• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.111-129
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• 2015

This paper first presents an experimental study of twelve specimens for their creep performance, including nine concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns and three plain concrete columns, subjected to three levels of sustained axial loads for 1710 days. Then, the creep strain curves are predicted from the existing creep models including the ACI 209 model, the MC 78 model, and the MC 90 model, and further a fitted creep model is obtained by experimental data. Finally, the creep effects of a CFST arch bridge are analyzed to compare the accuracy of the existing creep models. The experimental results show that the creep strains in CFST specimens are far less than in the plain concrete specimens and still increase after two years. The ACI 209 model outperforms the MC 78 model and the MC 90 model when predicting the creep behavior of the CFST specimens. Analysis results indicate that the creep effects in the CFST arch bridge are significant. The deflections and stresses calculated by the ACI 209 model are the closest to the fitted model in the three existing models, demonstrating that the ACI 209 model can be used for creep analysis of CFST arch bridges and can meet the engineering accuracy requirement when lack of experimental data.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.379-397
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• 2016

Due to creep and shrinkage of the concrete core, concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) arches continue to deform in the long-term under sustained loads. This paper presents analytical investigations of the effects of geometric nonlinearity on the long-term in-plane structural performance and stability of three-pinned CFST circular arches under a sustained uniform radial load. Non-linear long-term analysis is conducted and compared with its linear counterpart. It is found that the linear analysis predicts long-term increases of deformations of the CFST arches, but does not predict any long-term changes of the internal actions. However, non-linear analysis predicts not only more significant long-term increases of deformations, but also significant long-term increases of internal actions under the same sustained load. As a result, a three-pinned CFST arch satisfying the serviceability limit state predicted by the linear analysis may violate the serviceability requirement when its geometric nonlinearity is considered. It is also shown that the geometric nonlinearity greatly reduces the long-term in-plane stability of three-pinned CFST arches under the sustained load. A three-pinned CFST arch satisfying the stability limit state predicted by linear analysis in the long-term may lose its stability because of its geometric nonlinearity. Hence, non-linear analysis is needed for correctly predicting the long-term structural behaviour and stability of three-pinned CFST arches under the sustained load. The non-linear long-term behaviour and stability of three-pinned CFST arches are compared with those of two-pinned counterparts. The linear and non-linear analyses for the long-term behaviour and stability are validated by the finite element method.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.109-122
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• 2016

Concrete creep, while significantly changing the static behaviors of concrete filled steel tube (CFST) structures, do alter the structures' dynamic behaviors as well, which is studied quite limitedly. The attempt to investigate the influence of concrete creep on the dynamic property and response of CFST arch bridges was made in this paper. The mechanism through which creep exerts its influence was analyzed first; then a predicative formula was proposed for the concrete elastic modulus after creep based on available test data; finally a numerical analysis for the effect of creep on the dynamic behaviors of a long-span half-through CFST arch bridge was conducted. It is demonstrated that the presence of concrete creep increases the elastic modulus of concrete, and further magnifies the seismic responses of the displacement and internal force in some sections of the bridge. This influence is related closely to the excitation and the structure, and should be analyzed case-by-case.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.263-279
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• 2022

With the span and arch rib size of concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) arch bridges increase, the hydration heat of pumped mass concrete inside large-size steel tube causes a significant temperature variation, leading to a risk of thermal stress-induced cracking during construction. In order to tackle this phenomenon, a hydration heat conduction model based on hydration degree was established through a nonlinear temperature analysis incorporating an exothermic hydration process to obtain the temperature field of large-size CFST. Subsequently, based on the evolution of elastic modulus based on hydration degree and early-age creep rectification, the finite element model (FEM) model and analytical study were respectively adopted to investigate the variation of the thermal stress of CFST during hydration heat release, and reasonable agreement between the results of two methods is found. Finally, a comparative study of the thermal stress with and without considering early-age creep was conducted.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.423-434
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• 2011

Tongwamen Bridge is a critical link between Dongmen Island and the land in Shipu town, Zhejiang province, China. It is a 238 m span, half-through, concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) X-type arch bridge. The width of the deck is only 10 m, yielding a width-to-span ratio of 1/23.8. The plane truss type section rib was adopted, which made of two CFST chords and web member system. The lateral stability is the key issue to this bridge. However, the existing researches on Tongwamen Bridge's lateral stability are all the deterministic structural analysis. In this paper, a new strategy for positioning sampling points of the response surface method (RSM), based on the composite method combining RSM with geometric method for structural reliability analysis, is employed to obtain the reliability index of lateral stability. In addition the correlated parameters were discussed in detail to find the major factors. According to the analysis results, increasing the stiff of lateral braces between the arch ribs and setting the proper inward-incline degree of the arch rib can enhance obviously the reliability of lateral stability. Moreover, the deck action of non-orienting force is less than the two factors above. The calculated results indicate that the arch ribs are safe enough to keep excellent stability, and it provides the foundation that the plane truss rib would be a competitive solution for a long-span, narrow, CFST arch bridge.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.5
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• pp.645-655
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• 2017

To determine the seismic applicability of a long-span railway concrete upper-deck arch bridge with concrete-filled steel-tube (CFST) rigid skeleton ribs, some fundamental principles and seismic approaches for long-span bridges are investigated to update the design methods in the current Code for Seismic Design of Railway Engineering of China. Ductile and mixed isolation design are investigated respectively to compare the structural seismic performances. The flexural moment and plastic rotation demands and capacities are quantified to assess the seismic status of the ductile components. A kind of triple friction pendulum (TFP) system and lead-plug rubber bearing are applied simultaneously to regularize the structural seismic demands. The numerical analysis shows that the current ductile layout with continuous rigid frame approaching spans should be strengthened to satisfy the demands of rare earthquakes. However, the mixed isolation design embodies excellent seismic performances for the continuous girder approaching span of this railway arch bridge.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.389-403
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• 2010

Based on the Model Coupled Method (MCM), a case study has been carried out on a Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular (CFST) tied arch bridge to investigate the vibration problem. The mathematical model assumed a finite element representation of the bridge together with beam, shell, and link elements, and the vehicle simulation employed a three dimensional linear vehicle model with seven independent degrees-of-freedom. A well-known power spectral density of road pavement profiles defined the road surface roughness for Perfect, Good and Poor roads respectively. In virtue of a home-code program, the dynamic interaction between the bridge and vehicle model was simulated, and the dynamic amplification factors were computed for displacement and internal force. The impact effects of the vehicle on different bridge members and the influencing factors were studied. Meanwhile the acceleration responses of some of the components were analyzed in the frequency domain. From the results some valuable conclusions have been drawn.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1306-1317
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• 2018

For determining the in-plane buckling resistance of a concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) arch, the current technical code GB50923-2013 specifies the use of an equivalent beam-column method which ignores the effect of rise-to-span ratio. This may induce a gap between the calculated result and actual stability capacity. In this study, a FE model is used to predict the buckling behavior of CFST truss arches subjected to uniformly distributed loads. The influence of rise-to-span ratio on the capacity of truss arches is investigated, and it is found that the stability capacity reduces as rise-to-span ratio declines. Besides, the calculations of equivalent slenderness ratio for different truss sections are made to consider the effect of shear deformation. Moreover, based on FE results, a new design equation is proposed to predict the in-plane strength of CFST parabolic truss arches under uniformly distributed loads.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.175-180
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• 2017

The load-carrying capacity and structural behavior of concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) structures is highly influenced by the grouting compactness in the steel tube. Due to the invisibility of the grout in the steel tube, monitoring of the grouting progress in such a structure is still a challenge. This paper develops an active sensing approach with combined piezoceramic-based smart aggregates (SA) and piezoceramic patches to monitor the grouting compactness of CFST bridge structure. A small-scale steel specimen was designed and fabricated to simulate CFST bridge structure in this research. Before casting, four SAs and two piezoceramic patches were installed in the pre-determined locations of the specimen. In the active sensing approach, selected SAs were utilized as actuators to generate designed stress waves, which were detected by other SAs or piezoceramic patch sensors. Since concrete functions as a wave conduit, the stress wave response can be only detected when the wave path between the actuator and the sensor is filled with concrete. For the sake of monitoring the grouting progress, the steel tube specimen was grouted in four stages, and each stage held three days for cement drying. Experimental results show that the received sensor signals in time domain clearly indicate the change of the signal amplitude before and after the wave path is filled with concrete. Further, a wavelet packet-based energy index matrix (WPEIM) was developed to compute signal energy of the received signals. The computed signal energies of the sensors shown in the WPEIM demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method in the monitoring of the grouting progress.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.799-808
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• 2017

Failure of a redundant long-span bridge is often described by innumerable failure modes, which make the structural system reliability analysis become a computationally intractable work. In this paper, an innovative procedure is proposed to efficiently identify the dominant failure modes and quantify the structural reliability for a long-span bridge system. The procedure is programmed by ANSYS and MATLAB. Considering the correlation between failure paths, a new branch and bound operation criteria is applied to the traditional stage critical strength branch and bound algorithm. Computational effort can be saved by ignoring the redundant failure paths as early as possible. The reliability of dominant failure mode is computed by FORM, since the limit state function of failure mode can be expressed by the final stage critical strength. PNET method and FORM for system are suggested to be the suitable calculation method for the bridge system reliability. By applying the procedure to a CFST arch bridge, the proposed method is demonstrated suitable to the system reliability analysis for long-span bridge structure.