• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.215-230
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• 2010

The main objectives of this work were to investigate the effects of the nonlinear behavior of the isolation pads on the seismic response of bridges with rubber bearings, and to identify when base isolation improved their seismic performance. To achieve these objectives a parametric study was conducted designing a set of bridges for three different soil types and varying the number of spans, span lengths, and pier heights. The seismic responses (accelerations, displacements and pier seismic forces) were evaluated for three different structural models subjected to three earthquakes with different dynamic characteristics. The first represented bridges without base isolation; the second corresponded to the same bridges including now rubber bearings as an isolation system, with linear elastic behavior that shifted the natural period of the bridge by a factor of 2 to 4. In the third model the seismic response of bridges supported on lead-Rubber bearings was studied accounting for the nonlinear behavior of the lead. The results show clearly the importance of the nonlinear behavior on the seismic performance of the bridges.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.1451-1465
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• 2016

The effectiveness of base isolation (BI) systems for mitigation of seismic vibration of bridges have been extensively studied in the past. It is well established in those studies that the performance of BI system is largely dependent on the characteristics of isolator yield strength. For optimum design of such systems, normally a standard nonlinear optimization problem is formulated to minimize the maximum response of the structure, referred as Stochastic Structural Optimization (SSO). The SSO of BI system is usually performed with reference to a problem of unconstrained optimization without imposing any restriction on the maximum isolator displacement. In this regard it is important to note that the isolator displacement should not be arbitrarily large to fulfil the serviceability requirements and to avoid the possibility of pounding to the adjacent units. The present study is intended to incorporate the effect of excessive isolator displacement in optimizing BI system to control seismic vibration effect of bridges. In doing so, the necessary stochastic response of the isolated bridge needs to be optimized is obtained in the framework of statistical linearization of the related nonlinear random vibration problem. A simply supported bridge is taken up to elucidate the effect of constraint condition on optimum design and overall performance of the isolated bridge compared to that of obtained by the conventional unconstrained optimization approach.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.1012-1017
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• 2008

In this study, We examine closely the capacity spectrum method which a kind of displacement-based method evaluated by displacement of structure as an alternative to the load-based analysis method. The displacement-based method can easily review the strength of structure, seismic performance, ductility. Seismic performance by using capacity spectrum method is divided into design response spectrum and capacity spectrum. We can diagram design response spectrum by deciding the design seismic factor depending on performance target, site classification, seismic level, return period as UBC-97. Capacity spectrum is a load-displacement curve obtained by Push-over analysis considering the geometric parameter and the material parameter. We execute the seismic performance evaluation by using the capacity spectrum method to reinforced concrete pier which has been seismic design. As a result, We confirmed that there is a yield point and a ultimate point close by design response spectrum of UBC-97.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.167-174
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• 2008

Number of long-span bridge construction has been increased recently so that seismic consideration of design has become significant. To adapt such significance to design, seismic design in the newly revised 'Cable Steel Bridge Design Handbook' specifies some of wave travelling effect and local site effect. In this study, a cable-stayed bridge with main span of 500m is analysed having variables of uniform excitation, wave travelling effect, and wave travelling effect plus local site effect. Result shows that wave travelling effect in cable-stayed bridge affects considerably to its seismic response under weak soil condition even though the span length is relatively short. What's more, regardless of soil type, the seismic response has become higher for analysis with wave travelling effect and local site effect than with wave travelling effect only. Consequently, in seismic response analysis of long-span bridge, consideration should be given to application of wave travelling effect and local site effect.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.645-667
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• 2016

The 750 m long "De Bosset" bridge in the Cephalonia Island of Western Greece, being the area with the highest seismicity in Europe, was constructed in 1830 by successive stone arches and stiff block-type piers. The bridge suffered extensive damages during past earthquakes, such as the strong M7.2 earthquake of 1953, followed by poorly-designed reconstruction schemes with reinforced concrete. In 2005, a multidisciplinary project for the seismic assessment and restoration of the "De Bosset" bridge was undertaken under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. The proposed retrofitting scheme combining soil improvement, structural strengthening and reconstruction of the deteriorated masonry sections was recently applied on site. Design of the rehabilitation measures and assessment of the pre- and post-interventions seismic response of the bridge were based on detailed in-situ and laboratory tests, providing foundation soil and structural material properties. In-situ inspection of the rehabilitated bridge following the strong M6.1 and M6.0 Cephalonia earthquakes of January 26th and February 3rd 2014, respectively, revealed no damages or visible defects. The efficiency of the bridge retrofitting is also proved by a preliminary performance analysis of the bridge under the recorded ground motion induced by the above earthquakes.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.168-178
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• 2008

The hybrid simulation test method is a versatile technique for evaluating the seismic performance of structures by seamlessly integrating both physical and numerical simulations of substructures into a single test mode. In this paper, a software framework that integrates computational and experimental simulation has been developed to simulate and test a bridge structural system under earthquake loading. Using hybrid simulation, the seismic response of complex bridge structural systems partitioned into multiple large-scale experimental and computational substructures at networked distributed experimental and computational facilities can be evaluated. In this paper, the examples of application are presented in terms of a bridge model with soil-foundation-structure interaction.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.193-200
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• 2017

To overcome the difficulty of performing multi-point response spectrum analysis for engineering structures under spatially varying ground motions (SVGM) using the general finite element code such as ANSYS, an approach has been developed by improving the modelling of the input ground motions in the spectral analysis. Based on the stochastic vibration analyses, the cross-power spectral density (c-PSD) matrix is adopted to model the stationary SVGM. The design response spectra are converted into the corresponding PSD model with appropriate coherency functions and apparent wave velocities. Then elements of c-PSD matrix are summarized in the row and the PSD matrix is transformed into the response spectra for a general spectral analysis. A long-span high-pier bridge under multiple support excitations is analyzed using the proposed approach considering the incoherence, wave-passage and site-response effects. The proposed approach is deemed to be an efficient numerical method that can be used for seismic analysis of large engineering structures under SVGM.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.113-119
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• 1998

This study is focused on evaluation of the structural behavior of skewed bridge during earthquake. The variation of natural frequencies and the lateral forces at pier shoes by the skewness and the rotational effect about vertical axis of skewed bridge due to seismic activity are analytically evaluated and identified through case studies. For this purpose, the composite steel girder highway bridges are selected as case study models. The seismic analyses by response spectrum method and time history method are performed for the selected models. It has been recognized that the frequency of longitudinal model increased as the skew angle decreased, while the lateral mode frequency showed the opposite trends. When the skew angle decreased, longitudina seismic forces of the bridge at the pier were increased but decreased in transverse direction. And it also has been found that the skewed bridges of the case study models showed the rotational behavior about vertical axis due to motion of San Fernando earthquake at Pacoima Dam.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.333-340
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• 2000

Dynamic response behaviors of a bridge are examined under seismic excitations in the 2-dimensional directions are examined. A three-dimensional mechanical model is utilized and the corresponding equations of motions are derived to consider the two directional bridge motions due to the randomness residing in the excitation directions. The arbitrary 2-dimensional directions are simulated by applying two independent excitations in the two directions: main direction(longitudinal) ; the additive direction normal to the main (transverse). The rotational superstructure motions due to the spacial motions of the bridge are considered by admitting the deformation of the bearings at supports. The relative displacement to the ground motions and the relative distance between adjacent oscillators are found to be increased by a considerable amount in the case when considering arbitrary directional seismic excitations. It is also found that the piermotions show more complicated behaviors due to the arbitrary seismic directions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.859-887
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• 2015

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has gained in popularity in recent years since it can assess the performance and condition of instrumented structures in real time and provide valuable information to the asset's manager and owner. Operational modal analysis plays an important role in SHM and it involves the determination of natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes of a constructed structure based on measured dynamic data. This paper presents the operational modal analysis and seismic response characterization of the Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge of 2,160 m long subjected to different earthquake events. Three kinds of events, i.e., short-distance, middle-distance and long-distance earthquakes are taken into account. A fast Bayesian modal identification method is used to carry out the operational modal analysis. The modal properties of the bridge are identified and compared by use of the field monitoring data acquired before and after the earthquake for each type of the events. Research emphasis is given on identifying the predominant modes of the seismic responses in the deck during short-distance, middle-distance and long-distance earthquakes, respectively, and characterizing the response pattern of various structural portions (deck, towers, main cables, etc.) under different types of earthquakes. Since the bridge is over 2,000 m long, the seismic wave would arrive at the tower/anchorage basements of the two side spans at different time instants. The behaviors of structural dynamic responses on the Tsing Yi side span and on the Ma Wan side span under each type of the earthquake events are compared. The results obtained from this study would be beneficial to the seismic design of future long-span bridges to be built around Hong Kong (e.g., the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge).