Reliability-based life-cycle cost seismic design optimization of coastal bridge piers with nonuniform corrosion using different materials

Reinforcement corrosion is the main cause of performance deterioration of reinforced concrete(RC)structures.Limited research has been performed to investigate the life-cycle cost(LCC)of coastal bridge piers with nonuniform corrosion using different materials.In this study,a reliability-based design optimization(RBDO)procedure is improved for the design of coastal bridge piers using six groups of commonly used materials,i.e.,normal performance concrete(NPC)with black steel(BS)rebar,high strength steel(HSS)rebar,epoxy coated(EC)rebar,and stainless steel(SS)rebar(named NPC-BS,NPC-HSS,NPC-EC,and NPC-SS,respectively),NPC with BS with silane soakage on the pier surface(named NPC-Silane),and high-performance concrete(HPC)with BS rebar(named HPC-BS).First,the RBDO procedure is improved for the design optimization of coastal bridge piers,and a bridge is selected to illustrate the procedure.Then,reliability analysis of the pier designed with each group of materials is carried out to obtain the time-dependent reliability in terms of the ultimate and serviceability performances.Next,the repair time of the pier is predicted based on the time-dependent reliability indices.Finally,the time-dependent LCCs for the pier are obtained for the selection of the optimal design.

ML and CFD Simulation of Flow Structure around Tandem Bridge Piers in Pressurized Flow

Various regions are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the increased frequency of floods due to the recent changes in climate and precipitation patterns throughout the world.As a result,specific infrastructures,notably bridges,would experience significant flooding for which they were not intended and would be submerged.The flow field and shear stress distribution around tandem bridge piers under pressurized flow conditions for various bridge deck widths are examined using a series of three-dimensional(3D)simulations.It is indicated that scenarios with a deck width to pier diameter(Ld/p)ratio of 3 experience the highest levels of turbulent disturbance.In addition,maximum velocity and shear stresses occur in cases with Ld/p equal to 6.Results indicate that increasing the number of piers from 1 to 2 and 3 results in the increase of bed shear stress by 24%and 20%respectively.Finally,five machine learning algorithms,including Decision Trees(DT),Feed Forward Neural Networks(FFNN),and three Ensemble models,are implemented to estimate the flow field and the turbulent structure.Results indicated that the highest accuracy for estimation of U,and W,were obtained using AdaBoost ensemble with R2=0.946 and 0.951,respectively.Besides,the Random Forest algorithm outperformed AdaBoost slightly in the estimation of V and turbulent kinetic energy(TKE)with R2=0.894 and 0.951,respectively.

Rapid repair techniques for severely earthquake-damaged circular bridge piers with flexural failure mode

In this study, three rapid repair techniques are proposed to retrofit circular bridge piers that are severely damaged by the flexural failure mode in major earthquakes. The quasi-static tests on three 1：2.5 scaled circular pier specimens are conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed repair techniques. For the purpose of rapid repair, the repair procedure for all the specimens is conducted within four days, and the behavior of the repaired specimens is evaluated and compared with the original ones. A finite element model is developed to predict the cyclic behavior of the repaired specimens and the numerical results are compared with the test data. It is found that all the repaired specimens exhibit similar or larger lateral strength and deformation capacity than the original ones. The initial lateral stiffness of all the repaired specimens is lower than that of the original ones, while they show a higher lateral stiffness at the later stage of the test. No noticeable difference is observed for the energy dissipation capacity between the original and repaired pier specimens. It is suggested that the repair technique using the early-strength concrete jacket confined by carbon fiber reinforced polymer （CFRP） sheets can be an optimal method for the rapid repair of severely earthquake-damaged circular bridge piers with flexural failure mode.

Rapid repair of severely earthquake-damaged bridge piers with flexural-shear failure mode

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of a proposed rapid repair technique for severely earthquake-damaged bridge piers with flexural-shear failure mode. Six circular pier specimens were first tested to severe damage in flexural-shear mode and repaired using early-strength concrete with high-fluidity and carbon fiber reinforced polymers （CFRP）. After about four days, the repaired specimens were tested to failure again. The seismic behavior of the repaired specimens was evaluated and compared to the original specimens. Test results indicate that the proposed repair technique is highly effective. Both shear strength and lateral displacement of the repaired piers increased when compared to the original specimens, and the failure mechanism of the piers shifted from flexural-shear failure to ductile flexural failure. Finally, a simple design model based on the Seible formulation for post-earthquake repair design was compared to the experimental results. It is concluded that the design equation for bridge pier strengthening before an earthquake could be applicable to seismic repairs after an earthquake if the shear strength contribution of the spiral bars in the repaired piers is disregarded and 1.5 times more FRP sheets is provided.

Experimental research and finite element analysis of bridge piers failed in flexure-shear modes

In recent earthquakes, a large number of reinforced concrete （RC） bridges were severely damaged due to mixed flexure-shear failure modes of the bridge piers. An integrated experimental and finite element （FE） analysis study is described in this paper to study the seismic performance of the bridge piers that failed in flexure-shear modes. In the first part, a nonlinear cyclic loading test on six RC bridge piers with circular cross sections is carried out experimentally. The damage states, ductility and energy dissipation parameters, stiffness degradation and shear strength of the piers are studied and compared with each other. The experimental results suggest that all the piers exhibit stable flexural response at displacement ductilities up to four before exhibiting brittle shear failure. The ultimate performance of the piers is dominated by shear capacity due to significant shear cracking, and in some cases, rupturing of spiral bars. In the second part, modeling approaches describing the hysteretic behavior of the piers are investigated by using ANSYS software. A set of models with different parameters is selected and evaluated through comparison with experimental results. The influences of the shear retention coefficients between concrete cracks, the Bauschinger effect in longitudinal reinforcement, the bond-slip relationship between the longitudinal reinforcement and the concrete and the concrete failure surface on the simulated hysteretic curves are discussed. Then, a modified analysis model is presented and its accuracy is verified by comparing the simulated results with experimental ones. This research uses models available in commercial FE codes and is intended for researchers and engineers interested in using ANSYS software to predict the hysteretic behavior of reinforced concrete structures.

Effect of Mutual Interference of Bridge Piers on Scouring in Meandering Channel

Local scour is the reduction of original bed level around any hydraulic structure.Bridge failure due to scouring has made researchers study the cause of scouring and predict the scour depth and pattern around bridge piers and foundations.Several investigators have extensively studied local scour around isolated bridge pier,but modern designs of the bridges comprise of wide span and thus group of piers rather than a single pier.The flow and scour pattern around group of piers are different from the case of a single pier due to the interaction effect.The objective of present study is to investigate the effect of mutual interference of bridge piers on local scour experimentally around two piers in non-cohesive bed.Experiments were carried out on model bridge piers of circular cross section in a meandering channel.It was observed that when front and rear piers were placed at an angular displacement ofθ=40°and 80°respectively,maximum depth of scour is maximum.Hereθis the angle the line drawn at the inlet of bend to the line joining the centre of curvature and any point on the outer portion of the bend.

Effects of Locations of Spur Dyke on Bed and Scour around Bridge Piers in Meandering Channel

Spur dykes are the structures which are used to protect the eroding bank of rivers.They are sometimes also used to safeguard the life of many struc­tures such as bridge piers,abutments etc.The efficiency of spur dykes has been checked in straight channels by conducting model tests in laboratories by many investigators.Very few studies were done in curved channels.In present work an attempt has been made to study the effect of location of spur dyke on bed and scour around bridge pier in curved open channel(bend angle=80o)with time.Experiment has been carried out in 80o channel bend at constant discharge(3.5×10^(-3) m^(3)/s)and bridge pier is located at angular displacementϴ=60o.Hereϴis the angle the line drawn at the inlet of any bend to the line joining the centre of curvature and any point on the outer portion of the bend.It is found that maximum scouring occurs atϴ=0o and 20oalong inner wall and atϴ=60o and 80o along outer wall.It is also found that scouring around bridge pier is more in the vicinity of pier and decreases with increase in distance from pier.The most suitable location for spur dyke to protect bridge pier is at angular displacementϴ=20o.Scour developed rapidly during initial time and then rate of scouring decreases with elapse of time.

Numerical Simulation of the Influence of Water Flow on the Piers of a Bridge for Different Incidence Angles

A two-dimensional mathematical model is used to simulate the influence of water flow on the piers of a bridge for different incidence angles.In particular,a finite volume method is used to discretize the Navier-Stokes control equations and calculate the circumferential pressure coefficient distribution on the bridge piers’surface.The results show that the deflection of the flow is non-monotonic.It first increases and then decreases with an increase in the skew angle.

Multi-objective optimization design of bridge piers with hybrid heuristic algorithms

This paper describes one approach to the design of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge piers, using a three-hybrid multi- objective simulated annealing (SA) algorithm with a neighborhood move based on the mutation operator from the genetic algorithms (GAs), namely MOSAMO1, MOSAMO2 and MOSAMO3. The procedure is applied to three objective functions: the economic cost, the reinforcing steel congestion and the embedded CO 2 emissions. Additional results for a random walk and a descent local search multi-objective algorithm are presented. The evaluation of solutions follows the Spanish Code for structural concrete. The methodology was applied to a typical bridge pier of 23.97 m in height. This example involved 110 design variables. Results indicate that algorithm MOSAMO2 outperforms other algorithms regarding the definition of Pareto fronts. Further, the proposed procedure will help structural engineers to enhance their bridge pier designs.

NEURAL NETWORK MODELING FOR ESTIMATION OF SCOUR DEPTH AROUND BRIDGE PIERS

It is essential to predict the scour depth around bridge piers for hydraulic engineers involved in the economical design of bridge pier foundation. Conventional investigations have long been of the opinion that empirical scour prediction equations based on laboratory data over predict scour depths. In this article, the Back-Propagation Neural Network （BPN） was applied to predict the scour depth in order to overcome the problem of exclusive and the nonlinear relationships. The observations obtained from thirteen states in USA was verified by the present model. From the comparison with conventional experimental methods, it can be found that the scour depth around bridge piers can be efficiently predicted using the BPN.

Experimental Study on Local Scour Around Bridge Piers in Tidal Current

Local scour around a bridge pier is an important parameter for the design of a bridge. Compared with the local scour in a mono-directional current, the local scour in a tidal current has its unique characteristics. In this paper, several aspects of local scour around bridge piers in tidal current, including the scour development process, the plane form of a scour hole and the maximum scour depth, are studied through movable bed flume experiments.

Impacts of bridge piers on water level during ice jammed period in bend channel——An experimental study

Experiments are carried out in an ＂S-shaped＂ flume in the laboratory under both open flow and ice-jammed conditions to study the impacts of bridge piers in a bend channel on the variation of the water level. The variations of the water level under the ice jammed condition with bridge piers are compared to those without bridge piers in an 180° bend channel. Results indicate that the bridge piers in the S-shaped channel have obvious impacts on the ice accumulation and the water level. The increment of the water level with the presence of the bridge piers is less than that without the bridge piers in the channel. Different arrangements of the bridge piers result in different increments of the water level. When one bridge pier is installed in the straight section of the channel（between 2 bends） and another one at the bend apex（for a convex bank）, the increment of the water level during the equilibrium ice jammed period is between that with a single bridge pier located in the straight section of the bend channel and that with a single bridge pier located at the bend apex. It is also shown that the increment of the water level during the equilibrium ice jammed period increases with the increase of the average thickness of the ice jams.

A revisit of the local scour around bridge piers under an ice-covered flow condition-An experimental study

In this study,by changing both pier diameters and particle sizes of sand bed in flume experiments,the scour process around cylindrical bridge piers under an ice-covered flow condition has been investigated.It is found that the appearance of an ice cover on the water surface caused a deeper and wider scour hole in comparison with that in an open flow with identical flow rates,implying a larger volume of scour hole under an ice-covered flow condition.Similar to the scouring process at a bridge pier under an open flow condition,both the depth and volume of a scour hole increase with the flow velocity and pier diameter.Comparing with results under an open flow condition,for identical flow rates,the maximum depth of a scour hole under an ice-covered flow condition increased by about 20%-30%,and both the scour area and volume of a scour hole increased by about 40%-50%.A flow at Froude number of 0.15 is the demarcation point for assessing an obvious impact of an ice cover on the local scour around a bridge pier in this experimental study.Using data collected from laboratory experiments,equations have been developed to calculate the maximum scour depth,scour area and scour volume.Results of present study have been compared with those of others.

Simulation of ice accumulation around bridge piers during river breakup periods using a discrete element model

During river breakup periods in winter or early spring, a large amount of ice floes of various sizes will be transported by flowing water. The presence of bridge piers in water alters velocity field. As a consequence, the transport process of ice floes around bridge piers will be influenced. It often causes the ice floe congestion around bridge piers. In the present study, the influences of the ice floe size and coverage ratio of ice floating on water surface on ice floe congestion have been examined. The influence of bridge pier layout on ice jam development has been assessed. Results showed that during river breakup period, the ice floe transport capacity around bridge pier decreased. With the presence of bridge piers, the critical coverage ratio of ice floating on water surface for the ice floe congestion depends on the ratio of the side length of ice floe to the pier spacing distance (a / Ln) and ice floe-length Froude number associated with the ice floe length (Fra). A discrete element model (DEM) has been developed to simulate the ice floe accumulating process around bridge piers. Simulation results agree well with those of experiments.

The flow characteristics around bridge piers under the impact of a ship

The complicated flow structure around the pier threatens the safe navigation of ships.This paper studies the mechanism of the flow with a ship around the pier,passing or not passing and with consideration of the interval between the ship and the pier.The flow field model and the moving ship model are constructed by the six degrees of freedom(6DOF)solver combined with the virtual unit immersed boundary method and the level set method,both of which are based on the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations.The simulation results show that the ship significantly influences the flow around the pier,increasing the flow velocity by 50%to 140%.Away from the bridge pier,the cross-flow velocity decreases.The cross-flow velocity near the side of the pier also increases but in the opposite direction.The ship is affected by the negative yaw moment because of the reverse cross-flow between the pier and the ship.The size of the ship has an important impact on the extent of the affected flow areas but the velocity distribution is roughly in the same shape.The results show double impacts of ship and pier should be considered when determining the safe area of navigation.

Time-varying seismic fragility analysis of durability damage of high-tensile reinforcement ECC bridge pier

The deterioration of the performance of offshore bridges is particularly prominent due to the complex natural environment,including the coupling effects of earthquake and seawater erosion.In particular,bridge piers are the main energy-consuming and load-bearing components,so that excellent seismic capacity of bridge piers is the key to avoiding bridge damage.Although earthquake resistant behavior of ordinary reinforced concrete bridge piers(ordinary pier)can be improved by increasing the section size and reinforcement ratio of piers,the improvement of the earthquake resistant behavior is limited.To further improve the earthquake resistant behavior of bridge piers,high-tensile reinforcement engineered cementitious composite(ECC)bridge piers are utilized and time-varying seismic fragility analysis are conducted in this study.The refined model of a bridge pier is built by OpenSees.First,the influence of ECC replacement height on pier curvature is analyzed to determine the reasonable ECC height.Then,the time-varying fragility analysis of high-tensile reinforcement ECC piers(ECC composite piers)with durability damage are evaluated considering the time-varying law of materials.Four damage states,slight damage,moderate damage,extensive damage and complete collapse,are utilized in the study.These fragility curves indicate the durability damage can debase the earthquake resistant behavior of piers continually,the exceedance probability of the same state of destruction increases with the increase of peak ground acceleration(PGA)and service time of pier.The results also indicate that the corrosion level of chloride ion to pier is small during the early service period,and the bridge pier vulnerable curve is similar to that of the new bridge pier.As the level of chlorine ion corrosion deepens,transcendental probability is increased.Compared with the ordinary pier,the exceedance probability in each limit state of ECC composite piers is significantly reduced.The proposed ECC composite pies leads to better realistic time-varying earthquake resistant behavior.

Study on time-varying seismic vulnerability and analysis of ECC-RC composite piers using high strength reinforcement bars in offshore environment

As the main seismic component of a bridge,seismic damage to the bridge pier has a greater effect on its subsequent service.In the offshore chloride environment,the issues(e.g.,reinforcement bar corrosion and attenuation of concrete strength)of piers caused by chloride ion seriously curtail the normal service life and deteriorate the anti-seismic property of bridge structures.The engineered cementitious composite(ECC)-reinforced concrete(RC)composite pier with high strength reinforcement bars(HSRB)is expected to solve the above problems.This study aims to clarify the time-varying seismic vulnerability(SV)of the HSRBECC-RC composite pier during its full life cycle(FLC).Based on OpenSees,the refined finite element analysis models of RC pier,ECC-RC composite pier,and HSRBECC-RC composite pier have been established.Moreover,using the nonlinear time-path dynamic analysis method,the influence of chloride ion erosion on the time-dependent seismic vulnerability(SV)of these different piers in different service life and different peak ground acceleration(PGA)were analyzed from a dynamic point of view.The research shows that the exceeding probability(EP)of the same damage level increases with the enhancement of service time and PGA and with the increase of destruction,the exceeding probability(EP)of slight damage(DL-1),moderate damage(DL-2),serious damage(DL-3),and complete collapse(DL-4)decreases in turn;the corrosion degree of chloride ion to piers is small during the early service period,the time-varying vulnerability curve of the bridge piers is almost the same as that of a new bridge,and during later service,as the extent of chloride ion corrosion deepens,exceeding probability(EP)under severe damage(DL-3)and complete collapse(DL-4)is increased,and the seismic performance is significantly enhanced.

Effect of Meander on Bridge Pier Scour

have been done in the past by many researchers.Many factors which affect scour around piers such as shape of piers,size,positioning and orientation etc.have been studied in detail by them.However,similar studies in meandering channels are scanty.Very few researchers have studied the effect of angular displacement which has considerable effects of scour around bridge piers.In this paper an attempt has been made to carry out a detailed study of angular displacement on scour.A constant diameter bridge pier of circular shape has been tested in a meandering channel bend with bend angle as 800.The test bed was prepared by using uniform sand having d50 as 0.27 mm and run was taken for a discharge of 2.5 l/s.

Comparative analysis of cast-in-place post-tensioned and steel-concrete composite bridge bent caps

The complexity of the IH-635 Managed Lanes Project, located in Dallas County, Texas, posed several technical and constructive challenges, leading to the adoption of solutions different from the traditional. Two alternative solutions for the pier cap on one of the bridge crossings over IH-35E in the IH-635 project were analyzed in this case study, a cast-in-place post-tensioned concrete cap and an innovative prefabricated steel-concrete com- posite cap. The approach was to use an estimation of direct costs for material and labor and consideration of con- struction time schedules. A supplementary numerical modeling confirmed that both alternatives behave elasti- cally under imposed loads. The direct cost of material and labor for the two alternatives were close. However, the composite alternative required 13 days less construction time, resulting in substantial cost savings from traffic closing in the very busy traffic corridor. Traffic closing costs were substantially higher than the direct costs, especially for the post-tensioned cap. The quantification of the benefits allows more confidence in the utilization of the composites caps, leading to faster completion of bridge projects and substantial economic savings.

Controlled rocking pile foundation system with replaceable bar fuses for seismic resilience

Bridges designed following a conventional approach minimize the risk of collapse,but often require challenging,costly,and time-consuming restoration after an earthquake occurs.The new seismic design philosophy requires bridges to maintain functionality even after severe earthquakes.In this context,this paper proposes a controlled rocking pile foundation(CRPF)system and numerically evaluates bridges′degree of seismic resilience.The CRPF system allows a pile cap to rock on a pile foundation and dissipate seismic energy through inelastic deformations of replaceable bar fuses that connect a pile cap and piles.Following the conceptual design of the CRPF system,two analytical models were developed for a bridge pier utilizing the CRPF system and a pier designed to develop a plastic hinge in its column.The analytical results indicate that,after experiencing a severe earthquake,a conventionally designed bridge pier sustained substantial damage in its column and exhibited significant residual displacement.In contrast,a pier using the CRPF system showed negligible residual displacement and maintained elastic behavior except,as expected,for bar fuses.The damaged fuses can be rapidly replaced to recover bridge seismic resistance following an earthquake.Therefore,the CRPF system helps to achieve the desired postearthquake performance objectives.