• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.281-298
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• 2007

The load carrying capacity of a bridge needs to be properly assessed to operate the bridge safely and maintain it efficiently. For the evaluation of load carrying capacity considering the current state of a bridge, static and quasi-static loading tests with weight-controlled heavy trucks have been conventionally utilized. In these tests, the deflection (or strain) of the structural members loaded by the controlled vehicles are measured and analyzed. Using the measured data, deflection (or strain) correction factor and impact correction factor are calculated. These correction factors are used in the enhancement of the load carrying capacity of a bridge, reflecting the real state of a bridge. However, full or partial control of the traffic during the tests and difficulties during the installment of displacement transducers or strain gauges may cause not only inconvenience to the traffic but also the increase of the logistics cost and time. To overcome these difficulties, an alternative method is proposed using an excited response part of full measured ambient acceleration data by ordinary traffic on a bridge without traffic control. Based on the modal properties extracted from the ambient vibration data, the initial finite element (FE) model of a bridge can be updated to represent the current real state of a bridge. Using the updated FE model, the deflection of a bridge akin to the real value can be easily obtained without measuring the real deflection. Impact factors are obtained from pseudo-deflection, which is obtained by double-integration of the acceleration data with removal of the linear components on the acceleration data. For validation, a series of tests were carried out on a steel plategirder bridge of an expressway in Korea in four different seasons, and the evaluated load carrying capacities of the bridge by the proposed method are compared with the result obtained by the conventional load test method.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.33-38
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• 2008

Most structures of vehicle are composed of many substructures connected to one another by various types of mechanical joints. In vehicle engineering, it is important to study these jointed structures under random frequency vibration for the evaluations of fatigue life and stress concentration exactly. It is rarely obtained the accurate load history of specified positions in a jointed structure because of the errors such as modeling, measurement, and etc. In the beginning of design, exact load data are actually necessary for the fatigue strength and life analysis to minimize the cost and time of designing. In this paper, the hybrid method of practical dynamic load determination is developed by the combination of the principal stresses from F. E. Analysis and test of a jointed structure. Least square pseudo inverse matrix is adopted to obtain an inverse matrix of analyzed stresses matrix. The error minimization method utilizes the inaccurate measured error and the shifting error that the whole data is stiffed over real data. The least square criterion is adopted to avoid these errors. Finally, to verify the proposed system, a heavy-duty bus is analyzed. This measurement and prediction technology can be extended to the different jointed structures.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.97-110
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• 2019

Piles that support offshore wind turbine structures are dominantly subjected to cyclic lateral loads of wind, waves, and tidal forces. For a successful design, it is imperative to investigate the behavior of the cyclic laterally loaded piles; the p-y curve method, in which the pile and soil are characterized as an elastic beam and nonlinear springs, respectively, has been typically utilized. In this study, model pile tests were performed in a 1 g gravitational field so as to investigate the p-y behaviors of cyclic laterally loaded piles installed in saturated dense silty sand. Test results showed that cyclic lateral loads gradually reduced the overall stiffness of the p-y curves (initial stiffness and ultimate soil reaction). This is because the cyclic lateral loads disturbed the surrounding soil, which led to the decrement of the soil resistance. The decrement effects of the overall stiffness of the p-y curves became more apparent as the magnitude of cyclic lateral load increased and approached the soil surface. From the test results, the cyclic p-y curve was developed using a p-y backbone curve method. Pseudo-static analysis was also performed with the developed cyclic p-y curve, confirming that it was able to properly predict the behaviors of cyclic laterally loaded pile installed in saturated dense silty sand.