• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.585-599
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• 2023

Field monitoring techniques offer an attractive approach for understanding bridge behavior under in-service loads. However, the investigations on bridge behavior under high-speed train load using field monitoring data are limited. The focus of this study is to explore the structural behavior of an in-service long-span steel truss arch bridge based on field monitoring data. First, the natural frequencies of the structure, as well as the train driving frequencies, are extracted. Then, the train-induced bearing displacement and structural strain are explored to identify the effects of train loads and bearings. Subsequently, a sensitivity analysis is performed for the impact factor of strain responses with respect to the train speed, train weight, and temperature to identify the fundamental issues affecting these responses. Additionally, a similar sensitivity analysis is conducted for the peak acceleration. The results indicate that the friction force in bearings provides residual deformations when two consecutive trains are in opposite directions. In addition, the impact factor and peak acceleration are primarily affected by train speed, particularly near train speeds that result in the resonance of the bridge response. The results can provide additional insight into the behavior of the long-span steel truss bridges under in-service high-speed train loads.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.83-96
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• 2020

The main structural elements of historical masonry arch bridges are arches, spandrel walls, piers and foundations. The most vulnerable structural elements of masonry arch bridges under transverse seismic loads, particularly in the case of out-of-plane actions, are spandrel wall. The vulnerability of spandrel walls under transverse loads increases with the increasing of their length and height. This paper computationally investigates the out-of-plane nonlinear seismic response of spandrel walls of long-span and high masonry stone arch bridges. The Malabadi Bridge with a main arch span of 40.86m and rise of 23.45m built in 1147 in Diyarbakır, Turkey, is selected as an example. The Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) material model adjusted to masonry structures, and cohesive interface interaction between the infill and the spandrel walls and the arch are considered in the 3D finite element model of the selected bridge. Firstly, mode shapes with and without cohesive interfaces are evaluated, and then out-of-plane seismic failure responses of the spandrel walls with and without the cohesive interfaces are determined and compared with respect to the displacements, strains and stresses.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.211-220
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• 2017

Observations from past strong earthquakes revealed that near-fault ground motions could lead to the failure, or even collapse of electricity transmission towers which are vital components of an overhead electric power delivery system. For assessing the performance and robustness, a high-fidelity three-dimension finite element model of a long span transmission tower-line system is established with the consideration of geometric nonlinearity and material nonlinearity. In the numerical model, the Tian-Ma-Qu material model is utilized to capture the nonlinear behaviours of structural members, and the cumulative damage D is defined as an index to identify the failure of members. Consequently, incremental dynamic analyses (IDAs) are conducted to study the collapse fragility, damage positions, collapse margin ratio (CMR) and dynamic robustness of the transmission towers by using twenty near-fault ground motions selected from PEER. Based on the bending and shear deformation of structures, the collapse mechanism of electricity transmission towers subjected to Chi-Chi earthquake is investigated. This research can serve as a reference for the performance of large span transmission tower line system subjected to near-fault ground motions.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2022

The 43 story, 178m tall Atlantis The Royal Resort and Residences tower nearing completion on the Palm in Dubai is a unique project in terms of its overall scale, geometry and form. The tower superstructure has a long narrow curved floor plan, measuring 400m in length above the podium with significant long span bridge structures forming voids and cantilevered blocks. This paper describes the innovative structural design solutions adopted and the construction solutions adopted by the Contractor to realize the Architectural vision.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.233-257
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• 2016

This paper provides an overview on development of long-span bridges monitoring in Japan, with emphasis on monitoring strategies, types of monitoring system, and effective utilization of monitoring data. Because of severe environment condition such as high seismic activity and strong wind, bridge monitoring systems in Japan historically put more emphasis on structural evaluation against extreme events. Monitoring data were used to verify design assumptions, update specifications, and facilitate the efficacy of vibration control system. These were among the first objectives of instrumentation of long-span bridges in a framework of monitoring system in Japan. Later, monitoring systems were also utilized to evaluate structural performance under various environment and loading conditions, and to detect the possible structural deterioration over the age of structures. Monitoring systems are also employed as the basis of investigation and decision making for structural repair and/or retrofit when required. More recent interest has been to further extend application of monitoring to facilitate operation and maintenance, through rationalization of risk and asset management by utilizing monitoring data. The paper describes strategies and several examples of monitoring system and lessons learned from structural monitoring of long-span bridges in Japan.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.393-402
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• 2020

Long-span bridges with high flexibility and low structural damping are very susceptible to the vortex-induced vibration (VIV), which causes extremely negative impacts on the ride comfort of vehicles running on the bridges. To assess the ride comfort of vehicles running on the long-span bridges subjected to VIV, a coupled wind-vehicle-bridge system applicable to the VIV case is firstly developed in this paper. In this system, the equations of motion of the vehicles and the bridge subjected to VIV are established and coupled through the vehicle-bridge interaction. Based on the dynamic responses of the vehicles obtained by solving the coupled system, the ride comfort of the vehicles can be evaluated using the method given in ISO 2631-1. At last, the proposed framework is applied to several case studies, where a long-span suspension bridge and two types of vehicles are taken into account. The effects of vehicle speed, vehicle type, road roughness and vehicle number on the ride comfort are investigated.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.301-319
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• 2011

The full-scale measurements are compared with the wind tunnel test results for the long-span roof latticed spatial structure of Shenzhen Citizen Center. A direct comparison of model testing results to full-scale measurements is always desirable, not only in validating the experimental data and methods but also in providing better understanding of the physics such as Reynolds numbers and scale effects. Since the quantity and location of full-scale measurements points are different from those of the wind tunnel tests taps, the weighted proper orthogonal decomposition technique is applied to the wind pressure data obtained from the wind tunnel tests to generate a time history of wind load vector, then loads acted on all the internal nodes are obtained by interpolation technique. The nodal mean wind pressure coefficients, root-mean-square of wind pressure coefficients and wind pressure power spectrum are also calculated. The time and frequency domain characteristics of full-scale measurements wind load are analyzed based on filtered data-acquisitions. In the analysis, special attention is paid to the distributions of the mean wind pressure coefficients of center part of Shenzhen Citizen Center long-span roof spatial latticed structure. Furthermore, a brief discussion about difference between the wind pressure power spectrum from the wind tunnel experiments and that from the full-scale in-site measurements is compared. The result is important fundament of wind-induced dynamic response of long-span spatial latticed structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.583-593
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• 2018

Seismic performance is particularly important for life-line structures, especially for long-span transmission tower line system subjected to multi-component ground motions. However, the influence of multi-component seismic loads and the coupling effect between supporting towers and transmission lines are not taken into consideration in the current seismic design specifications. In this research, shake table tests are conducted to investigate the performance of long-span transmission tower-line system under multi-component seismic excitations. For reproducing the genuine structural responses, the reduced-scale experimental model of the prototype is designed and constructed based on the Buckingham's theorem. And three commonly used seismic records are selected as the input ground motions according to the site soil condition of supporting towers. In order to compare the experimental results, the dynamic responses of transmission tower-line system subjected to single-component and two-component ground motions are also studied using shake table tests. Furthermore, an empirical model is proposed to evaluate the acceleration and member stress responses of transmission tower-line system subjected to multi-component ground motions. The results demonstrate that the ground motions with multi-components can amplify the dynamic response of transmission tower-line system, and transmission lines have a significant influence on the structural response and should not be neglected in seismic analysis. The experimental results can provide a reference for the seismic design and analysis of long-span transmission tower-line system subjected to multi-component ground motions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.505-520
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• 2002

Based on the modal coordinates of the structure, a finite-element and CQC (complete quadratic combination) method for analyzing the coupled buffeting response of long-span bridges is presented. The formulation of nodal equivalent aerodynamic buffeting forces is derived based on a reasonable assumption. The power spectral density and variance of nodal displacements and elemental internal forces of the bridge structure are computed using the finite-element method and the random vibration theory. The method presented is very efficient and can consider the arbitrary spectrum and spatial coherence of natural winds and the multimode and intermode effects on the buffeting responses of bridge structures. A coupled buffeting analysis of the Jiangyin Yangtse River Suspension Bridge with 1385 in main span is performed as an example. The results analyzed show that the multimode and intermode effects on the buffeting response of the bridge deck are quite remarkable.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2020

The aerostatic stability analysis of a long-span suspension bridge by the Element-free Galerkin (EFG) method is presented in this paper. Nonlinear effects due to wind structure interactions should be taken into account in determining the aerostatic behavior of long-span suspension bridges. The EFG method is applied to investigate torsional divergence of suspension bridges, based on both the three components of wind loads and nonlinearities of structural geometric. Since EFG methods, which are based on moving least-square (MLS) interpolation, require only nodal data, the description of the geometry of bridge structure and boundaries consist of defining a set of nodes. A numerical example involving the three-dimensional EFG model of a suspension bridge with a span length of 888m is presented to illustrate the performance and potential of this method. The results indicate that presented method can effectively be applied for modeling suspension bridge structure and the computed results obtained using present modeling strategy for nonlinear suspension bridge structure under wind flow are encouragingly acceptable.