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

• International journal of steel structures
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.1191-1199
• /
• 2018

Concepts of submerged floating tunnels (SFTs) for land connection have been continuously suggested and developed by several researchers and institutes. To maintain their predefined positions under various dynamic environmental loading conditions, the submerged floating tunnels should be effectively moored by reasonable mooring systems. With rational mooring systems, the design of SFTs should be confirmed to satisfy the structural safety, fatigue, and operability design criteria related to tunnel motion, internal forces, structural stresses, and the fatigue life of the main structural members. This paper presents a feasibility study of a submerged floating tunnel moored by an inclined tendon system. The basic structural concept was developed based on the concept of conventional cable-stayed bridges to minimize the seabed excavation, penetration, and anchoring work by applying tower-inclined tendon systems instead of conventional tendons with individual seabed anchors. To evaluate the structural performance of the new type of SFT, a hydrodynamic analysis was performed in the time domain using the commercial nonlinear finite element code ABAQUS-AQUA. For the main dynamic environmental loading condition, an irregular wave load was examined. A JONSWAP wave spectrum was used to generate a time-series wave-induced hydrodynamic load considering the specific significant wave height and peak period for predetermined wave conditions. By performing a time-domain hydrodynamic analysis on the submerged floating structure under irregular waves, the motional characteristics, structural stresses, and fatigue damage of the floating tunnel and mooring members were analyzed to evaluate the structural safety and fatigue performance. According to the analytical study, the suggested conceptual model for SFTs shows very good hydrodynamic structural performance. It can be concluded that the concept can be considered as a reasonable structural type of SFT.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.57-68
• /
• 2023

Bridge hangers, such as those in suspension and cable-stayed bridges, suffer from cumulative fatigue damage caused by dynamic loads (e.g., cyclic traffic and wind loads) in their service condition. Thus, the identification of damage to hangers is important in preserving the service life of the bridge structure. This study develops a new method for condition assessment of bridge hangers. The tension force of the bridge and the damages in the element level can be identified using the Bayesian optimization method. To improve the number of observed data, the additional mass method is combined the Bayesian optimization method. Numerical studies are presented to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. The influence of different acquisition functions, which include expected improvement (EI), probability-of-improvement (PI), lower confidence bound (LCB), and expected improvement per second (EIPC), on the identification of damage to the bridge hanger is studied. Results show that the errors identified by the EI acquisition function are smaller than those identified by the other acquisition functions. The identification of the damage to the bridge hanger with various types of boundary conditions and different levels of measurement noise are also studied. Results show that both the severity of the damage and the tension force can be identified via the proposed method, thereby verifying the robustness of the proposed method. Compared to the genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and nonlinear least-square method (NLS), the Bayesian optimization (BO) performs best in identifying the structural damage and tension force.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.129-136
• /
• 2023

A special offshore bridge with a high pylon has special structural features.Special offshore bridges have inspection blind spots that are difficult to visually inspect. To solve this problem, safety inspection methods using drones are being studied. In this study, image data of the pylon of a special offshore bridge was acquired using a drone. In addition, an artificial intelligence algorithm was developed to detect damage to the pylon surface. The AI algorithm utilized a deep learning network with different structures. The algorithm applied the stacking ensemble learning method to build a model that formed the ensemble and collect the results.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.619-628
• /
• 2009

To predict the time-dependent behavior of concrete structures, the models which describe the time-dependent characteristics of concrete, i.e. creep and shrinkage are required. However, there must be significant differences between the displacements that are obtained using the given creep and shrinkage models and the measured displacements, because of the uncertainties of creep and shrinkage model itself and those of environmental condition. There are some efforts to reduce these error or uncertainties by using the model which are obtained from creep test for the concrete in construction site. Nevertheless, the predicted values from this model may be still different from the actual values due to the same reason. This study aimed to propose a method of estimating the creep coefficient from the measured displacements of concrete structure, where creep model uncertainty factor was considered as an error factor of creep model. Numerical validation for double composite steel box and concrete beam showed desirable feasibility of the presented method. Consideration of the time-dependent characteristics of creep as one of the error factors make it possible to predict long-term behaviors of concrete structures more realistically, especially long-span PSC girder bridges and concrete cable-stayed bridges of which major problem is the geometry control under construction and maintenance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2009.09a
• /
• pp.133-144
• /
• 2009

Incheon Bridge, 18.4 km long sea-crossing bridge, will be opened to the traffic in October 2009 and this will be the new landmark of the gearing up north-east Asia as well as the largest & longest bridge of Korea. Incheon Bridge is the integrated set of several special featured bridges including a magnificent cable-stayed girder bridge which has a main span of 800 m width to cross the navigation channel in and out of the Port of Incheon. Incheon Bridge is making an epoch of long-span bridge designs thanks to the fully application of the AASHTO LRFD (load & resistance factor design) to both the superstructures and the substructures. A state-of-the-art of the geotechnologies which were applied to the Incheon Bridge construction project is introduced. The most Large-diameter drilled shafts were penetrated into the bedrock to support the colossal superstructures. The bearing capacity and deformational characteristics of the foundations were verified through the world's largest static pile load test. 8 full-scale pilot piles were tested in both offshore site and onshore area prior to the commencement of constructions. Compressible load beyond 30,000 tonf pressed a single 3 m diameter foundation pile by means of bi-directional loading method including the Osterberg cell techniques. Detailed site investigation to characterize the subsurface properties had been carried out. Geotextile tubes, tied sheet pile walls, and trestles were utilized to overcome the very large tidal difference between ebb and flow at the foreshore site. 44 circular-cell type dolphins surround the piers near the navigation channel to protect the bridge against the collision with aberrant vessels. Each dolphin structure consists of the flat sheet piled wall and infilled aggregates to absorb the collision impact. Geo-centrifugal tests were performed to evaluate the behavior of the dolphin in the seabed and to verify the numerical model for the design. Rip-rap embankments on the seabed are expected to prevent the scouring of the foundation. Prefabricated vertical drains, sand compaction piles, deep cement mixings, horizontal natural-fiber drains, and other subsidiary methods were used to improve the soft ground for the site of abutments, toll plazas, and access roads. Light-weight backfill using EPS blocks helps to reduce the earth pressure behind the abutment on the soft ground. Some kinds of reinforced earth like as MSE using geosynthetics were utilized for the ring wall of the abutment. Soil steel bridges made of corrugated steel plates and engineered backfills were constructed for the open-cut tunnel and the culvert. Diverse experiences of advanced designs and constructions from the Incheon Bridge project have been propagated by relevant engineers and it is strongly expected that significant achievements in geotechnical engineering through this project will contribute to the national development of the longspan bridge technologies remarkably.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.349-359
• /
• 2016

In order to analytically evaluate buffeting responses, the analysis of wind characteristics such as turbulence intensity, turbulence length, gust, roughness coefficient, etc must be a priority. Static aerodynamic force coefficients, flutter coefficients, structural damping ratios, aerodynamic damping ratios and natural frequencies affect the analytical responses. The bridge interested in this paper has being been used for 32 years. As the time passes, current terrain conditions around the bridge are different markedly from the conditions it was built 32 years ago. Also, wind environments were considerably varied by the climate change. For this reason, it is necessary to evaluate the turbulence intensity, length, spectrum and roughness coefficient of the bridge site from full-scale measurements using the structural health monitoring system. The evaluation results indicate that wind characteristics of bridge site is analogous to that of open terrain although the bridge is located on the coastal area. To calculate buffeting responses, the analysis variables such as damping ratios, static aerodynamic force coefficients and natural frequency were evaluated from measured data. The analysis was performed with regard to 4 cases. The evaluated variables from measured data are applied to the first and second analysis cases. And the other analysis cases were performed based on Design Guidelines for Steel Cable Supported Bridges. The calculated responses of each analysis cases are compared with the buffeting response measured at less than 25m/s wind speed. It is verified that the responses by the numerical analysis applying the estimated variables based on full-scale measurements are well agreed with the measured actual buffeting responses under wind speed 25m/s. Also, the extreme wind speed corresponding to a recurrence interval 200 years is derived from Gumbel distribution. The derived wind speed for return period of 200 years is 45m/s. Therefore the buffeting responses at wind speed 45m/s is determined by the analysis applying the estimated variables.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.65-74
• /
• 2012

This paper aimed at the development of a unified wireless control system in order to control various forms of vibration of bridges. This unified wireless control system unified all different systems each of which functioned for difference purpose such as measurement, analysis, judgement, and control of data acquired from the movement of structure. It was designed to control structures with feedback which was returned according to each different situation after analyzing various signals measured about the structure. In this system, every information in each step from measurement to control was wirelessly transmitted to its central system so that a manager was able to effectively monitor the whole process. Just for the case when any system control need to intervene occurred, a graph user interface was designed for better access. In order to evaluate its basic performance, an experiment was carried out to see how signal input and output were done by comparing its results with those of a wired system. On the basis of the experiment, a vibration control experiment was performed on a model of cable-stayed bridge to see if the unified wireless control system worked well in realtime. This was carried out under four conditions, and the graph and quantitative result under each condition were compared each other. All experiments proved that the unified wireless control system functioned as well as the wired one in terms of its basic performance and vibration control.