• Architectural research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.81-89
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• 2005

Over the years, existing bridges have had various degrees of maintenance to extend the service life. As the existing bridges continue to deteriorate, however, each Department of Transportation (DOT) of the United States of America faces increasing demands on the limited funds available for bridge maintenance. Therefore, it is very important for State Department of Transportations to establish Maintenance, Repair, and Rehabilitation (MR&R) strategies for bridge structures such that funds get allocated for appropriate maintenance over the service life. This paper identifies the state-of-art and the state-of-practice of MR&R actions and the use of MR&R strategies in concrete bridge decks. In addition, a questionnaire survey was conducted to identify the type and timing for MR&R actions as well as existing MR&R strategies taken in concrete bridge deck by each DOT. This paper also presents the results of the survey.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.152-156
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• 2003

In this paper, we present the results of an experimental research on the load-deflection characteristics of full-scale concrete bridge decks reinforced with GFRP re-bars. Similar researches have been conducted in many countries to extend the service life of concrete bridge decks, which are under harsh environmental condition. Concrete bridge decks are one of the major concerns for the maintenance of bridges. GFRP re-bar available in the domestic construction market was investigated and the concrete deck reinforced with GFRP re-bars was tested under flexure to investigate the applicability of GFRP re-bar on the bridge deck construction.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.281-303
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• 2009

The lack of safety of bridge deck structures causes frequent repair and strengthening of such structures. The repair induces great loss of economy, not only due to direct cost by repair, but also due to stopping the public use of such structures during repair. The major reason for this frequent repair is mainly due to the lack of realistic and accurate assessment system for the bridge decks. The purpose of the present research was to develop a realistic expert system, called Bridge Slab-Expert which can evaluate reasonably the condition as well as the service life of concrete bridge decks, based on the deterioration models that are derived from both the structural and environmental effects. The diagnosis assessment of deck slabs due to structural and environmental effects are developed based on the cracking in concrete, surface distress and structural distress. Fuzzy logic is utilized to handle uncertainties and imprecision involved. Finally, Bridge Slab-Expert is developed for prediction of safety and remaining service life based on the chloride ions penetration and fick's second law. Proposed expert system is based on user-friendly GUI environment. The developed expert system will allow the correct diagnosis of concrete decks, realistic prediction of service life, the determination of confidence level, the description of condition and the proposed action for repair.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.385-402
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• 2004

Nearly 400 composite railway bridge decks of a new kind belonging to the trough type with U-shaped cross section have been constructed in Belgium over the last fifteen years. The construction of these bridge decks is rather complex with the preflexion of precambered steel girders, the prestressing of a concrete slab and the addition of a 2nd phase concrete. Until now, they have been designed with a classical computation method using a pseudo-elastic analysis with modular ratios. Globally, they perform according to the expectations but variability has been observed between the measured and the computed camber of these bridge decks just after the transfer of prestressing and also at long-term. A statistical analysis of the variability of the relative difference between the measured camber and the computed camber is made for a sample of 36 bridge decks using no less than 10 variables. The most significant variables to explain this variability at prestressing are the ratio between the maximum tensile stress reached in the steel girders during the preflexion and the yield strength and the type of steel girder. For the same sample, the long-term camber under permanent loading is computed by two methods and compared with measurements taken one or two years after the construction. The camber computed by the step-by-step method shows a better agreement with the measured camber than the camber computed by the classical method. The purpose of the paper is to report on the statistical analysis which was used to determine the most significant parameters to consider in the modeling in order to improve the prediction of the behaviour of these composite railway bridge decks.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.6D
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• pp.579-586
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• 2012

The main objective of the research is to evaluate the laboratory performances of epoxy asphalt mixtures for long-span steel bridge decks. The aggregate gradations were recommended for field applications. The laboratory performance test results showed that the durability of epoxy asphalt mixtures was more noticeable than that of conventional ones. The structural analysis was conducted using resilient modulus and bond-shear test results. The analysis results revealed that just 9% out of total bond-shear stress was enough for the entire required bond-shear stress in the pavement system. The tensile stresses in the bridge decks were within limits compared to the laboratory test results from the Nanjing Grand Bridge in China. As a result, the laboratory performances of the epoxy asphalt mixtures for long-span steel bridge decks were better than those of conventional asphalt mixtures. However, the laboratory performance tests of epoxy asphalt mixtures for long-span steel bridge decks should be conducted precisely since the strengths of the mixtures are sensitive to the temperatures and curing times.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.556-565
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• 2002

The concrete bridge decks on the main girder will usually develop initial cracks in the longitudinal or the transverse direction due to dry shrinkage and temperature change, and as the bridge decks age the crack will gradually develop in different directions due to repeated cyclic loads. The strengthening direction of the concrete bridge deck is a very important factor in improving proper structural behavior. Therefore, in this study, theoretical analyses of strengthened bridge decks were performed using the nonlinear finite element method. To improve the accuracy of the analytical result, boundary conditions and material property of strengthening material was simulated by laboratory condition and test results, respectively. The effect of the strengthening direction and the amount of strengthening material were estimated and compared to the experimental results. The efficiency of the strengthened bridge decks by strengthening variables such as the amount, width and thickness of CFS was observed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.81-86
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• 2001

The concrete bridge decks are in need of replacement and rehabilitation due to decreasing load carrying capacity. In this study, to propose a strengthening technique that improves usability and structural performance of the bridge deck and to propose an efficient strengthening design technique which satisfies both the strength End serviceability of the bridge deck, this paper shows the failure characteristics of the strengthened bridge decks and proposes an empirical yield criterion. Therefore, strengthening efficiency was proposed based on the experiment and yield line analysis result. The yield line theory which adopts the modified criteria of Johansen is considered to predict the ultimate strength about all strengthening material(Carbon Fiber Sheet, Carbon Fiber Rod, Grid Type Carbon Fiber).

• Wind and Structures
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• v.5 no.2_3_4
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• pp.101-114
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• 2002

Both a Finite Volume and a Discrete Vortex technique to solve the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations have been employed to study the air flow around long-span bridge decks. The implementation and calibration of both methods is described alongside a quasi-3D extension added to the DVM solver. Applications to the wind engineering of bridge decks include flow simulations at different angles of attack, calculation of aerodynamic derivatives and fluid-structure interaction analyses. These are being presented and their specific features described. If a numerical method shall be employed in a practical design environment, it is judged not only by its accuracy but also by factors like versatility, computational cost and ease of use. Conclusions are drawn from the analyses to address the question of whether computer simulations can be practical design tools for the wind engineering of bridge decks.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.31-41
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• 2020

A new type of bridge deck section consisting of four-box decks, two side decks for vehicular traffic lanes and two middle decks for railway traffic, has been experimentally investigated for determining its aerodynamic properties. The eight flutter derivatives were determined by the Iterative Least Squares (ILS) method for this new type of four-box deck model, with two windshields of 30 mm and 50 mm height respectively. Wind tunnel experiments were performed for angles of attack α = ±6°, ±4°, ±2° and 0° and Re numbers of 4.85×105 to 6.06×105 and it was found that the four-box deck with the 50 mm windshields had a better aerodynamic performance. Also, the results showed that the installation of the windshields reduced the values of the lift coefficient CL for the negative angles attack in the range of -6° to 0°, but the drag coefficient CD increased in the positive angle of attack range. However, galloping instability was not encountered for the tested reduced wind speeds, of up to 9.8. The aerodynamic force coefficients and the flutter derivatives for the four-box deck model were consistent with the results reported for the Messina triple-box bridge deck, but were different from those reported for the twin-box bridge decks.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.697-700
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• 2000

Fatigue damage to reinforced concrete bridge decks have been found in many bridges. Failure mode of most reinforced concrete decks is caused by local punching shear rather than flexural moment due to cumulated damage. In this study, mechanical degradation of unstrengthened and strengthened bridge deck specimens is experimentally investigated. The unstrengthened deck specimens were damaged under the pulsating loading condition. After the test, deteriorated deck specimens were strengthened with Carbon Fiber Sheet, then loaded to observe the improvement of the fatigue behavior. It is shown that fatigue damaged specimens are similar to real bridge rather than static damaged specimens.