• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.37-52
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• 2014

The accurate determination of cable tension is important to the monitoring of the condition of a cable-stayed bridge. When applying a vibration-based formula to identify the tension of a real cable under sag, stiffness and boundary conditions, the resulting error must not be overlooked. In this work, by resolving the implicit frequency function of a real cable under the above conditions numerically, indirect methods of determining the cable force and a method to calculate the corresponding cable mode frequency are investigated. The error in the tension is studied by numerical simulation, and an empirical error correction formula is presented by fitting the relationship between the cable force error and cable parameters ${\lambda}^2$ and ${\xi}$. A case study on two real cables of the Shanghai Changjiang Bridge shows that employing the method proposed in this paper can increase the accuracy of the determined cable force and reduce the computing time relative to the time required for the finite element model.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.303-317
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• 2011

A specially designed tendon, which is proposed by embedding an FBG sensor into the center king cable of a 7-wire strand tendon, was applied to monitor the prestress force and load transfer of ground anchor. A series of tensile tests and a model pullout test were performed to verify the feasibility of the proposed smart tendon as a measuring sensor of tension force and load transfer along the tendon. The smart tendon has proven to be very effective for monitoring prestress force and load transfer by measuring the strain change of the tendon at the free part and the fixed part of ground anchor, respectively. Two 11.5 m long proto-type ground anchors were made simply by replacing a tendon with the proposed smart tendon and prestress forces of each anchor were monitored during the loading-unloading step using both FBG sensor embedded in the smart tendon and the conventional load cell. By comparing the prestress forces measured by the smart tendon and load cell, it was found that the prestress force monitored from the FBG sensor located at the free part is comparable to that measured from the conventional load cell. Furthermore, the load transfer of prestressing force at the tendon-grout interface was clearly measured from the FBGs distributed along the fixed part. From these pullout tests, the proposed smart tendon is not only expected to be an alternative monitoring tool for measuring prestress force from the introducing stage to the long-term period for health monitoring of the ground anchor but also can be used to improve design practice through determining the economic fixed length by practically measuring the load transfer depth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.830-834
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• 2013

This study presents a method to monitor cable force of a long-span cable-stayed bridge using a smart piezoelectric sensor system. The following approaches are implemented in order to achieve the objective. Firstly, the method to utilize piezoelectric materials for the health monitoring of stay cables is presented. For strain measurement of a stay cable, a PZT-embedded smart skin is designed to overcome the difficulties of bonding PZT sensors directly on stay cables. Secondly, a piezoelectric strain monitoring system for stay cables is designed. For the operation of the sensor board, the Imote2 sensor platform is used to provide the computation, wireless communication and power supply units. The feasibility of the proposed monitoring system is then evaluated on a full-scale cable of a cable-stayed bridge.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.13-25
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• 2012

Ground anchor method is one of the most popular reinforcing technology for slope in Korea. For the health monitoring of slope which is reinforced by permanent anchor for a long period, monitoring of the tension force of ground anchor is very important. However, since electromechanical sensors such as strain gauge and V/W type load cell are also subject to long-term risk as well as suffering from noise during long distance transmission and immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI), optical FBG sensors embedded tendon was developed to measure strain of 7-wire strand by embedding FBG sensor into the center king cable of 7-wire strand. This FBG sensors embedded tendon has been successfully applied to measuring the short-term anchor force. But to adopt this tendon to long-term monitoring, temperature compensation of the FBG sensors embedded tendon should be done. In this paper, we described how to compensate the effect in compliance with the change of underground temperature during long-term tension force monitoring of ground anchors by using optical fiber sensors (FBG: Fiber Bragg Grating). The model test was carried out to determine the temperature sensitivity coefficient (${\beta}^{\prime}$) of FBG sensors embedded tendon. The determined temperature sensitivity coefficient ${\beta}^{\prime}=2.0{\times}10^{-5}/^{\circ}C$ was verified by comparing the ground temperatures predicted from the proposed sensor using ${\beta}^{\prime}$ with ground temperatures measured from ground thermometer. Finally, temperature compensations were carried out based on ${\beta}^{\prime}$ value and ground temperature measurement from KMA for the tension force monitoring results of tension type and compression type anchors, which had been installed more than 1 year before at the test site. Temperature compensated tension forces are compared with those measured from conventional load cell during the same measuring time. Test results show that determined temperature sensitivity coefficient (${\beta}^{\prime}$) of FBG sensors embedded tendon is valid and proposed temperature compensation method is also appropriate from the fact that the temperature compensated tension forces are not dependent on the change of ground temperature and are consistent with the tension forces measured from the conventional load cell.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.47-67
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• 2014

This study has been motivated to examine the performance of a wireless sensor system under the typhoons as well as to analyze the effect of the typhoons on the bridge's vibration responses and the variation of cable forces. During the long-term field experiment on a real cable-stayed bridge in years 2011-2012, the bridge had experienced two consecutive typhoons, Bolaven and Tembin, and the wireless sensor system had recorded data of wind speeds and vibration responses from a few survived sensor nodes. In this paper, the wireless structural health monitoring of stay cables under the two consecutive typhoons is presented. Firstly, the wireless monitoring system for cable-stayed bridge is described. Multi-scale vibration sensor nodes are utilized to measure both acceleration and PZT dynamic strain from stay cables. Also, cable forces are estimated by a tension force monitoring software based on vibration properties. Secondly, the cable-stayed bridge with the wireless monitoring system is described and its wireless monitoring capacities for deck and cables are evaluated. Finally, the structural health monitoring of stay cables under the attack of the two typhoons is described. Wind-induced deck vibration, cable vibration and cable force variation are examined based on the field measurements in the cable-stayed bridge under the two consecutive typhoons.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.127-134
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• 2005

Design and construction of long-span bridge are recently increasing by development of computer technology. Specially, cable stayed bridge and suspension bridge having cable component are representative of long-span bridge may do. Therefore, this paper a present a methodology for cable tension force monitoring in cable-stayed bridge under construction using acceleration data acquired by the vibration method. To improve accuracy construction, all stay cables are measured, according to 4-step construction stage and change of temperature.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.287-294
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• 2008

This study proposes a novel method for in service evaluation of tension force of a prestressed 7-wire strand which is frequently employed for retrofitting bridge superstructure. The smart strand is made by replacing the straight king wire of the strand with an instrumented steel tube in which the FBG sensor is embedded. Since the strain of the smart strand can easily be measured using the sensor, it is possible to monitor tension force of the strand during the service. For the sake of demonstrating effectiveness of the proposed strand, we came up with a 7.0m long prototype with 2 FBG sensors, and it is applied as an external tendon to a 6.4m long and 0.6 high RC T-shaped beam. A loading-unloading test has been carried out, and estimated tension forces using the smart strand are compared with measured forces by load cell. The comparison showed that the proposed smart tendon is useful and accurate for monitering tension force of the prestressed tendon.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.266-272
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• 2021

Mooring systems are among the most important elements employed to control the motion of floating offshore structures on the sea. Considering the use of polymer material, a new method is proposed to address the creep characteristics rather than the method of using a tension load cell for measuring the tension of the mooring line. This study uses a synthetic mooring rope made from a polymer material, which usually consists of three parts: center, eye, and splice, and which makes a joint for two successive ropes. We integrate the optical sensor into the synthetic mooring ropes to measure the rope tension. The different structure of the mooring line in the longitudinal direction can be used to measure the loads with the entire mooring configuration in series, which can be defined as SMART (Smart Mooring and Riser Truncation) mooring. To determine the characteristics of the basic SMART mooring, a SMART mooring with a diameter of 3 mm made of three different polymer materials is observed to change the wavelength that responds as the length changes. By performing the longitudinal tension experiment using three different SMART moorings, it was confirmed that there were linear wavelength changes in the response characteristics of the 3-mm-diameter SMART moorings. A 54-mm-diameter SMART mooring is produced to measure the response of longitudinal tension on the center, eye, and splice of the mooring, and a longitudinal tension of 100 t in step-by-step applied for the Maintained Test and Fatigue Cycle Test is conducted. By performing a longitudinal tension experiment, wavelength changes were detected in the center, eye, and splice position of the SMART moorings. The results obtained from each part of the installed sensors indicated a different strain measurement depending on the position of the SMART moorings. The variation of the strain measurement with the position was more than twice the result of the difference measurement, while the applied external load increased step-by-step. It appears that there is a correlation with an externally generated longitudinal tensional force depending on the cross-sectional area of each part of the SMART mooring.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.869-877
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• 2013

Tension force of hanger ropes has been recognized and utilized as an important parameter for health monitoring of suspension bridges. Conventional vibration method based on string theory has been utilized to estimate tension forces of relatively long hanger ropes without any problem, however it is convinced that the vibration method is not applicable for shorter hanger ropes in which the influence of flexural stiffness is not ignorable. Therefore, as an alternative of vibration method, a number of feasibility studies of system identification(SI) technique considering flexural stiffness of the hanger ropes are recently performed. In this study, the influence of support condition of the finite element model utilized for the SI method is investigated with numerical examples. The numerical examples are prepared with the specification of the Kwang-Ahn bridge hanger ropes, and it is revealed that the estimation result of the tension force can be varied from -21.6 % to +35.3 % of the exact value according to the consideration of the support condition of FE model. Therefore, it is concluded that the rotational stiffness of the support spring should be included to the list of the identification parameters of the FE model to improve the result of tension estimation.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2018

Suspension bridge cables made of high strength steel wires require periodical maintenance in accordance with the axial force of cable-band bolts, since the bolts in suspension bridges can undergo tension decrease due to creep of cable wires, bolt relaxation, load fluctuation, and cable re-arrangement, etc. Consequently, this study is aimed at investigating and subsequently evaluating the critical factors with respect to the bolt tension-decrease phenomenon in SR suspension bridge in Korea, based on field monitoring, theoretical studies, and field record management works. From the observation, it is interesting to note that the decrease in the bolt tension force is typically accompanied by plastic deformation of the zinc plating layers in the cable wires. In addition, a framework corresponding to generic methodologies to characterize the deformation in terms of the bolt tension-decrease and long-term history management has been developed in this exploratory study.