• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.149-158
• /
• 2022

As a bridge ages, its mechanical properties and structural performance deteriorate, degrading its seismic performance during a strong earthquake. In this study, the aging of piers and bridge bearings was quantified in several stages and reflected in the analysis model, enabling the evaluation of the member-level seismic fragility of these bearings. Moreover, by assuming that the failure mechanism of a bridge system is a series system, a method for evaluating the system-level seismic fragility based on the member-level seismic fragility analysis result is formulated and proposed. For piers with rubber and lead-rubber bearings (members vulnerable to aging effects), five quantitative degrees of aging (0, 5, 10, 25, and 40%) are assumed to evaluate the member-level seismic fragility. Then, based on the result, the system-level seismic fragility evaluation was implemented. The pier rather than the bridge bearing is observed to have a dominant effect on the system-level seismic fragility. This means that the seismic fragility of more vulnerable structural members has a dominant influence on the seismic fragility of the entire bridge system.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.105-108
• /
• 2008

For the early seismic isolation design in Korea, foreign products of isolation bearings were used. But these days, the application of domestic products of isolation bearings is increasing. However various experimental studies can be found very seldom on the extreme and lonr term behaviors of isolation bearings. In this study, we considered the laminated rubber type isolation bearings that have many application cases in Korea and we evaluated their shear strength, long term characteristics such as aging and creep affecting shear strength of bearings in long term period. For the reality of experiments, fabricated isolation bearing specimens are designed for a real structure and shear loading was applied under design compressive loads. To evaluated aging effect, the specimens were exposed to high temperature environment for certain period and their shear properties were measured to compare with their original values. Also we measured creep amount of isolation bearings under constant compressive load for 1,000 hours and estimated creep amount after 60 years compatible with general life cycle of bridges.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.235-243
• /
• 2023

This paper presents the fabrication process of water-lubricated plastic bearings. Plastic bearings require good mechanical properties and tribological properties as well as elasticity and shock resistance, especially when lubricated in dirty water conditions. In this study, sleeve-type plastic bearings are produced by winding a prepreg sheet, which primary contains nitrile rubber (NBR)-modified epoxy, self-lubricating fillers, and various types of lattice-structured reinforcing fibers such as carbon, Aramid, and polyethylene terephthalate. A thermosetting epoxy is chemically modified with NBR to impart elasticity and low-friction characteristics in water conditions. Experimental investigations are conducted to examine the mechanical and tribological characteristics of the developed bearing materials, and the results are compared with the characteristics of a commercial plastic bearing (Thordon SXL), well known as a water-lubricated bearing. A Thordon bearing (mainly composed of polyurethane) exhibits an extremely low load-bearing capacity and is thus only suitable for medium loading (1~10MPa). The tribological characteristics of the test materials are evaluated through Falex block-on-ring (LFW-1) friction and wear tests. The results indicate that friction exhibited by the carbon-fiber-reinforced NBR-10wt.%-modified epoxy composite material, incorporated with the addition of 20wt.% UHMWPE and 6wt.% paraffin wax, is lower than that of the Thorden bearings, whereas its wear resistance surpass that of Thorden ones. Because of these features, the load carrying capacity of the fabricated composite (>10MPa) is higher than that of the Thorden bearings. These results confirm the applicability of water-lubricated plastic bearing materials developed in this study.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.63-69
• /
• 2004

In this paper, a nonlinear modeling of lead rubber bearings(LRBs) was presented by a neural network theory. An shaking table test for a scaled frame model, of which base was isolated by the LRBs, was performed to verify numerical accuracies of the neural network model. White noise and three types of seismic records were adoped as base loads of the shaking table in order to train and generalize the neural network in case of seismic loads, numerical results of the neural network model were evaluated according to different magnitudes of PGA. As results, it is concluded that the presented neural network model has given a good agreement with the experimental data in details and can be useful to a nonlinear modeling of LRBs within prescribed domains.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.347-359
• /
• 2020

The Mega-Sub Controlled Structure System (MSCSS), an innovative vibration passive control system for building structures, is improved by adding lead rubber bearings (LRBs) on top of the substructure. For the new system, a genetic algorithm is used to optimize the dynamic parameters and distributions of dampers and LRBs. The program uses various seismic performance indicators as optimization objectives, and corresponding results are compared. It is found that the optimization procedure for maximizing the energy dissipation ratio yields the best solutions, and optimized models have consistent seismic performances under different earthquakes. Seismic performances of optimized MSCSS models with and without LRBs, as well as the traditional Mega-Sub Structure model, are evaluated and compared under El Centro wave, Taft wave and 20 other artificial waves. In both elastic and plastic analysis, the model with LRBs shows significantly smaller story drift and horizontal acceleration than those of the other two models, and fewer plastic hinges are developed during severe earthquakes. Energy analysis also shows that LRBs installed in proper locations increase the deformation and energy dissipation of dampers, thereby significantly reduce the kinetic, potential, and hysteretic energy in the structure. However, LRBs do not have to be mounted on all the additional columns. It is also demonstrated that LRBs at unfavorable locations can decrease the energy dissipation for dampers. After LRBs are installed, the optimal damping coefficient and the optimal damping exponent of dampers are reduced to produce the best damping effect.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.103-110
• /
• 2021

Elastomeric bearings composed of flexible rubber materials and steel reinforcement plates are widely used for seismic retrofit of bridges due to their excellent vertical stiffness and flexible lateral stiffness. Especially, it has the advantages of simple construction and low cost. Chloroprene rubber, a type of rubber material, has greater resistance to aging than natural rubber, but its performance is also degraded due to various deterioration factors. Although these aging characteristics are not reflected in the seismic design standards and seismic performance evaluation guidelines, it is reasonable to reflect this when related studies are accumulated. For chloroprene rubber, accelerated heat aging test was performed with variables of heating temperatures and exposure time to analyze shear characteristics. As aging progresses the maximum shear stress and shear strain decrease. Also, the shear stiffness is greatly increased at the same shear strain.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
• /
• v.16 no.12
• /
• pp.2261-2267
• /
• 1992

The equations are derived for the evaluation of the axial contact force. The contact forces for rubber seals are analyzed as a function of the ratio of real contact length, the thickness of seal lip, the inclined angle of seal lip, and the interference between the edge of seal lip and the rotating inner ring. The design data for rubber seals are presented in terms of the ratio of real contact length, initial inclined lip angle, lip thickness and the interference. The calculated results show that the deflected interference and the circumferential stress cause considerable change of contcat forces for the low sealed pressure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.135-144
• /
• 2017

Near-fault ground motions are characterized by high values of the ratio between the peak of vertical and horizontal ground accelerations, which can significantly affect the nonlinear response of a base-isolated structure. To check the effectiveness of different base-isolation systems for retrofitting a r.c. framed structure located in a near-fault area, a numerical investigation is carried out analyzing the nonlinear dynamic response of the fixed-base and isolated structures. For this purpose, a six-storey r.c. framed building is supposed to be retrofitted by insertion of an isolation system at the base for attaining performance levels imposed by current Italian code in a high-risk seismic zone. In particular, elastomeric (e.g., high-damping-laminated-rubber bearings, HDLRBs) and friction (e.g., steel-PTFE sliding bearings, SBs, or friction pendulum bearings, FPBs) isolators are considered, with reference to three cases of base isolation: HDLRBs acting alone (i.e., EBI structures); in-parallel combination of HDLRBs and SBs (i.e., EFBI structures); FPBs acting alone (i.e., FPBI structures). Different values of the stiffness ratio, defined as the ratio between the vertical and horizontal stiffnesses of the HDLRBs, sliding ratio, defined as the global sliding force divided by the maximum sliding force of the SBs, and in-plan distribution of friction coefficient for the FPs are investigated. The EBI, EFBI and FPBI base-isolation systems are designed assuming the same values of the fundamental vibration period and equivalent viscous damping ratio. The nonlinear dynamic analysis is carried out with reference to near-fault earthquakes, selected and scaled on the design hypotheses adopted for the test structures.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.26 no.1A
• /
• pp.173-181
• /
• 2006

Many isolated bridges are designed and constructed after the introduction of the seismic design. However those bridges designed in engineering fields have unnecessarily high serviceability limit and brittle failure mechanism, which do not satisfy the seismic design concept. Such design results are due to the excessive substructure stiffness of the conventional design method as well as the misunderstanding of the seismic design method. In this study an isolated bridge designed with the conventional design method is selected and the same bridge with steel bearings is modelled for the comparative seismic design. From the comparison, the seismic design procedures satisfying the required performance levels are provided for the two bridges. It is confirmed that the isolated bridge requires more complicated design procedure with trial and error methods and reanalyses but provides higher serviceability limit compared to the bridge with steel bearings. However, because the required serviceability limit can also be obtained by adjusting substructure stiffness, it is a resonable seismic design process that an isolated bridge is to be considered as an alternative design when the ductile failure mechanism is not obtained with a bridge with steel bearings.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.502-505
• /
• 2004

Now for the first time in Korea pilot project on application of base isolation system to the RC building is carrying out by collaboration with KNHC and DRB dongil. The hybrid-type base isolation system, which is composed of sliding bearings and laminated rubber bearings and can make the resonance period of base isolated buildings comparatively long up to 4 or 5 seconds, is applied to this building. In this paper the overview of this project, the dynamic characteristics of this particular building and the response reduction effect against earthquakes are presented.