Making bridges between preclinical and clinical insights into age-related cognitive decline

With people living longer,the societal impact of age-related cognitive decline is becoming more pronounced(Crimmins,2015).Thus,it is increasingly important to comprehend the cognitive shifts linked to aging-whether they are physiological or pathological.

Construction Monitoring and Analysis of Asymmetric Prestressed Concrete Bridge Crossing Multiple-Line Railways

Complex bridge structures designed and constructed by humans often necessitate extensive on-site execution,which carries inherent risks.Consequently,a variety of engineering practices are employed to monitor bridge construction.This paper presents a case study of a large-span prestressed concrete(PC)variable-section continuous girder bridge in China,proposing a feedback system for construction monitoring and establishing a finite element(FE)analysis model for the entire bridge.The alignment of the completed bridge adheres to the initial design expectations,with maximum displacement and pre-arch differences from the ideal state measuring 6.39 and 17.7 mm,respectively,which were less than the 20 mm limit required by the specification.Additionally,the stress monitoring showed that the maximum compressive stress was 10.44 MPa,which was 7.5%different from the finite element results,and better predicted the most unfavorable possible location.These results demonstrate that a scientifically rigorous construction monitoring and feedback system can ensure the safety of bridge construction and meet the expected construction standards.The findings presented in this paper provide valuable insights for bridge construction monitoring practices.

Performance Evaluation of Damaged T-Beam Bridges with External Prestressing Reinforcement Based on Natural Frequencies

As an evaluation index,the natural frequency has the advantages of easy acquisition and quantitative evaluation.In this paper,the natural frequency is used to evaluate the performance of external cable reinforced bridges.Numerical examples show that compared with the natural frequencies of first-order modes,the natural frequencies of higher-order modes are more sensitive and can reflect the damage situation and external cable reinforcement effect of T-beam bridges.For damaged bridges,as the damage to the T-beam increases,the natural frequency value of the bridge gradually decreases.When the degree of local damage to the beam reaches 60%,the amplitude of natural frequency change exceeds 10%for the first time.The natural frequencies of the firstorder vibration mode and higher-order vibration mode can be selected as indexes for different degrees of the damaged T-beam bridges.For damaged bridges reinforced with external cables,the traditional natural frequency of the first-order vibration mode cannot be used as the index,which is insensitive to changes in prestress of the external cable.Some natural frequencies of higher-order vibration modes can be selected as indexes,which can reflect the reinforcement effect of externally prestressed damaged T-beam bridges,and its numerical value increases with the increase of external prestressed cable force.

A Deep Learning Estimation Method for Temperature-Induced Girder End Displacements of Suspension Bridges

To improve the accuracy of thermal response estimation and overcome the limitations of the linear regression model and Artificial Neural Network(ANN)model,this study introduces a deep learning estimation method specifically based on the Long Short-Term Memory(LSTM)network,to predict temperature-induced girder end displacements of the Dasha Waterway Bridge,a suspension bridge in China.First,to enhance data quality and select target sensors,preprocessing based on the sigma rule and nearest neighbor interpolation is applied to the raw data.Furthermore,to eliminate the high-frequency components from the displacement signal,the wavelet transform is conducted.Subsequently,the linear regression model and ANN model are established,whose results do not meet the requirements and fail to address the time lag effect between temperature and displacements.The study proceeds to develop the LSTM network model and determine the optimal parameters through hyperparameter sensitivity analysis.Finally,the results of the LSTM network model are discussed by a comparative analysis against the linear regression model and ANN model,which indicates a higher accuracy in predicting temperatureinduced girder end displacements and the ability to mitigate the time-lag effect.To be more specific,in comparison between the linear regression model and LSTM network,the mean square error decreases from 6.5937 to 1.6808 and R2 increases from 0.683 to 0.930,which corresponds to a 74.51%decrease in MSE and a 36.14%improvement in R2.Compared to ANN,with an MSE of 4.6371 and an R2 of 0.807,LSTM shows a decrease in MSE of 63.75%and an increase in R2 of 13.23%,demonstrating a significant enhancement in predictive performance.

Travelling characteristics of road vehicles on single-level rail-cum-road bridge under the dynamic and aerodynamic impact of travelling trains

Aerodynamic and dynamic interference from trains is a key issue of concern for the safety of road vehicles travelling on single-level rail-cum road bridges.Based on the wind-road vehicle-train-bridge(WRTB)coupled vibration system developed herein,this study examines the dynamic characteristics when road vehicles meet trains in this situation.The influence of load combination,vehicle type and vehicle location is analyzed.A method to obtain the aerodynamic load of road vehicles encountering the train at an arbitrary wind speed is proposed.The results show that due to the windproof facilities and the large line distance between the railway and highway,the aerodynamic and dynamic influence of trains on road vehicles is slight,and the vibration of road vehicles depends on the road roughness.Among the road vehicles discussed,the bus is the easiest to rollover,and the truck-trailer is the easiest to sideslip.Compared with the aerodynamic impact of trains,the crosswind has a more significant influence on road vehicles.The first peak/valley value of aerodynamic loads determines the maximum dynamic response,and the quick method is optimized based on this conclusion.Test cases show that the optimized method can produce conservative results and can be used for relevant research or engineering applications.

Deformation monitoring of long-span railway bridges based on SBAS-InSAR technology

The deformation monitoring of long-span railway bridges is significant to ensure the safety of human life and property.The interferometric synthetic aperture radar(In SAR)technology has the advantage of high accuracy in bridge deformation monitoring.This study monitored the deformation of the Ganjiang Super Bridge based on the small baseline subsets(SBAS)In SAR technology and Sentinel-1A data.We analyzed the deformation results combined with bridge structure,temperature,and riverbed sediment scouring.The results are as follows:(1)The Ganjiang Super Bridge area is stable overall,with deformation rates ranging from-15.6 mm/yr to 10.7 mm/yr(2)The settlement of the Ganjiang Super Bridge deck gradually increases from the bridge tower toward the main span,which conforms to the typical deformation pattern of a cable-stayed bridge.(3)The sediment scouring from the riverbed cause the serious settlement on the bridge’s east side compared with that on the west side.(4)The bridge deformation negatively correlates with temperature,with a faster settlement at a higher temperature and a slow rebound trend at a lower temperature.The study findings can provide scientific data support for the health monitoring of long-span railway bridges.

Auto-parametric resonance of a continuous-beam-bridge model under two-point periodic excitation:an experimental investigation and stability analysis

The auto-parametric resonance of a continuous-beam bridge model subjected to a two-point periodic excitation is experimentally and numerically investigated in this study.An auto-parametric resonance experiment of the test model is conducted to observe and measure the auto-parametric resonance of a continuous beam under a two-point excitation on columns.The parametric vibration equation is established for the test model using the finite-element method.The auto-parametric resonance stability of the structure is analyzed by using Newmark's method and the energy-growth exponent method.The effects of the phase difference of the two-point excitation on the stability boundaries of auto-parametric resonance are studied for the test model.Compared with the experiment,the numerical instability predictions of auto-parametric resonance are consistent with the test phenomena,and the numerical stability boundaries of auto-parametric resonance agree with the experimental ones.For a continuous beam bridge,when the ratio of multipoint excitation frequency(applied to the columns)to natural frequency of the continuous girder is approximately equal to 2,the continuous beam may undergo a strong auto-parametric resonance.Combined with the present experiment and analysis,a hypothesis of Volgograd Bridge's serpentine vibration is discussed.

Dynamic Response Impact of Vehicle Braking on Simply Supported Beam Bridges with Corrugated Steel Webs Based on Vehicle-Bridge Coupled Vibration Analysis

A novel approach for analyzing coupled vibrations between vehicles and bridges is presented,taking into account spatiotemporal effects and mechanical phenomena resulting fromvehicle braking.Efficient modeling and solution of bridge vibrations induced by vehicle deceleration are realized using this method.The method’s validity and reliability are substantiated through numerical examples.A simply supported beam bridge with a corrugated steel web is taken as an example and the effects of parameters such as the initial vehicle speed,braking acceleration,braking location,and road surface roughness on the mid-span displacement and impact factor of the bridge are analyzed.The results show that vehicle braking significantly amplifies mid-span displacement and impact factor responses in comparison to uniform vehicular motion across the bridge.Notably,the influence of wheelto-bridge friction forces is of particular significance and cannot be overlooked.When the vehicle initiates braking near the middle of the span,both the mid-span displacement and impact factor of the bridge exhibit substantial increases,further escalating with higher braking acceleration.Under favorable road surface conditions,the midspan displacement and the impact factor during vehicle braking may exceed the design values stipulated by codes.It is important to note that road surface roughness exerts a more pronounced effect on the impact factor of the bridge in comparison to the effects of vehicle braking.

Bridge Bidding via Deep Reinforcement Learning and Belief Monte Carlo Search

Contract Bridge,a four-player imperfect information game,comprises two phases:bidding and playing.While computer programs excel at playing,bidding presents a challenging aspect due to the need for information exchange with partners and interference with communication of opponents.In this work,we introduce a Bridge bidding agent that combines supervised learning,deep reinforcement learning via self-play,and a test-time search approach.Our experiments demonstrate that our agent outperforms WBridge5,a highly regarded computer Bridge software that has won multiple world championships,by a performance of 0.98 IMPs(international match points)per deal over 10000 deals,with a much cost-effective approach.The performance significantly surpasses previous state-of-the-art(0.85 IMPs per deal).Note 0.1 IMPs per deal is a significant improvement in Bridge bidding.

Recent Construction Technology Innovations and Practices for Large-Span Arch Bridges in China

Arch bridges provide significant technical and economic benefits under suitable conditions.In particular,concrete-filled steel tubular(CFST)arch bridges and steel-reinforced concrete(SRC)arch bridges are two types of arch bridges that have gained great economic competitiveness and span growth potential due to advancements in construction technology,engineering materials,and construction equipment over the past 30 years.Under the leadership of the author,two record-breaking arch bridges—that is,the Pingnan Third Bridge(a CFST arch bridge),with a span of 560 m,and the Tian’e Longtan Bridge(an SRC arch bridge),with a span of 600 m—have been built in the past five years,embodying great technological breakthroughs in the construction of these two types of arch bridges.This paper takes these two arch bridges as examples to systematically summarize the latest technological innovations and practices in the construction of CFST arch bridges and SRC arch bridges in China.The technological innovations of CFST arch bridges include cable-stayed fastening-hanging cantilevered assembly methods,new in-tube concrete materials,in-tube concrete pouring techniques,a novel thrust abutment foundation for nonrocky terrain,and measures to reduce the quantity of temporary facilities.The technological innovations of SRC arch bridges involve arch skeleton stiffness selection,the development of encasing concrete materials,encasing concrete pouring,arch rib stress mitigation,and longitudinal reinforcement optimization.To conclude,future research focuses and development directions for these two types of arch bridges are proposed.

A Rapid Crack Detection Technique Based on Attention for Intelligent M&O of Cross-Sea Bridge

Rapid and accurate segmentation of structural cracks is essential for ensuring the quality and safety of engineering projects.In practice,however,this task faces the challenge of finding a balance between detection accuracy and efficiency.To alleviate this problem,a lightweight and efficient real-time crack segmentation framework was developed.Specifically,in the network model system based on an encoding-decoding structure,the encoding network is equipped with packet convolution and attention mechanisms to capture features of different visual scales in layers,and in the decoding process,we also introduce a fusion module based on spatial attention to effectively aggregate these hierarchical features.Codecs are connected by pyramid pooling model(PPM)filtering.The results show that the crack segmentation accuracy and real-time operation capability larger than 76%and 15 fps,respectively,are validated by three publicly available datasets.These wide-ranging results highlight the potential of the model for the intelligent O&M for cross-sea bridge.

Influence of pier height on the safety of trains running on high-speed railway bridges during earthquakes

Sudden earthquakes pose a threat to the running safety of trains on high-speed railway bridges,and the stiffness of piers is one of the factors affecting the dynamic response of train-track-bridge system.In this paper,a experiment of a train running on a high-speed railway bridge is performed based on a dynamic experiment system,and the corresponding numerical model is established.The reliability of the numerical model is verified by experiments.Then,the experiment and numerical data are analyzed to reveal the pier height effects on the running safety of trains on bridges.The results show that when the pier height changes,the frequency of the bridge below the 30 m pier height changes greater;the increase of pier height causes the transverse fundamental frequency of the bridge close to that of the train,and the shaking angle and lateral displacement of the train are the largest for bridge with 50 m pier,which increases the risk of derailment;with the pier height increases from 8 m to 50 m,the derailment coefficient obtained by numerical simulations increases by 75% on average,and the spectral intensity obtained by experiments increases by 120% on average,two indicators exhibit logarithmic variation.

Seismic fragility analysis of three-tower cable-stayed bridges with different connection configurations

Seismic fragility analysis of three-tower cable-stayed bridges with three different structural systems,including rigid system(RS),floating system(FS),and passive energy dissipation system(PEDS),is conducted to study the effects of connection configurations on seismic responses and fragilities.Finite element models of bridges are established using OpenSees.A new ground motion screening method based on the statistical characteristic of the predominant period is proposed to avoid irregular behavior in the selection process of ground motions,and incremental dynamic analysis(IDA)is performed to develop components and systems fragility curves.The effects of damper failure on calculated results for PEDS are examined in terms of seismic response and fragility analysis.The results show that the bridge tower is the most affected component by different structural systems.For RS,the fragility of the middle tower is significantly higher than other components,and the bridge failure starts from the middle tower,exhibiting a characteristic of local failure.For FS and PEDS,the fragility of the edge tower is higher than the middle tower.The system fragility of RS is higher than FS and PEDS.Taking the failure of dampers into account is necessary to obtain reliable seismic capacity of cable-stayed bridges.

Alkylene-functionality in bridged and fused nitrogen-rich poly-cyclic energetic materials:Synthesis,structural diversity and energetic properties

From the standpoint of chemical structures,the organic backbones of energetic materials can be classified into aromatic rings,nonaromatic rings,and open chains.Although the category of aromatic energetic compounds exhibits several advantages in the regulation of energetic properties,the nonaromatic heterocycles,assembling nitramino explosophores with simple alkyl bridges,still have prevailed in benchmark materials.The methylene bridge plays a pivotal role in the constructions of the classic nonaromatic heterocycle-based energetic compounds,e.g.,hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine(RDX)and octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine(HMX),whereas ethylene bridge is the core moiety of state-of-the-art explosive 2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexaazaisowurtzitane(CL-20).In this context,it is of great interest to employ simple and practical bridges to assemble aromatic and nonaromatic nitrogen-rich heterocycles,thereby expanding the structural diversity of energetic materials,e.g.,bridged and fused nitrogen-rich poly-heterocycles.Furthermore,alkyl-bridged poly-heterocycles highlight the potential for the open chain type of energetic materials.In this review,the development of alkyl bridges in linking nitrogen-rich heterocycles is presented,and the perspective of the newly constructed energetic backbones is summarized for the future design of advanced energetic materials.

Bridge Condition Assessment by Visual Inspection-Croatian Experience

Most decisions relating to bridge maintenance are founded on assessments that are based on visual inspections conducted by specially trained engineers,using procedures and aids defined in the management system.Visual inspection is the main tool for bridge condition assessment,and is therefore of crucial significance for planning periodic maintenance activities.Paper shall present the study aimed at harmonizing bridge assessment activities,which was conducted in early 2012 in company Hrvatske ceste-Croatian National Road Authority.Small RC bridges were chosen for this study,since visual inspection is usually only tool utilized for their assessment.Ratings obtained by inspection were analyzed using methods of mathematical statistics.The results point to weaknesses in the current assessment system,while the study itself constitutes a good basis for further improvement of management aids,manuals and procedures for bridge inspection.

Dynamic Characteristics of Long -Span Steel -Concrete CompositeBeam Bridge Based on Vehicle -Bridge Coupling Effect

In order to investigate the effect of vehicle-bridge coupling on the dynamic characteristics of the bridge,a steel-concrete composite beam suspension bridge is taken as the research object,and a three-dimensional spatial model of the bridge and a biaxial vehicle model of the vehicle are established,and then a vehicle-bridge coupling vibration system is constructed on the basis of the Nemak-βmethod,and the impact coefficients of each part of the bridge are obtained under different bridge deck unevenness and vehicle speed.The simulation results show that the bridge deck unevenness has the greatest influence on the vibration response of the bridge,and the bridge impact coefficient increases along with the increase in the level of bridge deck unevenness,and the impact coefficient of the main longitudinal girder and the secondary longitudinal girder achieves the maximum value when the level 4 unevenness is 0.328 and 0.314,respectively;when the vehicle speed is increased,the vibration response of the bridge increases and then decreases,and the impact coefficient of the bridge in the middle of the bridge at a speed of 60 km/h achieves the maximum value of 0.192.

Field survey and analysis on near-fault severely damaged high-speed railway bridge in 2022 M6.9 Menyuan earthquake

The 2022 M6.9 Menyuan earthquake caused severe damage to a high-speed railway bridge,which was designed for high-speed trains running at speeds of above 250 km/h and is located right next to the fault.Bridges of this type have been widely used for rapidly constructing the high-speed railway network,but few bridges have been tested by near-fault devastating earthquakes.The potential severe impact of the earthquake on the high-speed railway is not only the safety of the infrastructure,trains and passengers,but also economic loss due to interrupted railway use.Therefore,a field survey was carried out immediately after the earthquake to collect time-sensitive data.The damage to the bridge was carefully investigated,and quantitative analyses were conducted to better understand the mechanism of the bridge failure.It was found that seismic action perpendicular to the bridge’s longitudinal direction caused severe damage to the girders and rails,while none of the piers showed obvious deformation or cracking.The maximum values of transverse displacement,out-of-plane rotation and twisting angle of girders reached 212.6 cm,3.1 degrees and 19.9 degrees,respectively,causing severe damage to the bearing supports and anti-seismic retaining blocks.These observations provide a basis for improving the seismic design of high-speed railway bridges located in near-fault areas.

Noise reduction mechanism of high-speed railway box-girder bridges installed with MTMDs on top plate

The issue of low-frequency structural noise radiated from high-speed railway(HSR) box-girder bridges(BGBs) is a significant challenge worldwide. Although it is known that vibrations in BGBs caused by moving trains can be reduced by installing multiple tuned mass dampers(MTMDs) on the top plate, there is limited research on the noise reduction achieved by this method. This study aims to investigate the noise reduction mechanism of BGBs installed with MTMDs on the top plate. A sound radiation prediction model for the BGB installed with MTMDs is developed, based on the vehicle–track–bridge coupled dynamics and acoustics boundary element method. After being verified by field tested results, the prediction model is employed to study the reduction of vibration and noise of BGBs caused by the MTMDs. It is found that installing MTMDs on top plate can significantly affect the vibration distribution and sound radiation law of BGBs. However, its impact on the sound radiation caused by vibrations dominated by the global modes of BGBs is minimal. The noise reduction achieved by MTMDs is mainly through changing the acoustic radiation contributions of each plate of the bridge. In the lower frequency range, the noise reduction of BGB caused by MTMDs can be more effective if the installation of MTMDs can modify the vibration frequency and distribution of the BGB to avoid the influence of small vibrations and disperse the sound radiation from each plate.

Experimental Investigation of Wave-Current Loads on a Bridge Shuttle-Shaped Cap–Pile Foundation

To scrutinize the characteristics of wave-current loads on a bridge shuttle-shaped cap–pile foundation,a 1:125 test model was considered in a laboratory flume.The inline,transverse and vertical wave–current forces acting on the shuttle-shaped cap-pile group model were measured considering both random waves and a combination of random waves with a current.The experimental results have shown that the wave-current forces can be well correlated with the wave height,the wavelength,the current velocity,the incident direction and the water level in the marine environment.An increase in the current velocity can lead to a sharp increase in the inline and transverse wave-current forces,while the vertical wave-current force decreases.Moreover,the wave-current forces are particularly strong when a combination of high tide,strong wave and strong current is considered.

Innovative approaches in high-speed railway bridge model simplification for enhanced computational efficiency

In the realm of high-speed railway bridge engineering,managing the intricacies of the track-bridge system model(TBSM)during seismic events remains a formidable challenge.This study pioneers an innovative approach by presenting a simplified bridge model(SBM)optimized for both computational efficiency and precise representation,a seminal contribution to the engineering design landscape.Central to this innovation is a novel model-updating methodology that synergistically melds artificial neural networks with an augmented particle swarm optimization.The neural networks adeptly map update parameters to seismic responses,while enhancements to the particle swarm algorithm’s inertial and learning weights lead to superior SBM parameter updates.Verification via a 4-span high-speed railway bridge revealed that the optimized SBM and TBSM exhibit a highly consistent structural natural period and seismic response,with errors controlled within 7%.Additionally,the computational efficiency improved by over 100%.Leveraging the peak displacement and shear force residuals from the seismic TBSM and SBM as optimization objectives,SBM parameters are adeptly revised.Furthermore,the incorporation of elastoplastic springs at the beam ends of the simplified model effectively captures the additional mass,stiffness,and constraint effects exerted by the track system on the bridge structure.