• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.909-922
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• 2014

In this paper, we present an alternative seismic design strategy for cable stayed bridges with concrete pylons when subjected to strong ground motions. The comparison of conventional seismic design using supplemental dampers (strategy A) and the new strategy using nonlinear seismic design of pylon columns (strategy B) is exemplified by one typical medium span cable stayed bridge subjected to strong ground motions from 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake and 2008 China Wenchuan earthquake. We first conducted the optimization of damper parameters according to strategy A in response to the distinct features that strong ground motions contain. And then we adopted strategy B to carry out seismic analysis by introducing the elastic-plastic elements that allowing plasticity development in the pylon columns. The numerical results show that via strategy A, the earthquake induced structural responses can be kept in the desired range provided with the proper damping parameters, however, the extra cost of unusual dampers will be inevitable. For strategy B, the pylon columns may not remain elastic and certain plasticity developed, but the seismic responses of the foundation will be greatly decreased, meanwhile, the displacement at the top of pylon seems to be not affected much by the yielding of pylon columns, which indicates the pylon nonlinear design can be an alternative design strategy when strong ground motions have to be considered for the bridge.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.34-41
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• 2020

In recent years, magnitude and frequency of earthquakes have increased in Korea. Damage to a bridge, which is one of the main infrastructures, can directly lead to considerable loss of human lives. Therefore, engineers need to evaluate the seismic fragility of the structure and prepare for the possible seismic damage. In particular, the number of aging bridges over 30 years of service increases, and thus the seismic analysis and fragility requires accounting for the aging and retrofit effects on the bridge. In this study, the nonlinear static and dynamic analyses were performed to evaluate the effects of the aging and FRP retrofit on a PSC bridge. The aging and FRP retrofit were applied to piers that dominate the response of the bridge during earthquakes. The maximum displacement of the bridge increased due to the aging of the pier but decreased when FRP retrofit applied to the aged pier. In addition, seismic fragility analysis was performed to evaluate the seismic behavior of the bridge combined with the seismic performance of the pier. Compared with the aged bridge, the FRP retrofit bridge showed a decrease in the seismic fragility in all levels of damage. The reduction of the seismic fragility in the FRP bridge was prominent as the value of PGA and level of damage increased.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.380-387
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• 2005

Little has been understood about the seismic behavior of curved bridges due to the different structural characteristics compared to straight bridges. In this study, a simple numerical model, widely used for seismic analysis, is modified for a more realistic estimation of the seismic behavior. The seismic response of curved bridges obtained with the modified simple numerical model was compared with the result using a more sophisticated model to verify the feasibility. Seismic analyses were performed on three-span continuous curved bridges, which is a structural system widely used in highway structures. Numerical model of the three-span continuous curved bridges were subjected to seismic loads in diverse directions. From the result of the analysis. it was found that the direction of the seismic load have significant effect of the seismic behavior of curved bridges when the central angle exceeds 90 degrees.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.855-874
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• 2016

In this paper, it is aimed to evaluate the earthquake angle influence on the seismic performance of steel highway bridges. Upper-deck steel highway bridge, which has arch type load bearing system with a total length of 216 m, has been selected as an application and analyzed using finite element methods. The bridge is subjected to 1992 Erzincan earthquake ground motion components in nineteen directions whose values range between 0 to 90 degrees, with an increment of 5 degrees. The seismic weight is calculated using full dead load plus 30% of live load. The variation of maximum displacements in each directions and internal forces such as axial forces, shear forces and bending moments for bridge arch and deck are attained to determine the earthquake angle influence on the seismic performance. The results show that angle of seismic input motion considerably influences the response of the bridge. It is seen that maximum arch displacements are obtained at X, Y and Z direction for $0^{\circ}$, $65^{\circ}$ and $5^{\circ}$, respectively. The results are changed considerably with the different earthquake angle. The maximum differences are calculated as 57.06%, 114.4% and 55.71% for X, Y and Z directions, respectively. The maximum axial forces, shear forces and bending moments are obtained for bridge arch at $90^{\circ}$, $5^{\circ}$ and $0^{\circ}$, respectively. The maximum differences are calculated as 49.12%, 37.37% and 51.50%, respectively. The maximum shear forces and bending moments are obtained for bridge deck at $0^{\circ}$. The maximum differences are calculated as 49.67%, and 49.15%, respectively. It is seen from the study that the variation of earthquake angle effect the structural performance of highway bridges considerably. But, there is not any specific earthquake angle of incidence for each structures or members which increases the value of internal forces of all structural members together. Each member gets its maximum value of in a specific angle of incidence.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.765-779
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• 2020

Collapse of bridges in recent earthquakes demonstrates the need to deepen the understanding of the behaviour of these structures against seismic actions. This paper presents a highly detailed numerical model of an actual bridge subjected to extreme seismic action which results in its collapse. Normally, nonlinear numerical models have high difficulties to achieve convergence when reinforced concrete is intended to be represented. The main objective of this work is to determine the efficiency of different passive control strategies to prevent the structural collapse of an existing bridge. Metallic dampers and seismic isolation by decoupling the mass were evaluated. The response is evaluated not only in terms of reduction of displacements, but also in increasing of shear force and axial force in key elements, which can be a negative characteristic of the systems studied. It can be concluded that the use of a metallic damper significantly reduces the horizontal displacements and ensures the integrity of the structure from extreme seismic actions. Moreover, the isolation of the deck, which in principle seems to be the most effective solution to protect existing bridges, proves inadequate for the case analysed due to its dynamic characteristics and its particular geometry and an unpredictable type of axial pounding in the columns. This unexpected effect on the isolation system would have been impossible to identify with simplified models.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.24 no.A
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• pp.195-204
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• 2004

To evaluate inelastic seismic responses of multi-span bridge structures, the capacity spectrum method(CSM) incorporating the equivalent single-degree-of freedom(ESDOF) method is presented. Application of the CSM incorporating the ESDOF method is illustrated by example analysis for symmetric and asymmetric bridge structures. To investigate an accuracy of the CSM, the maximum displacements estimated by the CSM are compared to those by inelastic time history analysis for several artificial earthquakes. The results show that the CSM provided conservative estimates of the maximum displacements for the symmetric and asymmetric bridge structures, and the trend of conservative estimates of the asymmetric bridge structures was significantly larger than that of the symmetric bridge structure.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.747-764
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• 2022

The design codes and calculation methods related to soil-steel composite bridges and culverts only specify the minimum soil cover depth. This value is connected with the bridge span and shell height. In the case of static and dynamic loads (like passing vehicles), such approach seems to be quite reasonable. However, it is important to know how the soil cover depth affects the behaviour of soil-steel composite bridges under seismic excitation. This paper presents the results of a numerical study of soil-steel bridges with different soil cover depths (1.00, 2.00, 2.40, 3.00, 4.00, 5.00, 6.00 and 7.00 m) under seismic excitation. In addition, the same soil cover depths with different boundary conditions of the soil-steel bridge were analysed. The analysed bridge has two closed pipe-arches in its cross section. The load-carrying structure was constructed as two shells assembled from corrugated steel plate sheets, designed with a depth of 0.05 m, pitch of 0.15 m, and plate thickness of 0.003 m. The shell span is 4.40 m, and the shell height is 2.80 m. Numerical analysis was conducted using the DIANA programme based on the finite element method. A nonlinear model with El Centro records and the time history method was used to analyse the problem.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.431-441
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• 2018

This study provides fragility-based assessment of seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridges. Seismic fragility curves were created using nonlinear analysis (NA) and artificial neural networks (ANNs). Nonlinear response history analyses were performed, in order to calculate the seismic performances of the bridges. To this end, 306 bridge-earthquake cases were considered. A multi-layered perceptron (MLP) neural network was implemented to predict the seismic performances of the selected bridges. The MLP neural networks considered herein consist of an input layer with four input vectors; two hidden layers and an output vector. In order to train ANNs, 70% of the numerical results were selected, and the remained 30% were employed for testing the reliability and validation of ANNs. Several structures of MLP neural networks were examined in order to obtain suitable neural networks. After achieving the most proper structure of neural network, it was used for generating new data. A total number of 600 new bridge-earthquake cases were generated based on neural simulation. Finally, probabilistic seismic safety analyses were conducted. Herein, fragility curves were developed using numerical results, neural predictions and the combination of numerical and neural data. Results of this study revealed that ANNs are suitable tools for predicting seismic performances of RC bridges. It was also shown that yield stresses of the reinforcements is one of the important sources of uncertainty in fragility analysis of RC bridges.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.316-321
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• 2002

The current seismic design criteria of the Korea Design Specifications for Highway Bridge (KDSHB 2000) adopted the seismic design concept and requirements of the AASHTO specifications. In order to obtain full ductile behavior under seismic loads, i.e. when applied seismic force is larger than design flexural strength of column section, a response modification factor is used. For the moderate seismicity regions, a design based on required ductility and required transverse reinforcement might be a reasonable approach. Ductility demand design or performance based design might be an appropriate approach especially for regions of moderate seismic risk. The procedure and application of this design approach are presented in this paper.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.2A
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• pp.131-143
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• 2009

Under transverse earthquake shaking, arching action of bridge structures develops along the deck between the abutments thus providing the so-called deck resistance. The magnitude of the arching action for bridge structures is dependent on the number of spans, connection condition between deck and abutment or piers, and stiffness ratio between superstructure and substructure. In order to investigate the arching action effects for inelastic seismic responses of PSC Box bridges, seismic responses evaluated by pushover analysis, capacity spectrum analysis and nonlinear time-history analysis are compared for 18 example bridge structures with two types of span numbers (short bridge, SB and long bridge, LB), three types of pier height arrangement (regular, semi-regular and irregular) and three types of connection condition between superstructure and substructure (Type A, B, C). The arching action effects (reducing inelastic displacement and increasing resistance capacity) for short bridge (SB) is more significant than those for long bridge (LB). Semi-regular and irregular bridge structures have more significant arching action than regular bridges.