• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.469-484
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• 2023

A deep recursive bidirectional Cuda Deep Neural Network Long Short Term Memory (Bi-CuDNNLSTM) layer is recruited in this paper to predict the entire force time histories, and the corresponding hysteresis and backbone curves of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge piers using experimental fast and slow cyclic tests. The proposed stacked Bi-CuDNNLSTM layers involve multiple uncertain input variables, including horizontal actuator displacements, vertical actuators axial loads, the effective height of the bridge pier, the moment of inertia, and mass. The functional application programming interface in the Keras Python library is utilized to develop a deep learning model considering all the above various input attributes. To have a robust and reliable prediction, the dataset for both the fast and slow cyclic tests is split into three mutually exclusive subsets of training, validation, and testing (unseen). The whole datasets include 17 RC bridge piers tested experimentally ten for fast and seven for slow cyclic tests. The results bring to light that the mean absolute error, as a loss function, is monotonically decreased to zero for both the training and validation datasets after 5000 epochs, and a high level of correlation is observed between the predicted and the experimentally measured values of the force time histories for all the datasets, more than 90%. It can be concluded that the maximum mean of the normalized error, obtained through Box-Whisker plot and Gaussian distribution of normalized error, associated with unseen data is about 10% and 3% for the fast and slow cyclic tests, respectively. In recapitulation, it brings to an end that the stacked Bi-CuDNNLSTM layer implemented in this study has a myriad of benefits in reducing the time and experimental costs for conducting new fast and slow cyclic tests in the future and results in a fast and accurate insight into hysteretic behavior of bridge piers.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.125-140
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• 2010

Slope stability analysis of the right abutment of a railway bridge proposed at about 350 m above the ground level, crossing a river and connecting two huge hillocks in the Himalayas, India is presented in this paper. The site is located in a highly active seismic zone. The rock slopes are intensely jointed and the joint spacing and orientation are varying at different locations. Static slope stability of the rock slope is studied using equivalent continuum approach through the most commonly used commercial numerical tools like FLAC and SLOPE/W of GEOSTUDIO. The factor of safety for the slope under static conditions was 1.88 and it was reduced by 46% with the application of earthquake loads in pseudo-static analysis. The results obtained from the slope stability analyses confirmed the global stability of the slope. However, it is very likely that there could be possibility of wedge failures at some of the pier locations. This paper also presents the results from kinematics of right abutment slope for the wedge failure analysis based on stereographic projections. Based on the kinematics, it is recommended to flatten the slope from 50o to 43o to avoid wedge failures at all pier locations.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2000.04b
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• pp.100-110
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• 2000

In practical design of girder bridges or reinforced concrete slab bridges with T-type piers, it is usually assumed that vertical movements of superstructures are completely restrained at the locations of bearings(shoes) on a cap beam of the pier, The resulting vertical reactions are applied to the bearing for the calculation of bending moments and shear forces in the cap beam. However, in reality, the overhang parts of the cap beam will deform under the dead load of superstructures and the live load so that it may act as an elastic foundation. Due to the settlement of the elastic foundation, the actual distribution of the reactions at the bearings along the cap beam may be different from that obtained under the assumption that the vertical movements are fixed at the bearings. In the present study, investigated is the effects of elastic deformations of the T-type pier on the distribution of reactions at the bearings along the cap beam through 3-dimensional finite element analysis. Herein, for this purpose the whole structural system including the superstructure and piers as well is analyzed. It appears that the conventional practice which neglects the elastic deformations of the cap beam exhibits considerably different distributions of the reactions as compared with those obtained from the present finite element analysis. It is, therefore, recommended that in order to assess the reactions at bearings correctly the whole structural system be analyzed using 3-dimensional finite element analysis.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.435-455
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• 2012

In the recent years, rehabilitation of structures, strengthening and increasing the ductility of them under seismic loads have become so vital that many studies has been carried out on the retrofit of steel and concrete members so far. Bridge piers are very important members concerning rehabilitation, in which the plastic hinging zone is very vulnerable. Pier is usually confined by special stirrups predicted in the design procedure; moreover, fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) jackets are used after construction to confine the pier. FRP wrapping of the piers is one of the most effective ways of increasing moment and ductility capacity of them, which has a growing application due to its relative advantages. In many earthquake-resistant bridges, reinforced concrete columns have a major defect which could be retrofitted in different ways like using FRP. After rehabilitation, it is important to check the strengthening adequacy by dynamic nonlinear analysis and precise modeling of material properties. If the plastic hinge properties are simplified for the strengthened members, as the simplified properties which FEMA 356 proposes for non-strengthened members, static nonlinear analysis could be performed more easily. Current paper involves this matter and it is intended to determine the plastic hinge properties for static nonlinear analysis of the FRP-strengthened circular columns.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.13-18
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• 1993

The purpose of this study is to analyze the seismic effects of Lead Rubber Bearing base isolators on bridges. Base isolation is the tool to minimize the effect of earthquake before the seismic force is transfered to the structure. Currently, many structures including the buildings, power plants, and bridges, were built and planned with base isolation method. The simple model is developed for bridges with Lead Rubber Bearings. Equations of motion are solved by Newmark ${\beta}$ method. Springs representing the base isolators are assumed as bilinear springs and piers are modeled as nonlinear springs implementing Q-HYST model. Analysis is performed for the selected bridge. El Centro (N-S) earthquake(1940) is used. Deck displacement, pier ductility and pier shear force are calculated for the various Lead Rubber Bearings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.213-223
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• 2017

Bridges are lifeline and integral components of transportation system that are susceptible to seismic actions, their vulnerability assessment is essential for seismic risk assessment and mitigation. The vulnerability assessment of bridges common in Pakistan is very important as it is seismically very active region and the available code for the seismic design of bridges is obsolete. This research presents seismic vulnerability assessment of three real case simply supported multi-span reinforced concrete bridges commonly found in northern Pakistan, having one, two and three bents with circular piers. The vulnerability assessment is carried through the non-linear dynamic time history analyses for the derivation of fragility curves. Finite element based numerical models of the bridges were developed in MIDAS CIVIL (2015) and analyzed through with non-linear dynamic and incremental dynamic analyses, using a suite of bridge-specific natural spectrum compatible ground motion records. Seismic responses of shear key, bearing pad, expansion joint and pier components of each bridges were recorded during analysis and retrieved for performance based analysis. Fragility curves were developed for the bearing pads, shear key, expansion joint and pier of the bridges that first reach ultimate limit state. Dynamic analysis and the derived fragility curves show that ultimate limit state of bearing pads, shear keys and expansion joints of the bridges exceed first, followed by the piers ultimate limit state for all the three bridges. Mean collapse capacities computed for all the components indicated that bearing pads, expansion joints, and shear keys exceed the ultimate limit state at lowest seismic intensities.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 1987.07a
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• pp.87-87
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• 1987

Bridge piers are sometimes damaged by local scour. Although the problem of local scour around pier has been studied extensively, it has been difficult to estimate local scour deth quantitatively. This study is concerned with local scour around semicylindrical piers arranged in various types under the condition of clear water scour. Through dimensional analysis, it was found that scour depths were relative to Re, Fr, and Ns. In the case of semicylindrical piers, the variation of dimensionless scour depth with dimensionless time (effect of Ns, pier diameter and length, incidence angle) and the variation of scour depth with vortex intensity and resistance are investigated experimentally to obtain a formula. And forula for estimating the maximum depth of scour is obtained.

• Water for future
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 1987

Bridge piers are sometimes damaged by local scour. Although the problem of local scour around pier has been studied extensively, it has been difficult to estimate local scour depth quantitatively. This study is concerned with local scour around semicylindrical piers arranged in various types under the condition of clear water scour. Through dimensional analysis, it was found that scour depths were relative to Re, Fr, and Ns. In the case of semicylindrical piers, the variation of dimensionless scour depth with dimensionless time (effect of Ns, pier diameter and length, incidence angle) and the variation of scour depth with vortex intensity and resistance are investigated experimentally to obtain a formula. And formula for estimating the maximum depth of scour is obtained.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.753-765
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• 2017

This paper aims to investigate the strength degradation of reinforced concrete piers wrapped with steel plates which corrode at the pier base by employing a three dimensional elasto-plastic finite element formulation. The prediction accuracy of the employed finite element analysis method is firstly verified by comparing the analytical results with test results. Then, a series of parametric studies is carried out to investigate the effects of steel plate's corrosion position along width direction, corrosion depth along plate thickness, corrosion range along width direction, and steel plate-concrete bonding degradation on the strength of the piers. It is observed that the strength degradation of the piers is closely related to steel plate's corrosion position, corrosion depth and corrosion range in the case of local corrosion on the webs. In contrast, when the base of flanges corrodes, the strength degradation of the piers is only related to steel plate's corrosion depth and corrosion range, and the influence of corrosion position on the strength degradation is very gentle. Furthermore, the strength of the piers decreases with the degradation of steel plate-concrete bonding behavior. Finally, the maximum strength of the piers obtained from numerical analysis corresponding to different bonding behavior is compared with theoretical results within an accepted error.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.477-487
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• 2019

Understanding the behavior of skew bridges under the action of earthquakes is quite challenging due to the combined transverse and longitudinal responses even under unidirectional hit. The main goal of this research is to assess the response of skew bridges when subjected to longitudinal and transversal earthquake loading. The effect of skew on the response considering two- and three- span bridges with skew angles varying from 0 to 60 degrees is illustrated. Various pier fixities (and hence stiffness) and cross-section shapes, as well as different abutment's bearing articulations, are also studied. Finite-element models are established for modal and seismic analyses. Around 900 models are analyzed under the action of the code design response spectrum. $Vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ modal properties, the higher the skew angle, the less the fundamental period. In addition, it is found that bridges with skew angles less than 30 degrees can be treated as straight bridges for the purpose of calculating modal mass participation factors. Other monitored results are bearings' reactions at abutments, shear and torsion demand in piers, as well as deck longitudinal displacement. Unlike straight bridges, it has been typically noted that skew bridges experience non-negligible torsion and bi-directional pier base shears. In a complementary effort to assess the accuracy of the conducted response spectrum analysis, a series of time-history analyses are applied under seven actual earthquake records scaled to match the code design response spectrum and critical comparisons are performed.