• Wind and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.401-412
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• 2009

A method is applied for the estimation of structural damage of tall slender structures using natural frequency and displacements measurements by GPS. The relationship between the variation in the global stiffness matrix (or in the stiffness of each finite element) and the change in the natural frequencies of the structure is given. In engineering practice the number of frequencies which can be derived by GPS measurement of long-period structures will be equal to one, two or three first natural frequencies. This allows us in initial studies to detect damage with frequency changes based on forward methods in which the measured frequencies are compared with the predicted analytical data. This idea, of health monitoring from possible changes to natural frequencies, or from a statement of excessive displacements is applied to the Stuttgart TV Tower.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.393-409
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• 2014

Across-wind response is often the cause of significant structural vibrations that in turn cause fatigue damage to welded and other connections. The efficacy of low-cost helical strakes to mitigate such adverse response is presented for a traffic signal structure. Field observations are made on a prototype structure in a natural wind environment without and with helical strakes installed on the cantilevered arm. Through continuous monitoring, the strakes were found to be effective in reducing across-wind response at wind speeds less than 10 m/s. Estimates of fatigue life are made for four different geographical locations and wind environments. Results for the class of traffic signal structure show that helical arm strakes are most effective in locations with benign wind environments where the average annual wind speed is not more than the vortex shedding wind speed, which for this investigation is 5 m/s. It is concluded that while strakes may be effective, it is not the panacea to mitigating connection fatigue at all locations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.609-626
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• 2004

The Land Transport Authority of Singapore has a continuing program of highway bridge upgrading, to refurbish and strengthen bridges to allow for increasing vehicle traffic and increasing axle loads. One subject of this program has been a short span bridge taking a busy highway across a coastal inlet near a major port facility. Experiment-based structural assessments of the bridge were conducted before and after upgrading works including strengthening. Each assessment exercise comprised two separate components; a strain and acceleration monitoring exercise lasting approximately one month, and a full-scale dynamic test carried out in a single day. This paper reports the application of extreme value statistics to estimate bridge live loads using strain measurements.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.195-214
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• 2017

Full-scale wind characteristics based on the field measurements is an essential element in structural wind engineering. Statistical analysis of the wind characteristics at Sutong Cable-stayed Bridge (SCB) site is conducted in this study with the recorded long-term wind data from structural health monitoring system (SHMS) between 2008 and 2015. Both the mean and turbulent wind characteristics and power spectra are comprehensively investigated and compared with those in the current codes of practice, such as the measured wind rose diagram, monthly maximum mean wind speed, turbulence intensity, integral length scale. Measurement results based on the monitoring data show that winds surrounding the SCB site are substantially influenced by the southeast monsoon in summer and strong northern wind in winter. The measured turbulence intensity is slightly higher than the recommended values in specifications, while the measured ratio of lateral to longitudinal turbulence intensity is slightly lower. An approximately linear relationship between the measured turbulence intensities and gust factors is obtained. The mean value of the turbulence integral length scale is smaller than that of typical typhoon events. In addition, it is found that the Kaimal spectrum is suitable to be adopted as the power spectrum for longitudinal wind component at the SCB site. This contribution would provide important wind characteristic references for the wind performance evaluation of SCB and other civil infrastructures in adjacent regions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.3_4
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• pp.393-408
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• 2004

There exists a clear need to monitor the performance of civil structures over their operational lives. Current commercial monitoring systems suffer from various technological and economic limitations that prevent their widespread adoption. The wires used to route measurements from system sensors to the centralized data server represent one of the greatest limitations since they are physically vulnerable and expensive from an installation and maintenance standpoint. In lieu of cables, the introduction of low-cost wireless communications is proposed. The result is the design of a prototype wireless sensing unit that can serve as the fundamental building block of wireless modular monitoring systems (WiMMS). An additional feature of the wireless sensing unit is the incorporation of computational power in the form of state-of-art microcontrollers. The prototype unit is validated with a series of laboratory and field tests. The Alamosa Canyon Bridge is employed to serve as a full-scale benchmark structure to validate the performance of the wireless sensing unit in the field. A traditional cable-based monitoring system is installed in parallel with the wireless sensing units for performance comparison.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1143-1164
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• 2016

Time Delay of Arrival (TDOA) estimation methods based on correlation function analysis play an important role in the micro-seismic event monitoring. It makes full use of the similarity in the recorded signals that are from the same source. However, those methods are subjected to the noise effect, particularly when the global similarity of the signals is low. This paper proposes a new approach for micro-seismic monitoring based on cross wavelet transform. The cross wavelet transform is utilized to analyse the measured signals under micro-seismic events, and the cross wavelet power spectrum is used to measure the similarity of two signals in a multi-scale dimension and subsequently identify TDOA. The offset time instant associated with the maximum cross wavelet transform spectrum power is identified as TDOA, and then the location of micro-seismic event can be identified. Individual and statistical identification tests are performed with measurement data from an in-field mine. Experimental studies demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly improves the robustness and accuracy of micro-seismic source locating in mines compared to several existing methods, such as the cross-correlation, multi-correlation, STA/LTA and Kurtosis methods.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2682-2695
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• 2021

This paper aims to evaluate the structural dynamic responses and damage/failure of the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant under the free drop impact of spent fuel cask (SFC) and fuel assembly (FA) during the on-site transportation. At the present Part I of this paper, the large-scale SFC model free drop test and the corresponding numerical simulations are performed. Firstly, a composite target which is composed of the protective structure, i.e., a thin RC plate (representing the inverted U-shaped slab in the loading shaft) and/or an autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) blocks sacrificial layer, as well as a thick RC plate (representing the bottom slab in the loading shaft) is designed and fabricated. Then, based on the large dropping tower, the free drop test of large-scale SFC model with the mass of 3 t is carried out from the height of 7 m-11 m. It indicates that the bottom slab in the loading shaft could not resist the free drop impact of SFC. The composite protective structure can effectively reduce the damage and vibrations of the bottom slab, and the inverted U-shaped slab could relieve the damage of the AAC blocks layer dramatically. Furthermore, based on the finite element (FE) program LS-DYNA, the corresponding refined numerical simulations are performed. By comparing the experimental and numerical damage and vibration accelerations of the composite structures, the present adopted numerical algorithms, constitutive models and parameters are validated, which will be applied in the further assessment of drop impact effects of full-scale SFC and FA on prototype nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the next Part II of this paper.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.99-117
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• 2015

The Stonecutters Bridge (SCB) in Hong Kong is the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in the world with a main span stretching 1,018 m between two 298 m high single-leg tapering composite towers. A Wind and Structural Health Monitoring System (WASHMS) is being implemented on SCB by the Highways Department of The Hong Kong SAR Government, and the SCB-WASHMS is composed of more than 1,300 sensors in 15 types. In order to establish a linkage between structural health monitoring and maintenance management, a Structural Health Rating System (SHRS) with relevant rating tools and indices is devised. On the basis of a 3D space frame finite element model (FEM) of SCB and model updating, this paper presents the development of an SHR-oriented 3D multi-scale FEM for the purpose of load-resistance analysis and damage evaluation in structural element level, including modeling, refinement and validation of the multi-scale FEM. The refined 3D structural segments at deck and towers are established in critical segment positions corresponding to maximum cable forces. The components in the critical segment region are modeled as a full 3D FEM and fitted into the 3D space frame FEM. The boundary conditions between beam and shell elements are performed conforming to equivalent stiffness, effective mass and compatibility of deformation. The 3D multi-scale FEM is verified by the in-situ measured dynamic characteristics and static response. A good agreement between the FEM and measurement results indicates that the 3D multi-scale FEM is precise and efficient for WASHMS and SHRS of SCB. In addition, stress distribution and concentration of the critical segments in the 3D multi-scale FEM under temperature loads, static wind loads and equivalent seismic loads are investigated. Stress concentration elements under equivalent seismic loads exist in the anchor zone in steel/concrete beam and the anchor plate edge in steel anchor box of the towers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.109-116
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• 1994

Quickness and precision are the two most important requirements for an industrial scale used in production lines. In this paper, a new approach, "Dynamic-Mass measurement control System of Acceleration and Displacement(DMS-AD) sensing", is presented to improve some of drowbacks in conventional scales. The system, consisted of acceleration and displace- ment sensors, spring scale and microcomputer, is based on full utilization of dynamic mass measurement of acceleration and displacement via microcomputer-assisted real time monitoring. The rsulting system, when combined with appropriate dynamic mass estimation algorithm software, has shown its effectiveness in terms of two desirable characteristics required. required.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.255-268
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• 2019

Civil infrastructures, such as bridges and tunnels are most important assets and their failure during service will have significant economic and social impact in any country. Behavior of a bridge can be evaluated only through actual monitoring/measurements of bridge members under the loads of interest. Theoretical analysis alone is not a good predictor of the ability of a bridge. In some cases, theoretical analyses can give less effect than actual since theoretical analyses do not consider the actual condition of the bridge, support conditions, level of corrosion and damage in members and connections etc. Hence actual measurements of bridge response should be considered in making decisions on structural integrity, especially in cases of high value bridges (large spans and major crossings). This paper describes in detail the experimental investigations carried out on an open web type steel railway bridge. Strain gages and displacement transducers were installed at critical locations and responses were measured during passage of locomotives. Stresses were evaluated and extrapolated to maximum design loading. The responses measured from the bridge were within the permissible limits. The methodology adopted shall be used for assessing the structural integrity of the bridge for the design loads.