• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.173-191
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• 2009

Civil infrastructures are always subjected to various types of hazard and deterioration. These conditions require systematic efforts to assess the exposure and vulnerability of infrastructure, as well as producing strategic countermeasures to reduce the risks. This paper describes the needs for and concept of advanced sensor technologies for risk assessment of civil infrastructure in Japan. Backgrounds of the infrastructure problems such as natural disasters, difficult environment, limited resource for maintenance, and increasing requirement for safety are discussed. The paper presents a concept of risk assessment, which is defined as a combination of hazard and structural vulnerability assessment. An overview of current practices and research activities toward implementing the concept is presented. This includes implementation of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems for environment and natural disaster prevention, improvement of stock management, and prevention of structural failure.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.367-392
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• 2020

The specific characteristics of near-field earthquake records can lead to different dynamic responses of bridges compared to far-field records. However, the effect of near-field strong ground motion has often been neglected in the seismic performance assessment of the bridges. Furthermore, damage to horizontally curved multi-frame RC box-girder bridges in the past earthquakes has intensified the potential of seismic vulnerability of these structures due to their distinctive dynamic behavior. Based on the nonlinear time history analyses in OpenSEES, this article, assesses the effects of near-field versus far-field earthquakes on the seismic performance of horizontally curved multi-frame RC box-girder bridges by accounting the vertical component of the earthquake records. Analytical seismic fragility curves have been derived thru considering uncertainties in the earthquake records, material and geometric properties of bridges. The findings indicate that near-field effects reasonably increase the seismic vulnerability in this bridge sub-class. The results pave the way for future regional risk assessments regarding the importance of either including or excluding near-field effects on the seismic performance of horizontally curved bridges.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.113-121
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• 2017

Company A's core competency is IT internet security services. The Web diagnosis team analyzes the vulnerability of customer's internet web servers and provides remedy reports. Traditionally, Company A management has utilized a simple table format report for resource planning. But these reports do not notify the timing of human resource commitment. So, upper management asked its team leader to organize a task team and design a visual dashboard for decision making with the help of outside professional. The Task team selected the web security diagnosis practice process as a pilot and designed a dashboard for performance evaluation. A structural design process was implemented during the heuristic working process. Some KPI (key performance indicators) for checking the productivity of internet web security vulnerability reporting are recommended with the calculation logics. This paper will contribute for security service management to plan and address KPI design policy, target process selection, and KPI calculation logics with actual sample data.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.199-211
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• 2015

The safety and performance of bridges could be monitored and evaluated by Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. These systems try to identify and locate the damages in a structure and estimate their severities. Current SHM systems are applied to a single bridge, and they have not been used to monitor the structural condition of a network of bridges. This paper propose a new method which will be used in Synthetic Rating Procedures (SRP) developed by the authors of this paper and utilizes SHM systems for monitoring and evaluating the condition of a network of bridges. Synthetic rating procedures are used to assess the condition of a network of bridges and identify their ratings. As an additional part of the SRP, the method proposed in this paper can continuously monitor the behaviour of a network of bridges and therefore it can assist to prevent the sudden collapses of bridges or the disruptions to their serviceability. The method could be an important part of a bridge management system (BMS) for managers and engineers who work on condition assessment of a network of bridges.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.2
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• pp.211-227
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• 2020

The contribution of infill wall is generally not considered in the structural analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) structures due to the lack of knowledge of the complex behavior of the infilled frame of RC structures. However, one of the significant factors affecting structural behavior and earthquake performance of RC structures is the infill wall. Considering structural and architectural features of RC structures, any infill wall may have openings with different amounts and aspect ratios. In the present study, the influence of infill walls with different opening rates on the structural behaviors and earthquake performance of existing RC structures were evaluated. Therefore, the change in the opening ratio in the infill wall has been investigated for monitoring the change in structural behavior and performance of the RC structures. The earthquake performance levels of existing RC structures with different structural properties were determined by detecting the damage levels of load-carrying components. The results of the analyzes indicate that the infill wall can completely change the distribution of column and beam damage level. It was observed that the openings in the walls had serious impact on the parameters affecting the behavior and earthquake performance of the RC structures. The infill walls have a beneficial effect on the earthquake performance of RC structures, provided they are placed regularly and there are appropriate openings rate throughout the RC structures and they do not cause structural irregularities.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.115-132
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• 2015

This paper presents a new method for seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings with reference to their operational limit state. The importance of this kind of evaluation arises from the civil protection necessity that some buildings, considered strategic for seismic emergency management, should retain their functionality also after a destructive earthquake. The method is based on the identification of experimental modal parameters from ambient vibrations measurements. The knowledge of the experimental modes allows to perform a linear spectral analysis computing the maximum structural drifts of the building caused by an assigned earthquake. Operational condition is then evaluated by comparing the maximum building drifts with the reference value assigned by the Italian Technical Code for the operational limit state. The uncertainty about the actual building seismic frequencies, typically significantly lower than the ambient ones, is explicitly taken into account through a probabilistic approach that allows to define for the building the Operational Index together with the Operational Probability Curve. The method is validated with experimental seismic data from a permanently monitored public building: by comparing the probabilistic prediction and the building experimental drifts, resulting from three weak earthquakes, the reliability of the method is confirmed. Finally an application of the method to a strategic building in Italy is presented: all the procedure, from ambient vibrations measurement, to seismic input definition, up to the computation of the Operational Probability Curve is illustrated.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.29-44
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• 2020

The effectiveness and the sensitivity of a Wireless impedance/Admittance Monitoring System (WiAMS) for the prompt damage diagnosis of two single-storey single-span Reinforced Concrete (RC) frames under cyclic loading is experimentally investigated. The geometrical and the reinforcement characteristics of the RC structural members of the frames represent typical old RC frame structure without consideration of seismic design criteria. The columns of the frames are vulnerable to shear failure under lateral load due to their low height-to-depth ratio and insufficient transverse reinforcement. The proposed Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system comprises of specially manufactured autonomous portable devices that acquire the in-situ voltage frequency responses of a network of twenty piezoelectric transducers mounted to the RC frames. Measurements of external and internal small-sized piezoelectric patches are utilized for damage localization and assessment at various and increased damage levels as the magnitude of the imposed lateral cycle deformations increases. A bare RC frame and a strengthened one using a pair of steel crossed tension-ties (X-bracing) have been tested in order to check the sensitivity of the developed WiAMS in different structural conditions since crack propagation, damage locations and failure mode of the examined frames vary. Indeed, the imposed loading caused brittle shear failure to the column of the bare frame and the formation of plastic hinges at the beam ends of the X-braced frame. Test results highlighted the ability of the proposed SHM to identify incipient damages due to concrete cracking and steel yielding since promising early indication of the forthcoming critical failures before any visible sign has been obtained.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2018

For the purpose of maintenance and prevention of earth fill dams against damage from natural hazards, automatic monitoring through various measuring instruments and resistivity survey has been carried out. Reservoirs and embankments have the structural vulnerability on the agricultural usages since most of them were built more than thirty years ago. The main aim to use monitoring method is to verify the safety and integrity of the dam. Resistivity survey can detect potential weaknesses, such as defective zones, anomalous seepages or internal erosion processes. Permanent resistivity monitoring systems were installed at a reservoir, which daily measurements have been taken every 6 hour. Using monitoring data for one year, anomalous seepage and structural defects were clarified for dam safety. Annual water level fluctuations are around 10 m. During their operation, reservoir dams are subject to a never-ending hydraulic load from the reservoir, which over the years may cause changes in the properties of the inner parts of the dam construction. Detailed analysis of the monitoring results was performed and showed that resistivities at most locations have been very stable over the full monitoring period excluding the effects of water fluctuation and seasons. To investigate the detectability of weak zone using the DC resistivity monitoring, numerical modeling with a simplified model for the drainage at a reservoir dam was also performed. The results showed that the seepage zone near drainage in a reservoir dam could be detected by resistivity response change.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2019

Preserving reservoir safety has recognized to be important for the public where a vast majority of dams are located upstream of greatly populated cities and industrialized areas. Buckling, floatation and cavitation have caused failure in the spillway gates and conveyance features during past catastrophic events; showed their vulnerability and need for regular inspection along with reviewing design calculations to ensure the spillway meet current design standards. This paper investigates the hydraulic and structural consideration of dam's spillway by evaluating the data of Karkheh Dam's. Discharge capacity, flood routings and cavitation damage risk were main features for hydraulic considerations where hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces and stability conditions were considered in structural considerations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.199-215
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• 2013

During the service life of a structure, design complications and unexpected events may induce unforeseen vibrations. These vibrations can be generated by malfunctioning machinery or machines that are modified or placed without considering the original structural design because of a change in the intended use of the structure. Significant vibrations occurred at a natural gas plant cooling structure during its operation due to cavitation effect within the hydraulic system. This study presents findings obtained from the in-situ vibration measurements and following finite-element analyses of the cooling structure. Comments are made on the updated performance level and damage state of the structure using the results of these measurements and corresponding numerical analyses. An attempt was also made to assess the applicability of traditional displacement-based vulnerability estimation methods in the health monitoring of structures under vibrations with a character different from those due to seismic excitations.