Crack stop holes in steel bridge decks:Drilling method and effects

Force analysis using a compact tension model, as recommended by ASTM, was carried out on a crack stop hole. The stress before, and after, drilling the hole was compared in terms of stress concentration and stress gradient. The optimum drilling location and diameter were studied through analysis of different locations and diameters. By analyzing the effects of flank holes and an additional hole, drilling advice was proposed and fatigue testing of the cracks in a steel bridge deck with a crack stop hole was conducted. The results show that the stress at the crack tip with a crack stop hole decreased, and the major principal stress around the hole was distributed accordingly. The optimum position of the crack stop hole centre was where the centre of the crack stop hole was situated behind the crack and the hole edge coincided with the crack tip. Therefore, hole diameters larger than 8 mm, or those weakening the section by 10%, were suggested as the best diameters. In terms of multi-hole crack stopping, a flank hole was not recommended. The optimum horizontal position of flank holes was at a distance of 1/4 of a single hole diameter from, and in front of, the single hole. Besides, the experiment showed that crack stop hole could only prevent cracks from growing and had no influence on crack growth rate.

Real-Time Detection of Cracks on Concrete Bridge Decks Using Deep Learning in the Frequency Domain

This paper presents a vision-based crack detection approach for concrete bridge decks using an integrated one-dimensional convolutional neural network(1D-CNN)and long short-term memory(LSTM)method in the image frequency domain.The so-called 1D-CNN-LSTM algorithm is trained using thousands of images of cracked and non-cracked concrete bridge decks.In order to improve the training efficiency,images are first transformed into the frequency domain during a preprocessing phase.The algorithm is then calibrated using the flattened frequency data.LSTM is used to improve the performance of the developed network for long sequence data.The accuracy of the developed model is 99.05%,98.9%,and 99.25%,respectively,for training,validation,and testing data.An implementation framework is further developed for future application of the trained model for large-scale images.The proposed 1D-CNN-LSTM method exhibits superior performance in comparison with existing deep learning methods in terms of accuracy and computation time.The fast implementation of the 1D-CNN-LSTM algorithm makes it a promising tool for real-time crack detection.

Experimental Evaluation of Flexural Behavior of Stress Laminated Timber Decks

Stress laminated timber(SLT)deck is assembled using timber(umber or glulam)components placed side by side and stressed together,which has the advantages of easy prefabrication and good cost performance.This work pre-sented an experimental investigation of bending tests per formed on SLT slabs.Several parameters,including pre-stress levels,distance of pre-stressing bars,and the existence of self tapping screw(STS)reinforcement,were taken into consideration.To reinforce the compressive property of timber perpendicular to the grain,the STSs were placed under the anchor plate of the pre-stressed bars.The experimental results were analyzed and discussed in terms of failure modes,ultimate bearing capacity,ultimate strain,and bending sifness.It was found that the SLT slab showed satisfactory composite action as well as resid ual bearing capacity.The pre stress levels showed an obvious effect on the load bearing capacity and relatively slight effect on the bending stiffness.

Shear Behavior of Open Steel Tube Connectors in Steel⁃UHPC Composite Decks

Steel and ultra⁃high performance concrete(UHPC)composite decks are effective at reducing fatigue cracking and asphalt pavement damage.The shear behavior of innovative open steel tube(OST)connectors in steel⁃UHPC composite decks was investigated by conducting push⁃out tests.The test parameter is the presence of reinforcement in the deck.The load⁃slip curves and shear behavior of the push⁃out specimens were obtained and discussed.The test results indicate that as compared with plain concrete specimens,the limit slip of reinforced specimens decreased by 32%and the shear stiffness increased by 10%,but the ultimate shear capacity was almost the same.The use of UHPC influenced the failure process as it was observed that the OST connector was sheared off at its lower semi⁃tube,followed by the pull⁃out failure of the upper semi⁃tube.A finite element model was verified by tests and was then used to analyze the deformation and failure behaviors of the composite deck with open tubes.The model demonstrates that there is a stress concentration zone at the connector root,and the lower semi⁃tube is the main component that is subject to loads.

Fatigue Performance of Orthotropic Steel Decks in Super-Wide Steel Box Girder Considering Transverse Distribution of Vehicle Load

This study presents an investigation on the fatigue analysis of four types of details on orthotropic steel decks(OSDs)for a cable-stayed super-wide steel box girder bridge based on finite-element analysis(FEA)with vehicle transverse distribution model(VTDM).A high-fidelity 3D FE model verified by the static load test is established to satisfy the fatigue analysis accuracy.The stress behavior of super-wide steel box girders under the vehicle load at different lane locations is investigated.Then,considering the effect of VTDM,the fatigue life analysis of four typical details is performed using the Miner cumulative damage rule.The results show that the vehicle transverse location has a great influence on the stress behavior of details with sharp influence surface,and the stress ranges in the outermost lane are larger than those in other lanes,indicating that the details of OSD in the outermost lane are prone to fatigue.The fatigue life analysis indicates that the diaphragm cutout is more prone to fatigue than other details,which should be carefully treated in bridge maintenance.

Heating properties of bridge decks using hydronic heating systems with internal or external circulation tubes

A comparison analysis of the heating properties of the hydronic heating system of bridge decks with external(exchange tubes installed at the bottom of the existing bridge deck with voids inside)or internal(exchange tubes embedded in pavement of the newly built bridge deck)tubes was carried out through field tests.Two heating methods(constant heating power and constant inlet fluid temperature)were used to analyze the heat exchange flux and the temperature increments as well as thermally induced stress of the slab.Numerical simulation was conducted to model the bridge deck heating process to analyze the temperature distribution of the bridge surface.The results shows that the heat exchange flux are the same under the same constant heating powers for the two embedded tube position heating systems;the maximum temperature increment of the bridge deck surface obtained by the external heating system is 0.46 times that obtained by the internal heating system;the maximum thermally induced stress caused by the external heating is 20.4%of the concrete strength(19.1 MPa),which is much higher than that caused by the internal heating under the same heating powers.The thermal efficiencies of the external and internal heating systems are approximately 24.4%and 47.9%,respectively.Under the same constant inlet temperatures,the temperature increment of the bridge deck caused by the external heating is 20.4%of that of the internal heating.

A discussion about the limitations of the Eurocode’s high-speed load model for railway bridges

High-speed railway bridges are subjected to normative limitations concerning maximum permissible deck accelerations.For the design of these structures,the European norm EN 1991-2 introduces the high-speed load model(HSLM)—a set of point loads intended to include the effects of existing high-speed trains.Yet,the evolution of current trains and the recent development of new load models motivate a discussion regarding the limits of validity of the HSLM.For this study,a large number of randomly generated load models of articulated,conventional,and regular trains are tested and compared with the envelope of HSLM effects.For each type of train,two sets of 100,000 load models are considered:one abiding by the limits of the EN 1991-2 and another considering wider limits.This comparison is achieved using both a bridge-independent metric(train signatures)and dynamic analyses on a case study bridge(the Canelas bridge of the Portuguese Railway Network).For the latter,a methodology to decrease the computational cost of moving loads analysis is introduced.Results show that some theoretical load models constructed within the stipulated limits of the norm can lead to effects not covered by the HSLM.This is especially noted in conventional trains,where there is a relation with larger distances between centres of adjacent vehicle bogies.

Enhanced air-coupled impact echo technique by phase analysis of signals from multiple sensors

This paper presents an air-coupled impact echo(IE)technique that relies on the phase spectrum of the collected data to find the frequencies corresponding to the reflections from delaminations.The proposed technique takes advantage of the fact that the IE compression wave is not a propagating wave,but it is the 1st order symmetrical(S1)mode Lamb wave at zero group velocity(S1-ZGV).Therefore,it searches the phase spectra of the data collected by multiple sensors to locate the frequency corresponding to the lowest phase difference.As a result,the technique reduces the effect of propagating waves,including the direct acoustic wave and ambient noise.It is named the Constant Phase IE(CPIE).The performance of the CPIE is experimentally compared with the regular amplitude spectrum-based IE technique and two other multisensor IE techniques.The CPIE shows a performance advantage,especially in a noisy environment.

Effects of air relief openings on the mitigation of solitary wave forces on bridge decks

For inverted T-type bridge decks, the air entrapped in the chambers between adjacent girders could increase the wave forces and lead to the destruction of the bridge decks. This paper studies the effects of the air relief openings (ARO) on the mitigation of the solitary wave-induced forces on the bridge decks. Hydrodynamic experiments are conducted for three inverted T-type decks with four, five, and six girders with different wave properties and deck clearances. The open source computational fluid dynamics toolbox OpenFOAM is adopted to conduct numerical simulations for the effects of the AROs. Since the numerical results correlate well with the measurements, the mechanism of the wave-structure interaction can be revealed by the numerical flow fields. Furthermore, the relationship between the shape and the volume of the ARO and the wave forces on the bridge decks, as well as the contribution of each ARO to the effect of the wave force mitigation, is also obtained from the numerical results of the OpenFOAM. Experimental and numerical results demonstrate that the AROs could effectively reduce the vertical wave forces on the bridge decks. The effects of the AROs increase with the increase of the volume of the ARO, while the shape of the ARO has no effect on the reduction of the wave forces.

Design and Engineering of Urban Interchange Ramp Bridge Structure

This paper analyzes the structural design of an urban interchange ramp bridge from four aspects,which are the superstructure,pier structure,foundation structure,and deck structure design to summarize the structural design ideas of this urban interchange ramp bridge,which can be used as a reference for future construction of the same bridge.

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.

A systematic review of steel bridge deck pavement in China

As an important part of steel bridge deck,the engineering quality and service condition of steel bridge deck pavement(SBDP)directly affects the capacity and operational efficiency of the bridge.This paper reviews the history of the development of SBDP in China over the past 20 years from the exploration stage,rapid development stage and prosperity stage.The development and application of SBDP at different stages are discussed in terms of materials,structure,design,performance evaluation,maintenance and rehabilitation,respectively.The advantages and disadvantages of different pavement materials and structures,and the application of different research methods are summarized.The review shows that the improvement of pavement materials and structures and the development of new materials should be further studied on the multi-scale to enhance the durability of pavement materials,so as to extend the service life of pavements.The design method of SBDP related to the synergistic effect of vehicle,pavement and bridge should be established,and the design concept and method standard of rigid base pavement structure should be improved and formulate a complete design standard.In addition,multi-disease intelligent identification system and equipment should be studied to track the entire course of disease development in real time.And it is necessary to develop appropriate algorithms to select and classify the complex data of disease and maintenance history.

Design Technology of Continuous Beam-Arch Combination Bridges

In this paper,a research was conducted on the design technology of continuous beam-arch composite bridges.A brief introduction is given on the of continuous beam-arch composite bridges,its basic mechanical characteristics is analyzed,and three aspects of design technology is studied,which are rise-span ratio,stiffness ratio,and bridge deck cracking.This article acts as a reference for relevant design units in China to improve the design of continuous beam-arch combination bridges.

基于XMCDA标准的DEXi模型在Decision Deck平台上的应用与实现

DEXi是一个面向教育的,组合约束条件的决策支持计算机软件,其目的在于交互设计定性的,组合约束条件和分层次的决策支持模型,以及对备选方案的评估。XMCDA是一个新出现的数据标准,它根据清晰定义的语法,支持用XML来呈现组合约束条件决策支持的数据元素。在这篇文章中,我们调查了一些方法,并且提出了一些将定性的DEXi决策支持模型转化为XMCDA标准的解决方案。这项工作的动机在于实现DEXi模型在Decision Deck这个使用组合约束条件决策支持的标准来协作开发开源软件的平台上的应用。

Cross-spectral recognition method of bridge deck aerodynamic admittance function

This study proposes a new identification algorithm about the admittance function, which can estimate the full set of six aerodynamic admittance functions considering cross power spectral density functions about the forces and the turbulence components. The method was first numerically validated through Monte Carlo simulations, and then adopted to estimate the aerodynamic admittance of a streamlined bridge deck. The identification method was further validated through a comparison between the numerical calculation and wind tunnel tests on a moving bridge section. ? 2015, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Load Test and Fatigue Life Evaluation for Welded Details in Taizhou Yangtze River Bridge

To study the fatigue performance of welded details in the orthotropic steel decks,the steel box girder for Taizhou Yangtze River Bridge is taken as the research object.Based on the field monitoring data obtained from the load test,the stress response test of the orthotropic steel box girder under wheel loads is performed and the correctness of the vehicle test data obtained from the field monitoring data also have been verified by the numerical results of the finite element model.Based on the Miner linear cumulative damage theory,the S-N curve of the Eurocode3 specification is referenced,and the fatigue life calculation formula of the welded details is determined according to the actual structural features.The fatigue life evaluation of the four typical welded details is obtained.The results indicate that:The load test data is compared and verified by the numerical result of finite element model.The local effect of stress distribution is remarkable.The stress measurement points on the four typical welded details are mainly based on low amplitude stress cycles.Most of the stress ranges are 2-10 MPa,among which the stress range of the welded details at the U-rib butt joint is larger.The fatigue life of welded details in the 14 mm thick top plate is smaller than that of the 16 mm thick top plate corresponding to the fatigue life of the welded details.The rib-to-rib butt welded joints and the openings of the diaphragms were prone to fatigue failure.Among them,the welding details of the 14 mm thick U-rib butt joints first appeared fatigue failure.The arrangement of the diaphragm can effectively increase the fatigue life of the top-U rib weld and improve the fatigue performance at this detail.

Fatigue Performance Evaluation for Welded Details in Orthotropic Steel Deck Bridges Using Multi-Scale Finite Element Method

In order to study the fatigue properties of rib-to-deck welded connection and rib-to-rib welded connection in orthotropic steel bridge decks,a multi-scale finite element model was set up to analyze the stress distribution characteristics and the load test was conducted on the Taizhou Yangtze River Bridge.Comparing the vehicle test results with the muli-scale finite element model results to verify the accuracy of the finite element simulation for the stress response of two welded details.The results indicated that The stress at the rib-to-deck welded connection and the rib-to-rib welded connection are the bending stress and the membrane stress,respectively;the stress response of the two welded connection has strong local characteristics;the lateral stress influence line of the two welded connection is relatively short and the length of the lateral stress influence line is greatly affected by the longitudinal ribs;increasing the thickness of the roof and longitudinal ribs can reduce the stress response and improve the stress performance of the heavy lanes.For the two welded details,the fatigue damage increment of the ordinary lane is greater than the heavy lane.The thickened roof and longitudinal ribs at the position of the heavy lane still cannot balance the fatigue damage caused by the heavy truck.Therefore,it is necessary to strictly control the fatigue effect of overloaded vehicles on steel box girders.

基于叠加载波的灵活带宽技术在LTE中的应用

有限的频谱资源已成为LTE网络容量及用户速率持续提升的瓶颈。基于叠加载波的灵活带宽技术Double Deck突破了LTE标准带宽的限制,可充分利用GSM/WCDMA腾退出来的零散频谱对LTE进行扩容。本文针对Double Deck技术的原理进行了研究,并介绍了该技术在现网中的实施效果。

Automatic Carrier Landing Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Preview Control

For carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs),one of the important problems is the design of an automatic carrier landing system(ACLS)that would enable the UAVs to accomplish autolanding on the aircraft carrier.However,due to the movements of the flight deck with six degree-of-freedom,the autolanding becomes sophisticated.To solve this problem,an accurate and effective ACLS is developed,which is composed of an optimal preview control based flight control system and a Kalman filter based deck motion predictor.The preview control fuses the future information of the reference glide slope to improve landing precision.The reference glide slope is normally a straight line.However,the deck motion will change the position of the ideal landing point,and tracking the ideal straight glide slope may cause landing failure.Therefore,the predictive deck motion information from the deck motion predictor is used to correct the reference glide slope,which decreases the dispersion around the desired landing point.Finally,simulations are carried out to verify the performance of the designed ACLS based on a nonlinear UAV model.

Double deck bridge behavior and failure mechanism under seismic motions using nonlinear analyzes

This paper investigates the behavior and the failure mechanism of a double deck bridge constructed in China through nonlinear time history analysis. A parametric study was conducted to evaluate the influence of different structural characteristics on the behavior of the double deck bridge under transverse seismic motions, and to detect the effect of bi- directional loading on the seismic response of this type of bridge. The results showed that some characteristics, such as the variable lateral stiffness, the foundation modelling, and the longitudinal reinforcement ratio of the upper and lower columns of the bridge pier bents have a major impact on the double deck bridge response and its failure mechanism under transverse seismic motions. It was found that the soft story failure mechanism ：is not unique to the double deck bridge and its occurrence is related to some conditions and structural characteristics of the bridge structure. The analysis also showed that the seismic vulnerability of the double deck bridge under bi-directional loading： was severely increased compared to the bridge response under unidirectional transverse loading, and out-of-phase movements were triggered between adjacent girders.