• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.241-255
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• 2014

The girder of self-anchored suspension bridge is subjected to large compression force applied by main cables. So, serious damage of the girder due to breakage of hangers may cause collapse of the whole bridge. With the time increasing, the hangers may break suddenly for their resistance capacities decrease due to corrosion. Using nonlinear static and dynamic analysis methods and adopting 3D finite element model, the responses of a concrete self-anchored suspension bridge to sudden breakage of hangers are studied in this paper. The results show that the sudden breakage of a hanger has significant effects on tensions of the hangers next to the broken hanger, bending and torsion moments of the girder, moments of the towers and reaction forces of the bearings. The results obtained from dynamic analysis method are very different from those obtained from static analysis method. The maximum tension of hanger produced by breakage of a hanger exceeds 2.2 times of its initial value, the maximum dynamic amplification factor reaches 2.54, which is larger than the value of 2.0 recommended for cable-stayed bridge in PTI codes. If two adjacent hangers on the same side of bridge break one after another, the maximum tension of other hangers exceeds 3.0 times of its initial value. If the safety factor adopted to design hanger is too small, or the hangers have been exposed to corrosion, the bridge may collapse due to breakage of two adjacent hangers.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.485-500
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• 2016

Stay cables in some cable-stayed bridges suffer large amplitude vibrations under the simultaneous occurrence of rain and wind. This phenomenon is called rain-wind-induced vibration (RWIV). The upper rivulet oscillating circumferentially on the inclined cable surface plays an important role in this phenomenon. However, its small size and high sensitivity to wind flow make measuring rivulet size and its movement challenging. Moreover, the distribution of the rivulet along the entire cable has not been measured. This paper applies the videogrammetric technique to measure the movement and geometry dimension of the upper rivulet along the entire cable during RWIV. A cable model is tested in an open-jet wind tunnel with artificial rain. RWIV is successfully reproduced. Only one digital video camera is employed and installed on the cable during the experiment. The camera records video clips of the upper rivulet and cable movements. The video clips are then transferred into a series of images, from which the positions of the cable and the upper rivulet at each time instant are identified by image processing. The thickness of the upper rivulet is also estimated. The oscillation amplitude, equilibrium position, and dominant frequency of the rivulet are presented. The relationship between cable and rivulet variations is also investigated. Results demonstrate that this non-contact, non-intrusive measurement method has good resolution and is cost effective.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.1261-1278
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• 2015

Due to their low intrinsic damping, stay cables in cable-stayed bridges have often exhibited unanticipated and excessive vibrations which result in increasing maintenance frequency and disruption to normal operations of the entire bridges. Mitigation of undesired cable vibration can be achieved by attaching an external damping device near the anchorage. High Damping Rubber (HDR) dampers have many advantages such as compact size, better aesthetics, easy maintenance, temperature stability, and cost benefits; therefore, they have been widely used to increase cable damping. Although a single damper has been shown to reduce cable vibrations, it is not the most effective method due to geometric constraints. This paper proposes the use of two HDR dampers to improve effectiveness and robustness in suppressing cable vibration. Oscillation parameters of the cable-dampers system were investigated in detail by modeling the stay cable as a taut string and each HDR damper as complex-valued impedance and by using an analytical formulation of the complex eigenvalue problem. The problem of two HDR dampers arbitrarily located along a cable is solved and the solution is discussed. Asymptotic formulas to calculate the damping ratios of the cable with two HDR dampers installed near the anchorage(s) are proposed and compared with the exact solutions. Further, a design example is presented in order to justify the methodology. The results of this study show that when the two HDR dampers are installed close to each other on the same end of the cable, some interaction between the dampers leads to reduced damping ratio. When the dampers are on the opposite ends of the cable, they are effective in increasing damping ratio and can provide better vibration reduction to multiple modes.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2023

With the development of technology worldwide, bridges are becoming larger, and the number of old bridges is also rapidly increasing. Monitoring the structural health of large, aging bridges is essential to preventing large-scale accidents. In this study, the application of a LoRa low-power wide-area network (LPWAN)-based wireless measurement system was investigated, and a LoRa wireless measurement system was established in the cable-stayed bridge section of Cheonsa Bridge, located in Shinan-gun, Jeollanam-do, Korea. The applicability of the LoRa LPWAN-based wireless monitoring system to large marine bridges was reviewed by comparing the performance and economic feasibility with wire-based monitoring systems that were built and operated by establishing a measurement system for the pylons, cables, and reinforcing girders of the bridge.