• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.109-116
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• 2012

This paper presents a study on the nonlinear behavior of an innovative bridge girder made from concrete-filled and tied tubular steel arch (CFTA) under static loading. Manufacturing of the CFTA girder may have defects which may highly affect the symmetry and performance of the structure. A simple method is proposed by using stiffness extracted from static test data to detect manufacturing defects of the CFTA girder. A three-dimensional finite element model was used in the numerical analysis in order to verify the method. The proposed method was experimentally validated through static tests of the CFTA girder. The application of the proposed method showed that it is effective in identifying invisible manufacturing defects of the CFTA girder, especially for mass production of a standard type in the factory.