• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.139-149
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• 2022

To simplify the design and reduce the construction cost of traditional multi-girder structural systems, twin I-girder structures are widely used in many countries in recent years. Due to the concern on post-fracture redundancy, however, twin girder bridges are currently classified as fracture critical structures in AASHTO specifications for highway bridges. To investigate the after-fracture behavior of such structures, a composite steel and concrete twin girder specimen was built and an artificial fracture through the web and the bottom flange was created on one main girder. The static loading test was performed to investigate its mechanical performance after a severe fracture occurred on the main girder. Applied load and vertical displacement curves, and the applied load versus strain relationships at key sections were measured. To investigate the load distribution and transfer capacities between two steel girders, the normal strain development on crossbeams was also measured during the loading test. In addition, both shear and normal strains of studs were also measured in the loading test to explore the behavior of shear connectors in such bridges. The functions and structural performance of structural members and possible load transfer paths after main girder fractures in such bridges were also discussed. The test results indicate in this study that a typical twin I-girder can resist a general fracture on one of its two main girders. The presented results can provide references for post-fracture performance and optimization for the design of twin I-girder bridges and similar structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.4
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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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.8 no.3 s.28
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• pp.107-116
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• 1996

The studies are conducted to investigate the fatigue and fracture, behavior of preflex girder. In this work, the fatigue tests using by constant amplitude fatigue loading and 4-point-loading to maintain pure bending condition in the mid-span of preflex girder will be performed. It is expected from the results of the studies to provide the fatigue strength and the S-N curve of preflex girders. In addition, it will be ensured that fracture initiation occurs in the welded part of horseshoe-type shear connector as well as in other welded joints.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.651-670
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• 2007

An experimental study to evaluate a redundancy capacity in simple span two plate-girder bridges, which are generally classified as a non-redundant load path structure, has been performed under the condition that one of the two girders is seriously damaged. The bottom lateral bracing was selected as an experimental parameter and two 1/5-scale bridge specimens with and without bottom lateral bracing have been prepared. The loading tests were first performed on the intact specimens without cracked girder within elastic range. Thereafter, the ultimate loading tests were conducted on the damaged specimens with an induced crack at the center of a girder. The test results showed that the cross beams and concrete deck redistributed partly the applied load to the uncracked girder, but the lateral bracing system played a significant role of the load redistribution when a girder was damaged. The redundancy was evaluated based on the test results and an appropriate redundancy level was evaluated when the lateral bracing was provided in a seriously damaged simple span two-girder steel bridge.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.401-410
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• 2007

Form the application of long rail system the non-ballast steel plate bridges, fatigue strength increase and rail noise reduction can be expected. This is mainly form the reduction of the rail impact at the rail joint locations which already made to behave together from welds. In the high speed rail, application of long rail system is essential because without long rail system, the required serviceability level can not be achieved. But even with this long rail systems, the thermal expansion from the girder can not be absorbed in the normal bearing systems, and these expansion cause between girder and rail. Also unexpected rail buckling and fracture through rail thermal tension may happen. It was found through numerical analysis and field measurement that these problems can be avoided by semi-fixed bearing system. In this study, the benefits of non-ballast plate bridge through long rail system, especially at the point of girder stability, girder stiffness increase and bearing maintenance will be reviewed.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.516-528
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• 2009

Form the application of long rail system the non-ballast steel plate bridges, fatigue strength increase and rail noise reduction can be expected. This is mainly form the reduction of the rail impact at the rail joint locations which already made to behave together from welds. In the high speed rail, application of long rail system is essential because without long rail system, the required serviceability level can not be achieved. But even with this long rail systems, the thermal expansion from the girder can not be absorbed in the normal bearing systems, and these expansion cause between girder and rail. Also unexpected rail buckling and fracture through rail thermal tension may happen. It was found through numerical analysis and field measurement that these problems can be avoided by semi-fixed bearing system. In this study, the benefits of non-ballast plate bridge through long rail system, especially at the point of girder stability, girder stiffness increase and bearing maintenance will be reviewed.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.81-94
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• 2010

This paper deals with the fracture simulation of UHPFRC girder with the interface type model. Based on the existing numerical simulation of quasi-brittle fracture in normal strength concrete, constitutive modeling for UHPFRC I-girder has been improved by including a tensile hardening at the failure surface. The finite element formulation is based on a triangular unit, constructed from constant strain triangles, with nodes along its sides and neither at the vertex nor the center of the unit. Fracture is simulated through a hardening/softening fracture constitutive law in tension, a softening fracture constitutive law in shear as well as in compression at the boundary nodes, with the material within the triangular unit remaining linear elastic. LCP is used to formulate the path-dependent hardening-softening behavior in non-holonomic rate form and a mathematical programming algorithm is employed to solve the LCP. The piece-wise linear inelastic yielding-failure/failure surface is modeled with two compressive caps, two Mohr-Coulomb failure surfaces, a tensile yielding surface and a tensile failure surface. The comparison between test results and numerical results indicates this method effectively simulates the deformation and failure of specimen.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.4A
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• pp.611-620
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• 2006

The composite two plate-girder bridges are generally defined as a non-redundant load path structure because the bridge can collapse if one of the two girders is seriously damaged by a fatigue crack. In this paper, a numerical study on the evaluation of the after-fracture redundancy of the composite two-girder bridges was accomplished. The evaluation has been performed on the simple and three-span continuous bridges with I-section cross beams which serve as transverse bracing, and with or without the bottom lateral bracing system. The load carrying capacities of the intact and damaged bridges with or without lateral bracing were evaluated from material and geometric nonlinear analysis, respectively and the redundancy was evaluated for each case. It was acknowledged from the analytical results that both simple and continuous intact two-girder bridges have sufficient redundancy even without lateral bracing, but it takes an important role to improve the redundancy of damaged bridges.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.474-483
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• 2016

Accidental events such as collisions, groundings, and hydrocarbon explosions in marine structures can cause catastrophic damage. Thus, it is extremely important to predict the extent of such damage, which determines the total amount of oil spills and the residual hull girder strength. Punching fracture tests were conducted by Choung (2009b), where various sizes of indenters and circular unstiffened steel plates with different thicknesses were used to quasi-statically realize damage extents. A three-dimensional fracture strain surface was developed based on a reference (Choung et al., 2015b), where the average stress triaxiality and average normalized Lode angle were used as the parameters governing the fracture of ductile steels. In this study, new numerical analyses were performed using very fine axisymmetric elements in combination with an Abaqus user-subroutine to implement the three-dimensional fracture strain surface. Conventional numerical analyses were also conducted for the tests to identify the best fit fracture strain values by changing the fracture strains. Based on the phenomenon of the average normalized Lode angle starting out positive and then becoming slightly negative, it was inferred that the shear stress primarily dominates in determining the fractures locations, with a partial contribution from the compressive stress. It should be stated that the three-dimensional fracture surface effectively predicted at least the shear stress-dominant fracture behavior of a mild steel.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2008

This study is about manufacturing and producing girder, which is an essential component of bridge structure, in a composite of FRP + concrete. This has a higher competitive power in price than steel girder. The girder used in this study is made of glass fiber which has a lower elastic modulus than steel and thus has some technical limitations such as excessive deflection compared to steel girder and lack of production facilities in FRP production companies to make a large-section component material. Thus, this study suggested a section of a new module that will allow for applying a large section in order to solve the technical difficulties mentioned above and to secure low stiffness of FRP, developed a new FRP+concrete composite girder that is filled with the appropriate amount of concrete. To identify the structural behavior of this FRP+concrete composite girder, experiments were conducted to measure its flexural strength according to the difference in the strength of confined concrete and the existence of stud. The results of the flexural strength test confirmed the composite effect from confining concrete and the effect of increase in strength proportional to the strength of concrete. In developing FRP+concrete composite girder, NDT study was also conducted to analyze the interface characteristics of concrete and FRP.