• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.201-211
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• 2017

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of yield strength of reinforcing bars and stirrups on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) circular piers. Reversed cyclic loading tests of nine-large scale specimens with longitudinal and transverse reinforcement of different yield strengths (varying between HRB335, HRB500E and HRB600 rebars) were conducted. The test parameters include the yield strength and amount of longitudinal and transverse reinforcement. The results indicate that the adoption of high-strength steel (HSS) reinforcement HRB500E and HRB600 (to replace HRB335) as longitudinal bars without reducing the steel area (i.e., equal volume replacement) is found to increase the moment resistance (as expected) and the total deformation capacity while reducing the residual displacement, ductility and energy dissipation capacity to some extent. Higher strength stirrups enhance the ductility and energy dissipation capacity of RC bridge piers. While the product of steel yield strength and reinforcement ratio ($f_y{\rho}_s$) is kept constant (i.e., equal strength replacement), the piers with higher yield strength longitudinal bars are found to achieve as good seismic performance as when lower strength bars are used. When higher yield strength transverse reinforcement is to be used to maintain equal strength, reducing bar diameter is found to be a better approach than increasing the tie spacing.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.273-288
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• 2015

As one of the most common failure types of arch bridges, stability is one of the critical aspects for the design of arch bridges. Using 3D finite element model in ABAQUS, this paper has studied the stability performance of an arch bridge with inclined arch ribs and hangers, and the analysis also took the effects of geometrical and material nonlinearity into account. The impact of local buckling and residual stress of steel plates on global stability and the applicability of fiber model in stability analysis for steel arch bridges were also investigated. The results demonstrate an excellent stability of the arch bridge because of the transverse constraint provided by transversely-inclined hangers. The distortion of cross section, local buckling and residual stress of ribs has an insignificant effect on the stability of the structure, and the accurate ultimate strength may be obtained from a fiber model analysis. This study also shows that the yielding of the arch ribs has a significant impact on the ultimate capacity of the structure, and the bearing capacity may also be approximately estimated by the initial yield strength of the arch rib.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.423-440
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• 2020

In the recent years, steel box girder bridges have been extensively used due to high bending stiffness, torsional rigidity, and rapid construction. Therefore, researches related to this girder bridge have been widely conducted. This paper investigates the effect of residual stresses and geometric imperfections on the load-carrying capacity of steel box girder bridges spanning 30 m and 50 m. A three - dimensional finite element model of the steel box girder with a closed section was developed and analyzed using ABAQUS software. Nonlinear inelastic analysis was used to capture the actual response of the girder bridge accurately. Based on the results of analyses, the superimposed mode of webs and flanges was recommended for considering the influence of initial geometric imperfections of the steel box model. In addition, 4% and 16% strength reduction rates on the load - carrying capacity of the perfect structural system were respectively recommended for the girders with compact and non-compact sections, whose designs satisfy the requirements specified in AASHTO LRFD standard. As a consequence, the research results would help designers eliminate the complexity in modeling residual stresses and geometric imperfections when designing the steel box girder bridge.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.537-550
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• 2019

Korea and Japan have done a lot of research on composite girders with corrugated steel webs and built many bridges with corrugated steel webs due to the significant advantages of this type of bridges. Considering the demanding on the calculation method of such types of bridges and lack of relevant reinforcement design method, this paper proposes the spatial grid analysis theory and tensile stress region method. First, the accuracy and applicability of spatial grid model in analyzing composite girders with corrugated steel webs was validated by the comparison with models using shell and solid elements. Then, in a real engineering practice, the reinforcement designs from tensile stress region method based on spatial grid model, design empirical method and specification method are compared. The results show that the tensile stress region reinforcement design method can realize the inplane and out-of-plane reinforcement design in the top and bottom slabs in bridges with corrugated steel webs. The economy and precision of reinforcement design using the tensile stress region method is emphasized. Therefore, the tensile stress region reinforcement design method based on the spatial grid model can provide a new direction for the refined design of composite box girder with corrugated steel webs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2001

The objective of this study is to investigate the stability behavior of steel cable-stayed bridges by comparing the buckling loads obtained by means of finite element methods with eigen-solver. In recent days, cable-stayed bridges dramatically attract engineers' attention due to their structural characteristics and aesthetics. They require a number of design parameters and present a high degree of static indetermination, especially for long span bridges. Cable-stayed bridges exhibit several nonlinear behaviors concurrently under normal design loads due to the individual nonlinearity of substructures such as the pylons, stay cables, and bridge deck, and their interactions. The geometric nonlinearities arise mainly from large displacements of cables. Strong axial and lateral forces acting on the bridge deck and pylons cause structural nonlinear behaviors. The interaction is among the substructures. In this paper, a typical three-span steel cable-stayed bridge with a variety of design parameters has been investigated. The numerical results indicate that the design parameters such as the ratio of $L_1/L$ and $I_p/I_b$ are important for the structural behavior, where $L_1$ is the main span length, L is the total span length of the bridge, $I_p$ is the moment of inertia of the pylon, and $I_b$ is the moment of inertia of the bridge deck. When the ratio $I_p/I_b$ increases, the critical load decreases due to the lack of interaction among substructures. Cable arrangements and the height of pylon are another important factors for this type of bridge in buckling analysis. According to numerical results, the bridges supported by a pylon with harp-type cable arrangement have higher critical loads than the bridges supported by a pylon with fan-type cable arrangement. On contrary, the shape of the pylon does not significantly affect the critical load of this type of bridge. All numerical results have been non-dimensionalized and presented in both tabular and graphical forms.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.405-420
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• 2016

Section model wind tunnel test is currently the main technique to investigate the flutter performance of long-span bridges. Further study about applying the wind tunnel test results to the aerodynamic optimization is still needed. Systematical parameters and test principle of the bridge section model are determined by using three long-span steel truss suspension bridges. The flutter critical wind at different attack angles is obtained through section model flutter test. Under the most unfavorable working condition, tests to investigate the effects that upper central stabilized plate, lower central stabilized plate and horizontal stabilized plate have on the flutter performance of the main beam were conducted. According to the test results, the optimal aerodynamic measure was chosen to meet the requirements of the bridge wind resistance in consideration of safety, economy and aesthetics. At last the credibility of the results is confirmed by full bridge aerodynamic elastic model test. That the flutter reduced wind speed of long-span steel truss suspension bridges stays approximately between 4 to 5 is concluded as a reference for the investigation of the flutter performance of future similar steel truss girder suspension bridges.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.50-61
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• 2012

In recent years, various research and developments to introduce composite bridges of new concept have been performed. The types of integral bridge and portal rigid frame bridge are having advantages in bridge maintenance and structural efficiency by eliminating expansion joints and bridge supports. However, the detail of typical girder-abutment connection has problems such as complexity of construction and increase of the construction cost. A new type of bridge, called prestress integral composite girder(PIC girder) bridge, is proposed in this study, which decreases the cost of construction and improves the efficiency of construction by simplifying the detail of construction for girder-abutment connection. PIC girder bridge has the connection detail in which the steel girder and the abutment are integrated by using the PS bar installed in the connection. In this study, finite element analysis and mock-up load test are conducted to evaluate the propriety of design, the effective of fabrication and structural safety for PIC girder bridge. The adequacy of the PIC giredr bridge is verified by the results of static/dynamic load test and finite element analyses.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.805-821
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• 2023

This study developed an evaluation system to explore the effect of the environmental temperature on the stress redistribution produced by cable stress relaxation of structural members in a steel cable-stayed bridge. The generalized Maxwell model is used to estimate stress relaxation at different temperatures. The environmental temperature is represented using the thermal coefficients and temperature loads. The fmincon optimization function is used to determine the set of stress relaxation parameters at different temperatures for all cables. The ABAQUS software is employed to investigate the stress redistribution of the steel cable-stayed bridge caused by the cable stress relaxation and the environmental temperature. All of these steps are set up as an evaluation system to save time and ensure the accuracy of the study results. The developed evaluation system is then employed to investigate the effect of environmental temperature and cable type on stress redistribution. These studies' findings show that as environmental temperatures increased up to 40 ℃, the redistribution rate increased by up to 34.9% in some girders. The results also show that the cable type with low relaxation rates should be used in high environmental temperature areas to minimize the effect of cable stress relaxation.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.5 s.89
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• pp.775-784
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• 2005

In this research, major design factors have been evaluated for the establishment of the rational seismic design code of circular RC(reinforced concrete) bridge pier Previous experimental researches have drawn a conclusion that transverse confinement reinforcements have been excessively used for RC bridge piers in Korea. Thus, the objective of this study is to propose a rational design equation for transverse reinforcements of RC bridge piers in Korea which would be classified as a low or moderate seismic region. Newly proposed equation further considers the effect of the axial force ratio and the longitudinal steel ratio. Minimum transverse confinement steel ratio is also proposed to avoid probable buckling of the longitudinal reinforcing steels subjected to relatively low axial force. It is thought that these new codes seem to alleviate the rebar congestion in the plastic hinge region of RC bridge piers which contribute to the enhancement of constructibility and economization for RC bridge construction.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2018

This paper reports an experimental study that was accomplished to assess the seismic behavior of steel tube reinforced concrete bridge columns (SBCs). The motivation of this study was to verify a supposition that the core steel tube may be terminated at a rational position in the column to minimize the material cost while maintaining the seismic behavior of this composite column. Four SBC specimens were tested under combined constant axial load and cyclic reversed lateral loads. The unique variable in the test matrix was the core steel tube embedment length, which ranged from 1/3 to 3/3 of the column effective height. It is observed that SBCs showed two distinctly different failure patterns, namely brittle shear failure and ductile flexural failure. Tests results indicate that the hysteretic responses of SBCs were susceptible to the core steel tube embedment length. With the increase of this structural parameter, the lateral strength of SBC was progressively improved; the deformability and ductility, however, exhibited a tendency of first increase and then decrease. It is also found that in addition to maintained the rate of stiffness degradation and cumulative energy dissipation basically unchanged, both the ductility and deformability of SBC were significantly improved when the core steel tube was terminated at the mid-height of the column, and these were the most unexpected benefits accompanied with material cost reduction.