• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.669-690
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• 2016

Advances in sensor technologies have led to the instrumentation of sensor networks for bridge monitoring and management. For a dense sensor network, enormous amount of sensor data are collected. The data need to be managed, processed, and interpreted. Data management issues are of prime importance for a bridge management system. This paper describes a data management infrastructure for bridge monitoring applications. Specifically, NoSQL database systems such as MongoDB and Apache Cassandra are employed to handle time-series data as well the unstructured bridge information model data. Standard XML-based modeling languages such as OpenBrIM and SensorML are adopted to manage semantically meaningful data and to support interoperability. Data interoperability and integration among different components of a bridge monitoring system that includes on-site computers, a central server, local computing platforms, and mobile devices are illustrated. The data management framework is demonstrated using the data collected from the wireless sensor network installed on the Telegraph Road Bridge, Monroe, MI.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.411-423
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• 2023

The rapid development of road transport has increased the number of bridges that require widening. A critical issue in the construction of bridge widening is the influence of vibrations of the old bridge on the casting of wet joint concrete between the old and new bridges owing to the running traffic. Typically, the bridge is closed to traffic during the pouring of wet joint concrete, which negatively affects the existing transportation network. In this study, a newly developed microscopic traffic load modeling approach and the vehicle-bridge interaction theory are incorporated to develop a refined numerical framework for the analysis of random traffic-bridge coupled dynamics. This framework was used to investigate traffic-induced vibrations at the wet joint of a widened bridge. Based on an experimental study on the vibration resistance of wet joint concrete, traffic control strategies were proposed to ensure the construction performance of cast-in-site wet joint concrete under random traffic without interruption. The results show that the vibration displacement and frequency of the old bridge, estimated by the proposed framework, were comparable with those obtained from field measurements. Based on the target peak particle velocity and vibration amplitude of the wet joint concrete, it was found that traffic control measures, such as limiting vehicle gross weight and limiting traffic volume by closing an additional traffic lane, could ensure the construction performance of the wet joint concrete.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제82권3호
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• pp.369-383
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• 2022

In this study, an equivalent boundary conditions (BCs) determination method is developed numerically for a panel reinforced concrete (RC) slab to realistically analyze the deformation and fatigue behaviors of a bridge RC slab. For this purpose, a finite element analysis of a bridge RC slab is carried out beforehand to calculate the stiffness of the bridge RC slab, and then the equivalent BCs for the panel RC slab are determined to achieve the same stiffness at the BCs to the obtained stiffness of the bridge RC slab at the corresponding locations of the bridge RC slab. Moreover, for the simulation of fatigue behaviors, fatigue analysis of the panel RC slab is carried out employing a finite element method based on a numerical model that considers the bridging stress degradation. Both the determined equivalent BCs and the BCs that have been typically applied in past studies are employed. The analysis results confirm that, in contrast to the panel RC slab with typically used BCs, the panel RC slab with equivalent BCs simulate the same bending moment distribution and deformation behaviors of the bridge RC slab. Furthermore, the equivalent BCs reproduce the extensive grid crack pattern in the panel RC slab, which is alike the pattern normally witnessed in a bridge RC slab. Conclusively, the panel RC slab with equivalent BCs behaves identical to the bridge RC slab, and, as a result, it shows more realistic fatigue behaviors observed in the bridge RC slab.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제23권6호
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• pp.485-503
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• 2016

To investigate the nonlinear aerostatic stability of the Hutong cable-stayed rail-cum-road bridge with ultra-kilometer main span, a FEM bridge model is established. The tri-component wind loads and geometric nonlinearity are taken into consideration and discussed for the influence of nonlinear parameters and factors on bridge resistant capacity of aerostatic instability. The results show that the effect of initial wind attack-angle is significant for the aerostatic stability analysis of the bridge. The geometric nonlinearities of the bridge are of considerable importance in the analysis, especially the effect of cable sag. The instable mechanism of the Hutong Bridge with a steel truss girder is the spatial combination of vertical bending and torsion with large lateral bending displacement. The design wind velocity is much lower than the static instability wind velocity, and the structural aerostatic resistance capacity can meet the requirement.

• 국제학술발표논문집
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• The 2th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• pp.440-449
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• 2007

This paper describes the efforts in developing several versions of bridge management system (BMS) in Taiwan. There were several versions of stand-alone BMS developed in Taiwan prior to the Ji-Ji earthquake that occurred in year 1999. Since many bridges were seriously damaged by this earthquake, the Ministry of Transportation and Communication determined to develop a nationwide BMS to have a better by control on the status of bridge maintenance. Implemented in year 2000, the Taiwan Bridge Management system (T-BMS) is now the dominating and mandatory system used by all the government agencies that are responsible for bridge maintenance. Having more then 25,000 bridges in its inventory, T-BMS has thousands of logins per month to update data in the relevant database. The experiences and difficulties of using such a nationwide bridge management system are discussed. Finally, future plans for BMS development are also proposed in this paper.

• 국제학술발표논문집
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• The 2th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• pp.386-397
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• 2007

One major development in bridge life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) in recent years is to develop deterioration model for bridge components so that the times of repair/replacement throughout a component's life span can be properly determined. Taiwan also developed her own bridge LCCA model in 2003, integrating with the bridge inspection database in the local bridge management system (T-BMS). Under the framework of the local LCCA model, this study employs the reliability method in developing a deterioration model of bridge components. A component deteriorates through time in its reliability, which represents the probability of a component's condition index exceeds a user specified threshold. Model assumptions and rationale are described in the paper. The steps for applying the developed model are explained in detail. Results and findings are reported.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.395-408
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• 2015

This study aims to propose a Bayesian approach to consider changes in temperature and vehicle weight as environmental and operational factors for vibration-based long-term bridge health monitoring. The Bayesian approach consists of three steps: step 1 is to identify damage-sensitive features from coefficients of the auto-regressive model utilizing bridge accelerations; step 2 is to perform a regression analysis of the damage-sensitive features to consider environmental and operational changes by means of the Bayesian regression; and step 3 is to make a decision on the bridge health condition based on residuals, differences between the observed and predicted damage-sensitive features, utilizing 95% confidence interval and the Bayesian hypothesis testing. Feasibility of the proposed approach is examined utilizing monitoring data on an in-service bridge recorded over a one-year period. Observations through the study demonstrated that the Bayesian regression considering environmental and operational changes led to more accurate results than that without considering environmental and operational changes. The Bayesian hypothesis testing utilizing data from the healthy bridge, the damage probability of the bridge was judged as no damage.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.437-450
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• 2018

A bridge comprising of two girders, such as a twin steel box-girder bridge, is classified as fracture critical (i.e., non-redundant). In this study, the various bridge components of the twin steel box-girder bridge are investigated to determine if these could be utilized to improve bridge redundancy. Detailed finite-element (FE) models, capable of simulating prominent failure modes observed in a full-scale bridge fracture test, are utilized to evaluate the contributions of the bridge components on the ultimate behavior and redundancy of the bridge sustaining a fracture on one of its girders. The FE models incorporate material nonlinearities of the steel and concrete members, and are capable of capturing the effects of the stud connection failure and railing contact. Analysis results show that the increased tensile strength of the stud connection and (or) concrete strength are effective in improving bridge redundancy. By modulating these factors, redundancy could be significantly enhanced to the extent that the bridge may be excluded from its fracture critical designation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.111-121
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• 2005

The dynamic interaction of vehicle-bridge is studied by using transfer matrix method in this paper. The vehicle model is simplified as a spring-damping-mass system. By adopting the idea of Newmark-${\beta}$ method, the partial differential equation of structure vibration is transformed into a differential equation irrelevant to time. Then, this differential equation is solved by transfer matrix method. The prospective application of this method in real engineering is finally demonstrated by several examples.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.43-58
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• 2020

Pile foundations of existing bridges lie in soil and water environment for long term and endure relatively heavy vertical loads, thus prone to damages, especially after stricken by external forces, such as earthquake, collision, soil heap load and etc., and the piles may be injured to certain degrees as well. There is a relatively complete technical system for quality inspection of new bridge pile foundations without structures on the top. However, there is no mature technical standard in the engineering community for the non-destructive testing technology specific to the existing bridge pile foundations. The quality of bridge pile foundations has always been a major problem that plagues bridge maintenance. On the basis of many years' experiences in test engineering and theoretical studies, this study developed a new type of detection technology and equipment for the existing bridge piles.