges, first constructed from steel, second built only with GFRP material and third made of steel- GFRP material, under static and dynamic loadings using finite element method. In the finite element modeling and analyses, SAP2000 program is used. Geometric nonlinearities are taken into consideration in the analysis using P-Delta criterion. The numerical results have indicated that the responses of the three bridges are different and that the response values obtained for the GFRP composite bridge are quite less compared to the steel bridge. It is understood that GFRP material is more useful than the steel for the footbridges.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.1045-1067
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• 2016

Concrete bridges with corrugated steel webs and prestressed by both internal and external tendons have emerged as one of the promising bridge forms. In view of the different behaviour of components and the large shear deformation of webs with negligible flexural stiffness, the assumption that plane sections remain plane may no longer be valid, and therefore the classical Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam models may not be applicable. In the design of this type of bridges, both the ultimate load and ductility should be examined, which requires the estimation of full-range behaviour. An analytical sandwich beam model and its corresponding beam finite element model for geometric and material nonlinear analysis are developed for this type of bridges considering the diaphragm effects. Different rotations are assigned to the flanges and corrugated steel webs to describe the displacements. The model accounts for the interaction between the axial and flexural deformations of the beam, and uses the actual stress-strain curves of materials considering their stress path-dependence. With a nonlinear kinematical theory, complete description of the nonlinear interaction between the external tendons and the beam is obtained. The numerical model proposed is verified by experiments.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.175-183
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• 2022

The collision between a ship and bridge across a waterway may result in extremely serious consequences that may endanger the safety of life and property. Therefore, factors affecting ship bridge collision must be investigated, and the impact force should be discussed based on various collision conditions. In this study, a finite element model of ship bridge collision is established, and the peak impact force of a ship bridge collision based on 50 operating conditions combined with three input parameters, i.e., ship loading condition, ship speed, and ship bridge collision angle, is calculated via numerical simulation. Using neural network models trained with the numerical simulation results, the prediction model of the peak impact force of ship bridge collision involving an extremely short calculation time on the order of milliseconds is established. The neural network models used in this study are the basic backpropagation neural network model and Elman neural network model, which can manage temporal information. The accuracy of the neural network models is verified using 10 test samples based on the operating conditions. Results of a verification test show that the Elman neural network model performs better than the backpropagation neural network model, with a mean relative error of 4.566% and relative errors of less than 5% in 8 among 10 test cases. The trained neural network can yield a reliable ship bridge collision force instantaneously only when the required parameters are specified and a nonlinear finite element solution process is not required. The proposed model can be used to predict whether a catastrophic collision will occur during ship navigation, and thus hence the safety of crew operating the ship.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.419-430
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• 2023

This paper is aimed at investigating the effect of multiple longitudinal stiffeners on the patch loading resistance of slender steel plate girders. Firstly, a numerical study is conducted through geometrically and materially nonlinear analysis with imperfections included (GMNIA), the model is validated with experimental results taken from the literature. The structural responses of girders with multiple longitudinal stiffeners are compared to the one of girders with a single longitudinal stiffener. Thereafter, a patch loading resistance model is developed through machine learning (ML) using symbolic regression (SR). An extensive numerical dataset covering a wide range of bridge girder geometries is employed to fit the resistance model using SR. Finally, the performance of the SR prediction model is evaluated by comparison of the resistances predicted using available formulae from the literature.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.292-299
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate the inelastic behavior of precast segmental prestressed concrete bridge columns. A computer program, named RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology), for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures was used. Material nonlinearity is taken into account by comprising tensile, compressive and shear models of cracked concrete and a model of reinforcing steel. An unbonded tendon element based on the finite element method, that can represent the interaction between tendon and concrete of prestressed concrete member, is used. A joint element is newly developed to predict the inelastic behaviors of segmental joints. The proposed numerical method for the inelastic behavior of precast segmental prestressed concrete bridge columns is verified by comparison with reliable experimental results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.545-566
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• 2009

Bridge columns are subjected to combined actions of axial force, shear force and bending moment during earthquakes, caused by spatially-complex earthquake motions, features of structural configurations and the interaction between input and response characteristics. Combined actions can have significant effects on the force and deformation capacity of RC columns, resulting in unexpected large deformations and extensive damage that in turn influences the performance of bridges as vital components of transportation systems. This paper evaluates the seismic response of three prototype reinforced concrete bridges using comprehensive numerical models that are capable of simulating the complex soil-structural interaction effects and nonlinear behavior of columns. An analytical approach that can capture the shear-flexural interacting behavior is developed to model the realistic nonlinear behavior of RC columns, including the pinching behavior, strength deterioration and stiffness softening due to combined actions of shear force, axial force and bending moment. Seismic response analyses were conducted on the prototype bridges under suites of ground motions. Response quantities of bridges (e.g., drift, acceleration, section force and section moment etc.) are compared and evaluated to identify the effects of vertical motion, structural characteristics and the shear-flexural interaction on seismic demand of bridges.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.490-493
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate the inelastic behavior of reinforced high-strength concrete bridge columns. A computer program, named RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology), for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures was used. Material nonlinearity is taken into account by comprising tensile, compressive and shear models of cracked concrete and a model of reinforcing steel. The smeared crack approach is incorporated. The increase of concrete strength due to the lateral confining reinforcement has been also taken into account to model the confined high-strength concrete. The proposed numerical method for the inelastic behavior of reinforced high-strength concrete bridge columns is verified by comparison with reliable experimental results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.201-213
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• 2021

Contrast to the conventional jointed bridge design, integral abutment bridges (IABs) offer some marked advantages like reduced maintenance and enhanced service life of the structure due to elimination of joints in the deck and monolithic construction practices. However, the force transfer mechanism during seismic and thermal movements is a topic of interest owing to rigid connection between superstructure and substructure (piers and abutments). This study attempts to model an existing IAB by including the abutment backfill interaction and soil-foundation interaction effects using Winkler foundation assumption to determine its seismic response. Keeping in view the significance of abutment behavior in an IAB, the probability of damage to the abutment is evaluated using fragility function. Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) approach is used in this regard, wherein, nonlinear time history analyses are conducted on the numerical model using a selected suite of ground motions with increasing intensities until damage to abutment. It is concluded from the fragility analysis results that for a MCE level earthquake in the location of integral bridge, the probability of complete damage to the abutment is minimal.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.57-68
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• 2023

Bridge hangers, such as those in suspension and cable-stayed bridges, suffer from cumulative fatigue damage caused by dynamic loads (e.g., cyclic traffic and wind loads) in their service condition. Thus, the identification of damage to hangers is important in preserving the service life of the bridge structure. This study develops a new method for condition assessment of bridge hangers. The tension force of the bridge and the damages in the element level can be identified using the Bayesian optimization method. To improve the number of observed data, the additional mass method is combined the Bayesian optimization method. Numerical studies are presented to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. The influence of different acquisition functions, which include expected improvement (EI), probability-of-improvement (PI), lower confidence bound (LCB), and expected improvement per second (EIPC), on the identification of damage to the bridge hanger is studied. Results show that the errors identified by the EI acquisition function are smaller than those identified by the other acquisition functions. The identification of the damage to the bridge hanger with various types of boundary conditions and different levels of measurement noise are also studied. Results show that both the severity of the damage and the tension force can be identified via the proposed method, thereby verifying the robustness of the proposed method. Compared to the genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and nonlinear least-square method (NLS), the Bayesian optimization (BO) performs best in identifying the structural damage and tension force.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.502-505
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• 2006

The Purpose of this study is to offer an appropriate and reliable safety evaluation method the reinforced concrete members like as reinforced concrete deep beams and reinforced concrete columns, etc. A nonlinear finite element analysis program named RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology) was used to evaluate the ultimate strength analytically for the reinforced concrete members that have complicated mechanical behaviors. The nonlinear material model for the reinforced concrete is composed of models for characterizing the behavior of the concrete, in addition to a model for characterizing the reinforcing bars. The proposed numerical method for the safety evaluation of reinforced concrete bridge structures that is consisted of reinforced concrete member is verified by comparison with reliable experimental results.