• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.523-533
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• 2011

The demand for the circular hollow section (CHS) has been increasing due to its structural advantage in long-span structures and high-rise buildings. There are not enough researches on the CHS structure, though. The behavior of the gusset plate CHS joint, to predict the ultimate strength, is not easy to predict because the load deflection curve does not show consistency. Therefore, in this study, experiments and finite element analysis (FEA) were carried out to determine the ultimate strength according to the proposed ultimate deformation limit. Finally, a reasonable ultimate strength formula was proposed through comparisons with other design guides.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.209-220
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• 2008

Flutter derivatives provide the basis of predicting the critical wind speed in flutter and buffeting analysis of long-span cable-supported bridges. Many studies have been performed on the methods and applications of identification of flutter derivatives of bridge decks under wind action. In fact, strong wind, especially typhoon, is always accompanied by heavy rain. Then, what is the effect of rain on flutter derivatives and flutter critical wind speed of bridges? Unfortunately, there have been no studies on this subject. This paper makes an initial study on this problem. Covariance-driven Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI in short) which is capable of estimating the flutter derivatives of bridge decks from their steady random responses is presented first. An experimental set-up is specially designed and manufactured to produce the conditions of rain and wind. Wind tunnel tests of a quasi-streamlined thin plate model are conducted under conditions of only wind action and simultaneous wind-rain action, respectively. The flutter derivatives are then extracted by the SSI method, and comparisons are made between the flutter derivatives under the two different conditions. The comparison results tentatively indicate that rain has non-trivial effects on flutter derivatives, especially on and $H_2$ and $A_2$thus the flutter critical wind speeds of bridges.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.55-67
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• 2020

Wind tunnel test is one of the most important means to study the flutter performance of bridges, but there are blockage effects in flutter test due to the size limitation of the wind tunnel. On the other hand, the size of computational domain can be defined by users in the numerical simulation. This paper presents a study on blockage effects of a simplified box girder by computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, the blockage effects on the aerodynamic characteristics and flutter performance of a long-span suspension bridge are studied. The results show that the aerodynamic coefficients and the absolute value of mean pressure coefficient increase with the increase of the blockage ratio. And the aerodynamic coefficients can be corrected by the mean wind speed in the plane of leading edge of model. At each angle of attack, the critical flutter wind speed decreases as the blockage ratio increases, but the difference is that bending-torsion coupled flutter and torsional flutter occur at lower and larger angles of attack respectively. Finally, the correction formula of critical wind speed at 0° angle of attack is given, which can provide reference for wind resistance design of streamlined box girders in practical engineering.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.225-241
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• 1998

The high-rise supporting towers of long-span suspension and cable-stayed bridges commonly comprise a pair of slender prisms of roughly square cross-section with a center-to-centre spacing of from perhaps 2 to 6 widths and connected by one or more cross-ties. The tower columns may have a constant spacing as common for suspension bridges or the spacing may reduce towards the top of the tower. The present paper is concerned with the aerodynamics of such towers and describes an experimental investigation of the overall aerodynamic forces acting on a pair of square cylinders in two-dimensional flow. Wind tunnel pressure measurements were carried out in smooth flow and with a longitudinal intensity of turbulence 0.10. Different angles of attack were considered between $0^{\circ}$ and $90^{\circ}$, and separations between the two columns from twice to 13 times the side width of the column. The mean values of the overall forces proved to be related to the bias introduced in the flow by the interaction between the two cylinders; the overall rms forces are related to the level of coherence between the shedding-induced forces on the two cylinders and to their phase. Plots showing the variation of the force coefficients and Strouhal number as a function of the separation, together with the force coefficients spectra and lift cross-correlation functions are presented in the paper.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.495-505
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• 2009

Bridges form crucial links in the transportation network especially in high seismic risk regions. This research aims to provide a quantitative methodology for post-earthquake performance evaluation of the bridges. The experimental portion of the research involved shake table tests of a 4-span bridge which was subjected to progressively increasing amplitudes of seismic motions recorded from the Northridge earthquake. As part of this project, a high resolution long gauge fiber optic displacement sensor was developed for post-seismic evaluation of damage in the columns of the bridge. The nonlinear finite element model was developed using Opensees program to simulate the response of the bridge and the abutments to the seismic loads. The model was modified to predict the bent displacements of the bridge commensurate with the measured bent displacements obtained from experimental analysis results. Following seismic events, the tangential stiffness matrix of the whole structure is reduced due to reduction in structural strength. The nonlinear static push over analysis using current damaged stiffness matrix provides the longitudinal and transverse ultimate capacities of the bridge. Capacity loss in the transverse and longitudinal directions following the seismic events was correlated to the maximum displacements of the deck recorded during the events.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.19-43
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• 2016

In the present study, a new methodology is presented to study the ride comfort and bridge responses of a long-span bridge-traffic-wind coupled vibration system considering stochastic characteristics of traffic flow and bridge surface progressive deterioration. A three-dimensional vehicle model with 24 degrees-of-freedoms (DOFs) including a three-dimensional non-linear suspension seat model and the longitudinal vibration of the vehicle is firstly presented to study the ride comfort. An improved cellular automaton (CA) model considering the influence of the next-nearest neighbor vehicles and a progressive deterioration model for bridge surface roughness are firstly introduced. Based on the equivalent dynamic vehicle model approach, the bridge-traffic-wind coupled equations are established by combining the equations of motion of both the bridge and vehicles in traffic using the displacement relationship and interaction force relationship at the patch contact. The numerical simulations show that the proposed method can simulate rationally the ride comfort and bridge responses of the bridge-traffic-wind coupled system; and the vertical, lateral, and longitudinal vibrations of the driver seat model can affect significantly the driver's comfort, as expected.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.209-220
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• 2014

Vibration based damage detection is very popular in the civil engineering area. Especially, special structures like dams, long-span bridges and high-rise buildings, need continues monitoring in terms of mechanical properties of material, static and dynamic behavior. It has been stated in the International Commission on Large Dams that more than half of the large concrete dams were constructed more than 50 years ago and the old dams have subjected to repeating loads such as earthquake, overflow, blast, etc.,. So, some unexpected failures may occur and catastrophic damages may be taken place because of theloss of strength, stiffness and other physical properties of concrete. Therefore, these dams need repairs provided with global damage evaluation in order to preserve structural integrity. The paper aims to show the effectiveness of the model updating method for global damage detection on a laboratory arch dam model. Ambient vibration test is used in order to determine the experimental dynamic characteristics. The initial finite element model is updated according to the experimentally determined natural frequencies and mode shapes. The web thickness is selected as updating parameter in the damage evaluation. It is observed from the study that the damage case is revealed with high accuracy and a good match is attained between the estimated and the real damage cases by model updating method.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.373-391
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• 2013

This is the first of two companion papers that analyse ten years of on-site monitoring data for the Confederation Bridge to determine the validity of the original wind speeds and wind loads predicted in 1994 when the bridge was being designed. The check of the original design values is warranted because the design wind speed at the middle of Northumberland Strait was derived from data collected at shore-based weather stations, and the design wind loads were based on tests of section and full-aeroelastic models in the wind tunnel. This first paper uses wind, tilt, and acceleration monitoring data to determine the static and dynamic responses of the bridge, which are then used in the second paper to derive the static and dynamic wind loads. It is shown that the design ten-minute mean wind speed with a 100-year return period is 1.5% less than the 1994 design value, and that the bridge has been subjected to this design event once on November 7, 2001. The dynamic characteristics of the instrumented spans of the bridge including frequencies, mode shapes and damping are in good agreement with published values reported by others. The on-site monitoring data show bridge response to be that of turbulent buffeting which is consistent with the response predicted at the design stage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.795-807
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• 2008

A challenging problem in structural damage detection based on vibration data is the requirement of a large number of sensors and the numerical difficulty in obtaining reasonably accurate results when the system is large. To address this issue, the substructure identification approach may be used. Due to practical limitations, the response data are not available at all degrees of freedom of the structure and the external excitations may not be measured (or available). In this paper, an adaptive damage tracking technique, referred to as the sequential nonlinear least-square estimation with unknown inputs and unknown outputs (SNLSE-UI-UO) and the sub-structure approach are used to identify damages at critical locations (hot spots) of the complex structure. In our approach, only a limited number of response data are needed and the external excitations may not be measured, thus significantly reducing the number of sensors required and the corresponding computational efforts. The accuracy of the proposed approach is illustrated using a long-span truss with finite-element formulation and an 8-story nonlinear base-isolated building. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach is capable of tracking the local structural damages without the global information of the entire structure, and it is suitable for local structural health monitoring.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.147-155
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• 2002

To find the safety and serviceability of bridges, it must consider the behaviour of structural member and evaluation of the exact resistance of the member subjected to external loads. To evaluate the behaviour and the resistance of the structural member, it must measure the strains and displacements of the structures. Usually we use the strain gauge to measure the strains. When, the bridge is long span and high pier, the setting of strain gauge is very difficult and not economic. It is not recommendable for the use of strain gauge, when the structural member has many cracks and moisture. Thus, to make up for this demerits, the algorithm of strain analysis by measured displacements data is proposed.