International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics

Cracks of structural members caused by rebar corrosion directly influence the service life of reinforced concrete structures. Therefore, it is important to monitor early corrosion evolution of the rebar and take the early steps to overcome the situation. In this paper, the response relationship between wavelength variation of Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor and mass loss rate of the rebar is derived. The accuracy of the proposed theoretical model is verified by the electricity accelerated rebar corrosion experiment. It indicates that the theoretical model matches well with the tested value. Moreover, in this study, real-time online early monitoring of rebar corrosion evolution is built.

This paper presents a novel method to localize and quantify damage in a jack arch structure by introducing a linkage modeling technique to overcome issues caused by having limited sensors. The main strategy in the proposed Frequency Response Function (FRF)-based sensitivity model updating approach is to divide the specimen into partitions. The Young’s modulus of each partition is then updated to detect stiffness reduction caused by damage. System Equivalent Reduction Expansion Process (SEREP) is used to reduce the full finite element (FE) model to a linkage model. The number of measured degrees of freedom (DOFs) is then expanded to the linkage model using the mass and stiffness matrices of the linkage model for the synthesis of interpolated FRFs. The FRF sensitivities are then formulated using the linkage model along with the interpolated FRFs to iteratively calculate the values of the updating parameters until convergence is achieved. The methodology and theory behind this procedure are discussed and verified using a numerical and experimental study. The successful implementation of this method has the potential to detect the location and severity of damage where sensor placement is limited.

It is still necessary to investigate the detection of structural damage under ambient excitations since the excitations are random and unmeasured while measurement noises are inevitable. In this paper, a method based on the synthesis of cross-correlation functions of partial structural responses and the extended Kalman filter (EKF) approach is proposed for the identification and damage detection of structures under ambient excitations, in which both independent stationary and non-stationary white noise excitations in the product models are discussed. First, the equations of cross-correlation functions of structural responses are established when the ambient excitations are independent stationary white noise processes. Then, the EKF approach is utilized to identify structural parameters and cross-correlation functions using partial measurements of structural acceleration responses. Structural damage is detected based on the degradations of the identified structural element stiffness parameters. Finally, the proposed method is extended to deal with independent non-stationary white noise excitations in the product models. The numerical simulation examples of the ASCE structural health monitoring benchmark building subject to ambient excitation, a moment resisting frame model under white noise excitation, and a cantilever beam model under multiple independent non-stationary excitations are used to validate the feasibility of the proposed method. It is shown that the method is not sensitive to measurement noises. Also, a lab experimental study of the identification of a multi-story shear structure is investigated to further illustrate the applicability of the proposed method.

An accurate finite element (FE) model is frequently used in damage detection, optimization design, reliability analysis, nonlinear analysis, and so forth. The FE model updating of large-scale structures is usually time-consuming or even impossible. This paper proposes a dynamic condensation approach for model updating of large-scale structures. The eigensolutions are calculated from a condensed eigenequation and the eigensensitivities are calculated without selection of additional master DOFs, which is helpful to improve the efficiency of FE model updating. The proposed model updating method is applied to an eight-storey frame and the Jun Shan Yangtze Bridge. By employing the dynamic condensation approach, the number of iterations for the eigensensitivities is gradually increased according to the model updating process, which contributes to accelerate the convergence of model updating.

Pipe-in-pipe (PIP) system can be considered as a structure-tuned mass damper (TMD) system by replacing the hard centralizers by the softer springs and dashpots to connect the inner and outer pipes. With properly designed connecting devices, PIP system therefore has the potential to mitigate the subsea pipeline vibrations induced by various sources, such as earthquake or vortex shedding. This study proposes using rotational friction hinge dampers with springs (RFHDSs) to connect the inner and outer pipes. The rotational friction hinge dampers (RFHDs) are used to absorb the energy induced by the external vibration sources and the springs are used to provide the stiffness to the TMD system and to restore the original locations of the inner and outer pipes. To investigate the effectiveness of this new design concept, detailed three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model of the RFHD is developed in ANSYS and the hysteretic behavior of RFHD is firstly studied. The calculated hysteretic loop is then applied to the 3D PIP FE model to estimate the seismic responses. The effectiveness of the proposed system to mitigate seismic induced vibrations is examined by comparing the seismic responses of the proposed system with the conventional PIP system. The influences of various parameters, such as the preload on the bolt, the friction coefficient and the spring stiffness, on the RFHD hysteresis behavior and on the seismic responses of PIP system are investigated and some suggestions on the RFHDS design are made.

The pre-pressed spring self-centering energy dissipation (PS-SCED) brace that combines the friction energy dissipation mechanism with a self-centering member comprising combination disc springs is developed and experimentally studied. The configuration of the proposed bracing system is presented and a Bouc–Wen model-based restoring force model is proposed to predict its hysteretic behavior. Two large scale PS-SCED braces with different length and different types of disc springs are designed, fabricated, and tested under low cyclic reversed loadings, and results demonstrate that the PS-SCED brace exhibits stable and repeatable self-centering hysteretic responses with effective energy dissipation capacity. The ductility of the proposed bracing system can be enhanced by employing the disc springs with bearing surface, and increasing the length of the tube members or segments of the disc springs. The symmetry of the bearing force in tension and in compression meets the design requirement for bracing elements. And the proposed restoring force model can accurately portray the hysteretic behavior of the PS-SCED bracing system.

Magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) isolator has been proved as a promising semi-active control device for structural vibration control. For its engineering application, developing an accurate and robust model is definitely necessary and also a challenging task. Most of the present models, belonging to parametric models, need to identify various model parameters and sometimes are not capable of perfectly capturing the unique characteristics of the device. In this work, a novel nonparametric model is proposed to characterize the inherent dynamics of the MRE isolator with the features of hysteresis and nonlinearity. Initially, dynamic tests are conducted to evaluate the performance of the isolator under various loading conditions, including harmonic, random, and seismic excitations. Then, on the basis of the captured experimental results, a hybrid learning method is designed to forecast the nonlinear responses of the device with known external inputs. In this method, a type of single hidden layer feed-forward network, called extreme learning machine (ELM), is developed to forecast the nonlinear responses (shear force) of the device with captured velocity, displacement, and current level. To obtain optimal performance of the developed model, an improved binary-coded discrete cat swarm optimization (BCDCSO) method is adopted to select optimal inputs and neuron number in the hidden layer for the network development. The performance of the proposed method is verified through the comparison between experimental results and model predictions. Due to the noise influence in the practical condition, the robustness of the proposed method is also validated via adding noise disturbance into the supplying currents. The results show that the proposed method outperforms the standard ELM in terms of characterization of the MRE isolator, even though the captured responses are polluted with external measurement noises.

Sliding friction bearings are effective passive devices to mitigate the seismic responses of structures. Extensive researches have been conducted on sliding bearings. However, most previous studies were based on the assumption that the effects of frictional heating are negligible. A three-dimensional thermal-mechanical-coupled finite element (FE) model of the friction pendulum system (FPS) was developed in this study. Good agreements between the numerical results and the data measured in the previous tests, in terms of the force–displacement curves and temperature time-histories, indicate that the proposed FE model can predict the response of the FPS. Based on the developed FE model, the surface temperature distribution, the effective stiffness and the energy dissipation of the double concave friction pendulum and multiple friction pendulum bearings were investigated and compared. In addition, the thermal states of the sliding bearings in the bridge during earthquake were evaluated. The numerical results indicate that the temperature rise in the sliding bearings leads to the degradation of the effective stiffness and less energy dissipation. The relative displacements of the bearings increase considering the frictional heating effects in the bearings. If the frictional heating of the bearings is ignored, the peak bearing displacements will be underestimated.

In the design of super-long-span suspension bridges, the floating system is commonly adopted. However, this system may lead to the excessive earthquake-excited longitudinal displacement (LD) at the end of the main girder, which in return could result in pounding damage at expansion joints. In this paper, Taizhou Bridge, the triple-tower suspension bridge with the longest main span in the world, is taken as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of three different approaches (elastic links, viscous dampers, and their combination) of mitigating the possible excessive LD. The finite element code ABAQUS is used to build the numerical model of the bridge and calculate the dynamic characteristics as well as the seismic responses. Then, 24 cases with different parameters of elastic links and viscous dampers are investigated and it is observed that the mitigation effect of the 24 cases varies significantly with different parameters. To obtain the optimized mitigation effect for seismic responses, including the LD of the girder, the LD and shear force of all towers, in the 24 cases, the modified analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is introduced to realize the compositive optimal control of the triple-tower suspension bridge. Results show that the 24th case is the optimal one in which the LD of the girder is reduced significantly while the inner force of towers does not get excessive increase.

The fatigue assessment of orthotropic bridge decks under routine traffic loading is a significant task to ensure the serviceability and safety of steel bridges. The sequential law computes fatigue damages using whole-range $S$–$N$ curves and sequential stress histories and has been proven to provide more realistic results than Miner’s rule under variable amplitude loading. In this paper, a whole-range $S$–$N$ curve covering the very low-cycle region, the low-cycle region, the finite life region, the high-cycle region, and the very high-cycle region is proposed for the sequential law to evaluate the fatigue performance of steel orthotropic bridge decks. The mathematical model of the whole-range $S$–$N$ curve is first deduced based on the partially known $S$–$N$ curve recommended in steel bridge design codes. The properties of the whole-range $S$–$N$ curve are then explained from the geometrical point of view in the double logarithm coordinates system. Finally, rib-to-deck joints in steel orthotropic bridge decks are used as a case study. Fatigue test data are used to validate the proposed model. The whole-range $S$–$N$ curve, with a 97.5% survival limit, is established for fatigue assessment of rib-to-deck joints in real bridges. The results show that the proposed whole-range $S$–$N$ curve allows a good fit of experimental data and excellent agreement with code $S$–$N$ curves in the finite life region and provides an effective extrapolation from the finite life region to the whole range of cycle numbers.

Movement of bridge abutment is a significant issue affecting the overall reliability and safety of the structure. However, despite considerable consequences, potential movement of abutment is usually not considered in design of bridges for serviceability and abutments are generally designed as fixed elements. Theoretical analysis of bridge abutment and deck design provides background knowledge of reactions that should be anticipated and accounted for. Case studies of bridges experiencing movements and rotations show that practical outcomes often deviate from theoretical expectations. The research presented in this paper, aims to develop a better understanding of abutment stability from both a design and maintenance point of view. This paper includes an in-depth case study of the Kanahooka Road Overbridge in New South Wales, Australia. The results of a full bridge inspection leading to identification of multiple serviceability issues caused by movement of abutments are presented. Moreover, a systematic methodology is implemented, to identify potential remedial options for treatment of abutment movement. The knowledge gained through this case study has led to the development of a model for the management of abutment movement.