• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.365-377
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• 2015

Large-amplitude vibration of overhead sign structures can cause unfavorable psychological responses in motorists, interfere with readability of the signs, and lead to fatigue cracking in the sign structures. Field experience in Texas suggests that an overhead sign structure can vibrate excessively when supported within the span of a highway bridge instead of at a bent. This study used finite element modeling to analyze the dynamic displacement response of three hypothetical sign structures subjected to truck-passage-induced vertical oscillations recorded for the girders from four actual bridges. The modeled sign bridge structures included several span lengths based on standard design practices in Texas and were mounted on precast concrete I-girder bridges. Results revealed that resonance with bridge girder vertical vibrations can amplify the dynamic displacement of sign structures, and a specific range of frequency ratios subject to undesirable amplification was identified. Based on these findings, it is suggested that this type of sign structure be located at a bridge bent if its vertical motion frequency is within the identified range of bridge structure excitation frequencies. Several alternatives are investigated for cases where this is not possible, including increasing sign structure stiffness, reducing sign mass, and installing mechanical dampers.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.313-325
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• 1995

Two active/passive vibration dampers were designed to control a cantilever beam first mode of vibration. The active element was a piezoelectric polymer, polyvinlidene fluoride (PVDF). The passive damping was provided by the application of a viscoelastic layer on the surface of the steel beam. Two substantially different damper configurations were designed and tested. One damper consisted of a piezoelectric actuator bonded to one face of the beam, with a viscoelastic layer applied to the other surface of the beam. The second one was composed of a layer viscoeastic layer with one surface bonded to the beam, and with other being constrained by nine piezoelectric actuators connected in parallel. A control law based on the sign of the angular velocity of the cantilever beam was implemented to control the beam first mode of vibration. The piezoelectric sensor output was digitally differentiated to obtain the transverse linear velocity, and its sign was used in the control algorith. Two dampers provided the system a damping increase of a factor of four for the first damper and three for the second damper. Both dampers were found to work well at low levels of vibration, suggesting that they can be used effectively to prevent resonant vibrations in flexible structure from initiating and building up.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.223-242
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• 2015

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have emerged as a novel solution to many of the challenges of structural health monitoring (SHM) in civil engineering structures. While research projects using WSNs are ongoing worldwide, implementations of WSNs on full-scale structures are limited. In this study, a WSN is deployed on a full-scale 17.3m-long, 11-bay highway sign support structure to investigate the ability to use vibration response data to detect damage induced in the structure. A multi-level damage detection strategy is employed for this structure: the Angle-between-String-and-Horizon (ASH) flexibility-based algorithm as the Level I and the Axial Strain (AS) flexibility-based algorithm as the Level II. For the proposed multi-level damage detection strategy, a coarse resolution Level I damage detection will be conducted first to detect the damaged region(s). Subsequently, a fine resolution Level II damage detection will be conducted in the damaged region(s) to locate the damaged element(s). Several damage cases are created on the full-scale highway sign support structure to validate the multi-level detection strategy. The multi-level damage detection strategy is shown to be successful in detecting damage in the structure in these cases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.47-55
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• 2003

This paper Presents active control algorithm using probability density function of structural energy. It is assumed that the structural energy under excitation has Rayleigh probability distribution. This assumption is based on the fact that Rayleigh distribution satisfies the condition that the structural energy is always positive and the occurrence probability of minimum energy is zero. The magnitude of control force is determined by the probability that the structural energy exceeds the specified target critical energy, and the sign of control force is determined by Lyapunov controller design method. Proposed control algorithm shows much reduction of peak responses under seismic excitation compared to LQR controller, and it can consider control force limit in the controller design. Also, chattering problem which sometimes occurs in Lyapunov controller can be avoided.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.92-98
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• 2015

Recently, buildings tend to be large size, complex shape and functional. As the size of buildings is becoming massive, the need for structural health monitoring (SHM) technique is increasing. Various SHM techniques have been studied for buildings which have different dynamic characteristics and influenced by various external loads. "Abnormal behavior point" is a moment when the structure starts vibrating abnormally and this can be detected by comparing between before and after abnormal behavior point. In other words, anomalous behavior is a sign of damage on structures and estimating the abnormal behavior point can be directly related to the safety of structure. Abnormal behavior causes damage on structures and this leads to enormous economic damage as well as damage for humans. This study proposes an estimating technique to find abnormal behavior point using Hilber-Huang Transform which is a time-frequency signal analysis technique and the proposed algorithm has been examined through laboratory tests with a bridge model using a shaking table.