• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.713-723
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• 2017

As a new type of ballastless track, longitudinal continuous slab track (CST) has been widely used in China. It can partly isolate the interaction between the ballastless track and the bridge and thus the rail expansion device would be unnecessary. Compared with the traditional track, CST is composed of multi layers of continuous structures and various connecting components. In order to investigate the performance of CST on a long-span bridge, the spatial finite element model considering each layer of the CST structure, connecting components, bridge, and subgrade is established and verified according to the theory of beam-rail interaction. The nonlinear resistance of materials between multilayer track structures is measured by experiments, while the temperature gradients of the bridge and CST are based on the long-term measured data. This study compares the force distribution rules of ballasted track and CST as respectively applied to a long span bridge. The effects of different damage conditions on CST structures are also discussed. The results show that the additional rail stress is small and the CST structure has a high safety factor under the measured temperature load. The rail expansion device can be cancelled when CST is adopted on the long span bridge. Beam end rotation caused by temperature gradient and vertical load will have a significant effect on the rail stress of CST. The additional flexure stress should be considered with the additional expansion stress simultaneously when the rail stress of CST requires to be checked. Both the maximum sliding friction coefficient of sliding layer and cracking condition of concrete plate should be considered to decide the arrangement of connecting components and the ultimate expansion span of the bridge when adopting CST.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2016

The automotive vehicle is made through the following processes such as press shop, welding shop, paint shop, and general assembly. Among them, the most important process to determine the quality of the car body is the welding process. Generally, more than 400 pressed panels are welded to make BIW (Body In White) by using the RSW (Resistance Spot Welding) and GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding). Recently, as the needs of light-weight material due to the $CO_2$ emission issue and fuel efficiency, new joining technologies for aluminum, CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) and etc. are needed. Aluminum parts are assembled by the spot welding, clinching, and SPR (Self Piercing Rivet) and friction stir welding process. Structural adhesive boning is another main joining method for light-weight materials. For example, one piece aluminum shock absorber housing part is made by die casting process and is assembled with conventional steel part by SPR and adhesive bond. Another way to reduce the amount of the car body weight is to use AHSS (Advanced High Strength Steel) panel including hot stamping boron alloyed steel. As the new materials are introduced to car body joining, productivity and quality have become more critical. Productivity improvement technology and adaptive welding control are essential technology for the future manufacturing environment.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.169-177
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• 2016

Sliding slab track system, which consists of low friction sliding layer between track slab and bridge deck, is recently devised to reduce track-bridge interaction effect of continuously welded rail(CWR) without applying special devices such as rail expansion joint(REJ). In this study, a series of track-bridge interaction analyses of a long-span bridge with sliding slab track and REJ are performed respectively and the results are compared. The bridge model includes PSC box girder bridge with 9 continuous spans, and steel-concrete composite girder bridge with 2 continuous spans. The total length of the bridge model is 1,205m, and the maximum spacing between the two fixed supports is 825m. Analyses results showed that the sliding slab track system is highly effective on interaction reduction since lower rail additional axial stress is resulted than REJ application. Additionally, horizontal reaction forces in fixed supports were also reduced compared to the results of REJ application. However, higher slab axial forces were developed in the sliding slab track due to the temperature load. Therefore, track slab section of the sliding slab track system should be carefully designed against slab axial forces.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.241-247
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• 2017

Railway bridges with continuously welded rail have a limitation of span length due to track-bridge interaction. In order to overcome this, a sliding slab track system has been developed that comprises with a low-frictional sliding layer between the bridge deck and the track slab to isolate the longitudinal behavior between the bridge and the track. In this study, a real scale track system is prepared to experimentally evaluate the longitudinal frictional behavior. Applied loading rates were 0.2, 1.0, 5.0 and 10mm/min; vertical mass on the track are track slab only, 5,000 and 10,000kg added mass, respectively. Test results showed that the resulting frictional coefficients varied from 0.22 to 0.33. In addition, 10,000 cycle loadings were applied to simulate repetitive sliding to represent 30 years of service life. The frictional coefficient increase was measured and found to be 7% of that of the initial loading stage, which means that the sliding layer is adequate to provide low-frictional behavior for the sliding slab track system. Effects of changes of the frictional coefficient of the sliding layer were analyzed by rail-structure interaction analysis.