• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.59 no.6
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• pp.1095-1120
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• 2016

This paper investigates the change of structural characteristics of steel cable-stayed bridges after cable failure. Cables, considered as the intermediate supports of cable-stayed bridges, can break or fail for several reasons, such as fire, direct vehicle clash accident, extreme weather conditions, and fatigue of cable or anchorage. Also, the replacement of cables can cause temporary disconnection. Because of the structural characteristics with various geometric nonlinearities of cable-stayed bridges, cable failure may cause significant change to the structural state and ultimate behavior. Until now, the characteristics of structural behavior after cable failure have rarely been studied. In this study, rational cable failure analysis is suggested to trace the new equilibrium with structural configuration after the cable failure. Also, the sequence of ultimate analysis for the structure that suffers cable failure is suggested, to study the change of ultimate behavior and load carrying capacity under specific live load conditions. Using these analysis methods, the statical behavior after individual cable failure is studied based on the change of structural configuration, and distribution of internal forces. Also, the change of the ultimate behavior and load carrying capacity under specific live load conditions is investigated, using the proposed analysis method. According to the study, significant change of the statical behavior and ultimate capacity occurs although just one cable fails.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.691-704
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• 2011

This paper presents an investigation on the ultimate behavior of steel cable-stayed bridges in the construction stage, considering various geometric nonlinearities and material nonlinearities. To numerically determine the state of cable-stayed bridges in the construction stage, initial shape analysis and construction stage analysis via backward process analysis were done sequentially. Then nonlinear analysis of the state under the construction load condition, considering the weight of the derrick crane and the key segment of the girder loaded onto the tip of the center span, was performed to investigate the ultimate behavior of the structure. The effects of the girder-mast stiffness ratio, the cable-arrangement types, and the area of the stay cables on the ultimate behavior were also extensively investigated. Moreover, the results of the ultimate analysis, considering both geometric nonlinearities and material nonlinearities, were compared with the results of the geometric nonlinear analysis, for a more meaningful investigation of the ultimate behavior of steel cable-stayed bridges in the construction stage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.44-53
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• 2010

Recently, the external prestressed concrete structures are increasingly being built. The mechanical behavior of prestressed concrete beams with unbonded tendon is different from that of normal bonded PSC beams in that the increment of tendon stress was derived by whole member behavior. By this reason, the ultimate stress of external tendon is smaller than that of bonded tendon or internal unbonded tendon. However, in the domestic and abroad code, the equation of ultimate stress of external tendon is not suggested yet, and the equation of ultimate stress of internal unbonded tendon is used instead of that of external tendon. Therefore, in this paper, after effective variables of ultimate stress of external tendon were analyzed, the analytical equation of ultimate stress of external tendon was proposed. And the reasonable coefficients were proposed by statistical work of test results of 25 beam with external tendon. Finally, the practical proposed equation of ultimate stress of external tendon was proposed with analytical and statistical model. The equation of ACI-318 and AASHTO 1994 were not matched with test results and had no correlations, and the proposed equation was well matched with test results. So the proposed equation in this paper will be a effective basis for the evaluation of external tendons in analysis and design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.477-499
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• 2007

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the ultimate behavior of steel cable-stayed bridges with design variables and compare the validity and applicability of computational methods for evaluating ultimate load capacity of cable-stayed bridges. The methods considered in this paper are elastic buckling analysis, inelastic buckling analysis and nonlinear elasto-plastic analysis. Elastic buckling analysis uses a numerical eigenvalue calculation without considering geometric nonlinearities of cable-stayed bridges and the inelastic material behavior of main components. Inelastic buckling analysis uses an iterative eigenvalue calculation to consider inelastic material behavior, but cannot consider geometric nonlinearities of cable-stayed bridges. The tangent modulus concept with the column strength curve prescribed in AASHTO LRFD is used to consider inelastic buckling behavior. Detailed procedures of inelastic buckling analysis are presented and corresponding computer codes were developed. In contrast, nonlinear elasto-plastic analysis uses an incremental-iterative method and can consider both geometric nonlinearities and inelastic material behavior of a cable-stayed bridge. Proprietary software ABAQUS are used and user-subroutines are newly written to update equivalent modulus of cables to consider geometric nonlinearity due to cable sags at each increment step. Ultimate load capacities with the three analyses are evaluated for numerical models of cable-stayed bridges that have center spans of 600 m, 900 m and 1200 m with different girder depths and live load cases. The results show that inelastic buckling analysis is an effective approximation method, as a simple and fast alternative, to obtain ultimate load capacity of long span cable-stayed bridges, whereas elastic buckling analysis greatly overestimates the overall stability of cable-stayed bridges.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.1327-1336
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• 2013

In this study, the effects of corrugated webs on the ultimate behavior of horizontally curved I-shaped girders are investigated. Because of the geometric characteristics of corrugated plates, corrugated webs can be used for enhancing torsional and warping stiffness of plate girders. Many researches have been conducted to study the effects of corrugated webs on the ultimate behavior of straight girders. But, the studies of the ultimate behavior of horizontally curved girders with corrugated webs, which generally show out-of plane behavior manly, have been rarely performed so far. By performing inelastic-nonlinear analysis, the ultimate behavior of curved girders with corrugated webs is studied in this paper. Laterally unsupported length and subtended angle of girders, and length of height of corrugation of webs are considered as the geometric parameters which would be expected to affect the ultimate behavior. By this analytical study with considering the geometric parameters, the changes of ultimate behavior and load carrying capacity of curved girders with corrugated webs are investigated. Also, the effects of corrugated webs on the increase of load carrying capacity for curved girders are studied with comparing to the capacity of general curved girders with flat webs. According to the analytical results, corrugated webs can be used to increase the ultimate load carrying capacity of curved girders, because of their high torsional and warping stiffness. But, it is also indicated that they may decrease the load carrying capacity of curved girders which have relatively small subtended angle or initial curvature, because of an accordion effect.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.741-759
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• 2020

Steel plate-concrete composite slabs provide attractive features, such as more effective loading transfer, and more cost-effective stay-in-place forms, thereby enabling engineers to design more high-performance light structures. Although significant studies in the literatures have been directed toward designing and implementing the steel plate-concrete composite beams, there are limited data available for understanding of the composite slabs. To fill this gap, nine the composite slabs with different variables in this study were tested to unveil the impacts of the critical factors on the ultimate strength behavior. The key information of the findings included sample failure modes, crack pattern, and ultimate strength behavior of the composite slabs under either four-point or three-point loading. Test results showed that the failure modes varied from delamination to shear failures under different design factors. Particularly, the shear stud spacing and thicknesses of the concrete slabs significantly affected their ultimate load-carrying capacities. Moreover, an analytical model of the composite slabs was derived for determining their ultimate load-carrying capacity and was well verified by the experimental data. Further extensive parametric study using the proposed analytical methods was conducted for a more comprehensive investigation of those critical factors in their performance. These findings are expected to help engineers to better understand the structural behavior of the steel plate-concrete composite slabs and to ensure reliability of design and performance throughout their service life.

• Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
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• v.22 no.1_2
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• pp.149-158
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• 2006

In this paper, we consider the Lotka- Volterra predator-prey system, in which constant quantity of the prey is harvested in regular pulses. The ultimate behavior of the solutions starting from different regions is mainly studied. Further, some examples are given to illustrate our results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.331-343
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• 2002

Because of the increasing span of arch bridges, ultimate capacity analysis recently becomes more focused both on design and construction. This paper investigates the static and ultimate behavior of a long-span steel arch bridge up to failure and evaluates the overall safety of the bridge. The example bridge is a long-span steel arch bridge with a 550 m-long central span under construction in Shanghai, China. This will be the longest central span of any arch bridge in the world. Ultimate behavior of the example bridge is investigated using three methods. Comparisons of the accuracy and reliability of the three methods are given. The effects of material nonlinearity of individual bridge element and distribution pattern of live load and initial lateral deflection of main arch ribs as well as yield stresses of material and changes of temperature on the ultimate load-carrying capacity of the bridge have been studied. The results show that the distribution pattern of live load and yield stresses of material have important effects on bridge behavior. The critical load analyses based on the linear buckling method and geometrically nonlinear buckling method considerably overestimate the load-carrying capacity of the bridge. The ultimate load-carrying capacity analysis and overall safety evaluation of a long-span steel arch bridge should be based on the geometrically and materially nonlinear buckling method. Finally, the in-plane failure mechanism of long-span steel arch bridges is explained by tracing the spread of plastic zones.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.177-192
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• 2014

One of the main applications of FRP composites is confining concrete columns. Hence identifying the cyclic and monotonic stress-strain behavior of confined concrete columns and the parameters influencing this behavior is inevitable. Two significant parameters affecting the stress-strain behavior are aspect ratio and corner radius. The present study aims to scrutinize the effects of corner radius and aspect ratio on different aspects of stress-strain behavior of FRP confined concrete specimens (rectangular, square and circular). Hence 44 FRP confined concrete specimens were tested and the results of the tests were investigated. The findings indicated that for specimens with different aspect ratios, the relationship between the ultimate stress and the corner radius is linear and the variations of the ultimate stress versus the corner radius decreases as a result of an increase in aspect ratio. It was also observed that increase of the corner radius results in increase of the compressive strength and ultimate axial strain and increase of the aspect ratio causes an increase of the ultimate axial strain but a decrease of the compressive strength. Investigation of the ultimate condition showed that the FRP hoop rupture strain is smaller in comparison with the one obtained from the tensile coupon test and also the ultimate axial strain and confined concrete strength are smaller when a prism is under monotonic loading. Other important results of this study were, an increase in the axial strain during the early stage of unloading paths and increase of the confining effect of FRP jacket with the increase and decrease of the corner radius and aspect ratio respectively, a decrease in the slope of reloading branches with cycle repetitions and the independence of this trend from the variations of the aspect ratio and corner radius and also quadric relationship between the number of each cycle and the plastic strain of the same cycle as well as the independence of this relationship from the aspect ratio and corner radius.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 2018

This research investigate the behavior of reinforced normal and lightweight aggregate concrete hollow core slabs with different core shapes, shear span to effective depth (a/d). The experimental work includes testing seven reinforced concrete slabs under two vertical line loads. The dimensions of slab specimens were (1.1 m) length, (0.6 m) width and (0.12 m) thickness. The maximum reduction in weight due to aggregate type was (19.28%) and due to cross section (square and circular) cores was (17.37 and 13.64%) respectively. The test results showed that the decrease of shear span to effective depth ratio from 2.9 to 1.9 for lightweight aggregate solid slab cause an increase in ultimate load by (29.06%) and increase in the deflection value at ultimate load or the ultimate deflection by (17.79%). The use of lightweight aggregate concrete in casting solid slabs give a reduction in weight by (19.28%) and in the first cracking and ultimate loads by (16.37%) and (5%) respectively for constant (a/d=2.9).The use of lightweight aggregate concrete in casting hollow circular core slabs with constant (a/d=2.9) (reduction in weight 32.92%) decrease the cracking and ultimate loads by (12%) and (5.18%) respectively with respect to the solid slab. These slab specimens were analyzed numerically by using the finite element computer program ANSYS. Good agreements in terms of behavior, cracking load (load at first visible crack) and ultimate load (maximum value of testing load) was obtained between finite element analysis and experimental test results.