• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.6
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• pp.663-674
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• 2017

This paper presents an approach for evaluating performance of prestressed concrete (PC) bridge girders exposed to fire. A finite element based numerical model for tracing the response of fire exposed T girders is developed in ANSYS. The analysis is carried out in three stages, namely, fire temperature calculation, cross sectional temperature evaluation, and then strength, deformation and effective prestress analysis on girders exposed to elevated temperatures. The applicability of the computer program in tracing the response of PC bridge girders from the initial preloading stage to failure stage, due to combined effects of fire and structure loading, is demonstrated through a case study, and validated by test data of a scaled PC box girder under ISO834 fire condition. Results from the case study show that fire severity has a significant influence on the fire resistance of PC T girders and hydrocarbon fire is most dangerous for the girder. The prestress loss caused by elevated temperature is about 10% under hydrocarbon fire till the girder failure, which can lead to the increase in deflection of the PC girder. The rate of deflection failure criterion is suggested to determine the failure of PC T girder under fire.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.497-507
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• 2020

This paper presents a numerical method for evaluating fire performance of prestressed concrete (PC) T shaped bridge girders under combined effect of structural loading and hydrocarbon fire exposure conditions. A numerical model, developed using the computer program ANSYS, is employed to investigate fire response of PC T shaped bridge girders by taking into consideration structural inherent parameters, namely; arrangement of prestressing strands with in the girder section, thickness of concrete cover over prestressing strands, effective degree of prestress and content of prestressing strands. Then, a sequential thermo-mechanical analysis is performed to predict cross sectional temperature followed by mechanical response of T shaped bridge girders. The validity of the numerical model is established by comparing temperatures, deflections and failure time generated from fire tests. Through numerical studies, it is shown that thickness of concrete cover and arrangement of prestressing strands in girder section have significant influence on the fire resistance of PC T shaped bridge girders. Increase in effective degree of prestress in strands with triangular shaped layout and content in prestressing strands can slow down the progression of deflections in PC T shaped bridge girder towards the final stages of fire exposure, to thereby preventing sudden collapse of the girder. Rate of deflection based failure criterion governs failure in PC T shaped bridge girders under most hydrocarbon fire exposure conditions. Structural inherent parameters incorporated into sectional configuration can significantly enhance fire resistance of PC bridge girders; thus mitigating fire induced collapse of these bridge girders.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.459-473
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• 2012

Post-tensioned concrete voided slab girders are widely used in highway bridge constructions. To obtain greater section hollow rate and reduce the self-weight, the plate thickness of slab girders are designed to be small with the adoption of flat anchorage system. Since large prestress is applied to the anchor end section, it was found that longitudinal shear cracks are easy to occur along the voided slab girder. The reason is the existence of great shearing effect at the junction area between web and bottom (top) plate in the anchor end section. This paper focuses on the longitudinal anti-cracking problem at the anchor end of post-tensioned concrete voided slab girders. Two possible models for longitudinal anticracking analysis are proposed. Differential element analysis method is adopted to derive the solving formula of the critical cracking state, and then the practical analysis method for longitudinal anti-cracking is established. The influence of some factors on the longitudinal anti-cracking ability is studied. Results show that the section dimensions (thickness of bottom, web and top plate) and prestress eccentricity on web plate are the main factors that influence the anti-cracking ability. Moreover, the proposed method is applied into three engineering examples to make longitudinal anti-cracking verification for the girders. According to the verification results, the design improvements for these girders are determined.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.398-405
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• 1997

The finite element program is presented for the analysis of the moment distribution in continuous slabs of simply supported girders. The program includes the material nonlinearity of the continuous and steel reinforcements of the RC slabs, but assumes that the PC beam and cross beam behave linearly. In modeling the PC slabs and girders, the four node degenerated shell element formulated based on the assumed strain interpolation and the 3D beam element are used, respectively. Using the program, the influence of the existence of the cross bean, the filling of open joints on the continuous at supports, and perfect continuation of precast girder elements are examined.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.71-78
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• 2013

Prestressed concrete (PC) is the predominant material in highway bridge construction. The use of high-strength concrete has gained wide acceptance in the PC industry. The main target in the highway industry is to increase the durability and the life-span of bridges. Cracking of elements is one aspect which affects durability. Recently, nine 7.62 meter long PC I-beams made with different concrete strength were designed according to a simple, semi-empirical equation developed at the University of Houston (UH) (Laskar et al., ACI Journal 107(3): 330-339, 2010). The UH Method is a function of shear span-to-depth ratio (a/d), concrete strength $\sqrt{f^{\prime}_c}$, web area $b_wd$, and amount of transverse steel. Based on testing these girders, the shear cracking strength of girders with different concrete strength and different shear span-to-depth ratio was investigated and compared to the available approaches in current codes such as ACI 318-11 (2011) and AASHTO LRFD Specifications (2010).

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.147-168
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• 2017

Over the past couple decades, externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have emerged as a repair and strengthening material for many concrete infrastructure applications. This paper presents an analytical investigation of the use of carbon FRP (CFRP) for a specific problem that occurs in concrete bridge girders wherein the girder ends are damaged by excessive exposure to deicing salts and numerous freezing/thawing cycles. A 3D finite element (FE) model of a full scale prestressed concrete (PC) I-girder is used to investigate the effect of damage to the cover concrete and stirrups in the end region of the girder. Parametric studies are performed using externally bonded CFRP shear laminates to determine the most effective repair schemes for the damaged end region under a short shear span-to-depth ratio. Experimental results on shear pull off tests of CFRP laminates that have undergone accelerated aging are used to calibrate a bond stress-slip model for the interface between the FRP and concrete substrate and approximate the reduced bond stress-slip properties associated with exposure to the environment that causes this type of end region damage. The results of these analyses indicate that this particular application of this material can be effective in recovering the original strength of PC bridge girders with damaged end regions, even after environmental aging.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1991.10a
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• pp.74-79
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• 1991

In order to investigate the behavior of newly developed PC deck plate bridges, 1/2 scale model specimen was tested under the 2 million cycles of fatigue loading. Forces between PC members were transfered by shear keys located at the faces of deck plate and girders. The test results showed that the test specimen maintained its original strength after 2 million cycles of fatigue loading.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.697-706
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• 2011

There are more than 800 railway steel plate girder bridges which are in use and the total length is approximately 50 km. Among these, it shall be pointed out that non-ballast rail systems which lay on wood sleepers are the most critical members. To strengthen this type of structures, mainly two methods have been applied. The first one is the most typical method which is to replace the girders with slab girder system or steel composite girders and to add ballast. It is not uncommon that the construction cost of substructure is more than ten time higher than that of superstructures and even in this case, the structural uncertainty for the substructures is not diminished. To resolve above mentioned problems, new method was developed to rehabilitate railway steel girder bridge by adding PC-slab using transport equipment. Using this method, substructure strengthen is rarely required because the additional weight to the bridge superstructure is only up to 1.0t/m. Also it was possible to save the construction cost by reducing construction duration and by simplifying the construction process. Experimental construction was performed for Jewon bridge and measurements were performed before and after construction to verify the bridge capacity.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.2439-2449
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• 2011

Existing grade crossings between railway and roadway area gradually changed to grade separation systems by the law. In the case of new roadway construction which crosses railways, it shall be grade separation system in principle. With the railway underground crossing method, many practices have been developed which can minimize rail displacements and avoid rail release. With these methods, the effects to the train can be reduced. The underground crossing methods can be identified as open-cut methods and non open-cut methods. The open-cut methods include temporary support methods and special rail construction methods. Also the non open-cut methods includes pipe roof methods, front jacking methods, messer shield methods, NTR methods and JES methods. Among these, the most suitable method is applied considering safety, economy, class of each rail system (train passing frequency and velocity), etc. In the non open-cut methods, the cost and duration shall be increased to keep existing rail system during construction. In the open-cut methods which use plate girders, the rail speed shall be restricted due to the displacement and vibration of the girder. In this study new grade separation methods were developed. With this method, the safety during construction can be increased. This method refines temporary support methods, but pc slab girder with huge stiffness is applied instead of plate girders. With this method, the rail displacement can be reduced and higher safety can be obtained during construction. Also construction cost and duration can be minimized because the temporary work and the overburden soil depth can be reduced.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.263-270
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• 2017

The precast concrete (PC) structure has been preferred for reasons of shortening the construction time and securing the quality and, in particular, it has a cost saving effect in case of long span and heavy loaded structure with high floor height. Most engineers take it for granted to install the plant produced PC members. Researchers in several papers have argued that slander PC members such as columns and girders can be cost-effective if in-situ production is possible, while ensuring quality equal to or better than in-plant production. However, this argument is not officially accepted because objective verification has not been done. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to experimentally conduct in-situ production of PC members to verify the above claim. For this study, a storage building with long span and heavy loaded structure with high floor height was selected as a case study site. For the site, most of the PC members were supplied from the plant, and some of the columns were produced in the site for this study. As a result, it has been confirmed that it has a cost saving effect of 20% while having superior quality to plant-produced PC columns.