• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.39-43
• /
• 2008

Determination of strain associated with shear modulus and damping ratio during torsional test is complicated. This is due to nonuniform stress-strain variation occurring linearly with radius in a soil specimen in torsion. A conventional equivalent radius approach proposed by Chen and Stokoe appears to be adequate for evaluating strain associated with shear modulus at low to intermediate strain levels. This approach is less accurate for damping measurement, particularly at high strain. Modified equivalent radius approach was used to account for the nonuniform stress-strain effect more precisely. The modified equivalent radius approach was applied for hyperbolic, modified hyperbolic, and Ramberg-Osgood models. The results illustrate the usefulness of the modified equivalent radius approach and suggest that using a single value of equivalent radius ratio to calculate strains is not appropriate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.97-103
• /
• 2008

Determination of stress-strain relationship in torsional tests is complicated due to nonuniform stress-strain variation occurring linearly with the radius in a soil specimen in torsion. The equivalent radius approach is adequate when calculating strain at low to intermediate strains, however, the approach is less accurate when performing the test at higher strain levels. The modified equivalent radius approach was developed to account for the problem more precisely. This approach was extended to generate the plots of equivalent radius ratio versus strain using modified hyperbolic and Ramberg-Osgood models. Results showed the effects of soil nonlinearity on the equivalent radius ratio curves were observed. Curve fitting was also performed to find the stress-strain relationship by fitting the theoretical torque-rotation relationship to measured torque-rotation relationship.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.141-173
• /
• 2010

In this paper a boundary element method is developed for the general flexural-torsional buckling analysis of Timoshenko beams of arbitrarily shaped cross section. The beam is subjected to a compressive centrally applied concentrated axial load together with arbitrarily axial, transverse and torsional distributed loading, while its edges are restrained by the most general linear boundary conditions. The resulting boundary value problem, described by three coupled ordinary differential equations, is solved employing a boundary integral equation approach. All basic equations are formulated with respect to the principal shear axes coordinate system, which does not coincide with the principal bending one in a nonsymmetric cross section. To account for shear deformations, the concept of shear deformation coefficients is used. Six coupled boundary value problems are formulated with respect to the transverse displacements, to the angle of twist, to the primary warping function and to two stress functions and solved using the Analog Equation Method, a BEM based method. Several beams are analysed to illustrate the method and demonstrate its efficiency and wherever possible its accuracy. The range of applicability of the thin-walled theory and the significant influence of the boundary conditions and the shear deformation effect on the buckling load are investigated through examples with great practical interest.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.80 no.6
• /
• pp.749-765
• /
• 2021

Suspension bridges bear large eccentric live loads in rush hours when most vehicles travel in one direction on the left or right side of the bridge. With the increasing number and weight of vehicles and the girder widening, the eccentric live load effect on the bridge behavior, including bending and distortion of the main girder, gets more pronounced, even jeopardizing bridge safety. This study proposes an analytical algorithm based on multi-catenary theory for predicting the suspension bridge responses to eccentric live load via the nonlinear generalized reduced gradient method. A set of governing equations is derived to solve the following unknown values: the girder rigid-body displacement in the longitudinal direction; the horizontal projection lengths of main cable's segments; the parameters of catenary equations and horizontal forces of the side span cable segments and the leftmost segments of middle span cables; the suspender tensions and the bearing reactions. Then girder's responses, including rigid-body displacement in the longitudinal direction, deflections, and torsion angles; suspenders' responses, including the suspender tensions and the hanging point displacements; main cables' responses, including the horizontal forces of each segment; and the longitudinal displacement of the pylons' tower top under eccentric load can be calculated. The response of an exemplar suspension bridge with three spans of 168, 548, and 168 m is calculated by the proposed analytical method and the finite element method in two eccentric live load cases, and their results prove the former's feasibility. The nonuniform distribution of the live load in the lateral direction is shown to impose a greater threat to suspension bridge safety than that in the longitudinal direction, while some other specific features revealed by the proposed method are discussed in detail.