• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2007

The purpose of this paper is the assessment of the capacity of the reinforced concrete (RC) elements of an arch bridge when they are subjected to contact and near-contact explosive charges of various amounts, and the estimation of the critical charges for these components. The bridge considered is the Tenza Viaduct, a decommissioned structure south of Naples, Italy. Its primary elements, deck, piers and arches were analyzed. The evaluation was accomplished via numerical analyses that made possible to obtain the elements dynamic response when they are exposed to blast loading conditions. To evaluate the member's capacities, failure criteria for deck, piers and arches were proposed based on concrete damage parameters. Additionally, curves relating the explosive charge to the residual capacity and to damage level of the elements were also developed. The results of this work were taken into account to investigate the progressive collapse of the global structure.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.271-280
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• 2018

This paper presents a framework for developing aftershock fragility curves for reinforced concrete bridges initially damaged by mainshocks. The presented aftershock fragility is a damage-dependent fragility function, which is conditioned on an initial damage state resulting from mainshocks. The presented framework can capture the cumulative damage of as-built bridges due to mainshock-aftershock sequences as well as the reduced vulnerability of bridges repaired with CFRP pier jackets. To achieve this goal, the numerical model of column jackets is firstly presented and then validated using existing experimental data available in literature. A four-span concrete box-girder bridge is selected as a case study to examine the application of the presented framework. The aftershock fragility curves are derived using response data from back-to-back nonlinear dynamic analyses under mainshock-aftershock sequences. The aftershock fragility curves for as-built bridge columns are firstly compared with different levels of initial damage state, and then the post-repair effect of FRP pier jacket is examined through the comparison of aftershock fragility curves for as-built and repaired piers.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.277-296
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• 2016

There is a need for rapid and objective assessment of concrete bridge decks for maintenance decision making. Infrared Thermography (IRT) has great potential to identify deck delaminations more objectively than routine visual inspections or chain drag tests. In addition, it is possible to collect reliable data rapidly with appropriate IRT cameras attached to vehicles and the data are analyzed effectively. This research compares three infrared cameras with different specifications at different times and speeds for data collection, and explores several factors affecting the utilization of IRT in regards to subsurface damage detection in concrete structures, specifically when the IRT is utilized for high-speed bridge deck inspection at normal driving speeds. These results show that IRT can detect up to 2.54 cm delamination from the concrete surface at any time period. It is observed that nighttime would be the most suitable time frame with less false detections and interferences from the sunlight and less adverse effect due to direct sunlight, making more "noise" for the IRT results. This study also revealed two important factors of camera specifications for high-speed inspection by IRT as shorter integration time and higher pixel resolution.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.689-707
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• 2008

This study presents a method to evaluate the seismic risk of an extradosed bridge with seismic isolators of lead rubber bearings (LRBs), and also to show the effectiveness of the LRB isolators on the extradosed bridge, which is one of the relatively flexible and lightly damped structures in terms of seismic risk. Initially, the seismic vulnerability of a structure is evaluated, and then the seismic hazard of a specific site is rated using an earthquake data set and seismic hazard maps in Korea. Then, the seismic risk of the structure is assessed. The nonlinear seismic analyses are carried out to consider plastic deformation of bridge columns and the nonlinear characteristics of soil foundation. To describe the nonlinear behaviour of a column, the ductility demand is adopted, and the moment-curvature relation of a column is assumed to be bilinear hysteretic. The fragility curves are represented as a log-normal distribution function for column damage, movement of superstructure, and cable yielding. And the seismic hazard at a specific site is estimated using the available seismic hazard maps. The results show that in seismically-isolated extradosed bridges under earthquakes, the effectiveness of the isolators is much more noticeable in the columns than the cables and girders.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.81-90
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridge columns with interlocking circular hoops. Three interlocking columns were tested under a constant axial load and a quasistatic, cyclically reversed horizontal load. A computer program, RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology) was used for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures. The used numerical method gives a realistic prediction of performance throughout the loading cycles for several test specimens investigated. Based on the experimental and analytical results, design recommendations are presented to improve the existing practice in the design and construction of reinforced concrete bridge columns with interlocking circular hoops.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of hollow precast segmental PSC bridge columns. The proposed system can reduce work at a construction site and makes construction periods shorter. Shortened construction times, in turn, lead to important safety and economic advantages when traffic disruption or rerouting is necessary. Two hollow precast segmental PSC bridge columns were tested under a constant axial load and a quasistatic, cyclically reversed horizontal load. A computer program, RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology), for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures, was used. The proposed numerical method gives a realistic prediction of performance throughout the loading cycles for several test specimens investigated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.901-925
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• 2014

The reliability of a Bridge management System depends on the quality of visual inspection and the reliable estimation of bridge condition rating. However, the current practices of visual inspection have been identified with several limitations, such as: they are time-consuming, provide incomplete information, and their reliance on inspectors' experience. To overcome such limitations, this paper presents an approach of automating the prediction of condition rating for bridges based on digital image analysis. The proposed methodology encompasses image acquisition, development of 3D visualization model, image processing, and condition rating model. Under this method, scaling defect in concrete bridge components is considered as a candidate defect and the guidelines in the Ontario Structure Inspection Manual (OSIM) have been adopted for developing and testing the proposed method. The automated algorithms for scaling depth prediction and mapping of condition ratings are based on training of back propagation neural networks. The result of developed models showed better prediction capability of condition rating over the existing methods such as, Naïve Bayes Classifiers and Bagged Decision Tree.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.703-722
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• 2015

This study investigates the performance of advanced hollow reinforced concrete (RC) bridge column sections with triangular reinforcement details. Hollow column sections are based on economic considerations of cost savings associated with reduced material and design moments, as against increased construction complexity, and hence increased labor costs. The proposed innovative reinforcement details are economically feasible and rational, and facilitate shorter construction periods. We tested a model of advanced hollow column sections under quasi-static monotonic loading. The results showed that the proposed triangular reinforcement details were equal to the existing reinforcement details, in terms of the required performance. We used a computer program, Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology (RCAHEST), for analysis of the RC structures; and adopted a modified lateral confining effect model for the advanced hollow bridge column sections. Our study documents the testing of hollow RC bridge column sections with innovative reinforcement details, and presents conclusions based on the experimental and analytical findings. Additional full-scale experimental research is needed to refine and confirm the design details, especially for the actual detailing employed in the field.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.651-656
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• 2007

Changes in measured structural responses induced by a damage could be significantly smaller than those by environmental effects such as temperature and temperature gradients. It is highly desirable to develop a methodology to distinguish the changes due to the structural damage from those by the environmental variations. In this study, a novel method to extract the damage-induced deflection under temperature variations is presented using the outlier analysis on the deflections obtained using the modal flexibility matrices. The main idea is that temperature change in a bridge would produce global increase or decrease in deflections over the whole bridge while structural damages may cause local variations in deflections near the damage locations. Hence, the correlation between the deflection measurements may show high abnormality near the damage locations. A series of laboratory tests were carried out on a bridge model with a steel box-girder for 14 days. It has been found that the damage existence assessment and localization can carried out for a case with relatively small damage under the temperature variations

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.103-114
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• 2003

This paper aims to propose a method that helps maintenance engineers to evaluate the damage states of bridge structure systems by using a Fuzzy Fault Tree Analysis. It may be stated that Fuzzy Fault Tree Analysis may be very useful for the systematic and rational fuzzy reliability assessment for real bridge structure systems problems because the approach is able to effectively deal with all the related bridge structural element damages in terms of the linguistic variables that incorporate systematically experts experiences and subjective judgement. This paper considers these uncertainties by providing a fuzzy reliability-based framework and shows that the identification of the optimum maintenance scenario is a straightforward process. This is achieved by using a computer program for LIFETIME. This program can consider the effects of various types of actions on the fuzzy reliability index profile of a deteriorating structures. Only the effect of maintenance interventions is considered in this study. However. any environmental or mechanical action affecting the fuzzy reliability index profile can be considered in LIFETIME. Numerical examples of deteriorating bridges are presented to illustrate the capability of the proposed approach. Further development and implementation of this approach are recommended for future research.