• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.215-227
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• 2017

A finite element model (FEM) for predicting early-age behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge deck slabs with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars is presented. In this model, the shrinkage profile of concrete accounted for the effect of surrounding conditions including air flow. The results of the model were verified against the experimental test results, published by the authors. The model was verified for cracking pattern, crack width and spacing, and reinforcement strains in the vicinity of the crack using different types and ratios of longitudinal reinforcement. The FEM was able to predict the experimental results within 6 to 10% error. The verified model was utilized to conduct a parametric study investigating the effect of four key parameters including reinforcement spacing, concrete cover, FRP bar type, and concrete compressive strength on the behavior of FRP-RC bridge deck slabs subjected to restrained shrinkage at early-age. It is concluded that a reinforcement ratio of 0.45% carbon FRP (CFRP) can control the early-age crack width and reinforcement strain in CFRP-RC members subjected to restrained shrinkage. Also, the results indicate that changing the bond-slippage characteristics (sand-coated and ribbed bars) or concrete cover had an insignificant effect on the early-age crack behavior of FRP-RC bridge deck slabs subjected to shrinkage. However, reducing bar spacing and concrete strength resulted in a decrease in crack width and reinforcement strain.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2002.11b
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• pp.988-993
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• 2002

The AVT under traffic-induced vibrations was carried out on Namhae suspension bridge in Korea. Mode shapes as well as natural frequencies up to the 15th mode were acquired exactly, and the effect of traffic mass and temperature on measured natural frequencies was investigated. The results from the AVT are compared with those from forced vibration test(FVT) and FE analysis. In the case of long span suspension bridges such as Namhae bridge which has relatively large mass, the results shows that the measured natural frequencies are not affected by vehicle mass. From the results of long-term variation of natural frequencies due to temperature change, it can be said that temperature effect may be predominant to structural demage effect. Therefore, if damage detection methods based on dynamic characteristics of bridges are to be used, the variation should be taken into consideration.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.159-169
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate the inelastic behavior of hollow reinforced concrete bridge column sections with reinforcement details for material quantity reduction and to provide the details and reference data. Among the numerous parameters, this study concentrates on the shape of the section, the reinforcement details, the diameter of the transverse reinforcement and loading types. Eighteen column section specimens were tested under quasi-static monotonic loading. In this study, the computer program RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology) was used. A modified lateral confining effect model was adopted for the hollow bridge column sections. This study documents the testing of hollow reinforced concrete bridge column sections with reinforcement details for material quantity reduction and presents conclusions based on the experimental and analytical findings.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.551-561
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• 2018

The percolation of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) in cementitious materials is of great importance to the transport properties and durability issues. This paper presents numerical simulation research on the ITZ percolation threshold of mortar specimens at meso-scale. To simulate the meso-scale model of mortar as realistically as possible, the aggregates are simplified as ellipsoids with arbitrary orientations. Major and minor aspect ratios are defined to represent the global shape characteristics of aggregates. Some algorithms such as the burning algorithm, Dijkstra's algorithm and Connected-Component Labeling (CCL) algorithm are adopted for identification of connected ITZ clusters and percolation detection. The effects of gradation and aspect ratios of aggregates on ITZ percolation threshold are quantitatively studied. The results show that (1) the ITZ percolation threshold is mainly affected by the specific surface area (SSA) of aggregates and shows a global decreasing tendency with an increasing SSA; (2) elongated ellipsoidal particles can effectively bridge isolated ITZ clusters and thus lower the ITZ percolation threshold; (3) as ITZ volume fraction increases, the bridging effect of elongated particles will be less significant, and has only a minor effect on ITZ percolation threshold; (4) it is the ITZ connectivity that is essentially responsible for ITZ percolation threshold, while other factors such as SSA and ITZ volume fraction are only the superficial reasons.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.91 no.1
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• pp.103-121
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• 2024

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is a numerical technique used in dynamic analysis to simulate the fluid-like behavior of materials under extreme conditions, such as those encountered in explosions or high velocity impacts. In SPH, fluid or solid materials are discretized into particles. These particles interact with each other based on certain smoothing kernels, allowing the simulation of fluid flows and predict the response of solid materials to shock waves, like deformation, cracking or failure. One of the main advantages of SPH is its ability to simulate these phenomena without a fixed grid, making it particularly suitable for analyzing complex geometries. In this study, the structural damage to a masonry arch bridge subjected to blast loading was investigated. A high-fidelity micro-model was created and the explosives were modeled using the SPH approach. The Johnson-Holmquist II damage model and the Mohr-Coulomb material model were considered to evaluate the masonry and backfill properties. Consistent with the principles of the JH-II model, the authors developed a VUMAT code. The explosive charges (50 kg, 168 kg, 425 kg and 1000 kg) were placed in close proximity to the deck and pier of a bridge. The results showed that the 50 kg charges, which could have been placed near the pier by a terrorist, had only a limited effect on the piers. Instead, this charge caused a vertical displacement of the deck due to the confinement effect. Conversely, a 1000 kg TNT charge placed 100 cm above the deck caused significant damage to the bridge.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.1233-1251
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• 2016

In this paper, it is aimed to determine the stochastic response of a suspension bridge subjected to spatially varying ground motions considering the geometric nonlinearity. Bosphorus Suspension Bridge built in Turkey and connects Europe to Asia in Istanbul is selected as a numerical example. The spatial variability of the ground motion is considered with the incoherence, wave-passage and site-response effects. The importance of site-response effect which arises from the difference in the local soil conditions at different support points of the structure is also investigated. At the end of the study, mean of the maximum and variance response values obtained from the spatially varying ground motions are compared with those of the specialised cases of the ground motion model. It is seen that each component of the spatially varying ground motion model has important effects on the dynamic behaviour of the bridge. The response values obtained from the general excitation case, which also includes the site-response effect causes larger response values than those of the homogeneous soil condition cases. The variance values calculated for the general excitation case are dominated by dynamic component at the deck and Asian side tower. The response values obtained for the site-response effect alone are larger than the response values obtained for the incoherence and wave-passage effects, separately. It can be concluded that suspension bridges are sensitive to the spatial variability of ground motion. Therefore, the incoherence, the wave-passage and especially the site-response effects should be considered in the stochastic analysis of this type of engineering structures.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.359-379
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• 2020

Due to susceptibility of bridges in the past earthquakes, vulnerability assessment and strengthening of bridges has gained a particular significance. The objective of the present study is to employ an analytical method for the development of fragility curves, as well as to investigate the effect of strengthening on the RC box-girder bridges. Since fragility curves are used for pre-and post-earthquake planning, this paper has attempted to adopt the most reliable modeling assumptions in order to increase the reliability. Furthermore, to acknowledge the interaction of soil, abutment and pile, the effect of different strengthening methods, such as using steel jacketing and FRP layers, the effect of increase in the bridge pier diameter, and the effect of vertical component of earthquake on the vulnerability of bridges in this study, a three-span RC box-girder bridge was modeled in 9 different cases. Nonlinear dynamic analyses were carried out on the studied bridges subjected to 100 ground motion records via OpenSEES platform. Therefore, the fragility curves were plotted and compared in the four damage states. The results revealed that once the interaction of soil and abutment and the vertical component of the earthquake are accounted for in the calculations, the median fragility is reduced, implying that the bridge becomes more vulnerable. It was also confirmed that steel jackets and FRP layers are suitable methods for pier strengthening which reduces the vulnerability of the bridge.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.317-343
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• 2013

When evaluating flutter instability, it is often assumed that incident wind is normal to the longitudinal axis of a bridge and the flutter critical wind speed estimated from this direction is most unfavorable. However, the results obtained in this study via oblique sectional model tests of four typical types of bridge decks show that the lowest flutter critical wind speeds often occur in the yaw wind cases. The four types of bridge decks tested include a flat single-box deck, a flat ${\Pi}$-shaped thin-wall deck, a flat twin side-girder deck, and a truss-stiffened deck with and without a narrow central gap. The yaw wind effect could reduce the critical wind speed by about 6%, 2%, 8%, 7%, respectively, for the above four types of decks within a wind inclination angle range between $-3^{\circ}$ and $3^{\circ}$, and the yaw wind angles corresponding to the minimal critical wind speeds are between $4^{\circ}$ and $15^{\circ}$. It was also found that the flutter critical wind speed varies in an undulate manner with the increase of yaw angle, and the variation pattern is largely dependent on both deck shape and wind inclination angle. Therefore, the cosine rule based on the mean wind decomposition is generally inapplicable to the estimation of flutter critical wind speed of long-span bridges under skew winds. The unfavorable effect of yaw wind on the flutter instability of long-span bridges should be taken into consideration seriously in the future practice, especially for supper-long span bridges in strong wind regions.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4D
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• pp.523-533
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• 2009

The purpose of the present study is to examine the dynamic interaction characteristics between moving maglev vehicle and guideway bridge system. For this purpose, the dynamic governing equation of 2-dof maglev vehicle using optimal feedback control scheme of LQG was derived with or without consideration of the dynamic interaction between vehicle and guideway bridge system. From the parametric study, it was found that the dynamic interaction effect between bridge and vehicle was large in case of neglecting the railway roughness effect. But if the railway roughness effect was considered, it was observed two analysis results with or without consideration of the dynamic interaction did not show big difference. As a conclusion, it is required to take into account the dynamic interaction effect of bridge and maglev vehicle and the railway roughness for precise evaluation of runnability of maglev vehicle and impact factor of guideway.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.86-95
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• 2012

The BWIM(Bridge Weigh-In-Motion) is a technology to identify vehicle properties, such as weight, speed, axle spacing and running lane, passing over a bridge by using dynamic response of bridge member. Such information will be used for assessing durability and establishing a maintenance strategy of roadway structures. In this paper, as a first step for developing BWIM system, analytical and experimental studies were conducted in order to verify whether the response of vertical stiffener in steel girder bridge can be used to identify vehicle properties running on the bridge. It was known from this study that such vehicle information could be estimated reasonably by using strain time history curve of a vertical stiffener due to running vehicles. It is because the effect of each axle-load of vehicle appears definitely in the curve. However, as the magnitude of strain of vertical stiffener is effected by running pattern of vehicles, further study is necessary to reduce error when estimating vehicle weight.