• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.173-194
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• 2016

This paper consists in a study of a new contructive sequence of road viaducts with Movable Scaffolding System (MSS) using numerical tools based on finite element method (FEM). Traditional and new sequences are being used in Spain to build viaducts with MSS. The new sequence permits an easier construction of one span per week but implies some other issues related to the need of two prestressing stages per span. In order to improve the efficiency of the new sequence by reducing the number of prestressing stages per span, two solutions are suggested in this study. Results show that the best solution is to introduce the 100% of the prestressing force at the self-supporting core in order to improve the road viaduct construction with movable scaffolding system by reducing execution time without increasing economic costs.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.445-450
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• 2006

It is proposed that the electromechanical relation of the conductive materials with high electrical resistance may be used to estimate the current stress of prestressing tendons. To choose the best conductive material to this end, we studied the electromechanical relations of carbon fibers and metalic heat wires experimentally. It is found that the relation of carbon fibers can be modelled by a parabolic(or hyperbolic) function in the early stage of deformation. However because the relation is not consistent when it is unloaded and reload, carbon fibers are not suitable for this purpose. Metallic heat wires show a consistent linear relation during loading and unloading in the elastic deformation and are suitable for this purpose. To estimate the electromechanics relation of metallic wires, we developed a simple formula based on the rigid plasticity. We propose a new kind of prestressing tendons whose stress can be monitored.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2017

Prestressed concrete I-girders are subject to different load types at their construction stages. At the time of strand release, i.e., detensioning, prestressed concrete girders are under the effect of dead and prestressing loads. At this stage, the camber, total net upward deflection, of prestressed girder is summation of the upward deflection due to the prestressing force and the downward deflection due to dead loads. For the calculation of the upward deflection, it is generally considered that prestressed concrete I-girder behaves linear-elastic. However, the field measurements on total net upward deflection of prestressed I-girder after detensioning show contradictory results. In this paper, camber calculations with the linear-elastic beam and elastic-stability theories are presented. One of a typical precast I-girder with 120 cm height and 31.5 m effective span length is selected as a case study. 3D finite element model (FEM) of the girder is developed by SAP2000 software, and the deflections of girder are obtained from linear and nonlinear-static analyses. Only geometric nonlinearity is taken into account. The material test and field measurement of this study are performed at prestressing girder plant. The results of the linear-elastic beam and elastic-stability theories are compared with FEM results and field measurements. It is seen that the camber predicted by elastic-stability theory gives acceptable results than the linear-elastic beam theory while strand releasing.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.3A
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• pp.201-209
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• 2010

Generally, PSC girder bridge uses total gross cross section to resist applied loads unlike reinforced concrete member. Also, it is used as short and middle span (less than 30 m) bridges due to advantages such as ease of design and construction, reduction of cost, and convenience of maintenance. But, due to recent increased public interests for environmental friendly and appearance appealing bridges all over the world, the demands for longer span bridges have been continuously increasing. This trend is shown not only in ordinary long span bridge types such as cable supported bridges but also in PSC girder bridges. In order to meet the increasing demands for new type of long span bridges, PSC hollow box girder with H-type steel as compression reinforcements is developed for bridge with a single span of more than 50 m. The developed PSC girder applies compressive prestressing at H-type compression reinforcements using unbonded PS tendon. The purpose of compressive prestressing is to recover plastic displacement of PSC girder after long term service by releasing the prestressing. The static test composed of 4 different stages in 3-point bending test is performed to verify safety of the bridge. First stage loading is applied until tensile cracks form. Then in second stage, the load is removed and the girder is unloaded. In third stage, after removal of loading, recovery of remaining plastic deformation is verified as the compressive prestressing is removed at H-type reinforcements. Then, in fourth stage, loading is continued until the girder fails. The experimental results showed that the first crack occurs at 1,615 kN with a corresponding displacement of 187.0 mm. The introduction of the additional compressive stress in the lower part of the girder from the removal of unbonded compressive prestressing of the H-type steel showed a capacity improvement of about 60% (7.7 mm) recovery of the residual deformation (18.7 mm) that occurred from load increase. By using prestressed H-type steel as compression reinforcements in the upper part of cross section, repair and rehabilitation of PSC girders are relatively easy, and the cost of maintenance is expected to decrease.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.98-101
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• 2006

As an alternative of conventional prestressed concrete (PSC) girders, various types of PSC girders are being developed and applied in bridge structures. Incrementally prestressed concrete girder is one of these newly developed girders. According to design concept, these new types of PSC girders have considerable advantages to reduce their self-weight and make spans longer. However, dynamic interaction between bridge superstructures and passing trains would be sometimes one of critical issues in these more flexible railway bridges. Therefore, it is very important to evaluate modal parameters of newly designed bridges before conducting dynamic analyses. In the present paper, a 25 meters long full scale PSC girder was fabricated as a test specimen and modal testing was carried out to evaluate modal parameters including natural frequencies and modal damping ratios at every prestressing stage. In the modal testing, a digitally controlled vibration exciter as well as an impact hammer is applied to obtain frequency response functions more exactly and the modal parameters are evaluated varying with construction stages. Prestressed force effects on changes of modal parameters are analyzed at every incremental prestressing stage.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.570-573
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• 2006

It is proposed that the electromechanical relation of the conductive materials with high electrical resistance may be used to estimate the current stress of prestressing tendons. To choose the best conductive material to this end, we studied the electromechanical relations of carbon fibers and metalic heat wires experimentally. It is found that the relation of carbon fibers can be modelled by a parabolic(or hyperbolic) function in the early stage of deformation. Metallic heat wires show a consistent linear relation during loading and unloading in the elastic deformation and are suitable for this purpose. We propose a new kind of prestressing tendons whose stress can be monitored.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.290-297
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• 2017

The flexural behavior tests of UHPC segmental U-girder and composite U-girder which has 160MPa compressive strength and 15.4m length were carried out. The test variables are volume fraction of steel fibers and slab over the U-girder. Each U-girder has longitudinal re-bars in web and lower flange. PS tendons which has 2 of 15.2mm diameter in upper flange and PS tendons which has 7 of 15.2mm diameter in lower flange were arranged and prestressed at onetime in U-girder connection stage. Enough strong prestressing force which applied to U-girder due to ultra high performance concrete strength can withstand the self weight and dead load in U-girder stage. By comparison with the brittle behavior of U-girder, composite U-girder showed the stable and ductile behavior. After the construction of slab over U-girder, flexural load capacity of composite U-girder can bear the design load in final construction stage with only one time prestressing operation which already carried out in U-girder stage. This simple prestressing method due to the ultra high strength concrete have the advantage in construction step and cost. The shear key which has narrow space has the strong composite connection between ultra high strength concrete U-girder and high strength concrete slab didn't show any slip and opening right before failure load.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.311-321
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• 2017

This paper deals with the flexural performance of a composite girder system designed to readily form a composite section without a formwork and to easily realize multistage preflexing and prestressing. After a 3-Dimensional finite element modeling for construction stage analysis, the parametric numerical analysis was performed to analyse the stress distribution on the composite girder sections and the prestressing effects along with concrete pouring method and strand tensioning method. Based on the stress distribution analysis, a favorable construction stage model has been rationally chosen and then the ultimate flexural strengths were evaluated to conduct a comparative study, which exceed the nominal flexural strength suggested by the current design specification(ASD). It can be concluded that the proposed composite girder and fabrication procedure should have a sufficient structural performance.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.3A
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• pp.235-241
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• 2009

PSC girder bridge is known to be more economical than other types of bridges and has been usually applied to a span range of 25 m to 35 m according to the standard shapes for highway bridges in Korea. The spans of the recently developed new types of PSC girders are also limited to 50 m at most. In this study, therefore, feasibility of the long-span PSC girder that reaches more than 50 m is investigated by applying several strategies from the perspectives of materials, design and construction. A systematic procedure is proposed that can be used to assess the effect of each strategy on the span. The proposed scheme adopts a graphical approach that represents a relationship between the number of prestressing tendons and the span, and is derived on a basis of safety assessment equations of the girder in each stage of fabrication and in service. In the companion paper, the amount of span extension is quantitatively evaluated by applying the proposed scheme into a sample PSC girder bridge.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.463-488
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• 2018

In the last decades, research efforts have been spent to investigate the effect of prestressing on the dynamic behaviour of prestressed concrete (PSC) beams. Whereas no agreement has been reached among the achievements obtained by different Researchers and among the theoretical and the experimental results for simply supported beams, very few researches have addressed this problem in continuous PSC beams. This topic is, indeed, worthy of consideration bearing in mind that many relevant bridges and viaducts in the road and railway networks have been designed and constructed with this structural scheme. In this paper the attention is, thus, focused on the dynamic features of continuous PSC bridges taking into account the effect of prestressing. This latter, in fact, contributes to the modification of the distribution of the bending stress along the beam, also by means of the secondary moments, and influences the flexural stiffness of the beam itself. The dynamic properties of a continuous, two spans bridge connected by a nonlinear spring have been extracted by solving an eigenvalue problem in different linearized configurations corresponding to different values of the prestress force. The stiffness of the nonlinear spring has been calculated considering the mechanical behaviour of the PSC beam in the uncracked and in the cracked stage. The application of the proposed methodology to several case studies indicates that the shift from the uncracked to the cracked stage due to an excessive prestress loss is clearly detectable looking at the variation of the dynamic properties of the beam. In service conditions, this shift happens for low values of the prestress losses (up to 20%) for structure with a high value of the ratio between the permanent load and the total load, as happens for instance in long span, continuous box bridges. In such conditions, the detection of the dynamic properties can provide meaningful information regarding the structural state of the PSC beam.