• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.281-289
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• 2017

Damping value has considerable influence on the dynamic and seismic behaviors of bridges. However, currently the constant damping ratios that are prescribed by most bridge seismic design codes can't truly represent the complicated damping character of actual structures. In this paper, a cyclic loading experiment was conducted to study the effect of stress amplitude on material damping of concrete to present an analyzing model of the material damping of concrete. Furthermore, based on the fundamental damping of structure measured under ambient vibration, combined with the presented stress-dependent material damping concrete, the seismic response of a bridge pier was calculated. Comparison between the calculated and experiment results verified the validity of the presented damping model. Finally, a modified design and analysis method for bridge was proposed based on stress-dependent damping theory, and a continuous rigid frame bridge was selected as the example to calculate the actual damping values and the dynamic response of the bridge under different earthquake intensities. The calculation results indicated that using the constant damping given by the Chinese seismic design code of bridges would overestimate the energy dissipation capacity of the bridge.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.639-662
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• 2009

A comprehensive investigation of the stochastic response of an isolated cable-stayed bridge subjected to spatially varying earthquake ground motion is performed. In this study, the Jindo Bridge built in South Korea is chosen as a numerical example. The bridge deck is assumed to be continuous from one end to the other end. The vertical movement of the stiffening girder is restrained and freedom of rotational movement on the transverse axis is provided for all piers and abutments. The longitudinal restraint is provided at the mainland pier. The A-frame towers are fixed at the base. To implement the base isolation procedure, the double concave friction pendulum bearings are placed at each of the four support points of the deck. Thus, the deck of the cable-stayed bridge is isolated from the towers using the double concave friction pendulum bearings which are sliding devices that utilize two spherical concave surfaces. The spatially varying earthquake ground motion is characterized by the incoherence and wave-passage effects. Mean of maximum response values obtained from the spatially varying earthquake ground motion case are compared for the isolated and non-isolated bridge models. It is pointed out that the base isolation of the considered cable-stayed bridge model subjected to the spatially varying earthquake ground motion significantly underestimates the deck and the tower responses.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.691-708
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• 2016

Recently, number of smart material are investigated and widely used in civil construction and other industries. Present study investigates the application of smart semi-active piezoelectric friction damper (PFD) made with piezoelectric material for the seismic control of the horizontally curved bridge isolated with lead rubber bearing (LRB). The main aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of hybrid system and to find out the optimum parameters of PFD for seismic control of the curved bridge. The selected curved bridge is a continuous three-span concrete box girder supported on pier and rigid abutment. The PFD is located between the deck and abutments or piers in chord and radial directions. The bridge is excited with four different earthquake ground motions with all three components (i.e. two horizontal and a vertical) having different characteristics. It is observed that the use of semi-active PFD with LRB is quite effective in controlling the response of the curved bridge as compared with passive system. The incorporation of the smart damper requiring small amount of energy in addition with an isolation system can be used for effective control the curved bridge against the dynamic loading.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.583-594
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• 2018

Although a lot of experimental and analytical investigations have been carried out for steel bridge piers made of SS400 and SM490, the formulas available for SS400 and SM490 are not suitable for evaluating ultimate load and deformation capacities of steel bridge piers made of high strength steel (HSS) SM570. The effect of various parameters is investigated in this paper, including plate width-to-thickness ratio, column slenderness ratio and axial compression force ratio, on the ultimate load and deformation capacities of steel bridge box piers made of SM570 steel subjected to cyclic loading. The elasto-plastic behavior of the steel bridge piers under cyclic loads is simulated through plastic large deformation finite element analysis, in which a modified two-surface model (M2SM) including cyclic hardening is employed to trace the material nonlinearity. An extensive parametric study is conducted to study the influences of structural parameters on the ultimate load and deformation capacities. Based on these analytical investigations, new formulas for predicting ultimate load and deformation capacities of steel bridge piers made of SM570 are proposed. This study extends the ultimate load and deformation capacities evaluation of steel bridge piers from SS400, SM490 steels to SM570 steel, and provides some useful suggestions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.115-134
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• 2003

The Ting Kau Bridge in Hong Kong is a cable-stayed bridge comprising two main spans and two side spans. The bridge deck is supported by three towers, an end pier and an abutment. Each of the three towers consists of a single reinforced concrete mast which reduces its section in steps, and it is strengthened by transverse cables and struts in the transverse vertical plane. The bridge deck is supported by four inclined planes of cables emanating from anchorages at the tower tops. In view of the threat from typhoons, the dynamic behaviour of long-span cable-supported bridges in the region is always an important consideration in their design. This paper is devoted to the ambient vibration measurements of the bridge for evaluation of dynamic characteristics including the natural frequencies and mode shapes. It also describes the modelling of the bridge. A few finite element models are developed and calibrated to match with the field data and the results of subsequent structural health monitoring of the bridge.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.5
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• pp.627-635
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• 2021

The speed of rail vehicles become higher and higher over two decades, and China has unveiled a prototype high-speed train in October 2020 that has been able to reach 400 km/h. At such high speeds, wheel-rail force items that had previously been ignored in common computational model should be reevaluated and reconsidered. Aiming at this problem, a new model for investigating the vehicle-bridge interaction at high moving speed is proposed. Comparing with the common model, the new model was more accurate and applicable, because it additionally considers the second-order pseudo-inertia forces effect and its modeling equilibrium position was based on the initial deformed curve of bridge, which could include the influences of temperature, pre-camber, shrinkage and creep deformation, and pier uneven settlement, etc. Taking 5 km/h as the speed interval, the dynamic responses of the classical vehicle-bridge system in the speed range of 5 km/h to 400 km/h are studied. The results show that ignoring the second-order pseudo-inertia force will underestimate the dynamic response of vehicle-bridge system and make the high-speed railway bridge structure design unsafe.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.529-537
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• 2017

Excessively elevated temperature can lead to cracks in prestressed concrete (PC) continuous bridge with box girder on the pier top at cement hydration age. This paper presents a case study for evaluating the behavior of PC box girder during the early hydration age using a two-stage computational model, in the form of computer program ANSYS, namely, 3-D temperature evaluation and determination of mechanical response in PC box girders. A numerical model considering time-dependent wind speed and ambient temperature in ANSYS for tracing the thermal and mechanical response of box girder is developed. The predicted results were compared to show good agreement with the measured data from the PC box girder of the Zhaoshi Bridge in China. Then, based on the validated numerical model three parameters were incorporated to analyze the evolution of the temperature and stress within box girder caused by cement hydration heat. The results of case study indicate that the wind speed can change the degradation history of temperature and stress and reduce peak value of them. The initial casting temperature of concrete is the most significant parameter which controls cracking of PC box girder on pier top at cement hydration age. Increasing the curing temperature is detrimental to prevent cracking.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.453-462
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• 2014

The levee and bridge pier in estuary of the Hangang River are exposed in a dangerous condition due to bank erosion and local scouring occurred since the summer season in 2011. At first, it is presumed that the high sandbar formed in river channel of the study area was an important element in the occurrence of bank erosion and local scouring. It can be presumed that the record-breaking depth of freezing due to cold wave for the long term during the winter season between 2010 and 2011 as well as the heavy intensive rainfall of 2011 had a decisive effect on the first damage of A section. The second damage of B section mainly occurred around the bridge pier constructed on the high water channel before it was washed away during the winter season between 2011 and 2012. It is considered that the second damage was caused by ice formation and ice floes.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.67-74
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• 2004

A case study was performed to verify the applicability of existing formulae for predicting bridge scour in cases where its piers are founded in fine-grained soils. The object of study was the Kanghwa Choji Bridge area where the streambed consists of mainly clayey soil. Site investigation included: direct measurement of scour depths around piers using an ultrasonic probe; and collection of undisturbed soil samples which were later used to determine geotechnical properties and scour rate under different stream velocities. Scour depth prediction was made by employing several conventional methods and compared with the measured value. All methods, not taking soil's intrinsic property against erosion into consideration, overestimated scour depth by a factor of 3.6 to 6.5. On the other hand, the SRICOS method yielded a reasonably acceptable overestimation by a factor of 1.7.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2003

Nowadays balanced cantilever construction plays an essential role as a sophisticated erection technique of bridges due to its economical and ecological advantages. Experience teaches that wind has a great importance with regard to this construction technique, but methods proposed by codes to take wind effects into account are still rather crude and, in most cases, completely lacking. Also research in this field is quite limited and aimed at studying only the longitudinal shear and the torque at the pier base, caused by the mean wind velocity and by the longitudinal turbulence actions over the deck. This paper advances the present solutions by developing a new procedure that takes into account all wind effects both on the deck and on the pier. The proposed model assumes the mean wind velocity as orthogonal to the bridge plane and considers the effects produced by all the three turbulence components and by the vortex shedding. The applications point out the role of each loading component on different bridge configurations and show that disregarding the presence of some effects may imply oversimplified results and relevant underestimations.