• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.453-464
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• 2019

Soft marine soil has high fine-grained soil content and in-situ water content. Thus, it has low shear strength and bearing capacity and is susceptible to a large settlement, which leads to difficulties with coastal infrastructure construction. Therefore, strength improvement and settlement control are essential considerations for construction on soft marine soil deposits. Biopolymers show their potential for improving soil stability, which can reduce the environmental drawbacks of conventional soil treatment. This study used two biopolymers, an anionic xanthan gum biopolymer and a cationic ${\varepsilon}-polylysine$ biopolymer, as representatives to enhance the geotechnical engineering properties of soft marine soil. Effects of the biopolymers on marine soil were analyzed through a series of experiments considering the Atterberg limits, shear strength at a constant water content, compressive strength in a dry condition, laboratory consolidation, and sedimentation. Xanthan gum treatment affects the Atterberg limits, shear strength, and compressive strength by interparticle bonding and the formation of a viscous hydrogel. However, xanthan gum delays the consolidation procedure and increases the compressibility of soils. While ${\varepsilon}-polylysine$ treatment does not affect compressive strength, it shows potential for coagulating soil particles in a suspension state. ${\varepsilon}-Polylysine$ forms bridges between soil particles, showing an increase in settling velocity and final sediment density. The results of this study show various potential applications of biopolymers. Xanthan gum biopolymer was identified as a soil strengthening material, while ${\varepsilon}-polylysine$ biopolymer can be applied as a soil-coagulating material.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1191-1199
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• 2018

Concepts of submerged floating tunnels (SFTs) for land connection have been continuously suggested and developed by several researchers and institutes. To maintain their predefined positions under various dynamic environmental loading conditions, the submerged floating tunnels should be effectively moored by reasonable mooring systems. With rational mooring systems, the design of SFTs should be confirmed to satisfy the structural safety, fatigue, and operability design criteria related to tunnel motion, internal forces, structural stresses, and the fatigue life of the main structural members. This paper presents a feasibility study of a submerged floating tunnel moored by an inclined tendon system. The basic structural concept was developed based on the concept of conventional cable-stayed bridges to minimize the seabed excavation, penetration, and anchoring work by applying tower-inclined tendon systems instead of conventional tendons with individual seabed anchors. To evaluate the structural performance of the new type of SFT, a hydrodynamic analysis was performed in the time domain using the commercial nonlinear finite element code ABAQUS-AQUA. For the main dynamic environmental loading condition, an irregular wave load was examined. A JONSWAP wave spectrum was used to generate a time-series wave-induced hydrodynamic load considering the specific significant wave height and peak period for predetermined wave conditions. By performing a time-domain hydrodynamic analysis on the submerged floating structure under irregular waves, the motional characteristics, structural stresses, and fatigue damage of the floating tunnel and mooring members were analyzed to evaluate the structural safety and fatigue performance. According to the analytical study, the suggested conceptual model for SFTs shows very good hydrodynamic structural performance. It can be concluded that the concept can be considered as a reasonable structural type of SFT.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.375-386
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• 2021

In this paper, a study of stability and health of a newly-built railway tunnel is presented. The field test was implemented to monitor the secondary lining due to the significant cracking behaviors influenced the stability and health of the tunnel structure. Surface strain gauges were installed for monitoring the status of crack openings, and the monitoring outputs demonstrated that the cracks were still in the developing stage. Additionally, adjacent tunnel and poor condition of surrounding rock were identified as the causes of the lining cracking by systematically characterizing the crack spatial distribution, tunnel site and surrounding rock conditions. Reconstruction of partial lining and reconstruction of the whole secondary lining were designed as the maintenance projects for different cracking regions based on the construction feasibility. For assessing the health conditions of the reinforced lining, embedded strain gauges were set up to continuously measure the strain and the internal force of the reconstructed structures. For the partially reconstructed lining, the outputs show the maximum tensile elongation is 0.018 mm during 227 days, which means the structure has no obvious deformation after maintenance. The one-year monitoring of full-section was implemented in the other two completely reconstructed cross-sections by embedded strain gauge. The outputs show the reconstructed secondary lining has undertaken the pressure of surrounding rock with the time passing. According to the calculated compressive and tensile safety factors, the completely reconstructed lining has been in reliable and safe condition during the past year after reinforcement. It can conclude that the aforementioned maintenance projects can effectively ensure the stability and health of this tunnel.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1617-1630
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• 2018

The crucial differences between conventional rail with split-type connectors and continuous welded rails are axial stress in the longitudinal direction and stability, as well as other issues generated under the influence of loading effects. Longitudinal stresses generated in continuously welded rails on railway bridges are strongly influenced by the nonlinear behavior of the supporting system comprising sleepers and ballasts. Thus, the track structure interaction cannot be neglected. The rail-support system mentioned above has properties of non-uniform material distribution and uncertainty of construction quality. The linear elastic hypothesis therefore cannot correctly evaluate the stress distribution within the rails. The aim of this study is to apply the nonlinear finite element method using the nonlinear coupling interface between the track and structural model and to illustrate the welded rail behavior under the loading effect and uncertain factors of the ballast. Numerical results of nonlinear finite analysis with a three-dimensional solid and frame element model are presented for a typical track-bridge system. A composite plate girder, modeled by solid and shell elements, is also analyzed to consider the behavior of the welded rail. The analysis result showed buckling under the independent calculations of load cases, including 'temperature change', 'bending of the supporting structure', and 'braking' of the railway vehicle. A parametric study of the load combination method and the loading sequence is also included in this analysis.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.700-706
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• 2009

Bridges are vital components of any road network which demand crucial and timely decision-making for Maintenance, Repair and Rehabilitation (MR&R) activities. Bridge Management Systems (BMSs) as a decision support system (DSS), have been developed since the early 1990's to assist in the management of a large bridge network. Historical condition ratings obtained from biennial bridge inspections are major resources for predicting future bridge deteriorations via BMSs. Available historical condition ratings in most bridge agencies, however, are very limited, and thus posing a major barrier for obtaining reliable future structural performances. To alleviate this problem, the verified Backward Prediction Model (BPM) technique has been developed to help generate missing historical condition ratings. This is achieved through establishing the correlation between known condition ratings and such non-bridge factors as climate and environmental conditions, traffic volumes and population growth. Such correlations can then be used to obtain the bridge condition ratings of the missing years. With the help of these generated datasets, the currently available bridge deterioration model can be utilized to more reliably forecast future bridge conditions. In this paper, the prediction accuracy based on 4 and 9 BPM-generated historical condition ratings as input data are compared, using deterministic and stochastic bridge deterioration models. The comparison outcomes indicate that the prediction error decreases as more historical condition ratings obtained. This implies that the BPM can be utilised to generate unavailable historical data, which is crucial for bridge deterioration models to achieve more accurate prediction results. Nevertheless, there are considerable limitations in the existing bridge deterioration models. Thus, further research is essential to improve the prediction accuracy of bridge deterioration models.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1A
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• pp.67-74
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• 2006

The use of steel plates has been greatly increased in bridge construction, particularly for long-span bridges. For connections of those steel plates in the field, application of high-tension bold, such as M30, is highly demanded. However, the current steel construction specifications in Korea do not provide information for large-sized bolt connections. In order to evaluate the applicability of the large-sized high-tension bolt, this study experimentally investigates relaxation and slip behavior of M30 bolts with varying bolt size and plate thickness. In addition, internal compressive stress was computed using FEM analysis. The analyzed results were compared with the stress distribution measured from strain gages attached on bolts and bolt holes. From the study presented herein, the M30 high-tension bolts are anticipated to be successfully used with the relaxation less than 10% and the slip coefficient satisfying the specified limit.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.325-330
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• 2023

This paper proposes to apply machine learning to the process of predicting the slab thickness based on the structural analysis results or experience and subjectivity of engineers in the design of bridge data construction to enable digital-based decision-making. This study aims to build a reliable design environment by utilizing machine learning techniques to provide guide values to engineers in addition to structural analysis for slab thickness selection. Based on girder bridges, which account for the largest proportion of bridge data, a prediction model process for predicting slab thickness among superstructures was defined. Various machine learning models (Linear Regress, Decision Tree, Random Forest, and Muliti-layer Perceptron) were competed for each process to produce the prediction value for each process, and the optimal model was derived. Through this study, the applicability of machine learning techniques was confirmed in areas where slab thickness was predicted only through existing structural analysis, and an accuracy of 95.4% was also obtained. models can be utilized in a more reliable construction environment if the accuracy of the prediction model is improved by expanding the process

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.13 no.2 s.54
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• pp.122-128
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• 2009

This study is to improve constructability of LB-DECK construction in site such as inconvenience of main and distribution bars in arrangements LB-DECK Panel which is work is applied to many bridges these days as a permanent formwork. So, the constructability is improved by changing the method of allocation of main reinforcing bar and distribution bar which is reviewed for improving efficiency of design and construction process among the suggested methods. The crack shapes, deflections, and strains under static load of the improvement of LB-DECK Panel are compared and analyzed to former LB-DECK Panel. As a result, 13% of strength compared to before the improvement of LB-DECK Panel, and 10% of strength is increased in the case of slab.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.51-69
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• 2015

In recent years, the use of fiber reinforced polymer composites has increased because of their unique features. They have been used widely in the aircraft and space industries, medical and sporting goods and automotive industries. Thanks to their beneficial and various advantages over traditional materials such as high strength, high rigidity, low weight, corrosion resistance, low maintenance cost, aesthetic appearance and easy demountable or moveable construction. In this paper, it is aimed to determine and compare the geometrically nonlinear static and dynamic analysis results of footbridges using steel and glass fiber reinforced polymer composite (GFRP) materials. For this purpose, Halgavor suspension footbridge is selected as numerical examples. The analyses are performed using three identical footbridges, first constructed from steel, second built only with GFRP material and third made of steel- GFRP material, under static and dynamic loadings using finite element method. In the finite element modeling and analyses, SAP2000 program is used. Geometric nonlinearities are taken into consideration in the analysis using P-Delta criterion. The numerical results have indicated that the responses of the three bridges are different and that the response values obtained for the GFRP composite bridge are quite less compared to the steel bridge. It is understood that GFRP material is more useful than the steel for the footbridges.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.177-184
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• 2004

Orthotropic steel deck bridge has much advantages such as the light deadweight, so the construction of orthotropic steel deck is profitable for the long-span bridges Although the system has a lot of merits, it happens some damages by the traffic density and the fatigue cracks of welding. The cross-connection of longitudinal rib and transversal rib is one of the weakest at the fatigue. The secondary stresses which are from the out-plane deformation of transversal rib and the torsion of longitudinal rib make the topical stress concentration phenomenon. The Bulkhead Plate for prevention of this stress concentration phenomenon was applied by changing the orthotropic steel deck of Williamsburg bridge in USA. But, it is principle that a Bulkhead Plate is not established in the domestic design standard. Therefore, it is estimated that the study for installation of Bulkhead Plate is needed. This study with considering these circumstances proves efficiency of Bulkhead Plate and will be presented optimal design details through finite element analysis according to change the geometrical of Bulkhead Plate and the cross-connection area of longitudinal and transversal rib