• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.80 no.6
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• pp.749-765
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• 2021

Suspension bridges bear large eccentric live loads in rush hours when most vehicles travel in one direction on the left or right side of the bridge. With the increasing number and weight of vehicles and the girder widening, the eccentric live load effect on the bridge behavior, including bending and distortion of the main girder, gets more pronounced, even jeopardizing bridge safety. This study proposes an analytical algorithm based on multi-catenary theory for predicting the suspension bridge responses to eccentric live load via the nonlinear generalized reduced gradient method. A set of governing equations is derived to solve the following unknown values: the girder rigid-body displacement in the longitudinal direction; the horizontal projection lengths of main cable's segments; the parameters of catenary equations and horizontal forces of the side span cable segments and the leftmost segments of middle span cables; the suspender tensions and the bearing reactions. Then girder's responses, including rigid-body displacement in the longitudinal direction, deflections, and torsion angles; suspenders' responses, including the suspender tensions and the hanging point displacements; main cables' responses, including the horizontal forces of each segment; and the longitudinal displacement of the pylons' tower top under eccentric load can be calculated. The response of an exemplar suspension bridge with three spans of 168, 548, and 168 m is calculated by the proposed analytical method and the finite element method in two eccentric live load cases, and their results prove the former's feasibility. The nonuniform distribution of the live load in the lateral direction is shown to impose a greater threat to suspension bridge safety than that in the longitudinal direction, while some other specific features revealed by the proposed method are discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.42-48
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• 2013

Forensic engineering is the application of engineering principles covering the investigation of constructed facilities and systems that fail to perform as intended, causing personal injury or damage to property, environmental, economy etc. In the year 2012, two collapsed accidents of the large scaffolding system in national thermal power station occurred one after another, causing many casualties. In this study, we had performed to investigate the collapsed accident of scaffolding system occurred in the a thermal power station of two accidents. First, the investigation about the collapsed accidents site had performed to understand collapsed state and structures of the scaffolding system. Second, reviewing the materials concerning about the applied weight on the scaffolding system had performed. The applied weight is sum of the weights of the 15 workers, additional materials for coating work and dispersed and loaded shot ball on the foothold etc. the applied weight that calculated exceed more three times than the safe working load. Third, we had confirmed the install state of the materials of the scaffolding system by reviewing the quantity of the materials on the manual and the real system. Last, structural analysis had performed to evaluate structural integrity of the scaffolding system using Ansys. Through a series of this processes, the definite accidents causes of the collapsed scaffolding system revealed. Through these studies, the collapse accident that may occur in the scaffolding system in thermal power station can be minimized by performing specialized and systematic investigation on the accidents in terms of Forensic engineering.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.108-118
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• 2010

Soongeui complex stadium is a reinforced concrete frame structure composed of columns, slabs and beams. The stadium, however, is also a special structure because it has a tall tower of electronic display board and slabs inside its own structure which is different from the structures that had been demolished using blasting by then. Explosive demolition for the stadium was carried out from the left-hand side of the outfield stand to the right considering 2 rows of columns supporting the stand as a blasting unit. An overturning demolition method was applied to the tower of electronic display board. Water bags that played the role of multipurpose protection were applied to control the dust. As a result, the demolition project of the special structure of Soongeui complex stadium was judged to be a great success.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.4
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• pp.425-434
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• 2020

Practical non-synoptic fluctuating wind often exhibits nonstationary features and should be modeled as nonstationary random processes. Generally, the coherence function of the fluctuating wind field has time-varying characteristics. Some studies have shown that there is a big difference between the fluctuating wind field of the coherent function model with and without time variability. Therefore, it is of significance to simulate nonstationary fluctuating wind field with time-varying coherent function. However, current studies on the numerical simulation of nonstationary fluctuating wind field with time-varying coherence are very limited, and the proposed approaches are usually based on the traditional spectral representation method with low simulation efficiency. Especially, for the simulation of multi-variable wind field of large span structures such as transmission tower-line, not only the simulation is inefficient but also the matrix decomposition may have singularity problem. In this paper, it is proposed to conduct the numerical simulation of nonstationary fluctuating wind field in one-spatial dimension with time-varying coherence based on the wavenumber-frequency spectrum. The simulated multivariable nonstationary wind field with time-varying coherence is transformed into one-dimensional nonstationary random waves in the simulated spatial domain, and the simulation by wavenumber frequency spectrum is derived. So, the proposed simulation method can avoid the complicated Cholesky decomposition. Then, the proper orthogonal decomposition is employed to decompose the time-space dependent evolutionary power spectral density and the Fourier transform of time-varying coherent function, simultaneously, so that the two-dimensional Fast Fourier transform can be applied to further improve the simulation efficiency. Finally, the proposed method is applied to simulate the longitudinal nonstationary fluctuating wind velocity field along the transmission line to illustrate its performances.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.699-713
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• 2020

The aerodynamic performance of long-span cable-stayed bridges is much dependent on its geometrical configuration and countermeasure strategies. In present study, the aerodynamic performance of three composite cable-stayed bridges with different tower configurations and passive aerodynamic countermeasure strategies is systematically investigated by conducting a series of wind tunnel tests in conjunction with theoretical analysis. The structural characteristics of three composite bridges were firstly introduced, and then their stationary aerodynamic performance and wind-vibration performance (i.e., flutter performance, VIV performance and buffeting responses) were analyzed, respectively. The results show that the bridge with three symmetric towers (i.e., Bridge I) has the lowest natural frequencies among the three bridges, while the bridge with two symmetric towers (i.e., Bridge II) has the highest natural frequencies. Furthermore, the Bridge II has better stationary aerodynamic performance compared to two other bridges due to its relatively large drag force and lift moment coefficients, and the improvement in stationary aerodynamic performance resulting from the application of different countermeasures is limited. In contrast, it demonstrates that the application of both downward vertical central stabilizers (UDVCS) and horizontal guide plates (HGP) could potentially significantly improve the flutter and vortex-induced vibration (VIV) performance of the bridge with two asymmetric towers (i.e., Bridge III), while the combination of vertical interquartile stabilizers (VIS) and airflow-depressing boards (ADB) has the capacity of improving the VIV performance of Bridge II.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.313-350
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• 2016

Taipei 101 Tower, which has 101 stories with height of 508 m, is located in Taipei where typhoons and earthquakes commonly occur. It is currently the second tallest building in the world. Therefore, the dynamic performance of the super-tall building under strong wind actions requires particular attentions. In this study, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) integrated with a new inflow turbulence generator and a new sub-grid scale (SGS) model was conducted to simulate the wind loads on the super-tall building. Three-dimensional finite element model of Taipei 101 Tower was established and used to evaluate the wind-induced responses of the high-rise structure based on the simulated wind forces. The numerical results were found to be consistent with those measured from a vibration monitoring system installed in the building. Furthermore, the equivalent static wind loads on the building, which were computed by the time-domain and frequency-domain analysis, respectively, were in satisfactory agreement with available wind tunnel testing results. It has been demonstrated through the validation studies that the numerical framework presented in this paper, including the recommended SGS model, the inflow turbulence generation technique and associated numerical treatments, is a useful tool for evaluation of the wind loads and wind-induced responses of tall buildings.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.435-449
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• 2020

To effectively extract the vast wind resource, offshore wind turbines are designed with large rotor and slender tower, which makes them vulnerable to external vibration sources such as wind and wave loads. Substantial research efforts have been devoted to mitigate the unwanted vibrations of offshore wind turbines to ensure their serviceability and safety in the normal working condition. However, most previous studies investigated the vibration control of wind turbines in one direction only, i.e., either the out-of-plane or in-plane direction. In reality, wind turbines inevitably vibrate in both directions when they are subjected to the external excitations. The studies on both the in-plane and out-of-plane vibration control of wind turbines are, however, scarce. In the present study, the NREL 5 MW wind turbine is taken as an example, a detailed three-dimensional (3D) Finite Element (FE) model of the wind turbine is developed in ABAQUS. To simultaneously control the in-plane and out-of-plane vibrations induced by the combined wind and wave loads, another carefully designed (i.e., tuned) spring and dashpot are added to the perpendicular direction of each Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) system that is used to control the vibrations of the tower and blades in one particular direction. With this simple modification, a bi-directional TMD system is formed and the vibrations in both the out-of-plane and in-plane directions are simultaneously suppressed. To examine the control effectiveness, the responses of the wind turbine without control, with separate TMD system and the proposed bi-directional TMD system are calculated and compared. Numerical results show that the bi-directional TMD system can simultaneously control the out-of-plane and in-plane vibrations of the wind turbine without changing too much of the conventional design of the control system. The bi-directional control system therefore could be a cost-effective solution to mitigate the bi-directional vibrations of offshore wind turbines.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2014

This paper presents the determination of the structural system of the Changsha IFC T1 tower with 452 m in architectural height and 440.45 m in structural height. Sensitivity analyses are carried out by varying the location of belt trusses and outriggers. The enhancement of seismic capacity of the outer frame by reasonably adjusting the column size is confirmed based on parametric studies. The results from construction simulation including the non-load effect of structures demonstrate that the deformation of vertical members has little effect on the load-bearing capacity of belt trusses and outriggers. The elastoplastic time-history analysis shows that the overall structure under rare earthquake load remains in an elastic state. The influence of the frame shear ratio and frame overturning moment ratio on the proposed model and equivalent mega column model is investigated. It is found that the frame overturning moment ratio is more applicable for judging the resistance of the outer frame against lateral loads. Comparison is made on the variation of these two effects between a classical frame-core tube-outrigger structure and a structure with diagonal braces between super columns under rare earthquakes. The results indicate that plasticity development of the top core cube of the braced structure may be significantly improved.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.407-424
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• 2015

To explore the favorable structural system of cable-stayed bridges with ultra-kilometer main span, based on a fully self-anchored cable-stayed bridge with 1400 m main span, a partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridge scheme with the same main span is designed. Numerical investigation on the dynamic characteristics, aerostatic and aerodynamic stability of both two bridge schemes is conducted, and the results are compared to those of a suspension bridge with similar main span, and considering from the aspect of wind stability, the feasibility of using partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridge in super long-span bridges with ultra-kilometer main span is discussed. Moreover, the effects of structural design parameters including the length of earth-anchored girder, the number of auxiliary piers in side span, the height and width of girder, the tower height etc on the dynamic characteristics, aerostatic and aerodynamic stability of a partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridge are analyzed, and their reasonable values are proposed. The results show that as compared to fully self-anchored cable-stayed bridge and suspension bridge with similar main span, the partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridge has greater structural stiffness and better aerostatic and aerodynamic stability, and consequently becomes a favorable structural system for super long-span bridges with ultra-kilometer main span. The partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridge can achieve greater stiffness and better wind stability under the cases of increasing the earth-anchored girder length, increasing the height and width of girder, setting several auxiliary piers in side span and increasing the tower height.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.281-303
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• 2014

In order to suppress the wind-induced vibrations of the Canton Tower, a pair of active mass driver (AMD) systems has been installed on the top of the main structure. The structural principal directions in which the bending modes of the structure are uncoupled are proposed and verified based on the orthogonal projection approach. For the vibration control design in the principal X direction, the simplified model of the structure is developed based on the finite element model and modified according to the field measurements under wind excitations. The AMD system driven by permanent magnet synchronous linear motors are adopted. The dynamical models of the AMD subsystems are determined according to the open-loop test results by using nonlinear least square fitting method. The continuous variable gain feedback (VGF) control strategy is adopted to make the AMD system adaptive to the variation in the intensity of wind excitations. Finally, the field tests of free vibration control are carried out. The field test results of AMD control show that the damping ratio of the first vibration mode increases up to 11 times of the original value without control.