• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.85 no.4
• /
• pp.531-543
• /
• 2023

The existing concrete bridges are time-varying working systems, where the maintenance strategy should be planned according to the time-varying performance of the bridge. This work proposes a time-dependent residual capacity assessment procedure, which considers the non-stationary bridge load effects under growing traffic and non-stationary structural deterioration owing to material degradations. Lifetime bridge load effects under traffic growth are predicated by the non-stationary peaks-over-threshold (POT) method using time-dependent generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) models. The non-stationary structural resistance owing to material degradation is modeled by incorporating the Gamma deterioration process and field inspection data. A three-span continuous box-girder bridge is illustrated as an example to demonstrate the application of the proposed procedure, and the time-varying reliability indexes of the bridge girder are calculated. The accuracy of the proposed non-stationary POT method is verified through numerical examples, where the shape parameter of the time-varying GPD model is constant but the threshold and scale parameters are polynomial functions increasing with time. The case study illustrates that the residual flexural capacities show a degradation trend from a slow decrease to an accelerated decrease under traffic growth and material degradation. The reliability index for the mid-span cross-section reduces from 4.91 to 4.55 after being in service for 100 years, and the value is from 4.96 to 4.75 for the mid-support cross-section. The studied bridge shows no safety risk under traffic growth and structural deterioration owing to its high design safety reserve. However, applying the proposed numerical approach to analyze the degradation of residual bearing capacity for bridge structures with low safety reserves is of great significance for management and maintenance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.108-115
• /
• 2003

Bridges are rated at two levels by either Load Factor Design (LFD) or Allowable Stress Design (ASD). The lower level rating is called Inventory Rating and the upper level rating is called Operating Rating. To maintain bridges effectively, there is an urgent need to assess actual bridge loading carrying capacity and to predict their remaining life from a system reliability viewpoint. The lifetime functions are introduced and explained to predict the time-dependent failure probability. The bridge studied in this paper was built 30 years ago in rural area. For this bridge, the load test and rehabilitation were conducted. The time-dependent system failure probability is predicted with or without rehabilitation. As a case study, an optional rehabilitation is suggested, and fir this rehabilitation, load rating is computed and the time-dependent system failure probability is predicted. Based on rehabilitation costs and extended service lifes, the optimal rehabilitation is suggested.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
• /
• v.1 no.4
• /
• pp.230-235
• /
• 2011

Reinforced polyurethane foam (RPUF) is one of the important materials of Mark III type insulation systems used in liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo containment systems. However, RPUF is the most difficult material to use with regard to its safety assessment, because there is little public and reliable data on its mechanical properties, and even some public data show relatively large differences. In this study, to investigate the structural response of the system under compressive loads such as sloshing action, time-dependent characteristics of RPUF were examined. A series of compressive load tests of the insulation system including RPUF under various temperature conditions was carried out using specimens with rectangular section. As a result, the relationship between deformation of RPUF and time is linear and dependent on the loading rate, so the concept of strain rate could be applied to the analysis of the insulation system. Also, we found that the spring constant tends to converge to a value as the loading rate increases and that the convergence level is dependent on temperature.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2000.04a
• /
• pp.233-240
• /
• 2000

Nuclear power plant structures may be exposed to aggressive environmental effects than may cause their strength and stiffness to decrease over their service lives, Although the physics of these damage mechanisms are reasonably well understood and quantitative evaluation of their effects on time-dependent structural behavior is possible in some instances such evaluations are generally very difficult and remain novel. The assessment of existing RC containment in nuclear power plants for continued service must provide quantitative evidence that they are able to withstand future extreme loads during a service period with an acceptable level of reliability. Rational methodologies to perform the reliability assessment can be developed from mechanistic models of structural deterioration using time-dependent structural reliability analysis to take earthquake loading uncertainties into account. The final goal of this study is to develop the reliability analysis of RC containment structures. The cause of the degrading is first clarified and the reliability assessment has been conducted. By introducing stochastic analysis based on random vibration theory the reliability analysis which can determine the failure probabilities has been established.

• Fibers and Polymers
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.313-317
• /
• 2005

The anisotropy in creep behavior of two types of nonwoven fabrics (needle-punched and thermobonded spun laid) has been studied. It has been observed that the amount of time dependent extension depends on the direction, amount of loading and the structure of nonwoven the fabrics. The time dependent extension (creep) for the nonwoven fabric increases with the increase in amount of load. The higher initial extension and creep are observed for needle-punched nonwoven fabric as compared to thermobonded spun-laid nonwoven fabric. The creep behavior of needle-punched nonwoven shows a logarithmic relationship with time, but the thermobonded spun-laid nonwoven fabric does not show such logarithmic relationship. For a particular fabric, the creep is dependent on the fiber arrangement and is minimum in the direction in which the proportion of fiber is maximum and visa versa.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 2001.10a
• /
• pp.417-424
• /
• 2001

It is very important to know the magnitude of the restraint moment which is appeared at the inner-support of the continuous PSC girder. The Age-adjusted Effective Modulus Method(AEMM) is used to get the magnitude of the restraint moment for the purpose of the time-dependent analysis of the concrete. The important factors for computing the restraint moment, the creep coefficient and the shrinkage strain are computed by comparing Korean specification with AC1209. The restrain moment is created by the individual continuity load. The main purpose of this paper is ensuring the safety of structure by acquiring the time-dependent stress acting on the concrete because the process of construction is getting difficult due to the advance of technology. The negative moment at the inner-support is decreased about 55% by introducing the process of making the continuous bridge relatively early.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 2002.04a
• /
• pp.27-34
• /
• 2002

In the case of reinforced concrete structures, the knowledge of load transfer in the long-term behavior analysis considering construction sequence is very important. Even though long-term behavior of concrete structures has been widely studied, the studies on the time-dependent axial force variation of shore have been scarce to date. In order to investigate the shore behaviors under actual construction conditions, a three-story test frame was constructed on a construction site. The entire construction schedule for the test frame was made to follow the schedule of an actual three-story frame. To analyze the data collected from the test frame, an analysis method based on the Winkler foundation model was developed. This analysis method accurately Predicts the time-dependent behavior of shore. The analysis results coincide well with those obtained by the Midas GENw program

• International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.170-177
• /
• 2003

The electric power load during the summer peak time is strongly affected by cooling load, which decreases the preparation ratio of electricity and brings about the failure in the supply of electricity in the electric power system. The ice storage system and heat pump system etc. are used to settle this problem. In this study, the method of estimating temperature and humidity to forecast the cooling load of ice storage system is suggested. The method of forecasting the cooling load using neural network is also suggested. The daily cooling load is mainly dependent on actual temperature and humidity of the day. The simulation is started with forecasting the temperature and humidity of the following day from the past data. The cooling load is then simulated by using the forecasted temperature and humidity data obtained from the simulation. It was observed that the forecasted data were closely approached to the actual data.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.345-365
• /
• 2003

The adoption of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) rebars (whose behaviour is elastic-brittle) in reinforced concrete (RC) cross sections requires the assessment of the influence of time-dependent behaviour of concrete on the load-carrying capacity of these sections. This paper presents a method of computing the load-carrying capacity of sections that are at first submitted to a constant long-term service load and then overloaded up to ultimate load. The method solves first a non-linear visco-elastic problem, and then a non-linear instantaneous analysis up to ultimate load that takes into account the self-equilibrated stress distribution previously computed. This method is then adopted to perform a parametric analysis that shows that creep and shrinkage of concrete increase the load-carrying capacity of the cross section reinforced with FRP and allows for the suggestion of simple design rules.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.33-47
• /
• 1992

A study for the material and geometric nonlinear analysis of segmentally erected cable-supported prestressed concrete plane frames including the time-dependent effects due to load history, creep, shrinkage, aging of concrete, and relaxation of prestressing steel and cable is presented. Updated Lagrangian formulation is used to account for the nonlinear behavior of the structure. For the time-dependent analysis. the time domain is divided into a discrete number of intervals, and a step-forward integration is performed as the solution progresses in the time domain. At each time step. a nonlinear finite element analysis is performed in the space domain. Segmental erection methods are implemented by providing the capability to change the configuration of the structure at any time step of the solution. The computer program CFRAME is developed and a series of numerical examples are presented to study the validity of the program.