• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2011

The introduction of the Eurocodes makes plastic design criteria available also for composite bridges, leading to more economical solutions compared with previous elastic design rules. Particularly for refurbishment old bridges with higher actual traffic loads, up to date outside the scope of the Eurocodes, strengthening should therefore be avoidable or at least be necessary only to a minor extent. For bridges with smaller spans and compact cross sections, the plastic load bearing capacity is clearly justified. In this work, however, the focus is placed on long span continuous composite bridges with deep, longitudinally stiffened girders, susceptible to local buckling. In a first step, the elastic - plastic cross section capacity of the main girder in bending is studied as an isolated case, based on high preloads acting on the steel girder only, due to the common assembling procedure without scaffolding. In a second step, the effects on the whole structure are studied, because utilising the plastic section capacity at midspan leads to a redistribution of internal forces to the supports. Based on the comprehensive study of an old, actual strengthened composite bridge, some limitations for plastic design are identified. Moreover, fully plastic design will sometimes need additional global analysis. Practical recommendations are given for design purposes.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.131-138
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• 2015

In this paper, the modified live-load and designed formula are studied according to the fact the highway bridge design specifications are recently revised. The two examples for composite steel plates and PSC girder bridges are studied. The envelope is analyzed with the finite element models and lateral load distribution method applying the existing highway bridge specification(2010), the newly revised highway bridge specification(2015) and AASHTO LRFD. In case of composite steel plates, length changes between spans are studied, and in case of PSC girder. changes of the number of cross-beams and spans, and span-lengths, are analyzed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.51-59
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• 1993

This paper develops practical and realistic reliability models and methods for the evaluation of system-reliability and system reliability-based rating of various types of box-girder bridge superstructures. The strength limit state model for box-girder bridges suggested in the paper are based on not only the basic flexural strength but also the strength interaction equations which simultaneously take into account flexure, shear and torsion. And the system reliability problem of box-girder superstructure is formulated as parallel-series models obtained from the FMA(Failure Mode Approach) based on major failure mechanisms or critical failure states of each girder. In the paper, an improved IST(Importance Sampling Technique) simulation algorithm is used for the system reliability analysis of the proposed models. This paper proposes a practical but rational approach for the evaluation of capacity rating in terms of the equivalent system-capacity rating corresponding to the estimated system-reliability index which is derived based on the concept of the equivalent FOSM(First Order Second Moment) form of system reliability index. The results of the reliability evaluation and rating of existing bridges indicate that the reserved reliability and capacity rating at system level are significantly different from those of element reliability or conventional methods especially in the case of highly redundant box-girder bridges.