• Wind and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.125-146
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• 2006

Stonecutters Bridge of Hong Kong is a cable-stayed bridge with two single-column pylons each 298 m high and an aerodynamic twin deck. The total length of the bridge is 1596 m with a main span of 1018 m. The top 118 m of the tower will comprise structural steel and concrete composite while the bottom part will be of reinforced concrete. The bridge deck at the central span will be of steel whilst the side spans will be of concrete. Stonecutters Bridge has adopted a twin-girder deck design with a wide clear separation of 14.3 m between the two longitudinal girders. Although a number of studies have been conducted to investigate the aerodynamic performance of twin-girder deck, the actual real life application of this type of deck is extremely limited. This therefore triggered the need for conducting the present studies, the main objective of which is to investigate the performance of Stonecutters Bridge against flutter at its in-service stage as well as during construction. Based on the flutter derivatives obtained from the 1:80 scale rigid section model experiment, flutter analysis was carried out using 3-D finite element based single parameter searching method developed by the second author of this paper. A total of 6 finite element models of the bridge covering the in-service stage as well as 5 construction stages were established. The dynamic characteristics of the bridge associated with these stages were computed and applied in the analyses. Apart from the critical wind speeds for the onset of flutter, the dominant modes of vibration participating in the flutter vibration were also identified. The results indicate that the bridge will be stable against flutter at its in-service stage as well as during construction at wind speeds much higher than the verification wind speed of 95 m/s (1-minute mean).

• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.417-430
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• 2019

To study the wake influence of an upstream bridge on the wind-resistance performance of a downstream bridge, two adjacent long-span cable-stayed bridges are taken as examples. Based on wind tunnel tests, the static aerodynamic coefficients and the dynamic response of the downstream bridge are measured in the wake of the upstream one. Considering different horizontal and vertical distances, the flutter derivatives of the downstream bridge at different angles of attack are extracted by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and discussed, and the change in critical flutter state is further studied. The results show that a train passing through the downstream bridge could significantly increase the lift coefficient of the bridge which has the same direction with the gravity of the train, leading to possible vertical deformation and vibration. In the wake of the upstream bridge, the change in lift coefficient of the downstream bridge is reduced, but the dynamic response seems to be strong. The effect of aerodynamic interference on flutter stability is related to the horizontal and vertical distances between the two adjacent bridges as well as the attack angle of incoming flow. At large angles of attack, the aerodynamic condition around the downstream girder which may drive the bridge to torsional flutter instability is weakened by the wake of the upstream bridge, and the critical flutter wind speed increases at this situation.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.211-234
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• 2016

Super long-span bridges provide people with great convenience, but they also bring traffic safety problems caused by strong wind owing to their high decks. In this paper, the large eddy simulation together with dynamic mesh technology in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to explore the mechanism of a moving vehicle's transient aerodynamic force in crosswind, the regularity and mechanism of the vehicle's aerodynamic forces when it passes through a bridge tower's wake zone in crosswind. By comparing the calculated results and those from wind tunnel tests, the reliability of the methods used in the paper is verified on a moving vehicle's aerodynamic forces in a bridge tower's wake region. A vehicle's aerodynamic force coefficient decreases sharply when it enters into the wake region, and reaches its minimum on the leeward of the bridge tower where exists a backflow region. When a vehicle moves on the outermost lane on the windward direction and just passes through the backflow region, it will suffer from negative lateral aerodynamic force and yaw moment in the bridge tower's wake zone. And the vehicle's passing ruins the original vortex structure there, resulting in that the lateral wind on the right side of the bridge tower does not change its direction but directly impact on the vehicle's windward. So when the vehicle leaves from the backflow region, it will suffer stronger aerodynamic than that borne by the vehicle when it just enters into the region. Other cases of vehicle moving on different lane and different directions were also discussed thoroughly. The results show that the vehicle's pneumatic safety performance is evidently better than that of a vehicle on the outermost lane on the windward.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.439-459
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• 2010

Structural health monitoring (SHM) of civil infrastructure using wireless smart sensor networks (WSSNs) has received significant public attention in recent years. The benefits of WSSNs are that they are low-cost, easy to install, and provide effective data management via on-board computation. This paper reports on the deployment and evaluation of a state-of-the-art WSSN on the new Jindo Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge in South Korea with a 344-m main span and two 70-m side spans. The central components of the WSSN deployment are the Imote2 smart sensor platforms, a custom-designed multimetric sensor boards, base stations, and software provided by the Illinois Structural Health Monitoring Project (ISHMP) Services Toolsuite. In total, 70 sensor nodes and two base stations have been deployed to monitor the bridge using an autonomous SHM application with excessive wind and vibration triggering the system to initiate monitoring. Additionally, the performance of the system is evaluated in terms of hardware durability, software stability, power consumption and energy harvesting capabilities. The Jindo Bridge SHM system constitutes the largest deployment of wireless smart sensors for civil infrastructure monitoring to date. This deployment demonstrates the strong potential of WSSNs for monitoring of large scale civil infrastructure.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.889-901
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• 2021

The tension of cables and motion response significantly affect safety of an immersed tunnel element in the immersion process. To investigate those, a hydrodynamic scale-model test was carried out and the model experiments was conducted under wind, current and wave loads simultaneously. The immersion standby (the process that the position of the immersed tunnel element should be located before the immersion process) and immersion process conditions have been conducted and illustrated. At the immersion standby conditions, the maximum force of the cables and motion is much larger at the side of incoming wind, wave and current, the maximum force of Element-6 (6 cables directly tie on the element) is larger than for Pontoon-8 (8 cables tie on pontoon of the element), and the flexible connection can reduce the maximum force of the mooring cables and motion of element (i.e. sway is expecting to decrease approximate 40%). The maximum force of the mooring cables increases with the increase of current speed, wave height, and water depth. The motion of immersed tunnel element increases with increase of wave height and water depth, and the current speed had little effect on it. At the immersion process condition, the maximum force of the cables decrease with the increase of immersion depth, and dramatically increase with the increase of wave height (i.e. the tension of cable F4 of pontoons at wave height of 1.5 m (83.3t) is approximately four times that at wave height of 0.8 m). The current speed has no much effect on the maximum force of the cables. The weight has little effect on the maximum force of the mooring cables, and the maximum force of hoisting cables increase with the increase of weight. The maximum value of six-freedom motion amplitude of the immersed tunnel element decreases with the increase of immersion depth, increase with the increase of current speed and wave height (i.e. the roll motion at wave height of 1.5 m is two times that at wave height of 0.8 m). The weight has little effect on the maximum motion amplitude of the immersed tunnel element. The results are significant for the immersion safety of element in engineering practical construction process.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.403-418
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• 2020

To investigate the effects of central buckles on the dynamic behavior and flutter stability of long-span suspension bridges, four different connection options between the main cable and the girder near the mid-span position of the Aizhai Bridge were studied. Based on the flutter derivatives obtained from wind tunnel tests, formulations of self-excited forces in the time domain were obtained using a nonlinear least square fitting method and a time-domain flutter analysis was realized. Subsequently, the influences of the central buckles on the critical flutter velocity, flutter frequency, and three-dimensional flutter states of the bridge were investigated. The results show that the central buckles can significantly increase the frequency of the longitudinal floating mode of the bridge and have greater influence on the frequencies of the asymmetric lateral bending mode and asymmetric torsion mode than on that of the symmetric ones. As such, the central buckles have small impact on the critical flutter velocity due to that the flutter mode of the Aizhai Bridge was essentially the symmetric torsion mode coupled with the symmetric vertical mode. However, the central buckles have certain impact on the flutter mode and the three-dimensional flutter states of the bridge. In addition, it is found that the phenomenon of complex beat vibrations (called intermittent flutter phenomenon) appeared in the flutter state of the bridge when the structural damping is 0 or very low.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.474-482
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• 2021

An average of two to three typhoons that occur in the Philippines or Taiwan pass through Korea each year owing to the influence of the geographical location and western winds. Because Jinhae Bay is known as Korea's representative typhoon refuge, it is filled with ships during typhoons and later becomes saturated with ships anchored to the surrounding routes. If a strong wind drags an anchored ship, a collision accident may occur because of the short distance between the ships. Therefore, a systematic anchoring safety management of Jinhae Bay is required. In this study, the minimum wind speeds of a dragging anchor based on the water depths of Jinhae Bay anchorages were investigated. When 7-9 shackles were given, the minimum wind speeds were 48-63, 46-61, and 39-54 knots at depths of 20, 35, and 50 m, respectively. As the water depth increased, the length of the cable laid on the sea bed became shorter than 5 m owing to the external force, and the minimum wind speed showed a significant difference of 4-8 knots. In addition, ships with high holding power anchors (AC-14 type) had higher minimum wind speeds than ships with conventional anchors (ASS type). Finally, it was confirmed that at a depth of 50 m, dragging easily occurred even when a high holding power anchor was applied.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.108-116
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• 2008

At present, construction automation is a critical solution for the shortage of labor and the aging of skilled workers. Especially, researches for transportation automation are achieved to improve the efficiency as the construction of tall-building construction. Transportation automation needs to control the swung member by the inertia and/or the wind-force at the end of cable. However, previous to control, the presupposition of the swing is heavily difficult work because the inertia and the wind force are irregularly changable according to work condition. Therefore, in this study, dynamic modeling of crane and simulation was performed to find the characteristic of the swing. In the result, the maximum displacement of the swung material was analyzed. And, on the basis of analysis, the criteria to decide workability of automated transportation considering the material size and the wind force onsite was proposed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.9 no.2 s.31
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• pp.269-275
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• 1997

Wind tunnel test results and their interpretations, which were performed to study the aerodynamic stability of tower of self-anchored suspension bridge, are presented in this paper. Tower and full models were tested under smooth and turbulent flow conditions. In the case of the tower with inclined two columns, the vibration due to wakes were occurred at wide velocity zone because the wakes with various frequencies were generated by inclined upstream column. It has to be emphasized that the vibration characteristics of the tower in the self-anchored suspension bridge may be very sensitive to the longitudinal boundary conditions of the girder at the supports. Because of the two natural frequency of the tower, out-of-plane bending and torsional, were not well separated, coupled motions were observed in a wide range of wind velocity. The effectiveness of corner cut, countermeasure to reduce the tower vibrations, was also studied. It has been found that 1:10, comer cut size to column width, may be the most effective ratio for reducing the vibrations.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.479-504
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• 2009

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have been recently embraced in long span cable-supported bridges, in which buffeting-induced stress monitoring is one of the tasks to ensure the safety of the bridge under strong winds. In line with this task, this paper presents a SHM-oriented finite element model (FEM) for the Tsing Ma suspension bridge in Hong Kong so that stresses/strains in important bridge components can be directly computed and compared with measured ones. A numerical procedure for buffeting induced stress analysis of the bridge based on the established FEM is then presented. Significant improvements of the present procedure are that the effects of the spatial distribution of both buffeting forces and self-excited forces on the bridge deck structure are taken into account and the local structural behaviour linked to strain/stress, which is prone to cause local damage, are estimated directly. The field measurement data including wind, acceleration and stress recorded by the wind and structural health monitoring system (WASHMS) installed on the bridge during Typhoon York are analyzed and compared with the numerical results. The results show that the proposed procedure has advantages over the typical equivalent beam finite element models.