• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.657-670
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• 2021

This paper presents a designing method for enhancing fire resistance of steel box bridge girders (closed steel box bridge girder supporting a thin concrete slab) through taking into account such parameters namely; fire severity, type of longitudinal stiffeners (I, L, and T shaped), and number of longitudinal stiffeners. A validated 3-D finite element model, developed through the computer program ANSYS, is utilized to go over the fire response of a typical steel box bridge girder using the transient thermo-structural analysis method. Results from the numerical analysis show that fire severity and type of longitudinal stiffeners welded on bottom flange have significant influence on fire resistance of steel box bridge girders. T shaped longitudinal stiffeners applied on bottom flange can highly prevent collapse of steel box bridge girders towards the end of fire exposure. Increase of longitudinal stiffeners on bottom flange and web can slightly enhance fire resistance of steel box bridge girders. Rate of deflection-based criterion can be reliable to evaluate fire resistance of steel box bridge girders in most fire exposure cases. Thus, T shaped longitudinal stiffeners on bottom flange incorporated into bridge fire-resistance design can significantly enhance fire resistance of steel box bridge girders.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.183-196
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• 2018

The traditional prestressed concrete composite box-girders with corrugated steel webs have several drawbacks such as large deflection and potential local buckling. In this study, two methods were investigated to optimize and improve the prestressed concrete composite box-girders with corrugated steel webs. The first method was to replace the concrete bottom slab with a steel plate and the second method was to support the concrete bottom slab on the steel flanges. The behavior of the prestressed concrete composite box-girders with corrugated steel webs with either method was studied by experiments on three specimens. The test results showed that behavior of the optimized and upgraded prestressed concrete composite box-girders with corrugated steel webs, including ultimate bearing capacity, flexural stiffness, and crack resistance, is greatly improved. In addition, the influence of different shear connectors, including perfobond leisten (PBL) and stud shear connectors, on the behavior of prestressed concrete composite box-girders with corrugated steel webs was studied. The results showed that PBL shear connectors can greatly improve the ultimate bearing capacity, flexural stiffness and crack resistance property of the prestressed concrete composite box-girders with corrugated steel webs. However, for the efficiency of prestressing introduced into the girder, the PBL shear connectors do not perform as well as the stud shear connectors.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.339-346
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• 2004

This paper presents a method to minimize Life-Cycle Cost(LCC) of steel box girders. The LCC function considered in this paper includes initial cost, expected life-cycle maintenance cost and repair cost. A resistance force curve is derived from a condition grade curve of steel girders and optimal design of steel box girders is performed on the basis of derived resistance force curve. Also, in this paper annual costs of various case in LCC are compared and analyzed. It is concluded that the optimal design of steel box girders considering LCC by a presented method will lead to more economical and safer girders than conventional design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.2
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• pp.193-204
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• 2019

This paper presents results from experimental and numerical studies on the response of steel-concrete composite box bridge girders under certain localized fire exposure conditions. Two composite box bridge girders, a simply supported girder and a continuous girder respectively, were tested under simultaneous loading and fire exposure. The simply supported girder was exposed to fire over 40% of its span length in the middle zone, and the two-span continuous girder was exposed to fire over 38% of its length of the first span and full length of the second span. A measurement method based on comparative rate of deflection was provided to predict the failure time in the hogging moment zone of continuous composite box bridge girders under certain localized fire exposure condition. Parameters including transverse and longitudinal stiffeners and fire scenarios were introduced to investigate fire resistance of the composite box bridge girders. Test results show that failure of the simply supported girder is governed by the deflection limit state, whereas failure of the continuous girder occurs through bending buckling of the web and bottom slab in the hogging moment zone. Deflection based criterion may not be reliable in evaluating failure of continuous composite box bridge girder under certain fire exposure condition. The fire resistance (failure time) of the continuous girder is higher than that of the simply supported girder. Data from fire tests is successfully utilized to validate a finite element based numerical model for further investigating the response of composite box bridge girders exposed to localized fire. Results from numerical analysis show that fire resistance of composite box bridge girders can be highly influenced by the spacing of longitudinal stiffeners and fire severity. The continuous composite box bridge girder with closer longitudinal stiffeners has better fire resistance than the simply composite box bridge girder. It is concluded that the fire resistance of continuous composite box bridge girders can be significantly enhanced by preventing the hogging moment zone from exposure to fire. Longitudinal stiffeners with closer spacing can enhance fire resistance of composite box bridge girders. The increase of transverse stiffeners has no significant effect on fire resistance of composite box bridge girders.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.173-180
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• 2001

In this study steel box girders used as main members of a two span continuous steel bridge, are optimally designed by a Load and Resistance Factor Design method(LRFD) using an numerical optimization method. The width, height, web thickness and flange thickness of the main girder are set as design variables, and light weight design is attempted by choosing the cross-sectional area as an object function. We studied the results of steel box girders and compared with those of 1-type girders. The main program is coded with C++ and connected with optimization modul ADS. which is coded with FORTRAN.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.285-290
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• 2002

The double composite box girder is a structural system filled with concrete at the bottom of the steel box in the negative moment region increasing the flexural strengths. Flexural strengths of the double composite steel box girders are investigated through a series of the experimental tests and the numerical analysis. The experimental tests are performed on the three kinds of steel box girders with the different concrete depths including loom, 15cm, and 20cm. Moment-curvature relations are calculated based on the sectional analysis method describing the nonlinear natures of concrete and steel. In the finite element analysis the nonlinear nature of concrete is described based on the three dimensional four-parameter constitutive model recently developed and that of steel is described based on von Mises failure criterion. The ultimate flexural capacities of the box girders predicted using sectional analysis and finite element analysis show good agreement with those of the experiments.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.18 no.4 s.70
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• pp.445-452
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• 2005

This paper presents a design method to minimize Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of steel box girders. The LCC considered in this paper includes initial cost, expected life-cycle maintenance cost and repair cost. A load carrying capacity curve is derived from a condition grade curve of steel girders and load tarrying capacity that is measured in safety diagnostic test. And then, optimal design of steel box girders is performed on the basis of load carrying capacity curve. In this paper time and number of times for repair of steel girders are determined based on the calculated load carrying capacity curve. Also, annual costs considering real discount rate are compared and analyzed in various cases. It is concluded that the optimal design of steel box gilders considering LCC by the presented method will lead to more economical and safer girders than conventional design.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.428-433
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• 1999

In this study, new finite clement formulations are carried out to analyze the distortion of the curved steel box girders which are susceptible to the torsional loading. For the exact analysis of curved box girders, additional degrees of freedom are added besides the conventional 6 degrees of freedom of general-purpose finite analysis programs, which are torsional warping, distortional warring, and distortion. New formulations were coded into a computer programs. Several numerical examples were presented to demonstrate the validity of developed program.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.465-475
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• 2010

In the horizontally curved bridges, girders are subjected to the combined action of vertical bending and torsion due to their curvatures without any eccentric loads. As subjected to bending and torsion, the ultimate strength of steel/concrete composite box girders are limited by the diagonal tensile stress in the deck concrete induced by the St. Venant torsion. To determine the ultimate strength of composite box girders in bending and torsion and their interactions, this study conducted a 3-dimensional FEA and classical strength of materials investigation. Using ABAQUS, the FEA fully utilized advanced nonlinear analysis techniques simulating material/geometrical nonlinearity and post-cracking behaviors. The ultimate strength from numerical data were compared with theoretically derived values. Concurrent compressive stresses in the concrete deck improve the shear-resisting capacity of concrete, thereby resulting in an increased torsional resistance of the composite box girder in positive bending. The proposed interaction equation is very simple yet it provides a rational lower bound in determining the ultimate strength of concrete/steel composite box girders.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.401-408
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• 2001

The main objective of this study is to analyze the distortion of curved steel box girders. For the distortional analysis of steel box girders, two approaches are presented. One is the development of approximate formulas obtained by applying Ritz method. The other is the formulation of stiffness matrix which is derived from the exact solution of the differential equation for distortion. Distortional analysis is carried out by utilizing 3-dimensional elements of a structural analysis computer program (SAP2000). The present analysis focuses on the distortional stress and the effects of the diaphragm. The results of several example cases are compared with those by the Nakai, Sakai, Heins, and Oleinik's theory and get the effect of diaphragm spacing on the distortional warping stress of the curved steel box girder.