ALBERT

Description: In the design of prestressing concrete structures, the friction characteristics between strands and channels have an important influence on the distribution of prestressing force, which can be considered comprehensively by curvature and swing friction coefficients. However, the proposed friction coefficient varies widely and may lead to an inaccurate prestress estimation. In this study, four full-scale field specimens were established to measure the friction loss of prestressing tendons with electromagnetic sensors and anchor cable dynamometers to evaluate the friction coefficient. The least square method and Bayesian quantile regression method were adopted to calculate the friction coefficient, and the results were compared with that in the specifications. Field test results showed that Bayesian quantile regression method was more effective and significant in the estimation of the friction coefficient.

Description: As the suspension bridge structures become more flexible and the forms of the vehicle load become more diverse, the dynamic coupling problem of the vehicle-bridge system has become gradually prominent in long-span suspension bridges, resulting in an increase in accuracy and efficiency requirements for dynamic coupling analysis of the vehicle-bridge system. Conventional method such as finite element method (FEM) for dynamic coupling analysis of vehicle-bridge system often requires separate iteration of vehicle system and bridge system, and the contact and coupling interactions between them are used as the link for convergence inspection, which is too computationally intensive and time-consuming. In addition, the dynamic response of the vehicle-bridge coupling system obtained by FEM cannot be expressed explicitly, which is not convenient for engineering application. To overcome these drawbacks mentioned above, the backpropagation (BP) neural network technology is proposed to the dynamic coupling analysis of the vehicle-bridge system of long-span suspension bridges. Firstly, the BP neural network was used to approximate the dynamic response of the suspension bridge in the vehicle-bridge coupling system, and the complex finite element analysis results were thus explicitly displayed in the form of a mathematical analytical expression. And then the dynamic response of the suspension bridge under vehicle load was obtained by using a dynamic explicit analysis method. It is shown through a numerical example that, compared with FEM, the proposed method is much more economical to achieve reasonable accuracy when dealing with the dynamic coupling problem of the vehicle-bridge system. Finally, an engineering case involving a detailed finite element model of a long-span suspension bridge with a main span of 1688 m is presented to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency under the premise of ensuring the approximation accuracy, which indicates that the proposed method provides a new approach for dynamic coupling analysis of the vehicle-bridge system of long-span suspension bridges.

Description: In recent decades, carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) have been widely used to repair and maintain concrete structures around the world. Since the parameter uncertainties of load and resistance are very important for the reliability assessment of RC bridge strengthened by CFRP, this paper presents a method to estimate the reliability and residual life of RC bridges strengthened by CFRP. In the proposed method, uncertainties of material properties, geometry parameters, load model, and time-dependent resistance model are taken into account. The proposed method combines the inverse reliability method and the calculation method of load and resistance of RC bridge strengthened by CFRP and is illustrated by an example RC bridge strengthened by CFRP during the service stage. The results indicate that the proposed approach can provide valid information regarding parameter uncertainties for the reliability of RC bridge strengthened by CFRP during the service stage. Additionally, the effects of parameter uncertainty of the reliability and residual life of RC bridge strengthened by CFRP during the service stage are analyzed and discussed. The proposed method is more robust and reliable than the traditional method.

Description: In the traditional bridge seismic fragility analysis, the criterion for judging the structural damage state is clear. That is to say, when the damage index exceeds a specific value, the structure is judged to enter the new damage state. However, the actual condition is that the boundary of structural damage is not clear but fuzzy. Taking a three-span V-shaped continuous girder bridge as an example, the damage process of the structure is described by fuzzy mathematics. Considering the uncertainties of ground motion and structure itself, a seismic fragility analysis method is established, which can consider the randomness of bridge itself, seismic load, and structural failure fuzziness simultaneously. Finally, the improved product of conditional marginal (I-PCM) method for fragility analysis of bridge system is further optimized and improved. The new improved method is used to form the seismic fragility curves of bridge structure system. The results show that it is possible to underestimate the potential seismic fragility of bridge components and system without considering the structural fuzzy failure criteria; the fragility curves formed by different membership functions are obviously different; the new system fragility analysis method can significantly improve the analysis accuracy.

Description: The thin-walled box girder (T-WBG) is widely applied in the long-span bridge structures during the past decades due to its lighter self-weight and better mechanical properties. The shear lag effect (SLE), an essential aspect of T-WBG which governs the stress and the deformation, is rather necessary to be revealed properly. The extraordinary issue of T-WBG analysis nowadays is the SLE impact on its dynamical response to external load. This paper proposes an improved finite element method (FEM) to obtain the realistic vibration characteristics of the T-WBG considering the SLE by theory analysis and formula derivation. Firstly, based on the classical plate and shell theory as well as beam theory, the T-WBG was divided into shell subunit for the roof and beam subunit for web and floor, respectively. Secondly, a 3-order polynomial which is consistent with the experiment results was adopted as the axial-displacement interpolation function of the roof subunit, whose nodal displacements parameters were also taken as the basic. Thirdly, the nodal displacement parameters of the web subunit and floor subunit were deduced by the basic according to the principle of deflection consistency. It is shown through a numerical example that the proposed method is much more economical to achieve reasonable accuracy than traditional FEM analysis software when dealing with the free vibration problem of the T-WBG considering the SLE. Besides, it is also observed that the natural frequency values considering the SLE have a trend of decreasing markedly in general, and the influence of SLE on higher-order frequency is more significant than on the lower one under the boundary condition of cantilever supported, while a contrary effect under the boundary condition of simple supported.