• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.5939-5946
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• 2013

The bridge approach slabs (BAS) to provide a transitional roadway between a roadway pavement and a bridge structure have not performed adequately due to various factors. The current Korean Roadway Design Guidelines treat the BAS as a simply supported beam with 70% of the span length and do not consider settlement and void development underneath the slab. To investigate the effect of soil settlements on the bending moment of BAS, a beam on elastic support (BAS-ES) was used in the present study. The parameters used in this study were span length, washout length, washout location, and soil modulus. It was shown from the parametric study that washout regions closer to the midspan exhibit maximum moment in the slab. Since voids under the BAS have typically been observed to be closer to bridge abutments, the springs from the abutment were removed to simulate settlement and void development in the model. The design moments based on AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications were compared to those of Korean Standard Specifications for Highway Bridge and Design Trucks for Highway Bridges. Even if the design moment from BAS-ES was used to incorporate the effect of the potential washout, significant savings could still be achieved compared to the current BAS design.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2011

The estimation of traffic safety and passenger comfort when the train is running on the bridge is a estimation unique to the railway bridge. The standards for such estimation are included in the Eurocode, the Shinkansen design criteria, and the design guideline of the Honam High-speed railway. The items are bridge responses including vertical displacement of bridge, vertical acceleration, and slab twist. In principle, a direct estimation based on the train responses has to take place. However, the estimation based on the bridge responses can be seen as an indirect estimation procedure for the convenience of the bridge designer. First, it is general practice that traffic safety can be verified as a derailment coefficient or wheel load decrement The general method of estimating passenger comfort is to calculate the acceleration within the train car-body. Various international indexes have been presented for this method. In the present study, traffic safety and passenger comforts are estimated directly by bridge/train interaction analysis. The acceleration and wheel load decrement are obtained for the estimation of traffic safety and passenger comforts of a suspension bridge which has main span length of 300m. Also, the consideration of seismic load with simultaneous action of moving train is done for bridge/train/earthquake interaction analysis.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.136-149
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• 2011

Large portion of the domestic bridges are slab bridges reflecting the geographical characteristic of the country, where exists lots of inclines and small winding brooks. Many of the slab bridges are damaged and superannuated as they become obsolete. Deterioration is accelerated when the traffic density becomes large and heavy vehicles pass frequently. A strengthening method for deteriorated slab bridges was studied in this work. The examined net-type strengthening method uses both longitudinal and transverse prestressing for strengthening. In this way, the deflection at the center of the slab can be better controlled, and consequently, the slab is more efficiently strengthened. Three slab specimens were fabricated for the experimental test and subjected to three different loading conditions, and the load bearing capacities and deflections of slabs were examined. Flexural stiffness of slabs increased by 30.7~107.3%, and deflection of slabs decreased by 27.6~52.2% after net-type strengthening. The net-type prestressing is efficient to the strengthening for the center of a slab, and its efficiency is also valid under eccentric loadings. Since extra prestress forces can be added in the future, if necessary, the net-type strengthening system is advantagous for the maintenance and repair of slab bridges.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.233-245
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• 2007

Previous finite element studies have shown that AASHTO Standard load distribution factor (LDF) equations appear to be conservative for longer spans and larger girder spacing, but too permissible for short spans and girder spacing. AASHTO LRFD specification defines the distribution factor equation for girder spacing, span length, slab thickness, and longitudinal stiffness. However, this equation requires an iterative procedure to correctly determine the LDF value due to an initially unknown longitudinal stiffness parameter. This study presents a simplified LDF equation for interior and exterior girders of two-span continuous I-girder bridges that does not require an iterative design procedure. The finite element method was used to investigate the effect of girder spacing, span length, slab thickness, slab width, and spacing and size of bracing. The computer program, GTSTRUDL, was used to idealize the bridge superstructures as the eccentric beam model, the concrete slab by quadrilateral shell elements, steel girders by space frame members, and the composite action between these elements by rigid links. The distribution factors obtained from these analyses were compared with those from the AASHTO Standard and LRFD methods. It was observed through the parametric studies that girder spacing, span length, and slab thickness were the dominant parameters compared with others. The LRFD distribution factor for the interior girder was found to be conservative in most cases, whereas the factor for the exterior girder to be unconservative in longer spans. Furthermore, a regression analysis was performed to develop simplified LDF formulas. The formulas developed in this study produced LDF values that are always conservative to those from the finite element method and are generally smaller than the LDF values obtained from the AASHTO LRFD specification. The proposed simplified equation will assist bridge engineers in predicting the actual LDF in two-span continuous I-girder bridges.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.2062-2067
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• 2009

During a construction of a road, a temporary bridge is often connected to a existing bridge. In this case, a fatigue stability problem, which was not considered in the design of the bridge, can be occurred in the main girder of the existing bridge due to the vehicle load direction change. In this study, the fatigue stability of the main girder and cantilever slab of the bridge was tested with the allowable fatigue stress of the design specifications of the road bridge. The big stress change was occurred at 55m away from the support, and the middle of the span. Furthermore, the excess of the allowable fatigue stress of the design specifications of the road bridge was confirmed at the cross section. The bridge after the reinforcement was tested for the fatigue stability, and it was confirmed that the bridge is safe.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.325-333
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• 2015

Recently, thermal bridge breaker systems(TBBSs) applicable to RC slab-wall connections have been increasingly studied and proposed. This study also aims at proposing an analytic model which is applicable to predicting the flexural behavior of TBBS embedded in slabs from the initial elastic stages, yield states to ultimate conditions. The analytic models are developed by considering strain compatibility, force equilibrium and the constitutive law obtained from material test results. To verify the accuracy of the proposed analytic model, the moment-curvature relationship and change of neutral axis according to the loading states are compared with those of experimental results. Based on the comparison, it is verified that the proposed analytic model provides well predict the flexural behavior of TBBS embedded in slabs.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.57-66
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• 2015

This paper is a preliminary study to apply the lightweight concrete slabs reinforced with GFRP (glass fiber reinforced polymer) bars to the bridge deck slabs or some other concrete structures. So, some different behaviors between the conventional steel reinforced concrete slab and the lightweight concrete slab reinforced with GFRP bars were investigated. For this purpose, a number of slabs were constructed and then the three point bending test and numerical analysis for these slabs were performed. The flexural test results showed that the lightweight concrete slabs reinforced with GFRP bars were failed by the shear failure due to the over-reinforced design. The weight and failure load of the GFRP bar reinforced lightweight concrete slabs were 72% and 58% of the steel reinforced concrete slab with the same dimensions, respectively. Results of the numerical analysis for these slabs using a commercial program, midas FEA, showed that the load-deflection curve could be simulated well until the shear failure of the slabs, but the applied loads and the deflections continuously increased even beyond the shear failure loads.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.83-101
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• 2005

This paper summarizes the application of a rational methodology for the structural assessment of older reinforced concrete Tunisian bridges. This methodology is based on ambient vibration measurement of the bridge, identification of the structure's modal signature and finite element model updating. The selected case study is the Boujnah bridge of the Tunis-Msaken Highway. This bridge is made of a continuous four-span simply supported reinforced concrete slab without girders resting on elastomeric bearings at each support. Ambient vibration tests were conducted on the bridge using a data acquisition system with nine force-balance accelerometers placed at selected locations of the bridge. The Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition technique was applied to extract the dynamic characteristics of the bridge. The finite element model was updated in order to obtain a reasonable correlation between experimental and numerical modal properties. For the model updating part of the study, the parameters selected for the updating process include the concrete modulus of elasticity, the elastic bearing stiffness and the foundation spring stiffnesses. The primary objective of the paper is to demonstrate the use of the Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition technique combined with model updating to provide data that could be used to assess the structural condition of the selected bridge. The application of the proposed methodology led to a relatively faithful linear elastic model of the bridge in its present condition.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.93-103
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• 2009

Two-girder bridge is composed of primary members such as deck slab and main girder, and secondary member such as cross beam, vertical and horizontal stiffeners etc,. Two-girder bridge is prescribed as a non-redundant load path structure in the ASSHTO and the Korean Highway Bridge Design Code. Such structure is that if one girder is damaged, problems of function and safety of the bridge are caused. From the reasons, fatigue cracks in two-girder bridge can affect safety of the bridge seriously. Therefore, in this paper, fatigue evaluation was performed at connection parts of vertical stiffener and web with radius of curvature of scallop of vertical stiffener and thickness of web as variables. Such joint is known as a detail which has high possibility of fatigue crack in the bridge. Based upon the analytical results, preferable joint detail in terms of fatigue and simple empirical formula for fatigue evaluation of the detail were suggested.

• 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.