• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.5
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• pp.645-654
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• 2022

Environmental thermal loads such as vertical and lateral temperature gradients are significant factors that must be taken into account when designing the bridge. Different models have been developed and used by countries for simulating thermal gradients in bridge codes. In most of the codes only vertical temperature gradients are considered, such as Iranian Standard Loads for Bridge code (ISLB), which only considers the vertical gradient for bridge design proposes. On the other hand, the vertical gradient profile specified in ISLB, has many lacks due to the diversity of climate in Iran, and only one vertical gradient profile is defined for whole Iran. This paper aims to get the both vertical and lateral gradient loads for the concrete box girder using experimental analysis in the capital of Iran, Tehran. To fulfill this aim, thermocouples are installed in experimental concrete segment and temperatures in different location of the segment are recorded. A three dimensional finite element model of concrete box-girder bridge is constructed to study the effects of thermal loads. Results of investigation proved that the effects of thermal loads are not negligible, and must be considered in design processes. Moreover, a solution for reducing the negative effects of thermal gradients in bridges is proposed. Results of the simulation show that using one layer polyurethane insulation can significantly reduce the thermal gradients and thermal stresses.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.10b
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• pp.995-1000
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• 2000

Segmentally erected prestressed concrete box girder bridges have been widely used in Korean high speed railway. Segmental erection has been accomplished along the longitudinal direction and across the depth of cross section. The cross section is similar to a composite cross section, composed of old and new segments. Because these segments have different time-dependent creep and shrinkage properties, a stress redistribution takes place during the construction period. It is the main objective in this research to investigate this behavior. An actual bridge was instrumented with 96 vibrating wire embedded type strain gauges, 6 electronic type steel strain gauges, and 75 thermocouples. Two span continuous high speed railway bridge was selected. Two points of importance, such as the midpoint of the first span and the point of interior support, along the span of the girder were chosen to monitor the time dependent behaviors for an extended period of time. The data collection was starting just after concrete girder were cast and is still going on. According to the measured results, the strain distributions across the depth of the section at midspan and interior support were not continuous and the important redistribution of stresses takes place. Thus, rational design of prestressed concrete composite box girder bridges need.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.705-719
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• 2014

Composite steel-concrete box girders are frequently used in bridge construction for their economic and structural advantages. An integrated metaheuristic based optimization procedure is proposed for discrete size optimization of straight multi-span steel box girders with the objective of minimizing the self-weight of girder. The metaheuristic algorithm of choice is the Cuckoo Search (CS) algorithm. The optimum design of a box girder is characterized by geometry, serviceability and ultimate limit states specified by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Size optimization of a practical design example investigates the efficiency of this optimization approach and leads to around 15% of saving in material.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.91-96
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• 1991

This study focus on the development of optimization techniques to prestressed concrete box girder bridges erected in cantilever construction method. Optimization techniques are used to find optimal cross sections, i.e., those having minimum cost for such bridges. The problem is treated as an unconstrained nonlinear programming problem and the program has been developed to compute the objective function and optimal value. Numerical results are verified by the data of existing bridges.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.241-257
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• 1999

This paper presents a procedure to minimize the cost of materials of cable-stayed bridges with composite box girder and concrete tower. Two sets of iterations are included in the proposed procedure. The first set of iteration performs the structural analysis for a cable-stayed bridge. The second set of iteration performs the optimization process. The design is formulated as a general mathematical problem with the cost of the bridge as the objective function and bending forces, shear forces, fatigue stresses, buckling and deflection as constraints. The constraints are developed based on the Canadian National Standard CAN/CSA-S6-88. The finite element method is employed to perform the complicated nonlinear structural analysis of the cable-stayed bridges. The internal penalty function method is used in the optimization process. The limit states design method is used to determine the load capacity of the bridge. A computer program written in FORTRAN 77 is developed and its validity is verified by several practical-sized designs.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.3147-3155
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• 2011

Railway bridges are highly susceptible to resonance due to the equidistant axle load with constant speed of train. Thus, it is inevitable verify dynamic characteristics and quantities against dynamic guidelines. Recently, various new-type bridges are developed and applies to medium span length between 30m and 40m. However, just steel box girder bridge is under review for span length between 45m and 50m without development any new technologies. This study investigate the dynamic properties and safety of steel box railway bridge having span length 45m in alternative girder hight and kind of ballast. Numerical analysis is performed time series analysis by mode superposition using calculated natural vibration frequency and mode after carry out a free vibration analysis and extract modal parameter to higher modes. The results are then compared to various dynamic stability standards toward target bridge's dynamic stability analysis. The result of this study is expected as a reference for design railway bridges.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.11 no.1 s.38
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• pp.13-22
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• 1999

The objective of this paper is to develop a program for distortional analysis of steel box girder bridges. This program is formulated by using MSDM(modified slope deflection method). Two examples are carried out to verify the validity of the developed technique and its computation procedures. The analyzed results are compared with the previously proposed methods, BEF(beam on elastic foundation) and EBEF(equivalent beam on elastic foundation). The BEF method is limited only to prismatic straight box girders. In the EBEF method, stiffness of the intermediate diaphragms is infinitely considered. On the other hand, stiffness of the intermediate diaphragms is idealized as spring contant in this study. And then, nonprismatic straight box girders can be analyzed using the same procedure. Therefore, the comparison shows that the MSDM algorithm proposed in this paper is more efficient and reliable. Also parametric studies are perfomed using the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.183-193
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• 2008

The reliability analysis of simply-supported and continuous composite plate girder and box girder bridges under flexure was performed to provide a basic data for the development of LRFD c ode. The bridges were designed based on LRFD specification with newly proposed design live load which was developed by analyzing traffic statistics from highways and local roads. A performance function for flexural failure was expressed as a function of the flexural resistance of composite section and the design moments due to permanent load and live load. For the flexural resistance, the statistical parameters obtained by analyzing over 16,000 domestic structural steel samples were used. Several different values of bias factors for the live load moment from 1.0 to 1.2 were used. Due to the lack of available domestic measured data on the moment by permanent loads, the same statistical properties used in the calibration of ASHTO-LRFD were ap plied. The reliability indices for the composite girder bridges with various span lengths, different live load factors, and bias fact or for the live load were obtained by applying the Rackwitz-Fiessler technique.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.5A
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• pp.407-415
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• 2010

In Korea, more than 90% of the total number of steel bridges built for 40~70 m span length is a steel box-girder bridge type. A steel box-girder bridge is suitable for long span or curved bridges with outstanding flexural and torsional rigidity as well as good constructability and safety. However, a steel box-girder bridge is uneconomical, requiring many secondary members and workmanship such as stiffeners and ribs requiring welding attachments to flanges or webs. Therefore, in US and Japan, a plate girder bridge, which is relatively cheap and easy to construct is generally used. One type of the plate girder bridge is the two- or three-main girder plate bridge, which is a composite plate girder bridge that minimizes the number of required main girders by increasing the distance between the adjacent girders. Also, for the simplification of girder section, the stiffener which requires attachment to the web is not required. The two-main steel girder plate bridge is a representative type of plate girder bridges, which is suitable for bridges with 10 m effective width and has been developed in the early 1960s in France. To ensure greater safety of two- or three-main girder plate bridges, a larger steel section is used in the bridge domestically than in Europe or Japan. Also, the total number of two- or three-main girder plate bridge constructed in Korea is significantly less than the steel box girder bridge due to a lack of designers' familiarity with more complex design detailing of the bridge compare to that of a steel box girder bridge design. In this study, a new construction method called Turn Over method is proposed to minimize the steel section size used in a two- or three-main girder plate bridge by applying prestressing force to the member using confining concrete section's weight to reduce construction cost. Also, a full scale 20 m Turn Over girder specimen and a Turn Over girder bridge specimen were tested to evaluate constructability and structural safety of the members constructed using Turn Over process.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.509-520
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• 2021

The streamlined box is a common type of girders for long-span suspension bridges. Spanning deep canyons, long-span bridges are frequently attacked by strong winds with large angles of attack. In this situation, the flow field around the streamlined box changes significantly, leading to reduction of the flutter performance. The wind fairings have different effects on the flutter performance. Therefore, this study examines the flutter performance of box girders with different wind fairings at large angles of attack. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out to extract the flutter derivatives, and the critical flutter state of a long-span bridge was determined. Further comparisons of the wind fairings were investigated by a rapid method which is related to the input energy by the aerodynamic force. The results show that a reasonable type of wind fairings could improve the flutter performance of long-span bridges at large angles of attack. For the torsional flutter instability, the wind fairings weaken the adverse effect of the vortex attaching to the girder, and a sharper one could achieve a better result. According to the input energies on the girder with different wind fairings, the symmetrical wind fairings are more beneficial to the flutter performance