• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.193-202
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• 2018

This paper studied the probability of pounding occurred between decks and abutments of a long span high-pier continuous rigid fame bridge subjected to ground motions with local soil effect. A pounding probability analysis methodology has been proposed using peak acceleration at bedrock as intensity measure (IM) for multi-support seismic analysis. The bridge nonlinear finite element (FE) models was built with four different separation distances. Effect of actual site condition and non-uniform spatial soil profiles on seismic wave propagating from bedrock to ground surface is modelled. Pounding probability of the high-pier bridge under multi-support seismic excitations (MSSE) is analyzed based on the nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis (n-IDA). Pounding probability results under uniform excitations (UE) without actual local site effect are compared with that under MSSE with site effect. The study indicates that the required design separation length between deck and abutment under uniform excitations is larger than that under MSSE as the peak acceleration at bedrock increases. As the increase of both separation distance between deck and abutment and the peak acceleration, the probability of pounding occurred at a single abutment or at two abutments simultaneously under MSSE is less than that under UE. It is of great significance considering actual local site effect for determining the separation distance between deck and abutment through the probability pounding analysis of the high-pier bridge under MSSE.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.389-403
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• 2021

Skewed bridges, being irregular structures with complicated dynamic behavior, are more susceptible to earthquake damage. Reliable seismic-resistant design of skewed bridges can be achieved by accurate determination of nonlinear seismic demands. However, the effect of geometric characteristics on the response modification factor (R-factor) is not accounted for in bridge design practices. This study attempts to investigate the effects of changes in the number of spans, skew angle and bearing stiffness on R-factor values and to assess the seismic fragility of skewed bridges. Results indicated that changes in the skew angle had no significant effect on R-factor values which were in consonance with code-prescribed R values. Also, unlike the increase in the number of spans that resulted in a decrease in the R-factor, the increase in bearing stiffness led to higher R-factor values. Findings of the fragility analysis implied that although the increase in the number of spans, as well as the increase in the skew angle, led to a higher failure probability, greater values of bearing stiffness reduced the collapse probability. For practicing design engineers, it is recommended that maximum demands on substructure elements to be calculated when the excitation angle is applied along the principal axes of skewed bridges.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.59-68
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• 2010

Seismic performances of existing structures should be assessed with more accuracy for cost-effective retrofits. Existing bridges are assessed by the current guidelines in which a simple method has been adapted considering the technical level of engineers of the historical time of construction. Recently many probabilistic approaches have been performed to reflect the uncertainties of seismic input motions. Structures are modeled frequently with the neglection of soil foundations or modeled occasionally with elastic soil spring elements to consider the effect of the soil on the structural response. However, soil also shows nonlinearity under seismic events, so this characteristic should be reflected in order to obtain a more accurate assessment. In this study, a 6-span continuous bridge has been analyzed under various seismic events, in which the soil was represented by equivalent linear spring elements having different properties according to the intensities of the input motions experienced. The seismic vulnerabilities with respect to the failure of piers and the dropping of the super-structure were evaluated on the basis of the analysis results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.4
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• pp.433-444
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• 2019

Shear studs are often used to connect steel girders and concrete deck to form a composite bridge system. The application of precast concrete deck to steel-concrete composite bridges can improve the strength of decks and reduce the shrinkage and creep effect on the long-term behavior of structures. How to ensure the connection between steel girders and concrete deck directly influences the composite behavior between steel girder and precast concrete deck as well as the behavior of the structure system. Compared with traditional multi-I girder systems, a twin-I girder composite bridge system is more simplified but may lead to additional requirements on the shear studs connecting steel girders and decks due to the larger girder spacing. Up to date, only very limited quantity of researches has been conducted regarding the behavior of shear studs on twin-I girder bridge systems. One convenient way for steel composite bridge system is to cast concrete deck in place with shear studs uniformly-distributed along the span direction. For steel composite bridge system using precast concrete deck, voids are included in the precast concrete deck segments, and they are casted with cast-in-place concrete after the concrete segments are erected. In this paper, several sets of push-out tests are conducted, which are used to investigate the heavier of shear studs within the voids in the precast concrete deck. The test data are analyzed and compared with those from finite element models. A simplified shear stud model is proposed using a beam element instead of solid elements. It is used in the finite element model analyses of the twin-I girder composite bridge system to relieve the computational efforts of the shear studs. Additionally, a parametric study is developed to find the effects of void size, void spacing, and shear stud diameter and spacing. Finally, the recommendations are given for the design of precast deck using void for twin I-girder bridge systems.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.419-429
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• 2018

The seismic vulnerability analysis of multi-span bridges can be based on the response of the piers, provided that deck, bearings and foundations remain elastic. The lateral response of an RC bridge pier can be affected by different mechanisms (i.e., flexure, shear, lap-splice or buckling of the longitudinal reinforcement bars, second order effects). In the literature, simplified formulations are available for mechanisms different from the flexure. On the other hand, the flexural response is usually calculated with a numerically-based Moment-Curvature diagram of the base section and equivalent plastic hinge length. The goal of this paper is to propose a simplified analytical solution to obtain the Moment-Curvature relationship for hollow circular RC sections. This based on calibrated polynomials, fitted against a database comprising 720 numerical Moment-Curvature analyses. The section capacity curve is defined through the position of 6 characteristic points and they are based on four input parameters: void ratio of the hollow section, axial force ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio, transversal reinforcement ratio. A case study RC bridge pier is assessed with the proposed solution and the results are compared to a refined numerical FEM analysis, showing good match.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.21-41
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• 2010

Multi-span steel-concrete composite (SCC) bridges are very sensitive to earthquake loading. Extensive damage may occur not only in the substructures (piers), which are expected to yield, but also in the other components (e.g., deck, abutments) involved in carrying the seismic loads. Current seismic codes allow the design of regular bridges by means of linear elastic analysis based on inelastic design spectra. In bridges with superstructure transverse motion restrained at the abutments, a dual load path behavior is observed. The sequential yielding of the piers can lead to a substantial change in the stiffness distribution. Thus, force distributions and displacement demand can significantly differ from linear elastic analysis predictions. The objectives of this study are assessing the influence of piers-deck stiffness ratio and of soil-structure interaction effects on the seismic behavior of continuous SCC bridges with dual load path, and evaluating the suitability of linear elastic analysis in predicting the actual seismic behavior of these bridges. Parametric analysis results are presented and discussed for a common bridge typology. The response dependence on the parameters is studied by nonlinear multi-record incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Comparisons are made with linear time history analysis results. The results presented suggest that simplified linear elastic analysis based on inelastic design spectra could produce very inaccurate estimates of the structural behavior of SCC bridges with dual load path.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.591-600
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• 2018

The probabilistic characterization of wind field characteristics is a significant task for fatigue reliability assessment of long-span railway bridges in wind-prone regions. In consideration of the effect of wind direction, the stochastic properties of wind field should be represented by a bivariate statistical model of wind speed and direction. This paper presents the construction of the bivariate model of wind speed and direction at the site of a railway arch bridge by use of the long-term structural health monitoring (SHM) data. The wind characteristics are derived by analyzing the real-time wind monitoring data, such as the mean wind speed and direction, turbulence intensity, turbulence integral scale, and power spectral density. A sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm-based finite mixture modeling method is proposed to formulate the joint distribution model of wind speed and direction. For the probability density function (PDF) of wind speed, a double-parameter Weibull distribution function is utilized, and a von Mises distribution function is applied to represent the PDF of wind direction. The SQP algorithm with multi-start points is used to estimate the parameters in the bivariate model, namely Weibull-von Mises mixture model. One-year wind monitoring data are selected to validate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling method. The optimal model is jointly evaluated by the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) and coefficient of determination, $R^2$. The obtained results indicate that the proposed SQP algorithm-based finite mixture modeling method can effectively establish the bivariate model of wind speed and direction. The established bivariate model of wind speed and direction will facilitate the wind-induced fatigue reliability assessment of long-span bridges.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.479-500
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• 2022

In this study, a new type of isolation bearing is proposed by combining S-shaped steel plate dampers (SSDs) with a spherical steel bearing, and the seismic control effect of a five-span standard high-speed railway bridge is investigated. The advantages of the proposed S-shaped steel damping friction bearing (SSDFB) are that it cannot only lengthen the structural periods, dissipate the seismic energy, but also prevent bridge unseating due to the restraint effectiveness of SSDs in the large relative displacements between the girders and piers. This study first presents a detailed description and working principle of the SSDFB. Then, mechanical modeling of the SSDFB was derived to fundamentally define its cyclic behavior and obtain key mechanical parameters. The numerical model of the SSDFB's critical component SSD was verified by comparing it with the experimental results. After that, parameter studies of the dimensions and number of SSDs, the friction coefficient, and the gap length of the SSDFBs were conducted. Finally, the longitudinal seismic responses of the bridge with SSDFBs were compared with the bridge with spherical bearing and spherical bearing with strengthened shear keys. The results showed that the SSDFB can not only significantly mitigate the shear force responses and residual displacement in bridge substructures but also can effectively reduce girder displacement and prevent bridge unseating, at a cost of inelastic deformation of the SSDs, which is easy to replace. In conclusion, the SSDFB is expected to be a cost-effective option with both multi-stage energy dissipation and restraint capacity, making it particularly suitable for seismic isolation application to high-speed railway bridges.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.81-89
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• 2023

A simplified calculation method of natural vibration characteristics of high-speed railway multi-span bridge-longitudinal ballastless track system is proposed. The rail, track slab, base slab, main beam, bearing, pier, cap and pile foundation are taken into account, and the multi-span longitudinal ballastless track-beam-bearing-pier-cap-pile foundation integrated model (MBTIM) is established. The energy equation of each component of the MBTIM based on Timoshenko beam theory is constructed. Using the improved Fourier series, and the Rayleigh-Ritz method and Hamilton principle are combined to obtain the extremum of the total energy function. The simplified calculation formula of the natural vibration frequency of the MBTIM under the influence of vertical and longitudinal vibration is derived and verified by numerical methods. The influence law of the natural vibration frequency of the MBTIM is analyzed considering and not considering the participation of each component of the MBTIM, the damage of the track interlayer component and the stiffness change of each layer component. The results show that the error between the calculation results of the formula and the numerical method in this paper is less than 3%, which verifies the correctness of the method in this paper. The high-order frequency of the MBTIM is significantly affected considering the track, bridge pier, pile soil and pile cap, while considering the influence of pile cap on the low-order and high-order frequency of the MBTIM is large. The influence of component damage such as void beneath slab, mortar debonding and fastener failure on each order frequency of the MBTIM is basically the same, and the influence of component damage less than 10m on the first fourteen order frequency of the MBTIM is small. The bending stiffness of track slab and rail has no obvious influence on the natural frequency of the MBTIM, and the bending stiffness of main beam has influence on the natural frequency of the MBTIM. The bending stiffness of pier and base slab only has obvious influence on the high-order frequency of the MBTIM. The natural vibration characteristics of the MBTIM play an important guiding role in the safety analysis of high-speed train running, the damage detection of track-bridge structure and the seismic design of railway bridge.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.853-871
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• 2015

Up to now, Japan has more than 200 corrugated steel web composite beam bridges which are under construction and have been constructed, and China has more than 30 corrugated steel web composite beam bridges. The bridge type includes the simply supported beam, continuous beam, continuous rigid frame and cable stayed bridge etc. The section form has developed to the single box and multi-cell box girder from the original single box and single chamber. From the stress performance and cost saving, the span range of 50~150 m is the most competitive. At present, the design mostly adopts the computational analytical method combining the spatial bar system model, plane beam grillage model and solid model. However, the spatial bar system model is short of the refinement analysis on the space effect, such as the shear lag effect, effective distribution width problem, and eccentric load factor problem etc. Due to the similarity of the plane beam grillage method in the equivalence principle, it cannot accurately reflect the shearing stress distribution and local stress of the top and bottom plates of the box type composite beam. The solid model is very difficult to combine with the overall calculation. Moreover, the spatial grid model can achieve the refinement analysis, with the integrity of the analysis and the comprehensiveness of the stress checking calculation, and can make up the deficiency of the analytical method currently. Through the example verification of the solid model and spatial grid model, it can be seen that the calculation results for the stress and the displacement of two models are almost consistent, indicating the applicability and precision of the spatial grid model.