• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.637-662
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• 2013

The Jiangyin Bridge is a suspension bridge with a main span of 1385 m over the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province, China. Being the first bridge with a main span exceeding 1 km in Chinese mainland, it had been instrumented with a structural health monitoring (SHM) system when completed in 1999. After operation for several years, it was found with malfunction in sensors and data acquisition units, and insufficient sensors to provide necessary information for structural health evaluation. This study reports the SHM system upgrade project on the Jiangyin Bridge. Although implementations of SHM system have been reported worldwide, few studies are available on the upgrade of SHM system so far. Recognizing this, the upgrade of original SHM system for the bridge is first discussed in detail. Especially, lessons learned from the original SHM system are applied to the design of upgraded SHM system right away. Then, performance assessment of the bridge, including: (i) characterization of temperature profiles and effects; (ii) recognition of wind characteristics and effects; and (iii) identification of modal properties, is carried out by making use of the long-term monitoring data obtained from the upgraded SHM system. Emphasis is placed on the verification of design assumptions and prediction of bridge behavior or extreme responses. The results may provide the baseline for structural health evaluation.

• Computational Structural Engineering : An International Journal
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2003

A typical marine platform in the Bay of Campeche is studied from the standpoint of structural reliability, and several characteristics of its deck such as slenderness and diameter/thickness ratios of the legs and actual degree of correlation between some variables are taken into account. The global and local buckling capacities of the deck legs are compared and the correlation coefficient between the critical axial load and the critical moment is assessed in order to validate its influence on the structural reliability. In addition, the influence of the vertical load, and its uncertainty, on the variance of the decks capacity, and latter on, on the platform's failure probability is assessed. The results presented may be used in future studies to further extend and upgrade the first version of the Reference Norm (PEMEX, 2000) and, in the longer term, to improve the current practice in the Design and Requalification of Offshore Marine Platforms in the Bay of Campeche.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.617-634
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• 2007

Algeria is a country with a high seismic activity. During the last decade, many destructive earthquakes occurred, particularly in the northern part, causing enormous losses in human lives, buildings and equipments. In order to reduce this risk in the capital and avoid serious damages to the strategic existing buildings, the government decided to invest into seismic upgrade, strengthening and retrofitting of these buildings. In doing so, seismic vulnerability study of this category of buildings has been considered. Structural analysis is performed on the basis of site investigation (inspection of the building, collecting data, materials, general conditions of the building, etc), and existing drawings (architectural plans, structural design, etc). The aim of these seismic vulnerability studies is to develop guidelines and a methodology for rehabilitation of existing buildings. This paper will provide insight to the vulnerability assessment and strengthening of the telecommunication centre, according to the new code RPA 99/version 2003. Both, static equivalent method and non linear dynamic analysis are performed in this study.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.53-56
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• 1995

Despite the recent development of structural analysis programs for the CRCP pavements over Westergaard's equations and finite element techniques, the Winkler foundations which are modelled by series of vertical springs at the nodes are generally used for the computer modelling of subbases under the concrete slab. Herewith, two parameter of soil foundation model is adopted as the most convenient mathematical model to enable deflections outside the loaded area to be effected and to upgrade the Winkler foundations. This paper highlights the derivations of finite element method for the two-parameter soil foundation model in the concrete pavements.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.401-414
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• 2014

The economic consequences of large earthquakes require a revolutionary change in the seismic performance objective of residential and commercial buildings. The majority of total construction costs consist of non-structural and architectural costs. Therefore, the aim of this research is to upgrade current Life Safety performance objectives and to offset adverse effects on country's economy after an occurrence of large earthquakes. However, such a proposal cannot easily prove the feasibility of cost-benefit analysis in structural design. In this paper, six generic reinforced concrete frames and dual system structures designed based on Turkish Seismic Code were used in cost analysis. The study reveals that load bearing structural systems with Immediate Occupancy performance level in seismic zones can be achieved with negligible costs.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.140-148
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• 2012

Recently there are many attempts to introduce PC construction method in buildings. But the study on PC structural wall has been made progress so slowly because it is very difficult to develop new items. In this study, we have developed new vertical joint on PC wall in order to upgrade constructivity and structural performance of the existing connections, then we have evaluated the seismic resistance performance. As a result of the cyclic loading tests for two specimens, proposed vertical joint on PC wall has shown that it behave the excellent structural performance in comparison to PC wall having no joint. Therefore, we think that proposed vertical joint is the system to apply buliding structure.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.259-267
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• 2021

Both structural transformation and education are the predominant subjects in the literature of development economics. This study examines the relationship between education before the tertiary level and the structural transformation of provinces by using Vietnam as a case study. In this study, education before the tertiary level would be disaggregated into three groups: primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary, then analyzed simultaneously on three-panel data models. Research data is taken from the statistical yearbook of provinces in Vietnam for 2015-2018. Research results show that education before the tertiary level plays a vital role in structural transformation. The enrolment rate of various education levels has a different influence on economic structure, and the lower secondary level has more significant effects than the upper secondary level. This reflects that participating in lower secondary is a fundamental requirement for taking some jobs in the non-agriculture sector, while upper secondary helps to upgrade the learner's abilities to respond to higher requirement jobs. The high rate of repeaters in upper secondary education will slow down the structural shift towards non-agriculture, and changing the traditional attitude about repeaters plays an essential role in improving this rate.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.143-152
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• 2017

This paper focuses on the seismic performance of pallet-type steel storage rack structures in their down aisle direction. As evidenced by experimental research, the seismic response of storage racks in the down-aisle direction is strongly affected by the nonlinear moment-rotation response of the beam-to-column connections. In their down-aisle direction, rack structures are designed to resist lateral seismic loads with typical moment frames utilizing proprietary beam-to-column moment-resisting connections. These connections are mostly boltless hooked type connections and they exhibit significantly large rotations resulting in large lateral frame displacements when subjected to strong ground motions. In this paper, typical hooked boltless beam-to-column connections are studied experimentally to obtain their non-linear reversed cyclic moment-rotation response. Additionally, a compound type connection involving the standard hooks and additional bolts were also tested under similar conditions. The simple introduction of the additional bolts within the hooked connection is considered to be a practical way of structural upgrade in the connection. The experimentally evaluated characteristics of the connections are compared in terms of some important performance indicators such as maximum moment and rotation capacity, change in stiffness and accumulated energy levels within the cyclic loading protocol. Finally, the obtained characteristics were used to carry out seismic performance assessment of rack frames incorporating the tested beam-to-column connections. The assessment involves a displacement based approach that utilizes a simple analytical model that captures the seismic behavior of racks in their down-aisle direction. The results of the study indicate that the proposed method of upgrading appears to be a very practical and effective way of increasing the seismic performance of hooked connections and hence the rack frames in their down-aisle direction.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.195-222
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• 2022

From the economic development perspective, economic growth should accompany structural improvement in order to meet complex demands from a society. In the context of development economics, economic growth is critically dependent on successful structural advancement. The issue of structural change is also important for advanced economies as the landscape of modern industry is changing fast. Many advanced countries of slow growth are experiencing dawdling changes in industry structure. However, there is no definitive answer to the question of whether there is a causal relationship between structural change and growth. This study empirically assesses the relationship between structural change or 'speed' thereof and economic growth in developed countries of OECD. Rather than looking into the causes of structural changes, this study simply measures structural changes in OECD economies and examines if structural change is really contributing to growth. The reason why this study focuses on advanced countries of OECD is rather obvious; technological innovation and emergence of new industries pressure these countries to restructure their economies to address these new challenges though they are at stages well beyond conventional industrialization. And structural rigidity can always limit growth even in advanced countries. The main results of this study can be summarized as a positive relationship between 'change and growth'. 'Change' in this study refers to changes in the industrial structure based on value-added and was analyzed to have a close positive relationship with economic growth. This result is consistent with arguments of early development economists emphasizing structural upgrade as an indispensable process for growth and development. The result of this study potentially confirms that the main argument of development economics is valid also for advanced economies. One of our results suggests that business/professional services and social services should be main targets for restructuring for advanced economies. The rational may be that rapid convergence of manufacturing and services is a key for structural advancement in the era of new technologies. Obviously, as manufacturing technology and production are standardized, it is difficult to secure international competitiveness through traditional manufacturing alone and the role of R&D, design, logistics, and marketing is becoming more important.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.43-49
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• 2006

Construction CALS has contributed much to the improvement of construction management. Recently, the ubiquitous technology brings another opportunities for expanding tile business horizon in construction. The government policies to upgrade the information technologies in Korean offer an environment in which practical application of ubiquitous becomes more practical. To maintain the level of competitiveness, construction companies need to pay attention to the chance of ubiquitous technologies. This paper introduces the research movement in the construction industry in an attempt to find out the feasibility of ubiquitous technologies such as RFID, USN, etc. The construction process, which is executed in the natural environment, will benefit from the state-of-are information technologies in terms of improved communication interface.