Matrix-based system reliability method and applications to bridge networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, W.-H.; Song Junho; Gardoni, Paolo

2008-01-01

Using a matrix-based system reliability (MSR) method, one can estimate the probabilities of complex system events by simple matrix calculations. Unlike existing system reliability methods whose complexity depends highly on that of the system event, the MSR method describes any general system event in a simple matrix form and therefore provides a more convenient way of handling the system event and estimating its probability. Even in the case where one has incomplete information on the component probabilities and/or the statistical dependence thereof, the matrix-based framework enables us to estimate the narrowest bounds on the system failure probability by linear programming. This paper presents the MSR method and applies it to a transportation network consisting of bridge structures. The seismic failure probabilities of bridges are estimated by use of the predictive fragility curves developed by a Bayesian methodology based on experimental data and existing deterministic models of the seismic capacity and demand. Using the MSR method, the probability of disconnection between each city/county and a critical facility is estimated. The probability mass function of the number of failed bridges is computed as well. In order to quantify the relative importance of bridges, the MSR method is used to compute the conditional probabilities of bridge failures given that there is at least one city disconnected from the critical facility. The bounds on the probability of disconnection are also obtained for cases with incomplete information

Comparison of System Identification Methods using Ambient Bridge Test Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, P.; Brincker, Rune; Peeters, B.

1999-01-01

In this paper the performance of four different system identification methods is compared using operational data obtained from an ambient vibration test of the Swiss Z24 highway bridge. The four methods are the frequency domain based peak-picking methods, the polyreference LSCE method, the stocha......In this paper the performance of four different system identification methods is compared using operational data obtained from an ambient vibration test of the Swiss Z24 highway bridge. The four methods are the frequency domain based peak-picking methods, the polyreference LSCE method...

Method of controlling switching of a multiphase inductor-converter bridge. [Patent application

Science.gov (United States)

Kustom, R.L.; Fuja, R.E.

In an inductor-convertor circuit for transferring electrical energy between a storage coil and a load coil through a storage thyristor bridge, a load thyristor bridge, and a set of commutating capacitors, operation is improved by a method of changing the rate of delivery of energy in a given direction. The change in rate corresponds to a predetermined change in phase angle between the load bridge and the storage bridge, and comprises changing the phase of the bridge by two steps, each equal to half the predetermined change and occurring 180/sup 0/ apart. The method assures commutation and minimizes imbalances that lead otherwise to overvoltages. 11 figures.

Free energy landscape of a minimalist salt bridge model.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xubin; Lv, Chao; Corbett, Karen M; Zheng, Lianqing; Wu, Dongsheng; Yang, Wei

2016-01-01

Salt bridges are essential to protein stability and dynamics. Despite the importance, there has been scarce of detailed discussion on how salt bridge partners interact with each other in distinct solvent exposed environments. In this study, employing a recent generalized orthogonal space tempering (gOST) method, we enabled efficient molecular dynamics simulation of repetitive breaking and reforming of salt bridge structures within a minimalist salt-bridge model, the Asp-Arg dipeptide and thereby were able to map its detailed free energy landscape in aqueous solution. Free energy surface analysis shows that although individually-solvated states are more favorable, salt-bridge states still occupy a noticeable portion of the overall population. Notably, the competing forces, e.g. intercharge attractions that drive the formation of salt bridges and solvation forces that pull the charged groups away from each other, are energetically comparable. As the result, the salt bridge stability is highly tunable by local environments; for instance when local water molecules are perturbed to interact more strongly with each other, the population of the salt-bridge states is likely to increase. Our results reveal the critical role of local solvent structures in modulating salt-bridge partner interactions and imply the importance of water fluctuations on conformational dynamics that involves solvent accessible salt bridge formations. © 2015 The Protein Society.

Active aerodynamic stabilisation of long suspension bridges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nissen, Henrik Ditlev; Sørensen, Paul Haase; Jannerup, Ole Erik

2004-01-01

The paper describes the addition of actively controlled appendages (flaps) attached along the length of the bridge deck to dampen wind-induced oscillations in long suppension bridges. A novel approach using control systems methods for the analysis of dynamic stability is presented. In order to make...... use of control analysis and design techniques, a linear model of the structural and aerodynamic motion around equilibriun is developed. The model is validated through comparison with finite element calculations and wind tunnel experimental data on the Great Belt East Bridge in Denmark. The developed...... active control scheme is local in that the flap control signal at a given longitudinal position along the bridge only depends on local motion measurements. The analysis makes use of the Nyquist stability criteria and an anlysis of the sensitivity function for stability analysis. The analysis shows...

Discrete vortex method simulations of aerodynamic admittance in bridge aerodynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Johannes Tophøj; Hejlesen, Mads Mølholm; Larsen, Allan

, and to determine aerodynamic forces and the corresponding flutter limit. A simulation of the three-dimensional bridge responseto turbulent wind is carried out by quasi steady theory by modelling the bridge girder as a line like structure [2], applying the aerodynamic load coefficients found from the current version......The meshless and remeshed Discrete Vortex Method (DVM) has been widely used in academia and by the industry to model two-dimensional flow around bluff bodies. The implementation “DVMFLOW” [1] is used by the bridge design company COWI to determine and visualise the flow field around bridge sections...

Generalized Fragility Relationships with Local Site Conditions for Probabilistic Performance-based Seismic Risk Assessment of Bridge Inventories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sivathayalan S.

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The current practice of detailed seismic risk assessment cannot be easily applied to all the bridges in a large transportation networks due to limited resources. This paper presents a new approach for seismic risk assessment of large bridge inventories in a city or national bridge network based on the framework of probabilistic performance based seismic risk assessment. To account for the influences of local site effects, a procedure to generate site-specific hazard curves that includes seismic hazard microzonation information has been developed for seismic risk assessment of bridge inventories. Simulated ground motions compatible with the site specific seismic hazard are used as input excitations in nonlinear time history analysis of representative bridges for calibration. A normalizing procedure to obtain generalized fragility relationships in terms of structural characteristic parameters of bridge span and size and longitudinal and transverse reinforcement ratios is presented. The seismic risk of bridges in a large inventory can then be easily evaluated using the normalized fragility relationships without the requirement of carrying out detailed nonlinear time history analysis.

Reliability Evaluation of Bridges Based on Nonprobabilistic Response Surface Limit Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuyong Chen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Due to many uncertainties in nonprobabilistic reliability assessment of bridges, the limit state function is generally unknown. The traditional nonprobabilistic response surface method is a lengthy and oscillating iteration process and leads to difficultly solving the nonprobabilistic reliability index. This article proposes a nonprobabilistic response surface limit method based on the interval model. The intention of this method is to solve the upper and lower limits of the nonprobabilistic reliability index and to narrow the range of the nonprobabilistic reliability index. If the range of the reliability index reduces to an acceptable accuracy, the solution will be considered convergent, and the nonprobabilistic reliability index will be obtained. The case study indicates that using the proposed method can avoid oscillating iteration process, make iteration process stable and convergent, reduce iteration steps significantly, and improve computational efficiency and precision significantly compared with the traditional nonprobabilistic response surface method. Finally, the nonprobabilistic reliability evaluation process of bridge will be built through evaluating the reliability of one PC continuous rigid frame bridge with three spans using the proposed method, which appears to be more simple and reliable when lack of samples and parameters in the bridge nonprobabilistic reliability evaluation is present.

Nondestructive assessment of timber bridges using a vibration-based method

Science.gov (United States)

Xiping Wang; James P. Wacker; Robert J. Ross; Brian K. Brashaw

2005-01-01

This paper describes an effort to develop a global dynamic testing technique for evaluating the overall stiffness of timber bridge superstructures. A forced vibration method was used to measure the natural frequency of single-span timber bridges in the laboratory and field. An analytical model based on simple beam theory was proposed to represent the relationship...

On the Laws of Total Local Times for -Paths and Bridges of Symmetric Lévy Processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masafumi Hayashi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The joint law of the total local times at two levels for -paths of symmetric Lévy processes is shown to admit an explicit representation in terms of the laws of the squared Bessel processes of dimensions two and zero. The law of the total local time at a single level for bridges is also discussed.

Reserves in load capacity assessment of existing bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Žitný, Jan; Ryjáček, Pavel

2017-09-01

High percentage of all railway bridges in the Czech Republic is made of structural steel. Majority of these bridges is designed according to historical codes and according to the deterioration, they have to be assessed if they satisfy the needs of modern railway traffic. The load capacity assessment of existing bridges according to Eurocodes is however often too conservative and especially, braking and acceleration forces cause huge problems to structural elements of the bridge superstructure. The aim of this paper is to review the different approaches for the determination of braking and acceleration forces. Both, current and historical theoretical models and in-situ measurements are considered. The research of several local European state norms superior to Eurocode for assessment of existing railway bridges shows the big diversity of used local approaches and the conservativeness of Eurocode. This paper should also work as an overview for designers dealing with load capacity assessment, revealing the reserves for existing bridges. Based on these different approaches, theoretical models and data obtained from the measurements, the method for determination of braking and acceleration forces on the basis of real traffic data should be proposed.

Comparative analysis of electron-density and electron-localization function for dinuclear manganese complexes with bridging boron- and carbon-centered ligands.

Science.gov (United States)

Götz, Kathrin; Kaupp, Martin; Braunschweig, Holger; Stalke, Dietmar

2009-01-01

Bonding in borylene-, carbene-, and vinylidene-bridged dinuclear manganese complexes [MnCp(CO)(2)](2)X (X = B-tBu, B = NMe(2), CH(2), C=CH(2)) has been compared by analyses based on quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), on the electron-localization function (ELF), and by natural-population analyses. All of the density functional theory based analyses agree on the absence of a significant direct Mn-Mn bond in these complexes and confirm a dominance of delocalized bonding via the bridging ligand. Interestingly, however, the topology of both charge density and ELF related to the Mn-bridge-Mn bonding depend qualitatively on the chosen density functional (except for the methylene-bridged complex, which exhibits only one three-center-bonding attractor both in -nabla(2)rho and in ELF). While gradient-corrected functionals provide a picture with localized two-center X-Mn bonding, increasing exact-exchange admixture in hybrid functionals concentrates charge below the bridging atom and suggests a three-center bonding situation. For example, the bridging boron ligands may be described either as substituted boranes (e.g., at BLYP or BP86 levels) or as true bridging borylenes (e.g., at BHLYP level). This dependence on the theoretical level appears to derive from a bifurcation between two different bonding situations and is discussed in terms of charge transfer between X and Mn, and in the context of self-interaction errors exhibited by popular functionals.

Road Bridges and Culverts, Bridge dataset only includes bridges maintained by Johnson County Public Works in the unincorporated areas, Published in Not Provided, Johnson County Government.

Data.gov (United States)

NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — Road Bridges and Culverts dataset current as of unknown. Bridge dataset only includes bridges maintained by Johnson County Public Works in the unincorporated areas.

Myocardial Bridging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shi-Min Yuan

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Myocardial bridging is rare. Myocardial bridges are most commonly localized in the middle segment of the left anterior descending coronary artery. The anatomic features of the bridges vary significantly. Alterations of the endothelial morphology and the vasoactive agents impact on the progression of atherosclerosis of myocardial bridging. Patients may present with chest pain, myocardial infarction, arrhythmia and even sudden death. Patients who respond poorly to the medical treatment with β-blockers warrant a surgical intervention. Myotomy is a preferred surgical procedure for the symptomatic patients. Coronary stent deployment has been in limited use due to the unsatisfactory long-term results.

Bridge Condition Assessment based on Vibration Responses of Passenger Vehicle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyamoto, Ayaho; Yabe, Akito

2011-01-01

In this paper, we propose a new method of assessing the condition of existing short- and medium-span reinforced/prestressed concrete bridges based on vibration monitoring data obtained from a public bus. This paper not only describes details of a prototype monitoring system that uses information technology and sensors capable of providing more accurate knowledge of bridge performance than conventional ways but also shows a few specific examples of bridge condition assessment based on vehicle vibrations measured by using an in-service public bus equipped with vibration measurement instrumentation. This paper also describes a sensitivity analysis of deteriorating bridges based on simulation of the acceleration response of buses conducted by the 'substructure method' employing a finite element model to verify the above bridge performance results. The main conclusions obtained in this study can be summarized as follows: (1) Because the vibration responses of passenger vehicles, such as buses, have a good linear relationship with the vibration responses of the target bridges, the proposed system can be used as a practical monitoring system for bridge condition assessment. (2) The results of sensitivity analysis performed by the substructure method show that bus vibration responses are useful for evaluating target bridge performance. (3) The proposed method was applied to a network of real bridges in a local area to evaluate its effectiveness. The results indicate that the proposed method can be used to prioritize the repair/strengthening works of existing bridges based on various vibration information in order to help bridge administrators establish rational maintenance strategies.

Non-Invasive Seismic Methods for Earthquake Site Classification Applied to Ontario Bridge Sites

Science.gov (United States)

Bilson Darko, A.; Molnar, S.; Sadrekarimi, A.

2017-12-01

How a site responds to earthquake shaking and its corresponding damage is largely influenced by the underlying ground conditions through which it propagates. The effects of site conditions on propagating seismic waves can be predicted from measurements of the shear wave velocity (Vs) of the soil layer(s) and the impedance ratio between bedrock and soil. Currently the seismic design of new buildings and bridges (2015 Canadian building and bridge codes) requires determination of the time-averaged shear-wave velocity of the upper 30 metres (Vs30) of a given site. In this study, two in situ Vs profiling methods; Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) and Ambient Vibration Array (AVA) methods are used to determine Vs30 at chosen bridge sites in Ontario, Canada. Both active-source (MASW) and passive-source (AVA) surface wave methods are used at each bridge site to obtain Rayleigh-wave phase velocities over a wide frequency bandwidth. The dispersion curve is jointly inverted with each site's amplification function (microtremor horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio) to obtain shear-wave velocity profile(s). We apply our non-invasive testing at three major infrastructure projects, e.g., five bridge sites along the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway in Windsor, Ontario. Our non-invasive testing is co-located with previous invasive testing, including Standard Penetration Test (SPT), Cone Penetration Test and downhole Vs data. Correlations between SPT blowcount and Vs are developed for the different soil types sampled at our Ontario bridge sites. A robust earthquake site classification procedure (reliable Vs30 estimates) for bridge sites across Ontario is evaluated from available combinations of invasive and non-invasive site characterization methods.

Finite element modelling for fatigue stress analysis of large suspension bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Chan, Tommy H. T.; Guo, L.; Li, Z. X.

2003-03-01

Fatigue is an important failure mode for large suspension bridges under traffic loadings. However, large suspension bridges have so many attributes that it is difficult to analyze their fatigue damage using experimental measurement methods. Numerical simulation is a feasible method of studying such fatigue damage. In British standards, the finite element method is recommended as a rigorous method for steel bridge fatigue analysis. This paper aims at developing a finite element (FE) model of a large suspension steel bridge for fatigue stress analysis. As a case study, a FE model of the Tsing Ma Bridge is presented. The verification of the model is carried out with the help of the measured bridge modal characteristics and the online data measured by the structural health monitoring system installed on the bridge. The results show that the constructed FE model is efficient for bridge dynamic analysis. Global structural analyses using the developed FE model are presented to determine the components of the nominal stress generated by railway loadings and some typical highway loadings. The critical locations in the bridge main span are also identified with the numerical results of the global FE stress analysis. Local stress analysis of a typical weld connection is carried out to obtain the hot-spot stresses in the region. These results provide a basis for evaluating fatigue damage and predicting the remaining life of the bridge.

Estimation of nonlinearities from pseudodynamic and dynamic responses of bridge structures using the Delay Vector Variance method

Science.gov (United States)

Jaksic, Vesna; Mandic, Danilo P.; Karoumi, Raid; Basu, Bidroha; Pakrashi, Vikram

2016-01-01

Analysis of the variability in the responses of large structural systems and quantification of their linearity or nonlinearity as a potential non-invasive means of structural system assessment from output-only condition remains a challenging problem. In this study, the Delay Vector Variance (DVV) method is used for full scale testing of both pseudo-dynamic and dynamic responses of two bridges, in order to study the degree of nonlinearity of their measured response signals. The DVV detects the presence of determinism and nonlinearity in a time series and is based upon the examination of local predictability of a signal. The pseudo-dynamic data is obtained from a concrete bridge during repair while the dynamic data is obtained from a steel railway bridge traversed by a train. We show that DVV is promising as a marker in establishing the degree to which a change in the signal nonlinearity reflects the change in the real behaviour of a structure. It is also useful in establishing the sensitivity of instruments or sensors deployed to monitor such changes.

A Hierarchical Analysis of Bridge Decision Makers ... The Role of New Technology Adoption in the Timber Bridge Market: Special Project

Science.gov (United States)

Robert L. Smith; Robert J. Bush; Daniel L. Schmoldt

1995-01-01

Bridge design engineers and local highway officials make bridge replacement decisions across the United States. The Analytical Hierarchy Process was used to characterize the bridge material selection decision of these individuals. State Department of Transportation engineers, private consulting engineers, and local highway officials were personally interviewed in...

Monolithic Concrete vs Precast Concrete for the Construction of Bridge by Th Cantilever Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morlova Dumitru Daniel

2015-07-01

Full Text Available In the article "Monolithic Concrete vs Precast Concrete for the Construction of Bridges by the Cantilever Method", there are approached a number of issues that come out in the design and execution of prestressed concrete bridge structures using the cantilever method.

Simplified method for the transverse bending analysis of twin celled concrete box girder bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Chithra, J.; Nagarajan, Praveen; S, Sajith A.

2018-03-01

Box girder bridges are one of the best options for bridges with span more than 25 m. For the study of these bridges, three-dimensional finite element analysis is the best suited method. However, performing three-dimensional analysis for routine design is difficult as well as time consuming. Also, software used for the three-dimensional analysis are very expensive. Hence designers resort to simplified analysis for predicting longitudinal and transverse bending moments. Among the many analytical methods used to find the transverse bending moments, SFA is the simplest and widely used in design offices. Results from simplified frame analysis can be used for the preliminary analysis of the concrete box girder bridges.From the review of literatures, it is found that majority of the work done using SFA is restricted to the analysis of single cell box girder bridges. Not much work has been done on the analysis multi-cell concrete box girder bridges. In this present study, a double cell concrete box girder bridge is chosen. The bridge is modelled using three- dimensional finite element software and the results are then compared with the simplified frame analysis. The study mainly focuses on establishing correction factors for transverse bending moment values obtained from SFA.

A Systematic Method to Synthesize New Transformerless Full-bridge Grid-tied Inverters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Hongliang; Burton, Sarah; Liu, Yan-Fei

2014-01-01

Many inverter topologies have been proposed to eliminate the leakage current of transformerless Full Bridge Grid-Tied photovoltaic (PV) inverters. These include implementations such as the H5, H6, and HERIC topologies, among others. In this paper, a new full bridge topology synthesis method, called...... the MN synthesis method, is proposed. The MN method introduces two criteria that can be used to synthesize all of the possible topologies, including the existing topologies as well as new simplified topologies. This method concludes that there are only 15 simplified topologies available. Most simplified...... topologies from MN method have been verified by existing papers and patents....

A Review of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods Applied to the Sustainable Bridge Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vicent Penadés-Plà

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The construction of bridges has been necessary for societies since ancient times, when the communication between and within towns, cities or communities was established. Until recently, the economic factor has been the only one considered in the decision-making of any type of construction process for bridges. However, nowadays, the objective should not be just the construction of bridges, but of sustainable bridges. Economic, social and environmental factors, which form the three pillars of sustainability, have been recently added. These three factors usually have conflicting perspectives. The decision-making process allows the conversion of a judgment into a rational procedure to reach a compromise solution. The aim of this paper is to review different methods and sustainable criteria used for decision-making at each life-cycle phase of a bridge, from design to recycling or demolition. This paper examines 77 journal articles for which different methods have been used. The most used methods are briefly described. In addition, a statistical study was carried out on the Multiple Attribute Decision-making papers reviewed.

Nondestructive assessment of single-span timber bridges using a vibration- based method

Science.gov (United States)

Xiping Wang; James P. Wacker; Angus M. Morison; John W. Forsman; John R. Erickson; Robert J. Ross

2005-01-01

This paper describes an effort to develop a global dynamic testing technique for evaluating the overall stiffness of timber bridge superstructures. A forced vibration method was used to measure the natural frequency of single-span timber bridges in the laboratory and field. An analytical model based on simple beam theory was proposed to represent the relationship...

FE Model Updating on an In-Service Self-Anchored Suspension Bridge with Extra-Width Using Hybrid Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhiyuan Xia

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, many more bridges with extra-width have been needed for vehicle throughput. In order to obtain a precise finite element (FE model of those complex bridge structures, the practical hybrid updating method by integration of Gaussian mutation particle swarm optimization (GMPSO, Kriging meta-model and Latin hypercube sampling (LHS was proposed. By demonstrating the efficiency and accuracy of the hybrid method through the model updating of a damaged simply supported beam, the proposed method was applied to the model updating of a self-anchored suspension bridge with extra-width which showed great necessity considering the results of ambient vibration test. The results of bridge model updating showed that both of the mode frequencies and shapes had relatively high agreement between the updated model and experimental structure. The successful model updating of this bridge fills in the blanks of model updating of a complex self-anchored suspension bridge. Moreover, the updating process enables other model updating issues for complex bridge structures

Damage Localization of Cable-Supported Bridges Using Modal Frequency Data and Probabilistic Neural Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X. T. Zhou

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an investigation on using the probabilistic neural network (PNN for damage localization in the suspension Tsing Ma Bridge (TMB and the cable-stayed Ting Kau Bridge (TKB from simulated noisy modal data. Because the PNN approach describes measurement data in a Bayesian probabilistic framework, it is promising for structural damage detection in noisy conditions. For locating damage on the TMB deck, the main span of the TMB is divided into a number of segments, and damage to the deck members in a segment is classified as one pattern class. The characteristic ensembles (training samples for each pattern class are obtained by computing the modal frequency change ratios from a 3D finite element model (FEM when incurring damage at different members of the same segment and then corrupting the analytical results with random noise. The testing samples for damage localization are obtained in a similar way except that damage is generated at locations different from the training samples. For damage region/type identification of the TKB, a series of pattern classes are defined to depict different scenarios with damage occurring at different portions/components. Research efforts have been focused on evaluating the influence of measurement noise level on the identification accuracy.

Smart Rocks for Bridge Scour Monitoring: Design and Localization Using Electromagnetic Techniques and Embedded Orientation Sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Radchenko, Andro

River bridge scour is an erosion process in which flowing water removes sediment materials (such as sand, rocks) from a bridge foundation, river beds and banks. As a result, the level of the river bed near a bridge pier is lowering such that the bridge foundation stability can be compromised, and the bridge can collapse. The scour is a dynamic process, which can accelerate rapidly during a flood event. Thus, regular monitoring of the scour progress is necessary to be performed at most river bridges. Present techniques are usually expensive, require large man/hour efforts, and often lack the real-time monitoring capabilities. In this dissertation a new method--'Smart Rocks Network for bridge scour monitoring' is introduced. The method is based on distributed wireless sensors embedded in ground underwater nearby the bridge pillars. The sensor nodes are unconstrained in movement, are equipped with years-lasting batteries and intelligent custom designed electronics, which minimizes power consumption during operation and communication. The electronic part consists of a microcontroller, communication interfaces, orientation and environment sensors (such as are accelerometer, magnetometer, temperature and pressure sensors), supporting power supplies and circuitries. Embedded in the soil nearby a bridge pillar the Smart Rocks can move/drift together with the sediments, and act as the free agent probes transmitting the unique signature signals to the base-station monitors. Individual movement of a Smart Rock can be remotely detected processing the orientation sensors reading. This can give an indication of the on-going scour progress, and set a flag for the on-site inspection. The map of the deployed Smart Rocks Network can be obtained utilizing the custom developed in-network communication protocol with signals intensity (RSSI) analysis. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is applied for map reconstruction. Analysis of the map can provide detailed insight into the scour

Bridging the Gap: Developing a Tool to Support Local Civilian and Military Disaster Preparedness

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

open house and air show), the National Basketball Association ( NBA ) All-Star Game, or NASCAR 34 Bridging the Gap: Developing a Tool to Support Local...Americas] protest in Columbus, the National Col- legiate Athletic Association [NCAA] Final Four basketball games in San Antonio, and annual New Year’s...there are large events, such as the NBA All-Star Game, which pose some difficulties related to law enforcement. Other recent events with potential

Structural health monitoring of a railway truss bridge using vibration-based and ultrasonic methods

Science.gov (United States)

Kołakowski, Przemysław; Szelążek, Jacek; Sekuła, Krzysztof; Świercz, Andrzej; Mizerski, Krzysztof; Gutkiewicz, Piotr

2011-03-01

This paper presents results of in situ investigation of a railway truss bridge in the context of structural health monitoring (SHM). Three experimental methods are examined. Dynamic responses of the bridge recorded by strain gauges are confronted with alternative ways of acquisition using piezoelectric patch sensors and ultrasonic probeheads. All types of sensors produce similar output. Also the corresponding responses of the numerical model of the bridge match experimental data.

Structural health monitoring of a railway truss bridge using vibration-based and ultrasonic methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kołakowski, Przemysław; Sekuła, Krzysztof; Szelążek, Jacek; Świercz, Andrzej; Mizerski, Krzysztof; Gutkiewicz, Piotr

2011-01-01

This paper presents results of in situ investigation of a railway truss bridge in the context of structural health monitoring (SHM). Three experimental methods are examined. Dynamic responses of the bridge recorded by strain gauges are confronted with alternative ways of acquisition using piezoelectric patch sensors and ultrasonic probeheads. All types of sensors produce similar output. Also the corresponding responses of the numerical model of the bridge match experimental data

Structure-borne low-frequency noise from multi-span bridges: A prediction method and spatial distribution

Science.gov (United States)

Song, X. D.; Wu, D. J.; Li, Q.; Botteldooren, D.

2016-04-01

Structure-borne noise from railway bridges at far-field points is an important indicator in environmental noise assessment. However, studies that predict structure-borne noise tend to model only single-span bridges, thus ignoring the sound pressure radiating from adjacent spans. To simulate the noise radiating from multi-span bridges induced by moving vehicles, the vibrations of a multi-span bridge are first obtained from a three-dimensional (3D) vehicle-track-bridge dynamic interaction simulation using the mode superposition method. A procedure based on the 2.5-dimensional (2.5D) boundary element method (BEM) is then presented to promote the efficiency of acoustical computation compared with the 3D BEM. The simulated results obtained from both the single-span and multi-span bridge models are compared with the measured results. The sound predictions calculated from the single-span model are accurate only for a minority of near-field points. In contrast, the sound pressures calculated from the multi-span bridge model match the measured results in both the time and frequency domains for all of the near-field and far-field points. The number of bridge spans required in the noise simulation is then recommended related to the distance between the track center and the field points of interest. The spatial distribution of multi-span structure-borne noise is also studied. The variation in sound pressure levels is insignificant along the length of the bridge, which validates the finding that the sound test section can be selected at an arbitrary plane perpendicular to the multi-span bridge.

Recent design methods for prestressed concrete cable stayed bridge; PC shachokyo no sekkei gijutsu no genjo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Otsuka, K. [Kajima Corp., Tokyo (Japan)

1995-02-01

The number of constructed prestressed concrete cable stayed bridges reached nearly 100 in Japan, and the technique has greatly developed. In this article, the current status of design techniques for prestressed concrete cable stayed bridges were introduced along with the examples of constructed bridges for the analysis method and the design method for each structure part while introducing the current examples of constructed bridges. Also, this kind of extra-dosed prestressed concrete bridge and prestressed concrete bridge with prestressed concrete stays were reported. Standards have been prepared including a chapter for the prestressed concrete cable stayed bridges in the Road Bridge Guideline document in February 1990. Load to be noticed as the characteristics peculiar to the prestressed concrete cable stayed bridges includes the shock due to live load, temperature change, and execution error of a tower. For example, 1/1000 of the total tower height is generally considered as the execution error of the tower. A diagonal member is manufactured at factories and in fields and has both advantages and disadvantages. The linear analysis of plane framework is general. Damping of and earthquakeproof designs against the wind and earthquake of the diagonal member were also provided. 11 refs., 17 figs., 2 tabs.

Salt-bridge energetics in halophilic proteins.

Science.gov (United States)

Nayek, Arnab; Sen Gupta, Parth Sarthi; Banerjee, Shyamashree; Mondal, Buddhadev; Bandyopadhyay, Amal K

2014-01-01

Halophilic proteins have greater abundance of acidic over basic and very low bulky hydrophobic residues. Classical electrostatic stabilization was suggested as the key determinant for halophilic adaptation of protein. However, contribution of specific electrostatic interactions (i.e. salt-bridges) to overall stability of halophilic proteins is yet to be understood. To understand this, we use Adaptive-Poison-Boltzmann-Solver Methods along with our home-built automation to workout net as well as associated component energy terms such as desolvation energy, bridge energy and background energy for 275 salt-bridges from 20 extremely halophilic proteins. We then perform extensive statistical analysis on general and energetic attributes on these salt-bridges. On average, 8 salt-bridges per 150 residues protein were observed which is almost twice than earlier report. Overall contributions of salt-bridges are -3.0 kcal mol-1. Majority (78%) of salt-bridges in our dataset are stable and conserved in nature. Although, average contributions of component energy terms are equal, their individual details vary greatly from one another indicating their sensitivity to local micro-environment. Notably, 35% of salt-bridges in our database are buried and stable. Greater desolvation penalty of these buried salt-bridges are counteracted by stable network salt-bridges apart from favorable equal contributions of bridge and background terms. Recruitment of extensive network salt-bridges (46%) with a net contribution of -5.0 kcal mol-1 per salt-bridge, seems to be a halophilic design wherein favorable average contribution of background term (-10 kcal mol-1) exceeds than that of bridge term (-7 kcal mol-1). Interiors of proteins from halophiles are seen to possess relatively higher abundance of charge and polar side chains than that of mesophiles which seems to be satisfied by cooperative network salt-bridges. Overall, our theoretical analyses provide insight into halophilic signature in its

Simulation of multivariate diffusion bridges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bladt, Mogens; Finch, Samuel; Sørensen, Michael

We propose simple methods for multivariate diffusion bridge simulation, which plays a fundamental role in simulation-based likelihood and Bayesian inference for stochastic differential equations. By a novel application of classical coupling methods, the new approach generalizes a previously...... proposed simulation method for one-dimensional bridges to the mulit-variate setting. First a method of simulating approzimate, but often very accurate, diffusion bridges is proposed. These approximate bridges are used as proposal for easily implementable MCMC algorithms that produce exact diffusion bridges...

Applications of Non-destructive methods (GPR and 3D Laser Scanner) in Historic Masonry Arch Bridge Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Alani, Amir; Banks, Kevin

2014-05-01

There exist approximately 70,000 masonry arch bridge spans (brick and stone) in the UK with tens of thousands more throughout Europe. A significant number of these bridges are still in operation and form part of the road and rail network systems in many countries. A great majority of these bridges are in desperate need of repair and maintenance. Applications of non-destructive testing methods such as ground penetrating radar (GPR), 3D laser scanning, accelerometer sensors and vibration detecting sensors amongst many others have been used to assess and monitor such structures in the past few years. This presentation provides results of the applications of a 2GHz GPR antenna system and a 3D laser scanner on a historic masonry arch bridge (the Old Bridge, Aylesford) located in Kent, in the south east of England. The older part of the bridge (the mid-span) is 860 years old. The bridge was the subject of a major alteration in 1811. This presentation forms part of a larger ongoing study which is using the two above mentioned non-destructive methods for long-term monitoring of the bridge. The adopted survey planning strategy and technique, data acquisition and processing as well as challenges encountered during actual survey and fieldworks have been discussed in this presentation. As a result of this study the position of different layers of the deck structure has been established with the identification of the original stone base of the bridge. This information in addition to the location of a number of structural ties (anchors - remedial work carried out previously) in the absence of reliable and accurate design details proved to be extremely useful for the modelling of the bridge using the finite element method. Results of the 3D laser scanning of the bridge have also been presented which have provided invaluable data essential for the accurate modelling of the bridge as well as the long term monitoring of the bridge. 2014 EGU-GA GI3.1 Session, organised by COST Action

Hierarchical analysis of bridge decision makers : the role of new technology adoption in the timber bridge market : special project fiscal year 1992

Science.gov (United States)

1995-08-01

Bridge design engineers and local highway officials make bridge replacement decisions across the : United States. The Analytical Hierarchy Process was used to characterize the bridge material selection : decision of these individuals. State Departmen...

The Impact of Brands on People, Markets and Society : Build Bridge Bond Method for Sustainable Brand Leadership

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schoppen, Hendrik Sietze

2017-01-01

The Impact of Brands on People, Markets and Society Build Bridge Bond Method for Sustainable Brand Leadership Authorized translation of the chapter ‘Impact of brands on people, markets and society’ (prepublication Build Bridge Bond, method for sustainable leadership and building future-proof trust)

Interaction between rivers and bridges in Tuscany (Italy)

Science.gov (United States)

Tartaglia, V.; Caporali, E.

2003-04-01

The natural adjustment phenomena of the rivers next to the crossing infrastructures, often due to the interaction with the structures themselves, cause damage risk conditions for a high number of structures. About 30 railway bridge sites in Tuscany, interested in the last 30 years by river bed instability, have been monitored. A standardized Bridge Site Inspection Form have been defined and used for the inspections to ensure data reliability and a computer-aided system for data collection have been developed. The system is composed by two components: (1) a GIS that contain the hydrological and geomorphological data layers; (2) a DBMS on which the geomorphological characteristics of the sites and the geometrical and structural characteristics of the bridges are stored with a relational structure. The observed damage mechanisms suggest to schematise the bridge-river interaction as the sum of two instability processes: (a) the lateral instability, when long term evolution of the stream or localized collapse phenomena of the banks can undermine the lateral bridge structures not meant to be exposed to flow (piers whit shallow foundation in the floodplain, long abutments, etc.); (b) vertical instability processes, when the river bed level degradation given by the sum of geomorphological phenomena at the basin scale (general scour) and at the site scale (contraction scour and local scour) can undermine the bridge foundations. To express synthetically the damage risk of bridges, due to instability phenomena of their crossed rivers, the use of a Risk Index is here proposed. The RI is calculated with a semi-qualitative method derived from the geomorphological observations and from the calculated values of some hydraulic variables, obtained by the regional frequency analysis of flood in Tuscany. The RI allows, even in lack of foundation depth data, to individuate the critical sites and to rank them for protection planning. Besides a threshold value of the Risk Index has been

Study of the time-dependent clear water scour around circular bridge piers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aksoy Aysegul Ozgenc

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The local scour around bridge piers influences their stabilities and plays a key role in the bridge failures. The estimation of the maximum possible scour depth around bridge piers is an important step in the design of the bridge pier foundations. In this study, the temporal evolution of local scour depths as well as the equilibrium scour depths were analyzed.

A method for the 3-D quantification of bridging ligaments during crack propagation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Babout, L.; Janaszewski, M.; Marrow, T.J.; Withers, P.J.

2011-01-01

This letter shows how a hole-closing algorithm can be used to identify and quantify crack-bridging ligaments from a sequence of X-ray tomography images of intergranular stress corrosion cracking. This allows automatic quantification of the evolution of bridging ligaments through the crack propagation sequence providing fracture mechanics insight previously unobtainable from fractography. The method may also be applied to other three-dimensional materials science problems, such as closing walls in foams.

Impact Coefficient Analysis of Long-Span Railway Cable-Stayed Bridge Based on Coupled Vehicle-Bridge Vibration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yongle Li

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Compared with medium and small span bridges, very limited attention has been paid on the research of the impact coefficient of long-span railway bridges. To estimate the impact effects of long-span railway bridges subjected to moving vehicles, a real long-span railway cable-stayed bridge is regarded as the research object in this study, and a coupled model of vehicle-bridge system is established. The track irregularities are taken as the system excitation and the dynamic responses of the vehicle-bridge system are calculated. The impact effects on main girder, stayed cable, bearings, and bridge tower are discussed at various vehicle speeds. The results show that different components of the long-span railway cable-stayed bridge have different impact coefficients. Even for each part, the impact coefficient is also different at different local positions. It reveals that the impact coefficients in the actual situation may have significant differences with the related code clauses in the present design codes.

Reliability Evaluation of Bridges Based on Nonprobabilistic Response Surface Limit Method

OpenAIRE

Chen, Xuyong; Chen, Qian; Bian, Xiaoya; Fan, Jianping

2017-01-01

Due to many uncertainties in nonprobabilistic reliability assessment of bridges, the limit state function is generally unknown. The traditional nonprobabilistic response surface method is a lengthy and oscillating iteration process and leads to difficultly solving the nonprobabilistic reliability index. This article proposes a nonprobabilistic response surface limit method based on the interval model. The intention of this method is to solve the upper and lower limits of the nonprobabilistic ...

BTC method for evaluation of remaining strength and service life of bridge cables.

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-01

"This report presents the BTC method; a comprehensive state-of-the-art methodology for evaluation of remaining : strength and residual life of bridge cables. The BTC method is a probability-based, proprietary, patented, and peerreviewed : methodology...

Improved Simplified Methods for Effective Seismic Analysis and Design of Isolated and Damped Bridges in Western and Eastern North America

Science.gov (United States)

Koval, Viacheslav

The seismic design provisions of the CSA-S6 Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code and the AASHTO LRFD Seismic Bridge Design Specifications have been developed primarily based on historical earthquake events that have occurred along the west coast of North America. For the design of seismic isolation systems, these codes include simplified analysis and design methods. The appropriateness and range of application of these methods are investigated through extensive parametric nonlinear time history analyses in this thesis. It was found that there is a need to adjust existing design guidelines to better capture the expected nonlinear response of isolated bridges. For isolated bridges located in eastern North America, new damping coefficients are proposed. The applicability limits of the code-based simplified methods have been redefined to ensure that the modified method will lead to conservative results and that a wider range of seismically isolated bridges can be covered by this method. The possibility of further improving current simplified code methods was also examined. By transforming the quantity of allocated energy into a displacement contribution, an idealized analytical solution is proposed as a new simplified design method. This method realistically reflects the effects of ground-motion and system design parameters, including the effects of a drifted oscillation center. The proposed method is therefore more appropriate than current existing simplified methods and can be applicable to isolation systems exhibiting a wider range of properties. A multi-level-hazard performance matrix has been adopted by different seismic provisions worldwide and will be incorporated into the new edition of the Canadian CSA-S6-14 Bridge Design code. However, the combined effect and optimal use of isolation and supplemental damping devices in bridges have not been fully exploited yet to achieve enhanced performance under different levels of seismic hazard. A novel Dual-Level Seismic

Cable Supported Bridges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gimsing, Niels Jørgen

Cable supported bridges in the form of suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges are distinguished by their ability to overcome large spans.The book concentrates on the synthesis of cable supported bridges, covering both design and construction aspects. The analytical part covers simple methods...... to quantify the different structural configurations and allows a preliminary optimization of the main structure.Included are the most recent advances in structural design, corrosion protection of cables, aerodynamic safety, and erection procedures....

Inspection Mechanism and Experimental Study of Prestressed Reverse Tension Method under PC Beam Bridge Anchorage

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Zhang

2018-03-01

the prestress under anchorage is directly related to the structural security and performance of PC beam bridge. The reverse tension method is a kind of inspection which confirms the prestress by exerting reversed tension load on the exposed prestressing tendon of beam bridge anchoring system. The thesis elaborately expounds the inspection mechanism and mechanical effect of reverse tension method, theoretically analyzes the influential elements of inspection like tool anchorage deformation, compression of conjuncture, device glide, friction of anchorage loop mouth and elastic compression of concrete, and then presents the following formula to calculate prestress under anchorage. On the basis of model experiment, the thesis systematically studies some key issues during the reverse tension process of PC beam bridge anchorage system like the formation of stress-elongation curve, influential factors, judgment method of prestress under anchorage, variation trend and compensation scale, verifies the accuracy of mechanism analysis and demonstrates: the prestress under anchorage is less than or equal to 75% of the ultimate strength of prestressing tendon, the error of inspect result is less than 1%, which can meet with the demands of construction. The research result has provided theoretical basis and technical foundation for the promotion and application of reverse tension in bridge construction.

Investigation of Tension Forces in A Stay Cable System of A Road Bridge Using Vibration Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hawryszków Paweł

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In the article author presents method of investigation of tension forces in stay cable systems using dynamical methods. Research was carried out during stay cable system installation on WN-24 viaduct near Poznań, that is way it was possible to compare tension forces indicated directly by devices using for tensioning of cable-stayed bridges with results achieved indirectly by means of dynamical methods. Discussion of results was presented. Advantages of dynamical methods and possible fields of application was described. This method, which has been rarely used before, may occur interesting alternative in diagnostics of bridges in comparison to traditional methods.

A hybrid local/non-local framework for the simulation of damage and fracture

KAUST Repository

Azdoud, Yan

2014-01-01

Recent advances in non-local continuum models, notably peridynamics, have spurred a paradigm shift in solid mechanics simulation by allowing accurate mathematical representation of singularities and discontinuities. This doctoral work attempts to extend the use of this theory to a community more familiar with local continuum models. In this communication, a coupling strategy - the morphing method -, which bridges local and non-local models, is presented. This thesis employs the morphing method to ease use of the non-local model to represent problems with failure-induced discontinuities. First, we give a quick review of strategies for the simulation of discrete degradation, and suggest a hybrid local/non-local alternative. Second, we present the technical concepts involved in the morphing method and evaluate the quality of the coupling. Third, we develop a numerical tool for the simulation of the hybrid model for fracture and damage and demonstrate its capabilities on numerical model examples

Track-Bridge Longitudinal Interaction of Continuous Welded Rails on Arch Bridge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rong Chen

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Taking arch bridges, including deck, half-through, and through arch bridges (short for DAB, HTAB, and TAB as examples, mechanics analysis models of longitudinal interaction between continuously welded rails (short for CWRs and arch bridges are established. Based on the finite element method (FEM, the longitudinal interaction calculation software of CWR on arch bridges has been developed. Focusing on an HTAB, the tension, compression, and deflection conditions are calculated and analyzed. The results show that the mechanics analysis models of three types of arch bridges can truly reflect the real state of the structure; the calculation software can be used for systematic research of the CWR on arch bridge; as for HTAB, temperature difference of arch rib has a small effect on rail tension/compression, and arch bridge can be simplified as a continuous beam for rail tension/compression additional force calculation; in calculation of deflection conditions of HTAB, it is suggested that train loads are arranged on half span and full span and take the direction of load entering bridge into account. Additionally, the deflection additional force variation of CFST basket handle arch bridge is different from that of ordinary bridge.

Automatic Bridge Control System

OpenAIRE

M. Niraimathi; S.Sivakumar; R.Vigneshwaran; R.Vinothkumar; P.Babu

2012-01-01

Bridge vibration control is an important issue whose purpose is to extend the structural service life of bridges. Normally, the bridge is modeled as an elastic beam or plate subject to a moving vehicle. However, the moving truck on a bridge is a complicated problem that must still be researched. In this paper, wepropose a new method, to overcome the huge load in the bridge a load cell is used at the entry which will monitor the load continuously at both ends. To escape from the heavy water fl...

A Study on Assessment Method of Traffic Load Effect of Bridge in Service

Science.gov (United States)

Ling, Pan; Dajian, Han

2010-05-01

Because of overloading usually occur in highway in China today, it is found that the traffic load and the load effects given by Specification for Inspection and Evaluation of Load-bearing Capacity of Highway Bridge[1] cannot be adequately estimated. Especially, the extreme values in a service period can not be predicted. In this paper, a model is first developed for a better estimation of the actual traffic flow, as well as the service load effect level of a bridge. Based on a five-day collection data of the vehicle samples passing through the exit of Guangyuan to Shahe of the North-Ring Highway in Guangzhou, The Qiaole Bridge of the highway is taken as an example to illustrate the assessment model. Then, a threshold model is applied to estimate the tail distribution of the maximum load effect of a fleet. And threshold point process is used to infer the maximum value distribution for prediction of the load effect level of the bridge in a future time period. Finally, a 0.95 quantile is obtained to compare with the result given by specification[1]. The results show that the assessment method proposed in this paper is valid and feasible.

Application of bridging-law concepts to short-fibre composites

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lindhagen, J.E.; Gamstedt, Kristofer; Berglund, L.A.

2000-01-01

This is the third paper in a series of four where notch sensitivity, fracture energy and bridging laws are studied in short-fibre polymer composites. Here, bridging laws are derived from experimental crack-opening profiles in centre-hole notched tensile specimens. The materials studied are three...... types of commercial glass-mat composites with different reinforcement structures and matrices. The materials have softening bridging laws and the calculated fracture energies from bridging laws are in good agreement with values determined directly by experiment. The calculated maximum local bridging...

Resonant frequency detection and adjustment method for a capacitive transducer with differential transformer bridge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, M.; Bai, Y. Z., E-mail: abai@mail.hust.edu.cn; Zhou, Z. B., E-mail: zhouzb@mail.hust.edu.cn; Li, Z. X.; Luo, J. [MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurement, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074 (China)

2014-05-15

The capacitive transducer with differential transformer bridge is widely used in ultra-sensitive space accelerometers due to their simple structure and high resolution. In this paper, the front-end electronics of an inductive-capacitive resonant bridge transducer is analyzed. The analysis result shows that the performance of this transducer depends upon the case that the AC pumping frequency operates at the resonance point of the inductive-capacitive bridge. The effect of possible mismatch between the AC pumping frequency and the actual resonant frequency is discussed, and the theoretical analysis indicates that the output voltage noise of the front-end electronics will deteriorate by a factor of about 3 due to either a 5% variation of the AC pumping frequency or a 10% variation of the tuning capacitance. A pre-scanning method to determine the actual resonant frequency is proposed followed by the adjustment of the operating frequency or the change of the tuning capacitance in order to maintain expected high resolution level. An experiment to verify the mismatching effect and the adjustment method is provided.

Resonant frequency detection and adjustment method for a capacitive transducer with differential transformer bridge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, M.; Bai, Y. Z.; Zhou, Z. B.; Li, Z. X.; Luo, J.

2014-01-01

The capacitive transducer with differential transformer bridge is widely used in ultra-sensitive space accelerometers due to their simple structure and high resolution. In this paper, the front-end electronics of an inductive-capacitive resonant bridge transducer is analyzed. The analysis result shows that the performance of this transducer depends upon the case that the AC pumping frequency operates at the resonance point of the inductive-capacitive bridge. The effect of possible mismatch between the AC pumping frequency and the actual resonant frequency is discussed, and the theoretical analysis indicates that the output voltage noise of the front-end electronics will deteriorate by a factor of about 3 due to either a 5% variation of the AC pumping frequency or a 10% variation of the tuning capacitance. A pre-scanning method to determine the actual resonant frequency is proposed followed by the adjustment of the operating frequency or the change of the tuning capacitance in order to maintain expected high resolution level. An experiment to verify the mismatching effect and the adjustment method is provided

Seismic response of cable stayed bridges under multi support excitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahmoud Reza ُُShiravand

2017-07-01

Full Text Available In this Study, the seismic response of cable stayed bridges have been evaluated under multi-support excitations. There are three sources that cause the earthquake wave characteristics change during its propagation path. Local site effect, loss of coherency and wave passage effect are three sources of spatial variation of seismic ground motions. In long span structures, such as cable supported bridges, this phenomenon is more evident and traditional analyzing (uniform excitation may not be valid and be conservative. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the response of cable stayed bridges under non-uniform excitations. For this purpose, the non-uniform time histories were artificially generated using Kriging method based on a set of known time history in the west support of bridge. Nonlinear time history analysis was performed and cables axial force, deck moment, pylons moment and finally drift ratio of bridge have been examined in order to investigate how non-uniform excitation change the seismic response of bridge compared with uniform excitations. Results show non-uniform excitation in some bridge components increase responses and decreases in the others. In non-uniform excitation, although total time history energy is lesser than uniform excitation, it can significantly change the distribution of the forces and makes differential displacement between cables supports and increase the possibility of failure.

Bridges Dynamic Parameters Identification Based On Experimental and Numerical Method Comparison in Regard with Traffic Seismicity

Science.gov (United States)

Krkošková, Katarína; Papán, Daniel; Papánová, Zuzana

2017-10-01

The technical seismicity negatively affects the environment, buildings and structures. Technical seismicity means seismic shakes caused by force impulse, random process and unnatural origin. The vibration influence on buildings is evaluated in the Eurocode 8 in Slovak Republic, however, the Slovak Technical Standard STN 73 0036 includes solution of the technical seismicity. This standard also classes bridges into the group of structures that are significant in light of the technical seismicity - the group “U”. Using the case studies analysis by FEM simulation and comparison is necessary because of brief norm evaluation of this issue. In this article, determinate dynamic parameters by experimental measuring and numerical method on two real bridges are compared. First bridge, (D201 - 00) is Scaffold Bridge on the road I/11 leading to the city of Čadca and is situated in the city of Žilina. It is eleven - span concrete road bridge. The railway is the obstacle, which this bridge spans. Second bridge (M5973 Brodno) is situated in the part of Žilina City on the road of I/11. It is concrete three - span road bridge built as box girder. The computing part includes 3D computational models of the bridges. First bridge (D201 - 00) was modelled in the software of IDA Nexis as the slab - wall model. The model outputs are natural frequencies and natural vibration modes. Second bridge (M5973 Brodno) was modelled in the software of VisualFEA. The technical seismicity corresponds with the force impulse, which was put into this model. The model outputs are vibration displacements, velocities and accelerations. The aim of the experiments was measuring of the vibration acceleration time record of bridges, and there was need to systematic placement of accelerometers. The vibration acceleration time record is important during the under - bridge train crossing, about the first bridge (D201 - 00) and the vibration acceleration time domain is important during deducing the force

A 2.5-dimensional method for the prediction of structure-borne low-frequency noise from concrete rail transit bridges.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Qi; Song, Xiaodong; Wu, Dingjun

2014-05-01

Predicting structure-borne noise from bridges subjected to moving trains using the three-dimensional (3D) boundary element method (BEM) is a time consuming process. This paper presents a two-and-a-half dimensional (2.5D) BEM-based procedure for simulating bridge-borne low-frequency noise with higher efficiency, yet no loss of accuracy. The two-dimensional (2D) BEM of a bridge with a constant cross section along the track direction is adopted to calculate the spatial modal acoustic transfer vectors (MATVs) of the bridge using the space-wave number transforms of its 3D modal shapes. The MATVs calculated using the 2.5D method are then validated by those computed using the 3D BEM. The bridge-borne noise is finally obtained through the MATVs and modal coordinate responses of the bridge, considering time-varying vehicle-track-bridge dynamic interaction. The presented procedure is applied to predict the sound pressure radiating from a U-shaped concrete bridge, and the computed results are compared with those obtained from field tests on Shanghai rail transit line 8. The numerical results match well with the measured results in both time and frequency domains at near-field points. Nevertheless, the computed results are smaller than the measured ones for far-field points, mainly due to the sound radiation from adjacent spans neglected in the current model.

Effect of hardening methods of moulding sands with water glass on structure of bonding bridges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Stachowicz

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Research on influence of hardening methods on structure of bonding bridges in moulding sands with sodium water glass is presented.Moulding sands with addition of 2.5 % of binder with molar module 2.0 were hardened with CO2 and dried in traditional way or hardenedwith microwaves. It was proved that the hardening method affects structure of bonding bridges, correlating with properties of the hardened moulding sands. It was found that strength of the moulding sands hardened with microwaves for 4 min is very close to that measured after traditional drying at 110 °C for 120 min. So, application of microwave hardening ensures significant shortening of the process time to the value comparable with CO2 hardening but guaranteeing over 10-fold increase of mechanical properties. Analysis of SEM images of hardened moulding sands permitted explaining differences in quality parameters of moulding sands by connecting them with structure of the created bonding bridges.

On the effect of nuclear bridge modes on donor-acceptor electronic coupling in donor-bridge-acceptor molecules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davis, Daly; Toroker, Maytal Caspary; Speiser, Shammai; Peskin, Uri

2009-01-01

We report a theoretical study of intra-molecular electronic coupling in a symmetric DBA (donor-bridge-acceptor) complex, in which a donor electronic site is coupled to an acceptor site by way of intervening orbitals of a molecular bridge unit. In the off-resonant (deep tunneling) regime of electronic transport, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (MO's) of the DBA system are split into distinguishable donor/acceptor and bridge orbitals. The effect of geometrical changes at the bridge on the donor/acceptor electronic energy manifold is studied for local stretching and bending modes. It is demonstrated that the energy splitting in the manifold of donor/acceptor unoccupied MOs changes in response to such changes, as assumed in simple McConnell-type models. Limitations of the simple models are revealed where the electronic charging of the bridge orbitals correlates with increasing donor/acceptor orbital energy splitting only for stretching but not for bending bridge modes.

Bridge damage detection using spatiotemporal patterns extracted from dense sensor network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Chao; Sarkar, Soumik; Gong, Yongqiang; Laflamme, Simon; Phares, Brent

2017-01-01

The alarmingly degrading state of transportation infrastructures combined with their key societal and economic importance calls for automatic condition assessment methods to facilitate smart management of maintenance and repairs. With the advent of ubiquitous sensing and communication capabilities, scalable data-driven approaches is of great interest, as it can utilize large volume of streaming data without requiring detailed physical models that can be inaccurate and computationally expensive to run. Properly designed, a data-driven methodology could enable fast and automatic evaluation of infrastructures, discovery of causal dependencies among various sub-system dynamic responses, and decision making with uncertainties and lack of labeled data. In this work, a spatiotemporal pattern network (STPN) strategy built on symbolic dynamic filtering (SDF) is proposed to explore spatiotemporal behaviors in a bridge network. Data from strain gauges installed on two bridges are generated using finite element simulation for three types of sensor networks from a density perspective (dense, nominal, sparse). Causal relationships among spatially distributed strain data streams are extracted and analyzed for vehicle identification and detection, and for localization of structural degradation in bridges. Multiple case studies show significant capabilities of the proposed approach in: (i) capturing spatiotemporal features to discover causality between bridges (geographically close), (ii) robustness to noise in data for feature extraction, (iii) detecting and localizing damage via comparison of bridge responses to similar vehicle loads, and (iv) implementing real-time health monitoring and decision making work flow for bridge networks. Also, the results demonstrate increased sensitivity in detecting damages and higher reliability in quantifying the damage level with increase in sensor network density. (paper)

Effect of Soil-Structure Interaction on Seismic Performance of Long-Span Bridge Tested by Dynamic Substructuring Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhenyun Tang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Because of the limitations of testing facilities and techniques, the seismic performance of soil-structure interaction (SSI system can only be tested in a quite small scale model in laboratory. Especially for long-span bridge, a smaller tested model is required when SSI phenomenon is considered in the physical test. The scale effect resulting from the small scale model is always coupled with the dynamic performance, so that the seismic performance of bridge considering SSI effect cannot be uncovered accurately by the traditional testing method. This paper presented the implementation of real-time dynamic substructuring (RTDS, involving the combined use of shake table array and computational engines for the seismic simulation of SSI. In RTDS system, the bridge with soil-foundation system is divided into physical and numerical substructures, in which the bridge is seen as physical substructures and the remaining part is seen as numerical substructures. The interface response between the physical and numerical substructures is imposed by shake table and resulting reaction force is fed back to the computational engine. The unique aspect of the method is to simulate the SSI systems subjected to multisupport excitation in terms of a larger physical model. The substructuring strategy and the control performance associated with the real-time substructuring testing for SSI were performed. And the influence of SSI on a long-span bridge was tested by this novel testing method.

Bridge and steel structures. History and vision on bridge erection; Kyoryo kokozobutsu. Kasetsu gijutsu no shorai

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mukai, S.; Hayashi, T. [Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

1998-08-20

This paper describes the progress of bridge erection technology. It introduces the results of cable erection, rotated/extruded erection, and cantilever erection. The cable erection is a multi point suspension erection using cables. For the rotated/extruded erection, the monolithic construction is conducted on a working yard set in a right angle to the construction position, and the horizontal beams of the bridge piers (corbel girders) are constructed by the rotated method using a slewing base incorporated around the bridge piers at one side. For the construction of stiffening girders of Innoshima-ohashi Bridge of Honshu-Shikoku Joint Bridge in 1978, trussed face bar blocks were extruded from the main tower in order using a travel crane. For the suspension bridges and cable stayed bridges, main towers were erected using various types of cranes. The erection of Tamashima-ohashi Bridge with a weight of 500 ton using an offshore floating crane is introduced as a large block method. Analysis methods and measurement techniques at the site are used in order to analyze the shape in each step under the erection and to ensure the accurate final complete shape. Reduction of the construction cost, improvement of erection technology, and technology development for large-scale projects are subjects in the future. 22 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab.

Non-stationary random vibration analysis of a 3D train-bridge system using the probability density evolution method

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Zhi-wu; Mao, Jian-feng; Guo, Feng-qi; Guo, Wei

2016-03-01

Rail irregularity is one of the main sources causing train-bridge random vibration. A new random vibration theory for the coupled train-bridge systems is proposed in this paper. First, number theory method (NTM) with 2N-dimensional vectors for the stochastic harmonic function (SHF) of rail irregularity power spectrum density was adopted to determine the representative points of spatial frequencies and phases to generate the random rail irregularity samples, and the non-stationary rail irregularity samples were modulated with the slowly varying function. Second, the probability density evolution method (PDEM) was employed to calculate the random dynamic vibration of the three-dimensional (3D) train-bridge system by a program compiled on the MATLAB® software platform. Eventually, the Newmark-β integration method and double edge difference method of total variation diminishing (TVD) format were adopted to obtain the mean value curve, the standard deviation curve and the time-history probability density information of responses. A case study was presented in which the ICE-3 train travels on a three-span simply-supported high-speed railway bridge with excitation of random rail irregularity. The results showed that compared to the Monte Carlo simulation, the PDEM has higher computational efficiency for the same accuracy, i.e., an improvement by 1-2 orders of magnitude. Additionally, the influences of rail irregularity and train speed on the random vibration of the coupled train-bridge system were discussed.

[Segmental cut-off bridge and local floating technology for the treatment of ossification of ligamentum flavum in thoracic spine].

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Wei-dong; Zhang, Jian; Sheng, Wei-bin

2013-10-08

To explore the efficacy and safety of segmental cut-off bridge and local floating technology for the treatment of ossification of ligamentum flavum (OLF) in thoracic spine. Retrospective study was performed in 98 patients with thoracic OLF who under went operation. There was 56 males and 42 females with an average age of 45.8 (35-73) years. The average duration of onset was 17 (3-51) months. The main clinical symptoms were numbness and paraesthesia (n = 90), lower limb weakness and walking trouble (n = 46), positive pyramidal tract signs (n = 33) and sphincter function obstacle (n = 9). OLF was screened and diagnosed by radiology, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) or CT myelography (CTM). A total of 142 OLF nidus were spotted. The lesions involved single segment (n = 32), double segments (n = 56), three segments (n = 6) and ≥ four segments (n = 4). And the locations were at upper thoracic segment (T1-4) (n = 34), middle thoracic segment (T5-8) (n = 23) and lower thoracic segment (T9-12) (n = 42). The OLF nidus were removed by local floating technology oft windowing at cephalic and caudal ends and a cut-off bridge at both sides of involved segments. Pre- and post-operative Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores and Epstein grades were recorded to evaluate the outcomes. The mean loss volume of blood was 320 ml and operative duration 155 min. All cases recovered independent activities. The mean follow-up period was 28 (13-48) months. The mean preoperative JOA score was 4.3 (1-8) points and the mean postoperative JOA score 9.7 (5-11) points. The recovery rate was 78.8%. According to Epstein grade, the excellent and good rate was 86.7%. As a common cause of thoracic spinal cord compression, OLF should be operated as early as possible. Based upon clinical and imaging findings, the application of segmental cut-off bridge and local floating technology is both safe and efficacious in the treatment of OLF in thoracic spine.

Gauge bridges in classical field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jakobs, S.

2009-03-01

In this thesis Poisson structures of two classical gauge field theories (Maxwell-Klein-Gordon- and Maxwell-Dirac-system) are constructed using the parametrix construction of Green's functions. Parametrices for the Maxwell-Klein-Gordon- and Maxwell-Dirac-system are constructed in Minkowski space and this construction is later generalized to curved space times for the Maxwell-Klein-Gordon-system. With these Green's functions Poisson brackets will be defined as Peierls brackets. Finally non-local, gauge invariant observables, the so-called ''gauge bridges''are constructed. Gauge bridges are the matrix elements of holonomy operators. It is shown, that these emerge from Poisson brackets of local, gauge invariant observables. (orig.)

A method for the easy fabrication of all-ceramic bridges with the Cerec system.

Science.gov (United States)

Kurbad, A; Schnock, H A

2009-01-01

Both pressing technology and CAD/CAM methods have proven themselves clinically for the fabrication of all-ceramic restorations. The advantages of the Cerec technology for the economic fabrication of all-ceramic bridges can be exploited by the use of burn-out blanks of polymer material. The milling process of very hard ceramics in the milling unit, which has some disadvantages, is replaced by the pressing process and makes the IPS e.max press material accessible to CAD/CAM users, primarily for extending the range of indications to splinted crowns and small all-ceramic bridges.

Complex Method Mixed with PSO Applying to Optimization Design of Bridge Crane Girder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

He Yan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In engineer design, basic complex method has not enough global search ability for the nonlinear optimization problem, so it mixed with particle swarm optimization (PSO has been presented in the paper,that is the optimal particle evaluated from fitness function of particle swarm displacement complex vertex in order to realize optimal principle of the largest complex central distance.This method is applied to optimization design problems of box girder of bridge crane with constraint conditions.At first a mathematical model of the girder optimization has been set up,in which box girder cross section area of bridge crane is taken as the objective function, and its four sizes parameters as design variables, girder mechanics performance, manufacturing process, border sizes and so on requirements as constraint conditions. Then complex method mixed with PSO is used to solve optimization design problem of cane box girder from constrained optimization studying approach, and its optimal results have achieved the goal of lightweight design and reducing the crane manufacturing cost . The method is reliable, practical and efficient by the practical engineer calculation and comparative analysis with basic complex method.

Modification of Displacement Coefficient Method in Estimation of Target Displacement for Regular Concrete Bridges Based on ASCE 41-06 Standard

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seyed Bahram Beheshti-Aval

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Displacement Coefficient Method (DCM stipulated in the ASCE 41-06 standard is becoming the preferred method for seismic rehabilitation of buildings in many high-seismic-hazard countries. Applications of the method for non-building constructions such as bridges are beyond the scope of this standard. Thus its application to this kind of structure should be approached with care. Target displacement has reasonable accuracy for buildings with strong columns and weak beams, where there is the development of plastic hinges. Due to high stiffness and strength of the deck relative to the piers in most bridges, this mechanism does not occur, and it is necessary to evaluate the accuracy of DCM for such structures. In this research, an attempt is made to evaluate the credibility of DCM in the ASCE/SEI 41-06 standard for estimating target drifts in concrete regular bridges under strong ground motions. To apply the extension of the method to bridge structures, the definition of new correction factor CB, which should be multiplied to previous coefficients, is required. This novel coefficient can improve the accuracy of the mentioned method in accessing seismic displacement demands. The coefficient is presented for soil types A to D based on NEHRP soil classification. The validity of the modified DCM is examined for several bridges with use of nonlinear dynamic analysis. Good correlation is found between both procedures.

Managing concrete bridges: Methods for reducing costs and user inconveniences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Goltermann, Per

2005-01-01

The paper presents experiences from modern bridge maintenance management, which has been forced to develop new and cost-efficient approaches in order to cope with the increase in overall deterioration of the aging bridge stock, the growing requirements to accessibility and the decreasing budgets...... situations often postpone or reduce the repair and rehabilitation activities required in critical parts of the structure. The paper will present some cases, where these approaches have been used on existing concrete bridges and explain how these experiences can be applied on other types of structures...

Life-Cycle Monitoring of Long-Span PSC Box Girder Bridges through Distributed Sensor Network: Strategies, Methods, and Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheheng Chen

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Structural health monitoring (SHM has attracted much attention in recent years, which enables early warnings of structural failure, condition assessments, and rational maintenance/repair strategies. In the context of bridges, many long-span steel bridges in China have been installed with the SHM systems; however, the applications of the SHM in prestressed concrete (PSC bridges are still rather limited. On the other hand, the PSC box girder bridges are extensively used in highway and railway systems and premature damage of these bridges is often reported, resulting in considerable maintenance and/or replacement costs. First, this paper presents a state-of-art review on the SHM of long-span PSC bridges. Monitoring strategies, methods, and previous applications for these bridges are summarized and discussed. In order to well capture the behavior of the bridge during its whole life and to maximize the use of sensors, a life-cycle monitoring strategy is proposed, in which the sensor layout is determined according to requirements for construction monitoring, completion test, and in-service monitoring. A case study is made on a three-span PSC box girder bridge in China. The system configuration, sensor layout, and data communications, and so forth, are presented. The up-to-date monitored structural responses are analyzed and compared with the design values.

Drill pipe bridge plug

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winslow, D.W.; Brisco, D.P.

1991-01-01

This patent describes a method of stopping flow of fluid up through a pipe bore of a pipe string in a well. It comprises: lowering a bridge plug apparatus on a work string into the pipe string to a position where the pipe bore is to be closed; communicating the pipe bore below a packer of the bridge plug apparatus through the bridge plug apparatus with a low pressure zone above the packer to permit the fluid to flow up through the bridge plug apparatus; engaging the bridge plug apparatus with an internal upset of the pipe string; while the fluid is flowing up through the bridge plug apparatus, pulling upward on the work string and the bridge plug apparatus and thereby sealing the packer against the pipe bore; isolating the pipe bore below the packer from the low pressure zone above the packer and thereby stopping flow of the fluid up through the pipe bore; disconnecting the work string from the bridge plug apparatus; and maintaining the bridge plug apparatus in engagement with the internal upset and sealed against the pipe bore due to an upward pressure differential applied to the bridge plug apparatus by the fluid contained therebelow

A fuzzy logic-based damage identification method for simply-supported bridge using modal shape ratios

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanbing Liu

2012-08-01

Full Text Available A fuzzy logic system (FLS is established for damage identification of simply supported bridge. A novel damage indicator is developed based on ratios of mode shape components between before and after damage. Numerical simulation of a simply-supported bridge is presented to demonstrate the memory, inference and anti-noise ability of the proposed method. The bridge is divided into eight elements and nine nodes, the damage indicator vector at characteristic nodes is used as the input measurement of FLS. Results reveal that FLS can detect damage of training patterns with an accuracy of 100%. Aiming at other test patterns, the FLS also possesses favorable inference ability, the identification accuracy for single damage location is up to 93.75%. Tests with noise simulated data show that the FLS possesses favorable anti-noise ability.

Control Method Stretches Suspensions by Measuring the Sag of Strands in Cable-Stayed Bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Bętkowski, Piotr

2017-10-01

In the article is described the method that allows on evaluation and validation of measurement correctness of dynamometers (strain gauges, tension meters) used in systems of suspensions. Control of monitoring devices such as dynamometers is recommended in inspections of suspension bridges. Control device (dynamometer) works with an anchor, and the degree of this cooperation could have a decisive impact on the correctness of the results. Method, which determines the stress in the strand (cable), depending on the sag of stayed cable, is described. This method can be used to control the accuracy of measuring devices directly on the bridge. By measuring the strand sag, it is possible to obtain information about the strength (force) which occurred in the suspension cable. Digital camera is used for the measurement of cable sag. Control measurement should be made independently from the controlled parameter but should verify this parameter directly (it is the best situation). In many cases in practice the controlled parameter is not designation by direct measurement, but the calculations, i.e. relation measured others parameters, as in the method described in the article. In such cases occurred the problem of overlapping error of measurement of intermediate parameters (data) and the evaluation of the reliability of the results. Method of control calculations made in relation to installed in the bridge measuring devices is doubtful without procedure of uncertainty estimation. Such an assessment of the accuracy can be performed using the interval numbers. With the interval numbers are possible the analysis of parametric relationship accuracy of the designation of individual parameters and uncertainty of results. Method of measurements, relations and analytical formulas, and numerical example can be found in the text of the article.

Design of Usui bridge (PC cable stayed bridge). Usuihashi (PC shachokyo) no sekkei ni tsuite

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kido, M.; Iizuka, Y. (Japan Highway Public Corp., Tokyo (Japan)); Tanaka, S.; Otsuka, K. (P.S. Concrete Co. Ltd. Kajima Corp. Joint Venture, Tokyo (Japan)); Kitakuni, S. (Kajima Corp., Tokyo (Japan))

1991-11-30

Structure and design of single suspension PC cable bridge, which is first kind of high way bridge in Japan and aiming to start for general use by March, 1993, are reported. As a construction outline, main construction quantity and general layout of the whole bridge together with the selective detail and characteristics of the diagonal member, tower, main girder and tower support member, are cited. Design conditions( load, materials, allowable stress and others ), basic plan of the design, and structure analysis( surface stress framed structure analysis, stereoscopic framework analysis and FEM analysis of local stress ) are explained. Design of structure member like main girder is based on diagonal member tension, wave shearing force, level of diagonal strain stress, bending stress when diagonal member anchors the deformed main tower caused by living load during earth quake, principal stress of main tower junction and local stress etc. Main tower support member design is based on the results of corbel shearing force at varied cross section and main stress, and diagonal member design is decided by allowable stress. Diagonal member anchorage traverse beam design depends on bending moment of traverse beam and shearing force. 3 refs., 15 figs., 1 tab.

Bridge scour monitoring technologies : development of evaluation and selection protocols for application on river bridges in Minnesota.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-01

Bridge failure or loss of structural integrity can result from scour of riverbed sediment near bridge abutments or : piers during high-flow events in rivers. In the past 20 years, several methods of monitoring bridge scour have been : developed spann...

Timber bridge evaluation : a global nondestructive approach using impact generated FRFs

Science.gov (United States)

Angus Morison; C.D. Van Karsen; H.A. Evensen; J.B. Ligon; J.R. Erickson; R.J. Ross; J.W. Forsman

2002-01-01

Bridges require periodic inspections to ensure the safety of those using the structure. A visual inspection has historically been the most common form of investigation for timber bridges. This poses many problems when inspecting bridge timbers since often the damage is internal, leaving no visible signs of decay on the surface. Localized nondestructive evaluation (NDE...

An efficient CMOS bridging fault simulator with SPICE accuracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Di, C.; Jess, J.A.G.

1996-01-01

This paper presents an alternative modeling and simulation method for CMOS bridging faults. The significance of the method is the introduction of a set of generic-bridge tables which characterize the bridged outputs for each bridge and a set of generic-cell tables which characterize how each cell

Protein thermal stability enhancement by designing salt bridges: a combined computational and experimental study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chi-Wen Lee

Full Text Available Protein thermal stability is an important factor considered in medical and industrial applications. Many structural characteristics related to protein thermal stability have been elucidated, and increasing salt bridges is considered as one of the most efficient strategies to increase protein thermal stability. However, the accurate simulation of salt bridges remains difficult. In this study, a novel method for salt-bridge design was proposed based on the statistical analysis of 10,556 surface salt bridges on 6,493 X-ray protein structures. These salt bridges were first categorized based on pairing residues, secondary structure locations, and Cα-Cα distances. Pairing preferences generalized from statistical analysis were used to construct a salt-bridge pair index and utilized in a weighted electrostatic attraction model to find the effective pairings for designing salt bridges. The model was also coupled with B-factor, weighted contact number, relative solvent accessibility, and conservation prescreening to determine the residues appropriate for the thermal adaptive design of salt bridges. According to our method, eight putative salt-bridges were designed on a mesophilic β-glucosidase and 24 variants were constructed to verify the predictions. Six putative salt-bridges leaded to the increase of the enzyme thermal stability. A significant increase in melting temperature of 8.8, 4.8, 3.7, 1.3, 1.2, and 0.7°C of the putative salt-bridges N437K-D49, E96R-D28, E96K-D28, S440K-E70, T231K-D388, and Q277E-D282 was detected, respectively. Reversing the polarity of T231K-D388 to T231D-D388K resulted in a further increase in melting temperatures by 3.6°C, which may be caused by the transformation of an intra-subunit electrostatic interaction into an inter-subunit one depending on the local environment. The combination of the thermostable variants (N437K, E96R, T231D and D388K generated a melting temperature increase of 15.7°C. Thus, this study

Progressive collapse susceptibility of a long span suspension bridge

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olmati, Pierluigi; Giuliani, Luisa

2013-01-01

Long span bridges are complex structural systems, often having strategic roles in the network infrastructures; consequently their susceptibility to a disproportionate response in case of local failures needs to be assessed. In particular, current regulations prescribe that the structural robustness...... should be maintained in case of an accidental hanger detachment. Local damages in bridges, which are characterized by an horizontal load transfer system, may progress along the deck or along the suspension system, as the dynamic overloading of the structural elements immediately adjacent to the failed...

When, where and how the bridge breaks: anaphase bridge breakage plays a crucial role in gene amplification and HSR generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, Noriaki; Shingaki, Kenta; Kaneko-Sasaguri, Yukiko; Hashizume, Toshihiko; Kanda, Teru

2005-01-01

Amplified genes are frequently localized on extrachromosomal double minutes (DMs) or in chromosomal homogenously staining regions (HSRs). We previously showed that a plasmid bearing a mammalian replication initiation region could efficiently generate DMs and HSRs after transfection into human tumor cell lines. The Breakage-Fusion-Bridge (BFB) cycle model, a classical model that explains how HSRs form, could also be used to explain how the transfected plasmids generate HSRs. The BFB cycle model involves anaphase bridge formation due to the presence of dicentric chromosomes, followed by the breakage of the bridge. In this study, we used our plasmid-based model system to analyze how anaphase bridges break during mitosis. Dual-color fluorescence in situ hybridization analyses revealed that anaphase bridges were most frequently severed in their middle irrespective of their lengths, which suggests that a structurally fragile site exists in the middle of the anaphase bridge. Breakage of the chromosomal bridges occurred prior to nuclear membrane reformation and the completion of cytokinesis, which indicates that mechanical tension rather than cytokinesis is primarily responsible for severing anaphase bridges. Time-lapse observation of living cells revealed that the bridges rapidly shrink after being severed. If HSR length was extended too far, the bridge could no longer be resolved and became tangled depending on the tension. The unbroken bridge appeared to inhibit the completion of cytokinesis. These observations strongly suggest that anaphase bridges are highly elastic and that the length of the spindle axis determines the maximal HSR length

Practical assessment of magnetic methods for corrosion detection in an adjacent precast, prestressed concrete box-beam bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandes, Bertrand; Titus, Michael; Nims, Douglas Karl; Ghorbanpoor, Al; Devabhaktuni, Vijay Kumar

2013-06-01

Magnetic methods are progressing in the detection of corrosion in prestressing strands in adjacent precast, prestressed concrete box-beam bridges. This study is the first field trial of magnetic strand defect detection systems on an adjacent box-beam bridge. A bridge in Fayette County, Ohio, which was scheduled for demolition, was inspected. Damage to prestressed box-beams is often due to corrosion of the prestressing strands. The corroded strands show discontinuities and a reduced cross-sectional area. These changes, due to corrosion, are reflected in the magnetic signatures of the prestressing steel. Corrosion in the prestressing steel was detected using two magnetic methods, namely the 'magnetic flux leakage' (MFL) and the 'induced magnetic field'. The purpose of these tests was to demonstrate the ability of the magnetic methods to detect hidden corrosion in box-beams in the field and tackle the logistic problem of inspecting box-beams from the bottom. The inspections were validated by dissecting the bottom of the box-beams after the inspections. The results showed that the MFL method can detect hidden corrosion and strand breaks. Both magnetic field methods were also able to estimate corrosion by detecting the effective cross-sectional area of the strand in sections of the beams. Thus, it was shown that the magnetic methods can be used to predict hidden corrosion in prestressing strands of box-beams.

Development of inspection robots for bridge cables.

Science.gov (United States)

Yun, Hae-Bum; Kim, Se-Hoon; Wu, Liuliu; Lee, Jong-Jae

2013-01-01

This paper presents the bridge cable inspection robot developed in Korea. Two types of the cable inspection robots were developed for cable-suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridge. The design of the robot system and performance of the NDT techniques associated with the cable inspection robot are discussed. A review on recent advances in emerging robot-based inspection technologies for bridge cables and current bridge cable inspection methods is also presented.

THE SIMULATION DIAGNOSTIC METHODS AND REGENERATION WAYS OF REINFORCED - CONCRETE CONSTRUCTIONS OF BRIDGES IN PROVIDING THEIR OPERATING RELIABILITY AND LONGEVITY

OpenAIRE

B. V. Savchinskiy

2010-01-01

On the basis of analysis of existing diagnostic methods and regeneration ways of reinforced-concrete constructions of bridges the recommendations on introduction of new modern technologies of renewal of reinforced-concrete constructions of bridges in providing their operating reliability and longevity are offered.

Application of Classical Land Surveying Measurement Methods for Determining the Vertical Displacement of Railway Bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Gawronek, Pelagia; Makuch, Maria

2017-12-01

The classical measurements of stability of railway bridge, in the context of determining the vertical displacements of the object, consisted on precise leveling of girders and trigonometric leveling of controlled points (fixed into girders' surface). The construction elements, which were measured in two ways, in real terms belonged to the same vertical planes. Altitude measurements of construction were carried out during periodic structural stability tests and during static load tests of bridge by train. The specificity of displacement measurements, the type of measured object and the rail land surveying measurement conditions were determinants to define methodology of altitude measurement. The article presents compatibility of vertical displacements of steel railway bridge, which were developed in two measurement methods. In conclusion, the authors proposed the optimum concept of determining the vertical displacements of girders by using precise and trigonometric leveling (in terms of accuracy, safety and economy of measurement).

Application of Classical Land Surveying Measurement Methods for Determining the Vertical Displacement of Railway Bridges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gawronek Pelagia

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The classical measurements of stability of railway bridge, in the context of determining the vertical displacements of the object, consisted on precise leveling of girders and trigonometric leveling of controlled points (fixed into girders' surface. The construction elements, which were measured in two ways, in real terms belonged to the same vertical planes. Altitude measurements of construction were carried out during periodic structural stability tests and during static load tests of bridge by train. The specificity of displacement measurements, the type of measured object and the rail land surveying measurement conditions were determinants to define methodology of altitude measurement. The article presents compatibility of vertical displacements of steel railway bridge, which were developed in two measurement methods. In conclusion, the authors proposed the optimum concept of determining the vertical displacements of girders by using precise and trigonometric leveling (in terms of accuracy, safety and economy of measurement.

The Different Methods of Displacement Monitoring at Loading Tests of Bridges or Different Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kovačič Boštjan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available By measuring the displacements and deformations at different structures we deal in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, transportation Engineering and Architecture in University of Maribor for about 20 years. At that time we measured over 600 structures. Most loading tests of bridges and Viaducts were made. The measurements of movements needed to be as precise and accurate as possible. To do that laboratory test of instruments were made to see which instrument gives us reliable results. Displacements can be determined by geodetic and physical methods, depends of the construction. The use of geodetic methods are still preferable. In the paper the measurements with the total station, the level and rotation level, photogrammetry and solutions on the field by physical methods with inductive transducers are presented. We need to measure displacements as quick as possible but efficiently because we can not repeat the measurements under the same conditions. Also the surveying on the bridge and in the lab with the comparison of methods is presented under the different hard terrain conditions - water beneath the construction, big height of the structure, unapproachability, large span structures.

a Method for the Extraction of Long-Term Deformation Characteristics of Long-Span High-Speed Railway Bridges Using High-Resolution SAR Images

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, H. G.; Liu, L. Y.

2016-06-01

Natural causes and high-speed train load will result in the structural deformation of long-span bridges, which greatly influence the safety operation of high-speed railway. Hence it is necessary to conduct the deformation monitoring and regular status assessment for long-span bridges. However for some traditional surveying technique, e.g. control-point-based surveying techniques, a lot of human and material resources are needed to perform the long-term monitoring for the whole bridge. In this study we detected the long-term bridge deformation time-series by persistent scatterer interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PSInSAR) technique using the high-resolution SAR images and external digital elevation model. A test area in Nanjing city in China is chosen and TerraSAR-X images and Tandem-X for this area have been used. There is the Dashengguan bridge in high speed railway in this area as study object to evaluate this method. Experiment results indicate that the proposed method can effectively extract the long-term deformation of long-span high-speed railway bridge with higher accuracy.

A METHOD FOR THE EXTRACTION OF LONG-TERM DEFORMATION CHARACTERISTICS OF LONG-SPAN HIGH-SPEED RAILWAY BRIDGES USING HIGH-RESOLUTION SAR IMAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. G. Jia

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Natural causes and high-speed train load will result in the structural deformation of long-span bridges, which greatly influence the safety operation of high-speed railway. Hence it is necessary to conduct the deformation monitoring and regular status assessment for long-span bridges. However for some traditional surveying technique, e.g. control-point-based surveying techniques, a lot of human and material resources are needed to perform the long-term monitoring for the whole bridge. In this study we detected the long-term bridge deformation time-series by persistent scatterer interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PSInSAR technique using the high-resolution SAR images and external digital elevation model. A test area in Nanjing city in China is chosen and TerraSAR-X images and Tandem-X for this area have been used. There is the Dashengguan bridge in high speed railway in this area as study object to evaluate this method. Experiment results indicate that the proposed method can effectively extract the long-term deformation of long-span high-speed railway bridge with higher accuracy.

Development of Inspection Robots for Bridge Cables

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hae-Bum Yun

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the bridge cable inspection robot developed in Korea. Two types of the cable inspection robots were developed for cable-suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridge. The design of the robot system and performance of the NDT techniques associated with the cable inspection robot are discussed. A review on recent advances in emerging robot-based inspection technologies for bridge cables and current bridge cable inspection methods is also presented.

A Multiscale Finite Element Model Validation Method of Composite Cable-Stayed Bridge Based on Structural Health Monitoring System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rumian Zhong

2015-01-01

Full Text Available A two-step response surface method for multiscale finite element model (FEM updating and validation is presented with respect to Guanhe Bridge, a composite cable-stayed bridge in the National Highway number G15, in China. Firstly, the state equations of both multiscale and single-scale FEM are established based on the basic equation in structural dynamic mechanics to update the multiscale coupling parameters and structural parameters. Secondly, based on the measured data from the structural health monitoring (SHM system, a Monte Carlo simulation is employed to analyze the uncertainty quantification and transmission, where the uncertainties of the multiscale FEM and measured data were considered. The results indicate that the relative errors between the calculated and measured frequencies are less than 2%, and the overlap ratio indexes of each modal frequency are larger than 80% without the average absolute value of relative errors. These demonstrate that the proposed method can be applied to validate the multiscale FEM, and the validated FEM can reflect the current conditions of the real bridge; thus it can be used as the basis for bridge health monitoring, damage prognosis (DP, and safety prognosis (SP.

Distribution Analysis of the Local Critical Temperature and Current Density in YBCO Coated Conductors using Low-temperature Scanning Laser and Hall Probe Microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, S. K.; Cho, B. R.; Park, H. Y.; Ri, H. C.

2011-01-01

Distribution of the local critical temperature and current density in YBCO coated conductors were analyzed using Low-temperature Scanning Laser and Hall Probe Microscopy (LTSLHPM). We prepared YBCO coated conductors of various bridge types to study the spatial distribution of the critical temperature and the current density in single and multi bridges. LTSLHPM system was modified for detailed linescan or two-dimensional scan both scanning laser and scanning Hall probe method simultaneously. We analyzed the local critical temperature of single and multi bridges from series of several linescans of scanning laser microscopy. We also investigated local current density and hysteresis curve of single bridge from experimental results of scanning Hall probe microscopy.

47 CFR 80.1007 - Bridge-to-bridge radiotelephone installation.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Bridge-to-bridge radiotelephone installation. 80.1007 Section 80.1007 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) SAFETY AND... Bridge-to-Bridge Act § 80.1007 Bridge-to-bridge radiotelephone installation. Use of the bridge-to-bridge...

THE SIMULATION DIAGNOSTIC METHODS AND REGENERATION WAYS OF REINFORCED - CONCRETE CONSTRUCTIONS OF BRIDGES IN PROVIDING THEIR OPERATING RELIABILITY AND LONGEVITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. V. Savchinskiy

2010-03-01

Full Text Available On the basis of analysis of existing diagnostic methods and regeneration ways of reinforced-concrete constructions of bridges the recommendations on introduction of new modern technologies of renewal of reinforced-concrete constructions of bridges in providing their operating reliability and longevity are offered.

Reduction of scour around bridge piers using a modified method for vortex reduction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Entesar A.S. EL-Ghorab

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The current study presents a modified method to reduce the scour depth in front of the bridge piers. The idea of this method is based on reducing the stagnation of the flow and vortex formation in front of the pier. Therefore, the pressure difference around the pier is used for driving the flow through an arrangement of openings in front and connected to the openings along the pier’s side. A test program was planned using an experimental flume at the Hydraulics Research Institute (HRI and three hundred thirty six runs were conducted. Three different pier shapes, circular, square, and rectangular, provided with different openings arrangement and vertical spacing are tested. This method showed that the scour depth is reduced by 45% and also the volume of the scoured material is decreased up to 64%. These results were obtained using opening diameter of 20% of the pier width (w and vertical spacing equals the pier width (w. Also, a dimensionless regression equation was developed based on the obtained results. These findings when implemented in the field can easily safeguard the bridge piers and dramatically reduce the maintenance efforts and costs as well as improve the hydraulic performance of the water structure.

Development of a numerical model for vehicle-bridge interaction analysis of railway bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hee Ju; Cho, Eun Sang; Ham, Jun Su; Park, Ki Tae; Kim, Tae Heon

2016-04-01

In the field of civil engineering, analyzing dynamic response was main concern for a long time. These analysis methods can be divided into moving load analysis method and moving mass analysis method, and formulating each an equation of motion has recently been studied after dividing vehicles and bridges. In this study, the numerical method is presented, which can consider the various train types and can solve the equations of motion for a vehicle-bridge interaction analysis by non-iteration procedure through formulating the coupled equations for motion. Also, 3 dimensional accurate numerical models was developed by KTX-vehicle in order to analyze dynamic response characteristics. The equations of motion for the conventional trains are derived, and the numerical models of the conventional trains are idealized by a set of linear springs and dashpots with 18 degrees of freedom. The bridge models are simplified by the 3 dimensional space frame element which is based on the Euler-Bernoulli theory. The rail irregularities of vertical and lateral directions are generated by PSD functions of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

Damage Identification of Bridge Based on Chebyshev Polynomial Fitting and Fuzzy Logic without Considering Baseline Model Parameters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu-Bo Jiao

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents an effective approach for damage identification of bridge based on Chebyshev polynomial fitting and fuzzy logic systems without considering baseline model data. The modal curvature of damaged bridge can be obtained through central difference approximation based on displacement modal shape. Depending on the modal curvature of damaged structure, Chebyshev polynomial fitting is applied to acquire the curvature of undamaged one without considering baseline parameters. Therefore, modal curvature difference can be derived and used for damage localizing. Subsequently, the normalized modal curvature difference is treated as input variable of fuzzy logic systems for damage condition assessment. Numerical simulation on a simply supported bridge was carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.

Estimating bridge stiffness using a forced-vibration technique for timber bridge health monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

James P. Wacker; Xiping Wang; Brian Brashaw; Robert J. Ross

2006-01-01

This paper describes an effort to refine a global dynamic testing technique for evaluating the overall stiffness of timber bridge superstructures. A forced vibration method was used to measure the frequency response of several simple-span, sawn timber beam (with plank deck) bridges located in St. Louis County, Minnesota. Static load deflections were also measured to...

Identification and characterization of RBM44 as a novel intercellular bridge protein.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tokuko Iwamori

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Intercellular bridges are evolutionarily conserved structures that connect differentiating germ cells. We previously reported the identification of TEX14 as the first essential intercellular bridge protein, the demonstration that intercellular bridges are required for male fertility, and the finding that intercellular bridges utilize components of the cytokinesis machinery to form. Herein, we report the identification of RNA binding motif protein 44 (RBM44 as a novel germ cell intercellular bridge protein. RBM44 was identified by proteomic analysis after intercellular bridge enrichment using TEX14 as a marker protein. RBM44 is highly conserved between mouse and human and contains an RNA recognition motif of unknown function. RBM44 mRNA is enriched in testis, and immunofluorescence confirms that RBM44 is an intercellular bridge component. However, RBM44 only partially localizes to TEX14-positive intercellular bridges. RBM44 is expressed most highly in pachytene and secondary spermatocytes, but disappears abruptly in spermatids. We discovered that RBM44 interacts with itself and TEX14 using yeast two-hybrid, mammalian two-hybrid, and immunoprecipitation. To define the in vivo function of RBM44, we generated a targeted deletion of Rbm44 in mice. Rbm44 null male mice produce somewhat increased sperm, and show enhanced fertility of unknown etiology. Thus, although RBM44 localizes to intercellular bridges during meiosis, RBM44 is not required for fertility in contrast to TEX14.

A New Local Flap Nipple Reconstruction Technique Using Dermal Bridge and Preoperatively Designed Tattoo

Science.gov (United States)

Iwahira, Yoshiko

2017-01-01

Background: Nipple–areolar reconstruction is the final step in breast reconstruction. Reconstruction using local flaps and tattooing is useful in cases of bilateral reconstruction, a small nipple–areolar complex (NAC) as the donor site, and avoiding disturbance of the normal side and other body parts. However, this method can cause projection loss and color fading of the nipple. Moreover, the breast mound is reconstructed with an implant. Methods: We performed nipple–areolar reconstruction of 90 nipples using clover-designed flaps oriented at 120 degrees and tattooing after breast silicone implantation in 64 women. The tattoo was designed before flap operation and stained darker. Following donor site closure, a dermal flap was made as a bridge for nipple support. The nipple space was separated by the dermal flap from the breast mound and was filled with subcutaneous tissue. The size of the reconstructed nipple projection was measured postoperatively and 1 year later. The projection maintenance rate was calculated. Results: The heights of the nipple projection were 11.3 ± 1.8 mm (95% confidence interval [CI]: 10.9–11.7) just after the operation and 6.09 ± 2.4 mm (95% CI: 5.6–6.6) 1 year later. The actual range of nipple projection between these 2 heights was 5.2 ± 2.4 mm (95% CI: 4.7–5.7). The maintenance rate of the reconstructed nipple projection after 12 months was 54.1 ± 20.9 (95% CI: 49.7–58.5). The nipple color was maintained for over a year. Conclusions: Our nipple–areolar reconstruction technique could maintain the projection and color of the reconstructed nipple for a long period. Good outcomes were obtained in this implant-based breast reconstruction. PMID:28507843

Statistical Analysis of Stress Signals from Bridge Monitoring by FBG System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao-Wei Ye

2018-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a fiber Bragg grating (FBG-based stress monitoring system instrumented on an orthotropic steel deck arch bridge is demonstrated. The FBG sensors are installed at two types of critical fatigue-prone welded joints to measure the strain and temperature signals. A total of 64 FBG sensors are deployed around the rib-to-deck and rib-to-diagram areas at the mid-span and quarter-span of the investigated orthotropic steel bridge. The local stress behaviors caused by the highway loading and temperature effect during the construction and operation periods are presented with the aid of a wavelet multi-resolution analysis approach. In addition, the multi-modal characteristic of the rainflow counted stress spectrum is modeled by the method of finite mixture distribution together with a genetic algorithm (GA-based parameter estimation approach. The optimal probability distribution of the stress spectrum is determined by use of Bayesian information criterion (BIC. Furthermore, the hot spot stress of the welded joint is calculated by an extrapolation method recommended in the specification of International Institute of Welding (IIW. The stochastic characteristic of stress concentration factor (SCF of the concerned welded joint is addressed. The proposed FBG-based stress monitoring system and probabilistic stress evaluation methods can provide an effective tool for structural monitoring and condition assessment of orthotropic steel bridges.

47 CFR 80.331 - Bridge-to-bridge communication procedure.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Bridge-to-bridge communication procedure. 80..., Alarm, Urgency and Safety Procedures § 80.331 Bridge-to-bridge communication procedure. (a) Vessels subject to the Bridge-to-Bridge Act transmitting on the designated navigational frequency must conduct...

The bridge technique for pectus bar fixation: a method to make the bar un-rotatable.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Hyung Joo; Kim, Kyung Soo; Moon, Young Kyu; Lee, Sungsoo

2015-08-01

Pectus bar rotation is a major challenge in pectus repair. However, to date, no satisfactory technique to completely eliminate bar displacement has been introduced. Here, we propose a bar fixation technique using a bridge that makes the bar unmovable. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of this bridge technique. A total of 80 patients underwent pectus bar repair of pectus excavatum with the bridge technique from July 2013 to July 2014. The technique involved connecting 2 parallel bars using plate-screws at the ends of the bars. To determine bar position change, the angles between the sternum and pectus bars were measured on postoperative day 5 (POD5) and 4 months (POM4) and compared. The mean patient age was 17.5 years (range, 6-38 years). The mean difference between POD5 and POM4 were 0.23° (P=.602) and 0.35° (P=.338) for the upper and lower bars, respectively. Bar position was virtually unchanged during the follow-up, and there was no bar dislocation or reoperation. A "bridge technique" designed to connect 2 parallel bars using plates and screws was demonstrated as a method to avoid pectus bar displacement. This approach was easy to implement without using sutures or invasive devices. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The method of rapid design of the folding bridge based on floating supports

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Marszałek

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The article includes a methodology for the rapid design of the folding bridge based on floating supports. This methodology includes an analysis of the possibilities of using blocks from the park pontoon PP-64 as a support for the floating folding DMS-65 bridge, built as a tem-porary crossing for civilian application. The analysis was carried out for the bridge loaded with a moving vehicle. The results of this analysis have been developed in the form of nomograms that enable rapid development of crossings in different structural systems.[b]Keywords[/b]: civil engineering, folding bridges, floating supports

X-ray spectrum local method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Avdonin, S.A.

1985-01-01

General characteristic and bases of X-ray spectrum local method used for qualitative and quantitative analyses of the mineral chemical composition with volumetric locality of several cubic micrometers. The method is based on the excitation in a sample of characteristic and bremsstrahlung spectra by means of a narrow electron beam at 5-50 keV accelerating voltage. Application of the method when studying uranium minerals and ores is considered. The method allows to determine the uranium presence forms in the ores, morphological features of the minerals, mineral microstructure, UO 2 and UO 3 ratios for unhydrous uraninites and pitchblendes and also to determine mineralization age

Numerical simulations and experimental measurements of steel and ice impacts on concrete for acoustic interrogation of delaminations in bridge decks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mazzeo, Brian A.; Patil, Anjali N.; Klis, Jeffrey M. [Brigham Young University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Provo, Utah, 84602 (United States); Hurd, Randy C.; Truscott, Tadd T. [Brigham Young University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Provo, Utah, 84602 (United States); Guthrie, W. Spencer [Brigham Young University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Provo, Utah, 84602 (United States)

2014-02-18

Delaminations in bridge decks typically result from corrosion of the top mat of reinforcing steel, which leads to a localized separation of the concrete cover from the underlying concrete. Because delaminations cannot be detected using visual inspection, rapid, large-area interrogation methods are desired to characterize bridge decks without disruption to traffic, without the subjectivity inherent in existing methods, and with increased inspector safety. To this end, disposable impactors such as water droplets or ice chips can be dropped using automatic dispensers onto concrete surfaces to excite mechanical vibrations while acoustic responses can be recorded using air-coupled microphones. In this work, numerical simulations are used to characterize the flexural response of a model concrete bridge deck subject to both steel and ice impactors, and the results are compared with similar experiments performed in the laboratory on a partially delaminated concrete bridge deck slab. The simulations offer greater understanding of the kinetics of impacts and the responses of materials.

STUDY OF BRIDGE DECK A REVIEW

OpenAIRE

MISS. KSHITIJA S. BALWAN , MR. V. G. KHURD , MR. S. S. CHOUGULE

2018-01-01

The objective of this study was to understand the meaning of bridge deck. To know the different forms of decks used in bridge design. To understand different methods used for analysis of deck and study of box girder and its evolution

Replaceable Unbonded Tendons for Post-Tensioned Bridges

Science.gov (United States)

2017-12-24

Currently, all State and local agencies responsible for the maintenance of suspension bridge cables base their maintenance plan mainly on previous experiences and on information from limited inspections. Usually, the exterior covering of the cable is...

Simple simulation of diffusion bridges with application to likelihood inference for diffusions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bladt, Mogens; Sørensen, Michael

2014-01-01

the accuracy and efficiency of the approximate method and compare it to exact simulation methods. In the study, our method provides a very good approximation to the distribution of a diffusion bridge for bridges that are likely to occur in applications to statistical inference. To illustrate the usefulness......With a view to statistical inference for discretely observed diffusion models, we propose simple methods of simulating diffusion bridges, approximately and exactly. Diffusion bridge simulation plays a fundamental role in likelihood and Bayesian inference for diffusion processes. First a simple......-dimensional diffusions and is applicable to all one-dimensional diffusion processes with finite speed-measure. One advantage of the new approach is that simple simulation methods like the Milstein scheme can be applied to bridge simulation. Another advantage over previous bridge simulation methods is that the proposed...

Biological conduit small gap sleeve bridging method for peripheral nerve injury: regeneration law of nerve fibers in the conduit

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pei-xun Zhang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The clinical effects of 2-mm small gap sleeve bridging of the biological conduit to repair peripheral nerve injury are better than in the traditional epineurium suture, so it is possible to replace the epineurium suture in the treatment of peripheral nerve injury. This study sought to identify the regeneration law of nerve fibers in the biological conduit. A nerve regeneration chamber was constructed in models of sciatic nerve injury using 2-mm small gap sleeve bridging of a biodegradable biological conduit. The results showed that the biological conduit had good histocompatibility. Tissue and cell apoptosis in the conduit apparently lessened, and regenerating nerve fibers were common. The degeneration regeneration law of Schwann cells and axons in the conduit was quite different from that in traditional epineurium suture. During the prime period for nerve fiber regeneration (2-8 weeks, the number of Schwann cells and nerve fibers was higher in both proximal and distal ends, and the effects of the small gap sleeve bridging method were better than those of the traditional epineurium suture. The above results provide an objective and reliable theoretical basis for the clinical application of the biological conduit small gap sleeve bridging method to repair peripheral nerve injury.

Dynamic approach to space and habitat use based on biased random bridges.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon Benhamou

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Although habitat use reflects a dynamic process, most studies assess habitat use statically as if an animal's successively recorded locations reflected a point rather than a movement process. By relying on the activity time between successive locations instead of the local density of individual locations, movement-based methods can substantially improve the biological relevance of utilization distribution (UD estimates (i.e. the relative frequencies with which an animal uses the various areas of its home range, HR. One such method rests on Brownian bridges (BBs. Its theoretical foundation (purely and constantly diffusive movements is paradoxically inconsistent with both HR settlement and habitat selection. An alternative involves movement-based kernel density estimation (MKDE through location interpolation, which may be applied to various movement behaviours but lacks a sound theoretical basis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: I introduce the concept of a biased random (advective-diffusive bridge (BRB and show that the MKDE method is a practical means to estimate UDs based on simplified (isotropically diffusive BRBs. The equation governing BRBs is constrained by the maximum delay between successive relocations warranting constant within-bridge advection (allowed to vary between bridges but remains otherwise similar to the BB equation. Despite its theoretical inconsistencies, the BB method can therefore be applied to animals that regularly reorientate within their HRs and adapt their movements to the habitats crossed, provided that they were relocated with a high enough frequency. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Biased random walks can approximate various movement types at short times from a given relocation. Their simplified form constitutes an effective trade-off between too simple, unrealistic movement models, such as Brownian motion, and more sophisticated and realistic ones, such as biased correlated random walks (BCRWs, which are too

Microwave Josephson generation in thin film superconducting bridges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gubankov, V.N.; Koshelets, V.P.; Ovsyannikov, G.A.

1975-01-01

Thin-film bridges have some advantage over other types of superconducting weak links: good definition of electromagnetic parameters and of weak region geometry. Up to now Josephson properties of bridges have been investigated by using indirect methods (the effect of magnetic field on the critical current I 0 , the bridge behavior in a microwave field, etc.). Direct experimental observation of Josephson radiation from autonomous thin film bridges is reported. Microwave radiation in tin bridges of 'variable' thickness has been investigated where the thickness of the film forming the bridge is far less than the thickness of the bank films. (Auth.)

Seismic Performance of Multi-Span RC Railway Bridges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Georgakis, Christos; Barrau, Xavier

2008-01-01

Presently, there is no clear method for determining the optimal railway bridge design for a particular ground type and expected seismic intensity. Four main types of RC bridge dominate the current multi-span railway bridge design trends – the Simply Supported Beam, Continuous Box-Girder (CBG), CBG...

Bridge maintenance to enhance corrosion resistance and performance of steel girder bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Moran Yanez, Luis M.

The integrity and efficiency of any national highway system relies on the condition of the various components. Bridges are fundamental elements of a highway system, representing an important investment and a strategic link that facilitates the transport of persons and goods. The cost to rehabilitate or replace a highway bridge represents an important expenditure to the owner, who needs to evaluate the correct time to assume that cost. Among the several factors that affect the condition of steel highway bridges, corrosion is identified as the main problem. In the USA corrosion is the primary cause of structurally deficient steel bridges. The benefit of regular high-pressure superstructure washing and spot painting were evaluated as effective maintenance activities to reduce the corrosion process. The effectiveness of steel girder washing was assessed by developing models of corrosion deterioration of composite steel girders and analyzing steel coupons at the laboratory under atmospheric corrosion for two alternatives: when high-pressure washing was performed and when washing was not considered. The effectiveness of spot painting was assessed by analyzing the corrosion on steel coupons, with small damages, unprotected and protected by spot painting. A parametric analysis of corroded steel girder bridges was considered. The emphasis was focused on the parametric analyses of corroded steel girder bridges under two alternatives: (a) when steel bridge girder washing is performed according to a particular frequency, and (b) when no bridge washing is performed to the girders. The reduction of structural capacity was observed for both alternatives along the structure service life, estimated at 100 years. An economic analysis, using the Life-Cycle Cost Analysis method, demonstrated that it is more cost-effective to perform steel girder washing as a scheduled maintenance activity in contrast to the no washing alternative.

Istanbul Bridge Conference 2014

CERN Document Server

Gülkan, Polat; Mahmoud, Khaled

2016-01-01

  The book includes peer-reviewed contributions selected from presentations given at the Istanbul Bridge Conference 2014, held from August 11 – 13 in Istanbul, Turkey. It reports on the current challenges in bridge engineering faced by professionals around the globe, giving a special emphasis to recently developed techniques, innovations and opportunities. The book covers key topics in the field, including modeling and analysis methods; construction and erection techniques; design for extreme events and condition assessment and structural health monitoring. There is a balanced presentation of theory, research and practice. This book, which provides the readers with a comprehensive and timely reference guide on current practices in bridge engineering, is intended for professionals, academic researchers and students alike.

Myocardial Bridge

Science.gov (United States)

... Center > Myocardial Bridge Menu Topics Topics FAQs Myocardial Bridge En español Your heart is made of muscle, ... surface of the heart. What is a myocardial bridge? A myocardial bridge is a band of heart ...

Energy-based damping evaluation of cable-stayed bridges and its application to Tsurumi Tsubasa bridge; Shachokyo shindo gensui no energy teki hyokaho to Tsurumi Tsubasakyo eno tekiyo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yamaguchi, H. [Saitama University, Saitama (Japan). Faculty of Engineering; Takano, H.; Ogasawara, M.; Shimosato, T. [Metropolitan Expressway Public Corp., Tokyo (Japan); Kato, M.; Kato, H. [NKK Corp., Tokyo (Japan)

1996-07-21

This paper provides and discusses a more common energy-based evaluation method of vibration damping in cable-stayed bridges. This method was applied to data obtained from the field vibration test of the Tsurumi Tsubasa Bridge. The damping was defined as dissipation energy in one cycle against the total potential energy. The dissipation energy from shoe friction, aerodynamic damping, and dampers for cables was added to the method proposed by Yamaguchi, et. al., in which the energy of girders, towers, and cables were quantitated, and the dissipation energy was determined from the loss factor of each constituent, to evaluate the damping of whole bridge. Thus, a more common energy-based evaluation method was provided. This method was applied to the damping obtained from the field vibration test of Tsurumi Tsubasa Bridge. Consequently, it was found that the damping of whole bridge was significantly affected by the shoe friction, aerodynamic damping, and dampers for cables. Distinguished damping characteristics of the Tsurumi Tsubasa Bridge could be explained by the energy-based evaluation. Validity of the energy-based evaluation method for damping of cable-stayed bridges was demonstrated. 15 refs., 9 figs., 6 tabs.

LEM-3 is a midbody-tethered DNA nuclease that resolves chromatin bridges during late mitosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Ye; Sonneville, Remi; Wang, Bin; Scheidt, Viktor; Meier, Bettina; Woglar, Alexander; Demetriou, Sarah; Labib, Karim; Jantsch, Verena; Gartner, Anton

2018-02-20

Faithful chromosome segregation and genome maintenance requires the removal of all DNA bridges that physically link chromosomes before cells divide. Using C. elegans embryos we show that the LEM-3/Ankle1 nuclease defines a previously undescribed genome integrity mechanism by processing DNA bridges right before cells divide. LEM-3 acts at the midbody, the structure where abscission occurs at the end of cytokinesis. LEM-3 localization depends on factors needed for midbody assembly, and LEM-3 accumulation is increased and prolonged when chromatin bridges are trapped at the cleavage plane. LEM-3 locally processes chromatin bridges that arise from incomplete DNA replication, unresolved recombination intermediates, or the perturbance of chromosome structure. Proper LEM-3 midbody localization and function is regulated by AIR-2/Aurora B kinase. Strikingly, LEM-3 acts cooperatively with the BRC-1/BRCA1 homologous recombination factor to promote genome integrity. These findings provide a molecular basis for the suspected role of the LEM-3 orthologue Ankle1 in human breast cancer.

Bridge monitoring by interferometric deformation sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Inaudi, Daniele; Vurpillot, Samuel; Casanova, Nicoletta

1996-09-01

In many concrete bridges, the deformations are the most relevant parameter to be monitored in both short and long- terms. Strain monitoring gives only local information about the material behavior and too many such sensors would therefore be necessary to gain a complete understanding of the bridge behavior. We have found that fiber optic deformation sensors, with measurement bases of the order of one to a few meters, can give useful information both during the first days after concrete pouring and in the long term. In a first phase it is possible to monitor the thermal expansion due to the exothermic setting reaction and successively the thermal and drying shrinkages. Thanks to the long sensor basis, the detection of a crack traverse to the measurement region becomes probable and the evolution of cracks can therefore be followed with a reduced number of sensors. In the long-term it is possible to measure the geometric deformations and therefore the creeping of the bridge under static loads, especially under its own weight. In the past two years, our laboratory has installed hundreds of fiber optic deformation sensors in more than five concrete, composite steel-concrete, refurbished and enlarged bridges (road, highway and railway bridges). The measuring technique relies on low-coherence interferometry and offers a resolution down to a few microns even for long-term measurements. This contribution briefly discusses the measurement technique and then focuses on the development of a reliable sensor for direct concrete embedding and on the experimental results obtained on these bridges.

The method of rapid design of the folding bridge based on floating supports

OpenAIRE

Jan Marszałek; Mieczysław Piechota

2016-01-01

The article includes a methodology for the rapid design of the folding bridge based on floating supports. This methodology includes an analysis of the possibilities of using blocks from the park pontoon PP-64 as a support for the floating folding DMS-65 bridge, built as a tem-porary crossing for civilian application. The analysis was carried out for the bridge loaded with a moving vehicle. The results of this analysis have been developed in the form of nomograms that enable rapid development ...

Realistic modelling of the effects of asynchronous motion at the base of bridge piers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romanelli, F.; Panza, G.F.; Vaccari, F.

2002-11-01

Frequently long-span bridges provide deep valley crossings, which require special consideration due to the possibility of local amplification of the ground motion as a consequence of topographical irregularities and local soil conditions. This does in fact cause locally enhanced seismic input with the possibility for the bridge piers to respond asynchronously. This introduces special design requirements so that possible out-of-phase ground displacements and the associated large relative displacements of adjacent piers can be accommodated without excessive damage. Assessment of the local variability of the ground motion due to local lateral heterogeneities and to attenuation properties is thus crucial toward the realistic definition of the asynchronous motion at the base of the bridge piers. We illustrate the work done in the framework of a large international cooperation to assess the importance of non-synchronous seismic excitation of long structures. To accomplish this task we compute complete synthetic accelerograms using as input a set of parameters that describes, to the best of our knowledge, the geological structure and seismotectonic setting of the investigated area. (author)

Design of bridges against large tectonic deformation

Science.gov (United States)

Anastasopoulos, I.; Gazetas, G.; Drosos, V.; Georgarakos, T.; Kourkoulis, R.

2008-12-01

The engineering community has devoted much effort to understanding the response of soil-structure systems to seismic ground motions, but little attention to the effects of an outcropping fault offset. The 1999 earthquakes of Turkey and Taiwan, offering a variety of case histories of structural damage due to faulting, have (re)fueled the interest on the subject. This paper presents a methodology for design of bridges against tectonic deformation. The problem is decoupled in two analysis steps: the first (at the local level) deals with the response of a single pier and its foundation to fault rupture propagating through the soil, and the superstructure is modeled in a simplified manner; and the second (at the global level) investigates detailed models of the superstructure subjected to the support (differential) displacements of Step 1. A parametric study investigates typical models of viaduct and overpass bridges, founded on piles or caissons. Fixed-head piled foundations are shown to be rather vulnerable to faulting-induced deformation. End-bearing piles in particular are unable to survive bedrock offsets exceeding 10 cm. Floating piles perform better, and if combined with hinged pile-to-cap connections, they could survive much larger offsets. Soil resilience is beneficial in reducing pile distress. Caisson foundations are almost invariably successful. Statically-indeterminate superstructures are quite vulnerable, while statically-determinate are insensitive (allowing differential displacements and rotations without suffering any distress). For large-span cantilever-construction bridges, where a statically determinate system is hardly an option, inserting resilient seismic isolation bearings is advantageous as long as ample seating can prevent the deck from falling off the supports. An actual application of the developed method is presented for a major bridge, demonstrating the feasibility of design against tectonic deformation.

Salt bridges: geometrically specific, designable interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Donald, Jason E; Kulp, Daniel W; DeGrado, William F

2011-03-01

Salt bridges occur frequently in proteins, providing conformational specificity and contributing to molecular recognition and catalysis. We present a comprehensive analysis of these interactions in protein structures by surveying a large database of protein structures. Salt bridges between Asp or Glu and His, Arg, or Lys display extremely well-defined geometric preferences. Several previously observed preferences are confirmed, and others that were previously unrecognized are discovered. Salt bridges are explored for their preferences for different separations in sequence and in space, geometric preferences within proteins and at protein-protein interfaces, co-operativity in networked salt bridges, inclusion within metal-binding sites, preference for acidic electrons, apparent conformational side chain entropy reduction on formation, and degree of burial. Salt bridges occur far more frequently between residues at close than distant sequence separations, but, at close distances, there remain strong preferences for salt bridges at specific separations. Specific types of complex salt bridges, involving three or more members, are also discovered. As we observe a strong relationship between the propensity to form a salt bridge and the placement of salt-bridging residues in protein sequences, we discuss the role that salt bridges might play in kinetically influencing protein folding and thermodynamically stabilizing the native conformation. We also develop a quantitative method to select appropriate crystal structure resolution and B-factor cutoffs. Detailed knowledge of these geometric and sequence dependences should aid de novo design and prediction algorithms. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Global/local methods for probabilistic structural analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Millwater, H. R.; Wu, Y.-T.

1993-04-01

A probabilistic global/local method is proposed to reduce the computational requirements of probabilistic structural analysis. A coarser global model is used for most of the computations with a local more refined model used only at key probabilistic conditions. The global model is used to establish the cumulative distribution function (cdf) and the Most Probable Point (MPP). The local model then uses the predicted MPP to adjust the cdf value. The global/local method is used within the advanced mean value probabilistic algorithm. The local model can be more refined with respect to the g1obal model in terms of finer mesh, smaller time step, tighter tolerances, etc. and can be used with linear or nonlinear models. The basis for this approach is described in terms of the correlation between the global and local models which can be estimated from the global and local MPPs. A numerical example is presented using the NESSUS probabilistic structural analysis program with the finite element method used for the structural modeling. The results clearly indicate a significant computer savings with minimal loss in accuracy.

Bridge continuous deformation measurement technology based on fiber optic gyro

Science.gov (United States)

Gan, Weibing; Hu, Wenbin; Liu, Fang; Tang, Jianguang; Li, Sheng; Yang, Yan

2016-03-01

Bridge is an important part of modern transportation systems and deformation is a key index for bridge's safety evaluation. To achieve the long span bridge curve measurement rapidly and timely and accurately locate the bridge maximum deformation, the continuous deformation measurement system (CDMS) based on inertial platform is presented and validated in this paper. Firstly, based on various bridge deformation measurement methods, the method of deformation measurement based on the fiber optic gyro (FOG) is introduced. Secondly, the basic measurement principle based on FOG is presented and the continuous curve trajectory is derived by the formula. Then the measurement accuracy is analyzed in theory and the relevant factors are presented to ensure the measurement accuracy. Finally, the deformation measurement experiments are conducted on a bridge across the Yangtze River. Experimental results show that the presented deformation measurement method is feasible, practical, and reliable; the system can accurately and quickly locate the maximum deformation and has extensive and broad application prospects.

The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the Storebælt Bridge

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gimsing, Niels Jørgen

1999-01-01

With the completion of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the Storebælt East Bridge the development of the suspension bridge technology in the 20th century has manifested itself in two impressive structures. With the present echnology may bridges of similar (and also more modest) dimensions...... will undoubtedly be built far into the next century. For bridges going beyond the spans of existing bridges it is, however, likely that new concepts will be developed....

SURVEY RESULTS AND TESTING OF RAILWAY BRIDGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. H. Haniiev

2010-03-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the survey and testing of railway bridges by the State Joint-Stock Railway Company «Uzbekiston Temir Yollari» («Uzbekistan Railways». It is stated that in the existing rules on determination of the capacity of bridges the recommendations on taking into account the cumulative deflection to the moment of technical diagnostics of spans on the bridge capacity are absent. The author states on the need to develop a method for determining the wear of spans on restriction of the residual deflection in the bridge floor slabs.

Extreme Changes in Stream Geomorphic Conditions induced by Fluvial Scour in Bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Özcan, O.; Ozcan, O.

2016-12-01

The numerous complexities associated with bridge scour have caused scour to be one of the most active topics of stream geomorphic research. The assessment of local scouring mechanism around bridge piers provides information for decision-making regarding the pile footing design, predicting the safety of bridges under critical scoured conditions, and as a result, may help prevent unnecessary loses. In the study, bridge design plans and HEC-RAS modeling were used for the assessment of changes in stream geomorphic conditions. The derived fluvial scour depths were compared with the field measurements and the empirical formula which is based on stream flow discharge rate, streambed condition and shape of river. Preliminary results revealed that bridge damage resulting from the flood event in 2003 induced substantial scour around bridge piles. Afterwards, significant stream bed change was observed under the influence of fluvial scour in another flood occurred in 2009. Consequently, geomorphic conditions of the stream bed should be considered in the structural design of the bridges.

Bridge Management Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thoft-Christensen, Palle

In this paper bridge management systems are discussed with special emphasis on management systems for reinforced concrete bridges. Management systems for prestressed concrete bridges, steel bridges, or composite bridges can be developed in a similar way....

Critical currents of variable thickness bridges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lapir, G.M.; Likharev, K.K.; Maslova, L.A.; Semenov, V.K.

1975-01-01

A variable thickness bridge (VTB) is a short strip of thin normal or superconducting electrodes - 'banks'. This type of weak link has the peculiarity of having the changes of the modulus of the orderparameter localized in the film of the bridge. Only changes of the phase of the orderparameter take place in the banks, and so the electrodynamics of the banks is linear. The problem of the distribution of the linear density of current Jsub(s)(psi) and of the phase difference of the banks psi along the VTB width is considered and the critical current Isub(c) for the important case of a VTB deposited over a superconducting ground plate - 'screen' is calculated. (Auth.)

New conceptual design of portable bamboo bridge for emergency purposes

Science.gov (United States)

Musthaffa, A. A.; Nor, N. M.; Yusof, M. A.; Yuhazri, M. Y.

2018-02-01

Portable bridges serve as routes for troops during the military operations and the disaster relief operation. Nowadays, bamboo has been regarded as one of the alternative construction materials for building and bridge structures. This paper presents the conceptual design of the portable bridge. Several types of portable bridges and bamboo bridges are reviewed in the current work. The characteristics, capability and method of construction of each bridge are discussed. Finally, the conceptual of the portable bamboo bridge for emergency purposes is presented. The idea of producing portable bridge is proposed in the current work as it is crucial for providing route for communities affected by natural disasters.

The dual cycle bridge detection of piezoresistive triaxial accelerometer based on MEMS technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Juanting; He Changde; Zhang Hui; Li Yuping; Du Chunhui; Zhang Wendong; Zhang Yongping

2014-01-01

A cycle bridge detection method, which uses a piezoresistive triaxial accelerometer, has been described innovatively. This method just uses eight resistors to form a cycle detection bridge, which can detect the signal of the three directions for real time. It breaks the law of the ordinary independent Wheatstone bridge detection method, which uses at least 12 resistors and each four resistors connected as a Wheatstone bridge to detect the output signal from a specific direction. In order to verify the feasibility of this method, the modeling and simulating of the sensor structure have been conducted by ANSYS, then the dual cycle bridge detection method and independent Wheatstone bridge detection method are compared, the result shows that the former method can improve the sensitivity of the sensor effectively. The sensitivity of the x, y-axis used in the former method is two times that of the sensor used in the latter method, and the sensitivity of the z-axis is four times. At the same time, it can also reduce the cross-axis coupling degree of the sensor used in the dual cycle bridge detection method. In addition, a signal amplifier circuit and adder circuit have been provided. Finally, the test result of the “eight-beams/mass” triaxial accelerometer, which is based on the dual cycle bridge detection method and the related circuits, have been provided. The results of the test and the theoretical analysis are consistent, on the whole. (semiconductor devices)

Bridge Condition Assessment Using D Numbers

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yong

2014-01-01

Bridge condition assessment is a complex problem influenced by many factors. The uncertain environment increases more its complexity. Due to the uncertainty in the process of assessment, one of the key problems is the representation of assessment results. Though there exists many methods that can deal with uncertain information, however, they have more or less deficiencies. In this paper, a new representation of uncertain information, called D numbers, is presented. It extends the Dempster-Shafer theory. By using D numbers, a new method is developed for the bridge condition assessment. Compared to these existing methods, the proposed method is simpler and more effective. An illustrative case is given to show the effectiveness of the new method. PMID:24696639

Railroad Bridges

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Homeland Security — Bridges-Rail in the United States According to The National Bridge Inspection Standards published in the Code of Federal Regulations (23 CFR 650.3), a bridge isA...

Optimization Analysis Model of Self-Anchored Suspension Bridge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pengzhen Lu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The hangers of self-anchored suspension bridge need to be tensioned suitably during construction. In view of this point, a simplified optimization calculation method of cable force for self-anchored suspension bridge has been developed based on optimization theories, such as minimum bending energy method, and internal force balanced method, influence matrix method. Meanwhile, combined with the weak coherence of main cable and the adjacently interaction of hanger forces, a simplified analysis method is developed using MATLAB, which is then compared with the optimization method that consider the main cable's geometric nonlinearity with software ANSYS in an actual example bridge calculation. This contrast proves the weak coherence of main cable displacement and the limitation of the adjacent cable force influence. Furthermore, a tension program that is of great reference value has been developed; some important conclusions, advices, and attention points have been summarized.

Implementation of Bridge Management System on Interurban Bridge in Maluku Province

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erwin Marasabessy

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Bridges as transport infrastructures play a vital role in smoothing traffic flows. The success of a bridge in playing its role and serving its function depends on its management. The Directorate General of Highways of the Ministry of Public Work has used a system to manage bridges known as the Bridge Management System (BMS. The system allows a systematic plan and provides a uniform procedure for all bridge operation activities on the national and provincial level. Data from Implementation Agency of National Inter-Urban Roads of Area IX, Northern Maluku in 2011 indicates that the total length of national roads in Maluku Province is 15,238.01 M, with a total of 562 bridges. In Ambon Island, especially, there are 52 bridges totaling 1,176.25 m in length. The study was conducted at several inter-urban bridges in Maluku Province of Ambon Island: Wai Batu Merah, Wai Ruhu, Wai Lawa, Wai Yari and Wai Tua bridges. Assessment of bridge structure conditions was conducted visually to determine the conditions of the existing bridges comprehensively by referring to the Bridge Management System (BMS complemented with a computer-based Bridge Management Information System (BMIS. Condition scores for the five bridges—Wai Batu Merah, Wai Ruhu, Wai Lawa, Wai Yari, and Wai Tua, according to Bridge Management System, are 2, 1, 2, 1, and 2 respectively. The scores of the five bridges indicate that their physical condition can be categorized as good or with minor defects. Based on technical screening, the proposed treatment for Wai Batu Merah, Wai Ruhu, Wai Lawa, dan Wai Tua bridges is the rehabilitation of their sub-elements. As for the Wai Yari Bridge, the treatment will be maintained regularly. The defect repair costs are IDR 149,138,238.00, IDR 81,048,000.00, IDR 174,579,106.10, IDR 79,233,324.01 and IDR 238,323,258.60 for Wai Batu, Wai Ruhu, Wai Lawa, Wai Yari, and Wai Tua Bridges, respectively.

New technique of railway bridges in Hokuriku Shinkansen; Hokuriku Shinkansen tetsudokyo no gijutsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miyabayashi, H. [Japan Railway Construction Public Corp., Tokyo (Japan)

1996-09-01

This paper presents new technologies of the railway bridges in Hokuriku Shinkansen. Hokuriku Shinkansen of 117km between Takasaki and Nagano is a part of Shinkansen connecting Tokyo with Nagano by nearly 1.5 hours. Its construction is in promotion under severe financial condition, and cost reduction is an essential target. Among the concrete bridges in this section, Kirizumigawa bridge, a prestressed concrete strutted 3-span continuous beam bridge, adopted a lowering erection method for its slant pier. In this method featured by high safety and profitability, the rib component of a concrete arch bridge is vertically erected on a arch support, and installed by swinging it toward the central span. In addition, a cantilever method was adopted to keep the scenery of a national park. Daini Chikumagawa bridge with the longest span of 133.9m among concrete railway bridges is the first cable-stayed prestressed concrete bridge in Shinkansen. Yashiro Minami and Kita bridges of 105m and 90m in central span are the extradosed bridges which were adopted as optimum structure for lowering the beam height of meddle-sized railway bridges. 3 refs., 12 figs., 2 tabs.

A probabilistic bridge safety evaluation against floods.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Kuo-Wei; Muto, Yasunori; Chen, Wei-Lun; Wu, Bang-Ho

2016-01-01

To further capture the influences of uncertain factors on river bridge safety evaluation, a probabilistic approach is adopted. Because this is a systematic and nonlinear problem, MPP-based reliability analyses are not suitable. A sampling approach such as a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) or importance sampling is often adopted. To enhance the efficiency of the sampling approach, this study utilizes Bayesian least squares support vector machines to construct a response surface followed by an MCS, providing a more precise safety index. Although there are several factors impacting the flood-resistant reliability of a bridge, previous experiences and studies show that the reliability of the bridge itself plays a key role. Thus, the goal of this study is to analyze the system reliability of a selected bridge that includes five limit states. The random variables considered here include the water surface elevation, water velocity, local scour depth, soil property and wind load. Because the first three variables are deeply affected by river hydraulics, a probabilistic HEC-RAS-based simulation is performed to capture the uncertainties in those random variables. The accuracy and variation of our solutions are confirmed by a direct MCS to ensure the applicability of the proposed approach. The results of a numerical example indicate that the proposed approach can efficiently provide an accurate bridge safety evaluation and maintain satisfactory variation.

Multiple Bistability in Quinonoid-Bridged Diiron(II) Complexes: Influence of Bridge Symmetry on Bistable Properties.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Meer, Margarethe; Rechkemmer, Yvonne; Breitgoff, Frauke D; Marx, Raphael; Neugebauer, Petr; Frank, Uta; van Slageren, Joris; Sarkar, Biprajit

2016-11-21

Quinonoid bridges are well-suited for generating dinuclear assemblies that might display various bistable properties. In this contribution we present two diiron(II) complexes where the iron(II) centers are either bridged by the doubly deprotonated form of a symmetrically substituted quinonoid bridge, 2,5-bis[4-(isopropyl)anilino]-1,4-benzoquinone (H 2 L2') with a [O,N,O,N] donor set, or with the doubly deprotonated form of an unsymmetrically substituted quinonoid bridge, 2-[4-(isopropyl)anilino]-5-hydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone (H 2 L5') with a [O,O,O,N] donor set. Both complexes display temperature-induced spin crossover (SCO). The nature of the SCO is strongly dependent on the bridging ligand, with only the complex with the [O,O,O,N] donor set displaying a prominent hysteresis loop of about 55 K. Importantly, only the latter complex also shows a pronounced light-induced spin state change. Furthermore, both complexes can be oxidized to the mixed-valent iron(II)-iron(III) form, and the nature of the bridge determines the Robin and Day classification of these forms. Both complexes have been probed by a battery of electrochemical, spectroscopic, and magnetic methods, and this combined approach is used to shed light on the electronic structures of the complexes and on bistability. The results presented here thus show the potential of using the relatively new class of unsymmetrically substituted bridging quinonoid ligands for generating intriguing bistable properties and for performing site-specific magnetic switching.

Comparison of zero-sequence injection methods in cascaded H-bridge multilevel converters for large-scale photovoltaic integration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yu, Yifan; Konstantinou, Georgios; Townsend, Christopher David

2017-01-01

to maintain three-phase balanced grid currents with unbalanced power generation. This study theoretically compares power balance capabilities of various zero-sequence injection methods based on two metrics which can be easily generalised for all CHB applications to PV systems. Experimental results based......Photovoltaic (PV) power generation levels in the three phases of a multilevel cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter can be significantly unbalanced, owing to different irradiance levels and ambient temperatures over a large-scale solar PV power plant. Injection of a zero-sequence voltage is required...... on a 430 V, 10 kW, three-phase, seven-level cascaded H-bridge converter prototype confirm superior performance of the optimal zero-sequence injection technique....

Probabilistic and sensitivity analysis of Botlek Bridge structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Králik Juraj

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the probabilistic and sensitivity analysis of the largest movable lift bridge of the world. The bridge system consists of six reinforced concrete pylons and two steel decks 4000 tons weight each connected through ropes with counterweights. The paper focuses the probabilistic and sensitivity analysis as the base of dynamic study in design process of the bridge. The results had a high importance for practical application and design of the bridge. The model and resistance uncertainties were taken into account in LHS simulation method.

Flexibility-based damage detection for in-service highway bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Dahal, Sushil; Jang, Shinae; Mensah-Bonsu, Priscilla

2012-04-01

Highway bridges are the backbones of a country's road network infrastructure. In order to efficiently maintain these important structures, structural health monitoring (SHM) can be implemented to impart a more deterministic management procedure. To date, many damage detection strategies have been developed and implemented on lab-scale or simple bridge structures however, damage detection research has rarely been conducted taking full scale in-service structures into account with ambient vibration. Among the different approaches modal flexibility method is one of the sensitive tools for damage detection which has been widely used over the last two decades. This paper presents a damage detection based on the stochastic damage locating vector (SDLV) method for an in-service highway bridge using ambient vibration data from long-term SHM. The target bridge was equipped with a long-term SHM system as a part of a research project of the University of Connecticut. The ambient vibration data during 2001 and 2005 are used to identify the damage on the highway bridge. Finally, the potential damage locations are determined using the SDLV method with the limited number of sensors.

Estimation of Curvature Changes for Steel-Concrete Composite Bridge Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Donghoon Kang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study is focused on the verification of the key idea of a newly developed steel-concrete composite bridge. The key idea of the proposed bridge is to reduce the design moment by applying vertical prestressing force to steel girders, so that a moment distribution of a continuous span bridge is formed in a simple span bridge. For the verification of the key technology, curvature changes of the bridge should be monitored sequentially at every construction stage. A pair of multiplexed FBG sensor arrays is proposed in order to measure curvature changes in this study. They are embedded in a full-scale test bridge and measured local strains, which are finally converted to curvatures. From the result of curvature changes, it is successfully ensured that the key idea of the proposed bridge, expected theoretically, is viable.

Tidal Energy Conversion Installation at an Estuarine Bridge Site: Resource Evaluation and Energy Production Estimate

Science.gov (United States)

Wosnik, M.; Gagnon, I.; Baldwin, K.; Bell, E.

2015-12-01

The "Living Bridge" project aims to create a self-diagnosing, self-reporting "smart bridge" powered by a local renewable energy source, tidal energy - transforming Memorial Bridge, a vertical lift bridge over the tidal Piscataqua River connecting Portsmouth, NH and Kittery, ME, into a living laboratory for researchers, engineers, scientists, and the community. The Living Bridge project includes the installation of a tidal turbine at the Memorial Bridge. The energy converted by the turbine will power structural health monitoring, environmental and underwater instrumentation. Utilizing locally available tidal energy can make bridge operation more sustainable, can "harden" transportation infrastructure against prolonged grid outages and can demonstrate a prototype of an "estuarine bridge of the future". A spatio-temporal tidal energy resource assessment was performed using long term bottom-deployed Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) at two locations: near the planned deployment location in 2013-14 for 123 days and mid-channel in 2007 for 35 days. Data were evaluated to determine the amount of available kinetic energy that can be converted into usable electrical energy on the bridge. Changes in available kinetic energy with ebb/flood and spring/neap tidal cycles and electrical energy demand were analyzed. The target deployment site exhibited significantly more energetic ebb tides than flood tides, which can be explained by the local bathymetry of the tidal estuary. A system model is used to calculate the net energy savings using various tidal generator and battery bank configurations. Different resource evaluation methodologies were also analyzed, e.g., using a representative ADCP "bin" vs. a more refined, turbine-geometry-specific methodology, and using static bin height vs. bin height that move w.r.t. the free surface throughout a tidal cycle (representative of a bottom-fixed or floating turbine deployment, respectively). ADCP operating frequencies and bin

Gust loading on streamlined bridge decks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larose, Guy; Mann, Jakob

1998-01-01

The current analytical description of the buffeting action of wind on long-span bridges is based on the strip assumption. However, recent experiments on closed-box girder bridge decks have shown that this assumption is not valid and is the source of an important part of the error margin...... of the analytical prediction methods. In this paper, an analytical model that departs from the strip assumption is used to describe the gust loading on a thin airfoil. A parallel is drawn between the analytical model and direct measurements of gust loading on motionless closed-box girder bridge decks. Empirical...

Long-term bridge performance high priority bridge performance issues.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-10-01

Bridge performance is a multifaceted issue involving performance of materials and protective systems, : performance of individual components of the bridge, and performance of the structural system as a whole. The : Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP)...

Evaluating the performance of skewed prestressed concrete bridge after strengthening

Science.gov (United States)

Naser, Ali Fadhil; Zonglin, Wang

2013-06-01

The objectives of this paper are to explain the application of repairing and strengthening methods on the damaged members of the bridge structure, to analyze the static and dynamic structural response under static and dynamic loads after strengthening, and to evaluate the structural performance after application of strengthening method. The repairing and strengthening methods which are used in this study include treatment of the cracks, thickening the web of box girder along the bridge length and adding internal pre-stressing tendons in the thickening web, and construct reinforced concrete cross beams (diaphragms) between two box girders. The results of theoretical analysis of static and dynamic structural responses after strengthening show that the tensile stresses are decreased and become less than the allowable limit values in the codes. The values of vertical deflection are decreased after strengthening. The values of natural frequencies after strengthening are increased, indicating that the strengthening method is effective to reduce the vibration of the bridge structure. Therefore, the strengthening methods are effective to improve the bearing capacity and elastic working state of the bridge structure and to increase the service life of the bridge structure.

Local network assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Glen, D. V.

1985-04-01

Local networks, related standards activities of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers the American National Standards Institute and other elements are presented. These elements include: (1) technology choices such as topology, transmission media, and access protocols; (2) descriptions of standards for the 802 local area networks (LAN's); high speed local networks (HSLN's) and military specification local networks; and (3) intra- and internetworking using bridges and gateways with protocols Interconnection (OSI) reference model. The convergence of LAN/PBX technology is also described.

Development of Secondary Route Bridge Design Plan Guides

Science.gov (United States)

2018-03-03

The objective of this study is to develop a set of bridge plan guides for low-volume traffic roads. The purpose of the plans is to facilitate construction of new structures suitable for local agencies. The designs are to specifically address common l...

47 CFR 80.163 - Operator requirements of the Bridge-to-Bridge Act.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Operator requirements of the Bridge-to-Bridge... Requirements § 80.163 Operator requirements of the Bridge-to-Bridge Act. Each ship subject to the Bridge-to-Bridge Act must have on board a radio operator who holds a restricted radiotelephone operator permit or...

Local Fractional Laplace Variational Iteration Method for Solving Linear Partial Differential Equations with Local Fractional Derivative

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ai-Min Yang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The local fractional Laplace variational iteration method was applied to solve the linear local fractional partial differential equations. The local fractional Laplace variational iteration method is coupled by the local fractional variational iteration method and Laplace transform. The nondifferentiable approximate solutions are obtained and their graphs are also shown.

Bridge health monitoring metrics : updating the bridge deficiency algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-10-01

As part of its bridge management system, the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) must decide how best to spend its bridge replacement funds. In making these decisions, ALDOT managers currently use a deficiency algorithm to rank bridges that ...

RISK LEVEL ANALYSIS ON THE PREVENTIVE EROSION CAPACITY OF BRIDGES

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2002-01-01

Deficiency of the Preventive Erosion Capacity (PEC) of a bridge pier is the main factor leading to bridge failures. In this paper, the PEC of bridge piers was analyzed using the stochastic analysis method. The definitions of the reliability and risk level of a bridge pier subjected to water erosion were proposed and a computational model for erosion depth and risk level in was suggested.

Evaluating the life cycle environmental impact of short span bridges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Du, Guangli; Pettersson, Lars; Karoumi, Raid

2016-01-01

impact of the construction sector. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a systematic method for assessing the environmental impact of products and systems, but its application in bridges is scarce. In Swede, most of the bridges are short spans and the type of concrete slab-frame bridge (CFB) accounts...... for a large share. Soil steel composite bridge (SSCB) is a functional equivalent solution for CFB. In order to mitigate the environmental burdens of short span bridges, this paper performed a comparative LCA study between these two types of bridge. The results indicate that the initial material consumption...

Quantum Bidding in Bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Muhammad, Sadiq; Tavakoli, Armin; Kurant, Maciej; Pawłowski, Marcin; Żukowski, Marek; Bourennane, Mohamed

2014-04-01

Quantum methods allow us to reduce communication complexity of some computational tasks, with several separated partners, beyond classical constraints. Nevertheless, experimental demonstrations of this have thus far been limited to some abstract problems, far away from real-life tasks. We show here, and demonstrate experimentally, that the power of reduction of communication complexity can be harnessed to gain an advantage in a famous, immensely popular, card game—bridge. The essence of a winning strategy in bridge is efficient communication between the partners. The rules of the game allow only a specific form of communication, of very low complexity (effectively, one has strong limitations on the number of exchanged bits). Surprisingly, our quantum technique does not violate the existing rules of the game (as there is no increase in information flow). We show that our quantum bridge auction corresponds to a biased nonlocal Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt game, which is equivalent to a 2→1 quantum random access code. Thus, our experiment is also a realization of such protocols. However, this correspondence is not complete, which enables the bridge players to have efficient strategies regardless of the quality of their detectors.

47 CFR 80.309 - Watch required by the Bridge-to-Bridge Act.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Watch required by the Bridge-to-Bridge Act. 80... Safety Watches § 80.309 Watch required by the Bridge-to-Bridge Act. In addition to the watch requirement contained in § 80.148, all vessels subject to the Bridge-to-Bridge Act must keep a watch on the designated...

Local Fractional Adomian Decomposition and Function Decomposition Methods for Laplace Equation within Local Fractional Operators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheng-Ping Yan

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We perform a comparison between the local fractional Adomian decomposition and local fractional function decomposition methods applied to the Laplace equation. The operators are taken in the local sense. The results illustrate the significant features of the two methods which are both very effective and straightforward for solving the differential equations with local fractional derivative.

Analysis of experimental data sets for local scour depth around ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The performance of soft computing techniques to analyse and interpret the experimental data of local scour depth around bridge abutment, measured at different laboratory conditions and environment, is presented. The scour around bridge piers and abutments is, in the majority of cases, the main reason for bridge failures.

Field performance of timber bridges. 7, Connell Lake stress-laminated deck bridge

Science.gov (United States)

L. E. Hislop; M. A. Ritter

The Connell Lake bridge was constructed in early 1991 on the Tongass National Forest, Alaska, as a demonstration bridge under the Timber Bridge Initiative. The bridge is a stress-laminated deck structure with an approximate 36-ft length and 18-ft width and is the first known stress-laminated timber bridge constructed in Alaska. Performance of the bridge was monitored...

Local defect correction for boundary integral equation methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kakuba, G.; Anthonissen, M.J.H.

2014-01-01

The aim in this paper is to develop a new local defect correction approach to gridding for problems with localised regions of high activity in the boundary element method. The technique of local defect correction has been studied for other methods as finite difference methods and finite volume

Evaluation of local corrosion life by statistical method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kato, Shunji; Kurosawa, Tatsuo; Takaku, Hiroshi; Kusanagi, Hideo; Hirano, Hideo; Kimura, Hideo; Hide, Koichiro; Kawasaki, Masayuki

1987-01-01

In this paper, for the purpose of achievement of life extension of light water reactor, we examined the evaluation of local corrosion by satistical method and its application of nuclear power plant components. There are many evaluation examples of maximum cracking depth of local corrosion by dowbly exponential distribution. This evaluation method has been established. But, it has not been established that we evaluate service lifes of construction materials by satistical method. In order to establish of service life evaluation by satistical method, we must strive to collect local corrosion dates and its analytical researchs. (author)

Gauge bridges in classical field theory; Eichbruecken in der klassischen Feldtheorie

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jakobs, S.

2009-03-15

In this thesis Poisson structures of two classical gauge field theories (Maxwell-Klein-Gordon- and Maxwell-Dirac-system) are constructed using the parametrix construction of Green's functions. Parametrices for the Maxwell-Klein-Gordon- and Maxwell-Dirac-system are constructed in Minkowski space and this construction is later generalized to curved space times for the Maxwell-Klein-Gordon-system. With these Green's functions Poisson brackets will be defined as Peierls brackets. Finally non-local, gauge invariant observables, the so-called 'gauge bridges'are constructed. Gauge bridges are the matrix elements of holonomy operators. It is shown, that these emerge from Poisson brackets of local, gauge invariant observables. (orig.)

Nonlinear seismic analysis of continuous RC bridge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Čokić Miloš M.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Nonlinear static analysis, known as a pushover method (NSPA is oftenly used to study the behaviour of a bridge structure under the seismic action. It is shown that the Equivalent Linearization Method - ELM, recommended in FEMA 440, is appropriate for the response analysis of the bridge columns, with different geometric characteristics, quantity and distribution of steel reinforcement. The subject of analysis is a bridge structure with a carriageway plate - a continuous beam with three spans, with the 24 + 40 + 24 m range. Main girder is made of prestressed concrete and it has a box cross section of a constant height. It is important to study the behaviour, not only in the transverse, but also in the longitudinal direction of the bridge axis, when analysing the bridge columns exposed to horizontal seismic actions. The columns were designed according to EN1992, parts 1 and 2. Seismic action analysis is conducted according to EN 1998: 2004 standard. Response spectrum type 1, for the ground type B, was applied and the analysis also includes 20% of traffic load. The analysis includes the values of columns displacement and ductility. To describe the behaviour of elements under the earthquake action in both - longitudinal and transverse direction, pushover curves were formed.

Prediction of welding shrinkage deformation of bridge steel box girder based on wavelet neural network

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Yulong; Miao, Yunshui; Han, Jiaqi; Yan, Feiyun

2018-05-01

Aiming at the low accuracy of traditional forecasting methods such as linear regression method, this paper presents a prediction method for predicting the relationship between bridge steel box girder and its displacement with wavelet neural network. Compared with traditional forecasting methods, this scheme has better local characteristics and learning ability, which greatly improves the prediction ability of deformation. Through analysis of the instance and found that after compared with the traditional prediction method based on wavelet neural network, the rigid beam deformation prediction accuracy is higher, and is superior to the BP neural network prediction results, conform to the actual demand of engineering design.

Research on Damage Identification of Bridge Based on Digital Image Measurement

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Yingjing; Huan, Shi; Tao, Weijun

2017-12-01

In recent years, the number of the damage bridge due to excessive deformation gradually increased, which caused significant property damage and casualties. Hence health monitoring and the damage detection of the bridge structure based on the deflection measurement are particularly important. The current conventional deflection measurement methods, such as total station, connected pipe, GPS, etc., have many shortcomings as low efficiency, heavy workload, low degree of automation, operating frequency and working time constrained. GPS has a low accuracy in the vertical displacement measurement and cannot meet the dynamic measured requirements of the current bridge engineering. This paper presents a bridge health monitoring and damage detection technology based on digital image measurement method in which the measurement accuracy is sub-millimeter level and can achieve the 24-hour automatic non-destructive monitoring for the deflection. It can be concluded from this paper that it is feasible to use digital image measurement method for identification of the damage in the bridge structure, because it has been validated by the theoretical analysis, the laboratory model and the application of the real bridge.

METHOD OF THE DRIVE POWER DETERMINATION OF THE MECHANISMS OF THE BRIDGE CRANE MOVEMENT CONSIDERING THE ROLLING FRICTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. M. Bohomaz

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The value of drive resistance to its movement is the main parameter at calculating the drive power of bridge crane. The value of the wheel rolling friction on the rails is one of the important parts of the resistance to movement. It is necessary to determine the dependence of static (dynamic quantities of resistance to the bridge crane movement on a straight section of the track from the position of the bogie in the span, and explore the influence of the wheel flanges resistance for wear. Methodology. Using the analytical dependences for determining the rolling friction coefficient, that depends on the size of the half-width of the contact between the wheel and rail, the improved method for calculating the required drive power of the crane was proposed. Findings. With the proposed method of power calculation the characteristic curve of the crane wheel loads, the coefficient of rolling friction of the wheels and the crane resistance to movement from the position of the bogie on span were built. In the result of graphs analysis it was found that the engine power, obtained by the proposed method is higher than the recommended by the existing standards. The more precise formula for determining the total coefficient of sliding friction that takes into account the friction of wheel flanges on the rail is given. The characteristic curves of such coefficient of friction and the total resistance to movement of the position of the crane bogie were built. Originality. The scientists proposed an improved method of determining the required engine power of bridge crane, which takes into account the effect of rolling friction of the wheels on the rails and the bogie in the span. The improved formula for determining the coefficient of friction that takes into account the friction wheel flanges of the rail was given. The characteristic curve of this coefficient of friction and the total resistance movement of crane from the position of the crane bogie

Positioning of supporting-cable ducts in a prestressed concrete bridge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roetzer, H.

1981-01-01

Before inserting the supporting cables positioning of cable ducts in prestressed concrete bridges can be performed with the aid of radiation sources hauled through the ducts and localized by means of radiation monitors

Criteria for assessment of bridge aesthetic and visual quality

Science.gov (United States)

Rozentale, I.; Paeglitis, A.

2017-10-01

The bridge designers should find an ideal balance between structure, economy, buildability, aesthetics, durability and harmony with industrial or natural landscape. During the last years, the society has adopted documents providing procedures for evaluation of the impact of the structural appearance on surrounding landscape. The European Landscape Convention defines the landscape as an area perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. The Convention indicates the methods for clear and objective assessment of the landscape’s visual qualities. The esthetical qualities of bridge structures, appearance and attraction should satisfy not only the technicians - engineers and architects, but mostly the surrounding population. Each of these groups has a different perception of esthetical qualities of structure. Many authors have used different methods and criteria for assessment of bridge aesthetics. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the bridge aesthetic and visual quality assessment methods and criteria.

Deep Borehole Instrumentation Along San Francisco Bay Bridges: 1996 - 2003 and Strong Ground Motion Systhesis Along the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hutchings, L; Foxall, W; Kasameyer, P; larsen, S; Hayek, C; Tyler-Turpin, C; Aquilino, J; Long, L

2005-04-22

As a result of collaboration between the Berkeley Seismographic Station, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Caltrans, instrument packages have been placed in bedrock in six boreholes and two surface sites along the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge. Since 1996 over 200 local earthquakes have been recorded. Prior to this study few seismic recording instruments existed in bed-rock in San Francisco Bay. We utilized the data to perform analysis of ground motion variability, wave passage, site response, and up-and down-hole wave propagation along the Bay Bridge. We also synthesized strong ground motion at nine locations along the Bay Bridge. Key to these studies is LLNL's effort to exploit the information available in weak ground motions (generally from earthquakes < M=4.0) to enhance predictions of seismic hazards. We found that Yerba Island has no apparent site response at the surface relative to a borehole site. The horizontal to vertical spectral ratio method best revealed no site response, while the complex signal spectral ratio method had the lowest variance for spectral ratios and best predicted surface recordings when the borehole recording was used as input. Both methods identified resonances at about the same frequencies. Regional attenuation results in a significant loss of high frequencies in both surface and borehole recordings. Records are band limited at near 3 Hz. Therefore a traditional rock outcrop site response, flat to high frequency in displacement, is not available. We applied a methodology to predict and synthesize strong ground motion along the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge from a M=7.25 earthquake along the Hayward fault, about12 km distant. We synthesized for three-components and broad-band (0.0-25.0 Hz) ground motion accelerations, velocities, and displacements. We examined two different possible rupture scenarios, a ''mean'' and ''one standard deviation'' model. We combined the high

Using weigh-in-motion data to determine bridge dynamic amplification factor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kalin Jan

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The dynamic component of bridge traffic loading is commonly taken into account with a Dynamic Amplification Factor (DAF – the ratio between the maximum dynamic and static load effects on a bridge. In the design codes, this factor is generally higher than in reality. While this is fine for new bridges that must account for various risks during their life-time, it imposes unnecessary conservativism into assessment of the existing well defined bridges. Therefore, analysis of existing bridges should apply more realistic DAF values. One way of obtaining them experimentally is by bridge weigh-in-motion (B-WIM measurements, which use an existing instrumented bridge or culvert to weigh all crossing vehicles at highway speeds. The B-WIM system had been equipped with two methods of obtaining an approximation to the static response of the. The first method uses the sum of influence lines. This method relies on accurate axle identification, the failure of which can have a large influence on the DAF value. The other method uses a pre-determined low-pass filter to remove the dynamic component of the measured signal; however an expert is needed to set the filter parameters. A new approach that tries to eliminate these two drawbacks has been developed. In this approach the parameters for the filter are determined automatically by fitting the filtered response to the sum of the influence lines. The measurement of DAF on a typical bridge site agrees with experiments performed in the ARCHES [1] project: dynamic amplification decreases as static loading increases.

Chemical bridges for enhancing hydrogen storage by spillover and methods for forming the same

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Ralph T.; Li, Yingwei; Qi, Gongshin; Lachawiec, Jr., Anthony J.

2012-12-25

A composition for hydrogen storage includes a source of hydrogen atoms, a receptor, and a chemical bridge formed between the source and the receptor. The chemical bridge is formed from a precursor material. The receptor is adapted to receive hydrogen spillover from the source.

Energy-Based Acoustic Source Localization Methods: A Survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Meng

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Energy-based source localization is an important problem in wireless sensor networks (WSNs, which has been studied actively in the literature. Numerous localization algorithms, e.g., maximum likelihood estimation (MLE and nonlinear-least-squares (NLS methods, have been reported. In the literature, there are relevant review papers for localization in WSNs, e.g., for distance-based localization. However, not much work related to energy-based source localization is covered in the existing review papers. Energy-based methods are proposed and specially designed for a WSN due to its limited sensor capabilities. This paper aims to give a comprehensive review of these different algorithms for energy-based single and multiple source localization problems, their merits and demerits and to point out possible future research directions.

Construction Technology of Long Span Bridges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gimsing, Niels Jørgen

2000-01-01

A large variety of construction methods are used during construction of major bridges, and in many cases the final structural system must be chosen with due respect to the construction process. Today the preferred construction methods are: the free-cantilever method, the launching method...

Analysis of Non Local Image Denoising Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Pardo, Álvaro

Image denoising is probably one of the most studied problems in the image processing community. Recently a new paradigm on non local denoising was introduced. The Non Local Means method proposed by Buades, Morel and Coll attracted the attention of other researches who proposed improvements and modifications to their proposal. In this work we analyze those methods trying to understand their properties while connecting them to segmentation based on spectral graph properties. We also propose some improvements to automatically estimate the parameters used on these methods.

Progress of optical sensor system for health monitoring of bridges at Chongqing University

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, W.; Fu, Y.; Zhu, Y.; Huang, S.

2005-02-01

With decades of research experience on optical sensors, Optoelectronic Technology Lab of Chongqing University (OTLCU) has studied on a variety of sensors system designed for practical use in health monitoring. In OTLCU, embedded and surface mounted fiber Fabry-Perot strain sensor has been developed for monitoring the local strain of both concrete and steel truss bridge. Optoelectronic deflect meter, with a group of optical level sensor in a series connected pipe, was developed for deflection monitoring and line shape monitoring of the bridges. Laser deflect meter, with a laser pointer and a sensors array, has been also developed for a dynamic deflection monitoring of the bridges. To monitoring the 2-Dimentional displacement of the bridge, a self-calibrating imaging system was developed. All these sensor systems have been applied in different bridges successfully. This paper briefly describes principle of these optical sensing systems, and also gives some representative results of the system in practical application of bridges.

Bridges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zant, W.

2017-01-01

We estimate to what extent bridges in Mozambique lead to transport cost reductions and attribute these reductions to key determinants, in particular road distance, road quality and crossing borders. For identification we exploit the introduction of a road bridge over the Zambezi river, in August

Injury-induced ctgfa directs glial bridging and spinal cord regeneration in zebrafish

Science.gov (United States)

Mokalled, Mayssa H.; Patra, Chinmoy; Dickson, Amy L.; Endo, Toyokazu; Stainier, Didier Y. R.; Poss, Kenneth D.

2016-01-01

Unlike mammals, zebrafish efficiently regenerate functional nervous system tissue after major spinal cord injury. Whereas glial scarring presents a roadblock for mammalian spinal cord repair, glial cells in zebrafish form a bridge across severed spinal cord tissue and facilitate regeneration, a relatively unexplored process. Here, we performed a genome-wide profiling screen for secreted factors that are upregulated during zebrafish spinal cord regeneration. We find that connective tissue growth factor a (ctgfa) is induced in and around glial cells that participate in initial bridging events. Mutations in ctgfa disrupt spinal cord repair, while transgenic ctgfa overexpression and local human CTGF recombinant protein delivery accelerate bridging and functional regeneration. Our study reveals that CTGF is necessary and sufficient to stimulate glial bridging and natural spinal cord regeneration. PMID:27811277

Traveling Wave Resonance and Simplified Analysis Method for Long-Span Symmetrical Cable-Stayed Bridges under Seismic Traveling Wave Excitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhong-ye Tian

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The seismic responses of a long-span cable-stayed bridge under uniform excitation and traveling wave excitation in the longitudinal direction are, respectively, computed. The numerical results show that the bridge’s peak seismic responses vary significantly as the apparent wave velocity decreases. Therefore, the traveling wave effect must be considered in the seismic design of long-span bridges. The bridge’s peak seismic responses do not vary monotonously with the apparent wave velocity due to the traveling wave resonance. A new traveling wave excitation method that can simplify the multisupport excitation process into a two-support excitation process is developed.

Multiobjective Optimal Control of Longitudinal Seismic Response of a Multitower Cable-Stayed Bridge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geng Fangfang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The dynamic behavior of a multitower cable-stayed bridge with the application of partially longitudinal constraint system using viscous fluid dampers under real earthquake ground motions is presented. The study is based on the dynamic finite element model of the Jiashao Bridge, a six-tower cable-stayed bridge in China. The prime aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of viscous fluid dampers on the longitudinal seismic responses of the bridge and put forth a multiobjective optimization design method to determine the optimized parameters of the viscous fluid dampers. The results of the investigations show that the control objective of the multitower cable-stayed bridge with the partially longitudinal constraint system is to yield maximum reductions in the base forces of bridge towers longitudinally restricted with the bridge deck, with slight increases in the base forces of bridge towers longitudinally unrestricted with the bridge deck. To this end, a multiobjective optimization design method that uses a nondominating sort genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II is used to optimize parameters of the viscous fluid dampers. The effectiveness of the proposed optimization design method is demonstrated for the multitower cable-stayed bridge with the partially longitudinal constraint system, which reveals that a design engineer can choose a set of proper parameters of the viscous fluid dampers from Pareto optimal fronts that can satisfy the desired performance requirements.

Strategic Planning for the National Bridge Stock of Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Sahrapeyma

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The National Bridge Stock of Iran consists of about 330,000 bridges, of which around 50% are older than 30 years. Since 2010, Iran Road Maintenance & Transportation Organization has started implementing a comprehensive Bridge Management System in order to manage this aged stock efficiently. To predict future conditions of bridge stock, a heuristic numerical method is presented. This methodology is based on Markovian process to model deterioration of bridge decks and a multi-objective optimization problem to find the best solutions. The optimization problem involves three decision variables regarding management strategies, and has three objectives regarding cost minimization. Constraints of the problem are the percentage of deficient bridges, the percentage of bridges under MR&Rs (Maintenance, Repair and Rehabilitation and the average value of condition scores. The results show that to avoid future challenges, the annual budget for bridge maintenance should be increased, the current maintenance strategy should be improved as soon as possible, and national manuals and instructions for inspection, condition rating and maintenance should be developed.

Monitoring system of arch bridge for safety network management

Science.gov (United States)

Joo, Bong Chul; Yoo, Young Jun; Lee, Chin Hyung; Park, Ki Tae; Hwang, Yoon Koog

2010-03-01

Korea has constructed the safety management network monitoring test systems for the civil infrastructure since 2006 which includes airport structure, irrigation structure, railroad structure, road structure, and underground structure. Bridges among the road structure include the various superstructure types which are Steel box girder bridge, suspension bridge, PSC-box-girder bridge, and arch bridge. This paper shows the process of constructing the real-time monitoring system for the arch bridge and the measured result by the system. The arch type among various superstructure types has not only the structural efficiency but the visual beauty, because the arch type superstructure makes full use of the feature of curve. The main measuring points of arch bridges composited by curved members make a difference to compare with the system of girder bridges composited by straight members. This paper also shows the method to construct the monitoring system that considers the characteristic of the arch bridge. The system now includes strain gauges and thermometers, and it will include various sensor types such as CCTV, accelerometers and so on additionally. For the long term and accuracy monitoring, the latest optical sensors and equipments are applied to the system.

Increased of the capacity integral bridge with reinforced concrete beams for single span

Science.gov (United States)

Setiati, N. Retno

2017-11-01

Sinapeul Bridge that was built in 2012 in Sumedang is a bridge type using a full integral system. The prototype of integral bridge with reinforced concrete girder and single span 20 meters until this year had decreased capacity. The bridge was conducted monitoring of strain that occurs in the abutment in 2014. Monitoring results show that based on the data recorded, the maximum strain occurs at the abutment on the location of the integration of the girder of 10.59 x 10-6 tensile stress of 0.25 MPa (smaller than 150 x 10-6) with 3 MPa tensile stress as limit the occurrence of cracks in concrete. Sinapeul bridge abutment with integral system is still in the intact condition. Deflection of the bridge at the time of load test is 1.31 mm. But this time the bridge has decreased exceeded permission deflection (deflection occurred by 40 mm). Besides that, the slab also suffered destruction. One cause of the destruction of the bridge slab is the load factor. It is necessary for required effort to increase the capacity of the integral bridge with retrofitting. Retrofitting method also aims to restore the capacity of the bridge structure due to deterioration. Retrofitting can be done by shortening of the span or using Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRC). Based on the results obtained by analysis of that method of retrofitting with Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRC) is more simple and effective. Retrofitting with FRP can increase the capacity of the shear and bending moment becomes 41% of the existing bridge. Retrofitting with FRP method does not change the integral system on the bridge Sinapeul become conventional bridges.

Field performance of timber bridges. 4, Graves Crossing stress-laminated deck bridge

Science.gov (United States)

J. P. Wacker; M. A. Ritter

The Graves Crossing bridge was constructed October 1991 in Antrim County, Michigan, as part of the demonstration timber bridge program sponsored by the USDA Forest Service. The bridge is a two-span continuous, stress-laminated deck superstructure and it is 36-ft long and 26-ft wide. The bridge is one of the first stress-laminated deck bridges to be built of sawn lumber...

Seismic Vulnerability Evaluation of a Three-Span Continuous Beam Railway Bridge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chongwen Jiang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In order to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of a railway bridge, a nonlinear finite element model of typical three-span continuous beam bridge on the Sichuan-Tibet railway in China was built. It further aimed at performing a probabilistic seismic demand analysis based on the seismic performance of the above-mentioned bridge. Firstly, the uncertainties of bridge parameters were analyzed while a set of finite element model samples were formulated with Latin hypercube sampling method. Secondly, under Wenchuan earthquake ground motions, an incremental dynamic method (IDA analysis was performed, and the seismic peak responses of bridge components were recorded. Thirdly, the probabilistic seismic demand model for the bridge principal components under the prerequisite of two different kinds of bearing, with and without seismic isolation, was generated. Finally, comparison was drawn to further ascertain the effect of two different kinds of bearings on the fragility components. Based on the reliability theory, results were presented concerning the seismic fragility curves.

Application of Artificial Intelligence for Bridge Deterioration Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhang Chen

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The deterministic bridge deterioration model updating problem is well established in bridge management, while the traditional methods and approaches for this problem require manual intervention. An artificial-intelligence-based approach was presented to self-updated parameters of the bridge deterioration model in this paper. When new information and data are collected, a posterior distribution was constructed to describe the integrated result of historical information and the new gained information according to Bayesian theorem, which was used to update model parameters. This AI-based approach is applied to the case of updating parameters of bridge deterioration model, which is the data collected from bridges of 12 districts in Shanghai from 2004 to 2013, and the results showed that it is an accurate, effective, and satisfactory approach to deal with the problem of the parameter updating without manual intervention.

The hepatic bridge.

Science.gov (United States)

Sugarbaker, Paul H

2018-07-01

The hepatic bridge forms a tunnel of liver parenchyma that may obscure peritoneal metastases associated with the round ligament. Visualization and then resection of nodules associated with this structure is necessary. The incidence of a hepatic bridge and the extent that it covered the round ligament was determined in consecutive patients. Extent of coverage of the round ligament by the hepatic bridge was determined: Class 1 indicates up to one-third of the round ligament obscured, Class 2 up to two-thirds and Class 3 more than two-thirds. In 102 patients in whom the round ligament of the liver could be completely visualized, 50 had a hepatic bridge. Class 1 was 22 (44%) of the bridges, Class 2 was 16 (32%) and Class 3 was 12 (24%). A hepatic bridge was more frequently present in 28 of 45 male patients (62%) vs. 22 of 57 female patients (38%). Approximately one-half of our patients having cytoreductive surgery for peritoneal metastases were observed to have a hepatic bridge. Up to 56% of these patients have Class 2 or 3 hepatic bridge and may require division of the hepatic bridge to completely visualize the contents of the tunnel created by this structure. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd, BASO ~ The Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.

Comparison of Localization Methods for a Robot Soccer Team

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Levent Akın

2008-11-01

Full Text Available In this work, several localization algorithms that are designed and implemented for Cerberus'05 Robot Soccer Team are analyzed and compared. These algorithms are used for global localization of autonomous mobile agents in the robotic soccer domain, to overcome the uncertainty in the sensors, environment and the motion model. The algorithms are Reverse Monte Carlo Localization (R-MCL, Simple Localization (S-Loc and Sensor Resetting Localization (SRL. R-MCL is a hybrid method based on both Markov Localization (ML and Monte Carlo Localization (MCL where the ML module finds the region where the robot should be and MCL predicts the geometrical location with high precision by selecting samples in this region. S-Loc is another localization method where just one sample per percept is drawn, for global localization. Within this method another novel method My Environment (ME is designed to hold the history and overcome the lack of information due to the drastically decrease in the number of samples in S-Loc. ME together with S-Loc is used in the Technical Challenges in Robocup 2005 and play an important role in ranking the First Place in the Challenges. In this work, these methods together with SRL, which is a widely used successful localization algorithm, are tested with both offline and real-time tests. First they are tested on a challenging data set that is used by many researches and compared in terms of error rate against different levels of noise, and sparsity. Besides time required recovering from kidnapping and speed of the methods are tested and compared. Then their performances are tested with real-time tests with scenarios like the ones in the Technical Challenges in ROBOCUP. The main aim is to find the best method which is very robust and fast and requires less computational power and memory compared to similar approaches and is accurate enough for high level decision making which is vital for robot soccer.

Comparison of Localization Methods for a Robot Soccer Team

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hatice Kose

2006-12-01

Full Text Available In this work, several localization algorithms that are designed and implemented for Cerberus'05 Robot Soccer Team are analyzed and compared. These algorithms are used for global localization of autonomous mobile agents in the robotic soccer domain, to overcome the uncertainty in the sensors, environment and the motion model. The algorithms are Reverse Monte Carlo Localization (R-MCL, Simple Localization (S-Loc and Sensor Resetting Localization (SRL. R-MCL is a hybrid method based on both Markov Localization (ML and Monte Carlo Localization (MCL where the ML module finds the region where the robot should be and MCL predicts the geometrical location with high precision by selecting samples in this region. S-Loc is another localization method where just one sample per percept is drawn, for global localization. Within this method another novel method My Environment (ME is designed to hold the history and overcome the lack of information due to the drastically decrease in the number of samples in S-Loc. ME together with S-Loc is used in the Technical Challenges in Robocup 2005 and play an important role in ranking the First Place in the Challenges. In this work, these methods together with SRL, which is a widely used successful localization algorithm, are tested with both offline and real-time tests. First they are tested on a challenging data set that is used by many researches and compared in terms of error rate against different levels of noise, and sparsity. Besides time required recovering from kidnapping and speed of the methods are tested and compared. Then their performances are tested with real-time tests with scenarios like the ones in the Technical Challenges in ROBOCUP. The main aim is to find the best method which is very robust and fast and requires less computational power and memory compared to similar approaches and is accurate enough for high level decision making which is vital for robot soccer.

Bridge resource program.

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-01

The mission of Rutgers Universitys Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) Bridge Resource Program (BRP) is to provide bridge engineering support to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT)s Bridge Engineering an...

Identifying hidden sexual bridging communities in Chicago.

Science.gov (United States)

Youm, Yoosik; Mackesy-Amiti, Mary Ellen; Williams, Chyvette T; Ouellet, Lawrence J

2009-07-01

Bridge populations can play a central role in the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by providing transmission links between higher and lower prevalence populations. While social network methods are well suited to the study of bridge populations, analyses tend to focus on dyads (i.e., risk between drug and/or sex partners) and ignore bridges between distinct subpopulations. This study takes initial steps toward moving the analysis of sexual network linkages beyond individual and risk group levels to a community level in which Chicago's 77 community areas are examined as subpopulations for the purpose of identifying potential bridging communities. Of particular interest are "hidden" bridging communities; that is, areas with above-average levels of sexual ties with other areas but whose below-average AIDS prevalence may hide their potential importance for HIV prevention. Data for this analysis came from the first wave of recruiting at the Chicago Sexual Acquisition and Transmission of HIV Cooperative Agreement Program site. Between August 2005 through October 2006, respondent-driven sampling was used to recruit users of heroin, cocaine, or methamphetamine, men who have sex with men regardless of drug use, the sex partners of these two groups, and sex partners of the sex partners. In this cross-sectional study of the sexual transmission of HIV, participants completed a network-focused computer-assisted self-administered interview, which included questions about the geographic locations of sexual contacts with up to six recent partners. Bridging scores for each area were determined using a matrix representing Chicago's 77 community areas and were assessed using two measures: non-redundant ties and flow betweenness. Bridging measures and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) case prevalence rates were plotted for each community area on charts representing four conditions: below-average bridging and AIDS prevalence, below-average bridging and above

Bridged graphite oxide materials

Science.gov (United States)

Herrera-Alonso, Margarita (Inventor); McAllister, Michael J. (Inventor); Aksay, Ilhan A. (Inventor); Prud'homme, Robert K. (Inventor)

2010-01-01

Bridged graphite oxide material comprising graphite sheets bridged by at least one diamine bridging group. The bridged graphite oxide material may be incorporated in polymer composites or used in adsorption media.

Two-dimensional neutron scattering in a floating heavy water bridge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fuchs, Elmar C; Baroni, Patrick; Noirez, Laurence; Bitschnau, Brigitte

2010-01-01

When a high voltage is applied to pure water in two filled beakers kept close to each other, a connection forms spontaneously, giving the impression of a floating water bridge. This phenomenon is of special interest, since it comprises a number of phenomena currently tackled in modern water science. In this work, the first two-dimensional structural study of a floating heavy water bridge is presented as a function of the azimuthal angle. A small anisotropy in the angular distribution of the intensity of the first structural peak was observed, indicating a preferred orientation of a part of the D 2 O molecules along the electric field lines without breaking the local tetrahedral symmetry. The experiment is carried out by neutron scattering on a D 2 O bridge.

Two-dimensional neutron scattering in a floating heavy water bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Fuchs, Elmar C.; Baroni, Patrick; Bitschnau, Brigitte; Noirez, Laurence

2010-03-01

When a high voltage is applied to pure water in two filled beakers kept close to each other, a connection forms spontaneously, giving the impression of a floating water bridge. This phenomenon is of special interest, since it comprises a number of phenomena currently tackled in modern water science. In this work, the first two-dimensional structural study of a floating heavy water bridge is presented as a function of the azimuthal angle. A small anisotropy in the angular distribution of the intensity of the first structural peak was observed, indicating a preferred orientation of a part of the D2O molecules along the electric field lines without breaking the local tetrahedral symmetry. The experiment is carried out by neutron scattering on a D2O bridge.

Laboratory and field testing of an accelerated bridge construction demonstration bridge : US Highway 6 bridge over Keg Creek.

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-01

The US Highway 6 Bridge over Keg Creek outside of Council Bluffs, Iowa is a demonstration bridge site chosen to put into practice : newly-developed Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) concepts. One of these new concepts is the use of prefabricated ...

Monitoring Bridge Dynamic Responses Using Fiber Bragg Grating Tiltmeters.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Feng; Chen, Gang S; Hulsey, J Leroy

2017-10-20

In bridge health monitoring, tiltmeters have been used for measuring rotation and curvature; however, their application in dynamic parameter identification has been lacking. This study installed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) tiltmeters on the bearings of a bridge and monitored the dynamic rotational angle. The dynamic features, including natural frequencies and mode shapes, have been identified successfully. The innovation presented in this paper is the first-time use of FBG tiltmeter readings to identify the natural frequencies of a long-span steel girder bridge. The identified results have been verified using a bridge finite element model. This paper introduces a new method for the dynamic monitoring of a bridge using FBG tiltmeters. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed in the conclusion.

Monitoring Bridge Dynamic Responses Using Fiber Bragg Grating Tiltmeters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng Xiao

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In bridge health monitoring, tiltmeters have been used for measuring rotation and curvature; however, their application in dynamic parameter identification has been lacking. This study installed fiber Bragg grating (FBG tiltmeters on the bearings of a bridge and monitored the dynamic rotational angle. The dynamic features, including natural frequencies and mode shapes, have been identified successfully. The innovation presented in this paper is the first-time use of FBG tiltmeter readings to identify the natural frequencies of a long-span steel girder bridge. The identified results have been verified using a bridge finite element model. This paper introduces a new method for the dynamic monitoring of a bridge using FBG tiltmeters. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed in the conclusion.

Guardrails for Use on Historic Bridges: Volume 2—Bridge Deck Overhang Design

OpenAIRE

Frosch, Robert J.; Morel, Adam J.

2016-01-01

Bridges that are designated historic present a special challenge to bridge engineers whenever rehabilitation work or improvements are made to the bridges. Federal and state laws protect historically significant bridges, and railings on these bridges can be subject to protection because of the role they play in aesthetics. Unfortunately, original railings on historic bridges do not typically meet current crash-test requirements and typically do not meet current standards for railing height and...

Unsupervised Performance Evaluation Strategy for Bridge Superstructure Based on Fuzzy Clustering and Field Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yubo Jiao

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Performance evaluation of a bridge is critical for determining the optimal maintenance strategy. An unsupervised bridge superstructure state assessment method is proposed in this paper based on fuzzy clustering and bridge field measured data. Firstly, the evaluation index system of bridge is constructed. Secondly, a certain number of bridge health monitoring data are selected as clustering samples to obtain the fuzzy similarity matrix and fuzzy equivalent matrix. Finally, different thresholds are selected to form dynamic clustering maps and determine the best classification based on statistic analysis. The clustering result is regarded as a sample base, and the bridge state can be evaluated by calculating the fuzzy nearness between the unknown bridge state data and the sample base. Nanping Bridge in Jilin Province is selected as the engineering project to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Construction of the Chamagawa bridge; Chamagawabashi no seko

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kawado, A.; Okawa, M. [Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority, Tokyo (Japan); Yoshii, M.; Oda, I.

1997-09-30

The Chamagawa Bridge is a reinforced concrete fixed-arch bridge which is located at the northern end of Awaji Island, 1.5 km away from the Honshu-Shikoku linking large-scale Akashi Strait Bridge. This paper describes the design and construction of the bridge. Overhang construction method using cable stayed members was adopted. Against the tensile stress generated in the arch-ring under construction, reaction force was burdened with cable stayed columns, anchor blocks and ground anchors by regulating stress using cable stayed members and by resisting using PC steel rods arranging in the arch-ring. For the construction of arch-ring, a space was made for fabricating a specific large-scale movable working vehicle by the grounding support. Then, overhang construction was started. For the construction of overhang, construction of cable stayed members, regulation of stress, and tension of ground anchors were conducted with the construction of each block. The construction of linking block in the center was conducted by hanging support method after the specific large-scale movable working vehicle was taken to pieces. After the connection of arch-ring, tensile forces of cable stayed members and ground anchors were released. The bridge was completed in the down road in 1997. 1 ref., 21 figs., 6 tabs.

Active Control of Long Bridges Using Flaps

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, H. I.; Thoft-Christensen, Palle

The main problem in designing ultra-long span suspension bridges is flutter. A solution to this problem might be to introduce an active flap control system to increase the flutter wind velocity. The investigated flap control system consists of flaps integrated in the bridge girder so each flap...... is the streamlined part of the edge of the girder. Additional aerodynamic derivatives are shown for the flaps and it is shown how methods already developed can be used to estimate the flutter wind velocity for a bridge section with flaps. As an example, the flutter wind velocity is calculated for different flap...... configurations for a bridge section model by using aerodynamic derivatives for a flat plate. The example shows that different flap configurations can either increase or decrease the flutter wind velocity. for optimal flap configurations flutter will not occur....

Dynamic assessment of bridge deck performance considering realistic bridge-traffic interaction

Science.gov (United States)

2017-09-01

Concrete bridge decks are directly exposed to daily traffic loads and may experience some surface cracking caused by excessive stress or fatigue accumulation, which requires repair or replacement. Among typical bridges in North America, bridge decks ...

Vibration-Based Damage Diagnosis in a Laboratory Cable-Stayed Bridge Model via an RCP-ARX Model Based Method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Michaelides, P G; Apostolellis, P G; Fassois, S D

2011-01-01

Vibration-based damage detection and identification in a laboratory cable-stayed bridge model is addressed under inherent, environmental, and experimental uncertainties. The problem is challenging as conventional stochastic methods face difficulties due to uncertainty underestimation. A novel method is formulated based on identified Random Coefficient Pooled ARX (RCP-ARX) representations of the dynamics and statistical hypothesis testing. The method benefits from the ability of RCP models in properly capturing uncertainty. Its effectiveness is demonstrated via a high number of experiments under a variety of damage scenarios.

Vibration-Based Damage Diagnosis in a Laboratory Cable-Stayed Bridge Model via an RCP-ARX Model Based Method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Michaelides, P G; Apostolellis, P G; Fassois, S D, E-mail: mixail@mech.upatras.gr, E-mail: fassois@mech.upatras.gr [Laboratory for Stochastic Mechanical Systems and Automation (SMSA), Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Patras, GR 265 00 Patras (Greece)

2011-07-19

Vibration-based damage detection and identification in a laboratory cable-stayed bridge model is addressed under inherent, environmental, and experimental uncertainties. The problem is challenging as conventional stochastic methods face difficulties due to uncertainty underestimation. A novel method is formulated based on identified Random Coefficient Pooled ARX (RCP-ARX) representations of the dynamics and statistical hypothesis testing. The method benefits from the ability of RCP models in properly capturing uncertainty. Its effectiveness is demonstrated via a high number of experiments under a variety of damage scenarios.

The morphing method as a flexible tool for adaptive local/non-local simulation of static fracture

KAUST Repository

Azdoud, Yan

2014-04-19

We introduce a framework that adapts local and non-local continuum models to simulate static fracture problems. Non-local models based on the peridynamic theory are promising for the simulation of fracture, as they allow discontinuities in the displacement field. However, they remain computationally expensive. As an alternative, we develop an adaptive coupling technique based on the morphing method to restrict the non-local model adaptively during the evolution of the fracture. The rest of the structure is described by local continuum mechanics. We conduct all simulations in three dimensions, using the relevant discretization scheme in each domain, i.e., the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method in the peridynamic domain and the continuous finite element method in the local continuum mechanics domain. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Bridge scour countermeasure assessments at select bridges in the United States, 2014–16

Science.gov (United States)

Dudunake, Taylor J.; Huizinga, Richard J.; Fosness, Ryan L.

2017-05-23

In 2009, the Federal Highway Administration published Hydraulic Engineering Circular No. 23 (HEC-23) to provide specific design and implementation guidelines for bridge scour and stream instability countermeasures. However, the effectiveness of countermeasures implemented over the past decade following those guidelines has not been evaluated. Therefore, in 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, began a study to assess the current condition of bridge-scour countermeasures at selected sites to evaluate their effectiveness. Bridge-scour countermeasures were assessed during 2014-2016. Site assessments included reviewing countermeasure design plans, summarizing the peak and daily streamflow history, and assessments at each site. Each site survey included a photo log summary, field form, and topographic and bathymetric geospatial data and metadata. This report documents the study area and site-selection criteria, explains the survey methods used to evaluate the condition of countermeasures, and presents the complete documentation for each countermeasure assessment.

Polymeric salt bridges for conducting electric current in microfluidic devices

Science.gov (United States)

Shepodd, Timothy J [Livermore, CA; Tichenor, Mark S [San Diego, CA; Artau, Alexander [Humacao, PR

2009-11-17

A "cast-in-place" monolithic microporous polymer salt bridge for conducting electrical current in microfluidic devices, and methods for manufacture thereof is disclosed. Polymeric salt bridges are formed in place in capillaries or microchannels. Formulations are prepared with monomer, suitable cross-linkers, solvent, and a thermal or radiation responsive initiator. The formulation is placed in a desired location and then suitable radiation such as UV light is used to polymerize the salt bridge within a desired structural location. Embodiments are provided wherein the polymeric salt bridges have sufficient porosity to allow ionic migration without bulk flow of solvents therethrough. The salt bridges form barriers that seal against fluid pressures in excess of 5000 pounds per square inch. The salt bridges can be formulated for carriage of suitable amperage at a desired voltage, and thus microfluidic devices using such salt bridges can be specifically constructed to meet selected analytical requirements.

Monitoring Bridge Dynamic Deformation in Vibration by Digital Photography

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Chengxin; Zhang, Guojian; Liu, Xiaodong; Fan, Li; Hai, Hua

2018-01-01

This study adopts digital photography to monitor bridge dynamic deformation in vibration. Digital photography in this study is based on PST-TBPM (photographing scale transformation-time baseline parallax method). Firstly, we monitor the bridge in static as a zero image. Then, we continuously monitor the bridge in vibration as the successive images. Based on the reference points on each image, PST-TBPM is used to calculate the images to obtain the dynamic deformation values of these deformation points. Results show that the average measurement accuracies are 0.685 pixels (0.51mm) and 0.635 pixels (0.47mm) in X and Z direction, respectively. The maximal deformations in X and Z direction of the bridge are 4.53 pixels and 5.21 pixels, respectively. PST-TBPM is valid in solving the problem that the photographing direction is not perpendicular to the bridge. Digital photography in this study can be used to assess bridge health through monitoring the dynamic deformation of a bridge in vibration. The deformation trend curves also can warn the possible dangers over time.

Longer Lasting Bridge Deck Overlays

Science.gov (United States)

2018-04-01

The objective of this report is to determine the most effective method for bridge deck overlay construction and repair by assessing current practices; examining new products and technologies; and reviewing NCHRP (National Cooperative Highway Research...

[Classification of local anesthesia methods].

Science.gov (United States)

Petricas, A Zh; Medvedev, D V; Olkhovskaya, E B

The traditional classification methods of dental local anesthesia must be modified. In this paper we proved that the vascular mechanism is leading component of spongy injection. It is necessary to take into account the high effectiveness and relative safety of spongy anesthesia, as well as versatility, ease of implementation and the growing prevalence in the world. The essence of the proposed modification is to distinguish the methods in diffusive (including surface anesthesia, infiltration and conductive anesthesia) and vascular-diffusive (including intraosseous, intraligamentary, intraseptal and intrapulpal anesthesia). For the last four methods the common term «spongy (intraosseous) anesthesia» may be used.

Bridge Programs in Illinois: Results of the 2010 Illinois Bridge Status Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, J. L.; Harmon, T.

2010-01-01

This report provides a summary of major results of the Illinois Bridge Status Survey, administered online between April and June 2010. The purpose of the survey was to understand the extent to which bridge programs are being implemented in Illinois, as well as to build an online directory of bridge programs. Bridge programs are an emerging…

Field performance of timber bridges. 6, Hoffman Run stress-laminated deck bridge

Science.gov (United States)

M. A. Ritter; P. D. Hilbrich Lee; G. J. Porter

The Hoffman Run bridge, located just outside Dahoga, Pennsylvania, was constructed in October 1990. The bridge is a simple-span, single-lane, stress-laminated deck superstructure that is approximately 26 ft long and 16 ft wide. It is the second stress-laminated timber bridge to be constructed of hardwood lumber in Pennsylvania. The performance of the bridge was...

A bottom-up approach to urban metabolism: the perspective of BRIDGE

Science.gov (United States)

Chrysoulakis, N.; Borrego, C.; San Josè, R.; Grimmond, S. B.; Jones, M. B.; Magliulo, V.; Klostermann, J.; Santamouris, M.

2011-12-01

Urban metabolism considers a city as a system and usually distinguishes between energy and material flows as its components. "Metabolic" studies are usually top-down approaches that assess the inputs and outputs of food, water, energy, and pollutants from a city, or that compare the changing metabolic process of several cities. In contrast, bottom-up approaches are based on quantitative estimates of urban metabolism components at local to regional scales. Such approaches consider the urban metabolism as the 3D exchange and transformation of energy and matter between a city and its environment. The city is considered as a system and the physical flows between this system and its environment are quantitatively estimated. The transformation of landscapes from primarily agricultural and forest uses to urbanized landscapes can greatly modify energy and material exchanges and it is, therefore, an important aspect of an urban area. Here we focus on the exchanges and transformation of energy, water, carbon and pollutants. Recent advances in bio-physical sciences have led to new methods and models to estimate local scale energy, water, carbon and pollutant fluxes. However, there is often poor communication of new knowledge and its implications to end-users, such as planners, architects and engineers. The FP7 Project BRIDGE (SustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism) aims at bridging this gap and at illustrating the advantages of considering environmental issues in urban planning. BRIDGE does not perform a complete life cycle analysis or calculate whole system urban metabolism, but rather focuses on specific metabolism components (energy, water, carbon and pollutants). Its main goal is the development of a Decision Suport System (DSS) with the potential to select planning actions which better fit the goal of changing the metabolism of urban systems towards sustainability. BRIDGE evaluates how planning alternatives can modify the physical

Bridging the digital divide: with special reference to Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper describes the digital divide in Africa with special reference to Nigeria. It presents the causes of digital divided such as; the general poor economic conditions in Africa; local content; telecommunications constraints; lack of investment in ICT infrastructure, etc. Benefits derivable from bridging the digital divide such ...

An Experimental Study of Structural Identification of Bridges Using the Kinetic Energy Optimization Technique and the Direct Matrix Updating Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gwanghee Heo

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to develop an SI (structural identification technique using the KEOT and the DMUM to decide on optimal location of sensors and to update FE model, respectively, which ultimately contributes to a composition of more effective SHM. Owing to the characteristic structural flexing behavior of cable bridges (e.g., cable-stayed bridges and suspension bridges, which makes them vulnerable to any vibration, systematic and continuous structural health monitoring (SHM is pivotal for them. Since it is necessary to select optimal measurement locations with the fewest possible measurements and also to accurately assess the structural state of a bridge for the development of an effective SHM, an SI technique is as much important to accurately determine the modal parameters of the current structure based on the data optimally obtained. In this study, the kinetic energy optimization technique (KEOT was utilized to determine the optimal measurement locations, while the direct matrix updating method (DMUM was utilized for FE model updating. As a result of experiment, the required number of measurement locations derived from KEOT based on the target mode was reduced by approximately 80% compared to the initial number of measurement locations. Moreover, compared to the eigenvalue of the modal experiment, an improved FE model with a margin of error of less than 1% was derived from DMUM. Thus, the SI technique for cable-stayed bridges proposed in this study, which utilizes both KEOT and DMUM, is proven effective in minimizing the number of sensors while accurately determining the structural dynamic characteristics.

Transient integral boundary layer method to calculate the translesional pressure drop and the fractional flow reserve in myocardial bridges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Möhlenkamp Stefan

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The pressure drop – flow relations in myocardial bridges and the assessment of vascular heart disease via fractional flow reserve (FFR have motivated many researchers the last decades. The aim of this study is to simulate several clinical conditions present in myocardial bridges to determine the flow reserve and consequently the clinical relevance of the disease. From a fluid mechanical point of view the pathophysiological situation in myocardial bridges involves fluid flow in a time dependent flow geometry, caused by contracting cardiac muscles overlying an intramural segment of the coronary artery. These flows mostly involve flow separation and secondary motions, which are difficult to calculate and analyse. Methods Because a three dimensional simulation of the haemodynamic conditions in myocardial bridges in a network of coronary arteries is time-consuming, we present a boundary layer model for the calculation of the pressure drop and flow separation. The approach is based on the assumption that the flow can be sufficiently well described by the interaction of an inviscid core and a viscous boundary layer. Under the assumption that the idealised flow through a constriction is given by near-equilibrium velocity profiles of the Falkner-Skan-Cooke (FSC family, the evolution of the boundary layer is obtained by the simultaneous solution of the Falkner-Skan equation and the transient von-Kármán integral momentum equation. Results The model was used to investigate the relative importance of several physical parameters present in myocardial bridges. Results have been obtained for steady and unsteady flow through vessels with 0 – 85% diameter stenosis. We compare two clinical relevant cases of a myocardial bridge in the middle segment of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD. The pressure derived FFR of fixed and dynamic lesions has shown that the flow is less affected in the dynamic case, because the distal

Shaking Table Tests of Curved Bridge considering Bearing Friction Sliding Isolation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Yan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Specific to severe damage to curved bridges in earthquakes caused by the excessive force of the fixed bearings and piers, a new seismic design method on curved bridges considering bearing friction sliding isolation is proposed in this paper. Seismic model bridge and isolation model bridge with similarity ratio of 1/20 were made and the shaking table comparison test was conducted. The experimental results show that the isolation model curved bridge suffered less seismic damage than the seismic model curved bridge. The fundamental frequencies of the seismic model bridge and isolation model bridge decreased and the damping ratio increased with the increase of seismic intensity. Compared with seismic curved bridge, the maximum reduction rates of peak acceleration along the radial and tangential directions on the top of pier of the isolation model curved bridge were 47.3% and 55.5%, respectively, and the maximum reduction rate of the peak strain on the bottom of pier of the isolation model curved bridge was 43.4%. For the isolation model curved bridge, the maximum reduction rate of peak acceleration on the top of pier was 24.6% compared with that on the bottom of pier. The study results can provide experimental basis for the seismic design of curved bridges.

Three-point bridge calibration with one resistor

Science.gov (United States)

Harrison, D. R.; Brown, R. M.

1974-01-01

Method calibrates transducer bridge curing unbalanced condition and line resistance errors are negligible. Series resistance method can be automated easily and controlled by 2-bit information source which provide 4 states for switches.

Mechanism of Fatigue Crack Growth of Bridge Steel Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhu H.

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This study was carried out on the background of Sutong Bridge project based on fracture mechanics, aiming at analyzing the growth mechanism of fatigue cracks of a bridge under the load of vehicles. Stress intensity factor (SIF can be calculated by various methods. Three steel plates with different kinds of cracks were taken as the samples in this study. With the combination of finite element analysis software ABAQUS and the J integral method, SIF values of the samples were calculated. After that, the extended finite element method in the simulation of fatigue crack growth was introduced, and the simulation of crack growth paths under different external loads was analyzed. At last, we took a partial model from the Sutong Bridge and supposed its two dangerous parts already had fine cracks; then simulative vehicle load was added onto the U-rib to predict crack growth paths using the extended finite element method.

An ensemble method for predicting subnuclear localizations from primary protein structures.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guo Sheng Han

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Predicting protein subnuclear localization is a challenging problem. Some previous works based on non-sequence information including Gene Ontology annotations and kernel fusion have respective limitations. The aim of this work is twofold: one is to propose a novel individual feature extraction method; another is to develop an ensemble method to improve prediction performance using comprehensive information represented in the form of high dimensional feature vector obtained by 11 feature extraction methods. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A novel two-stage multiclass support vector machine is proposed to predict protein subnuclear localizations. It only considers those feature extraction methods based on amino acid classifications and physicochemical properties. In order to speed up our system, an automatic search method for the kernel parameter is used. The prediction performance of our method is evaluated on four datasets: Lei dataset, multi-localization dataset, SNL9 dataset and a new independent dataset. The overall accuracy of prediction for 6 localizations on Lei dataset is 75.2% and that for 9 localizations on SNL9 dataset is 72.1% in the leave-one-out cross validation, 71.7% for the multi-localization dataset and 69.8% for the new independent dataset, respectively. Comparisons with those existing methods show that our method performs better for both single-localization and multi-localization proteins and achieves more balanced sensitivities and specificities on large-size and small-size subcellular localizations. The overall accuracy improvements are 4.0% and 4.7% for single-localization proteins and 6.5% for multi-localization proteins. The reliability and stability of our classification model are further confirmed by permutation analysis. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that our method is effective and valuable for predicting protein subnuclear localizations. A web server has been designed to implement the proposed method

A study of the spectrum of traffic-induced bridge vibration

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, J. D.; Pretlove, A. J.

1988-04-01

An analysis is presented of the vibration response of a bridge, in the form of a simple beam model, to the passage of random traffic. The specific objective of this work is to evaluate this method of excitation for the purpose of structural condition monitoring, though it is recognized that there are other applications of the analysis, particularly in fatigue life determinations for the structure. In-service traffic is studied because it is so convenient compared with other methods, which involve the mounting of special equipment on the bridge and possible bridge closures. To achieve this objective the dynamic response of a simply supported beam to a series of moving loads is analyzed in the time and frequency domains. The moving loads, each representing a vehicle, are separated by random time delays, and travel in both directions at constant speed. The validity of the theoretical model is assessed by comparison with measurements on a full-scale road bridge. Within the limitations of the chosen computer model it is demonstrated that the method is capable of determining the fundamental natural frequency of a bridge and possibly also the higher order natural frequencies. Further work on a more sophisticated model is suggested and, for condition monitoring purposes, the accuracy of natural frequency determinations needs to be assessed.

Life-Cycle Monitoring of Long-Span PSC Box Girder Bridges through Distributed Sensor Network: Strategies, Methods, and Applications

OpenAIRE

Chen, Zheheng; Guo, Tong; Yan, Shengyou

2015-01-01

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has attracted much attention in recent years, which enables early warnings of structural failure, condition assessments, and rational maintenance/repair strategies. In the context of bridges, many long-span steel bridges in China have been installed with the SHM systems; however, the applications of the SHM in prestressed concrete (PSC) bridges are still rather limited. On the other hand, the PSC box girder bridges are extensively used in highway and railway...

Bridging Anticoagulation

Science.gov (United States)

... clinical centers in the United States, Canada, and Brazil. A more detailed description of the study is ... Your Personal Message Send Message Share on Social Media Bridging Anticoagulation The BRIDGE Study Investigators Circulation. 2012; ...

One Curve Embedded Full-Bridge MMC Modeling Method with Detailed Representation of IGBT Characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Hongyang, Yu; Zhengang, Lu; Xi, Yang

2017-05-01

Modular Multilevel Converter is more and more widely used in high voltage DC transmission system and high power motor drive system. It is a major topological structure for high power AC-DC converter. Due to the large module number, the complex control algorithm, and the high power user’s back ground, the MMC model used for simulation should be as accurate as possible to simulate the details of how MMC works for the dynamic testing of the MMC controller. But so far, there is no sample simulation MMC model which can simulate the switching dynamic process. In this paper, one curve embedded full-bridge MMC modeling method with detailed representation of IGBT characteristics is proposed. This method is based on the switching curve referring and sample circuit calculation, and it is sample for implementation. Based on the simulation comparison test under Matlab/Simulink, the proposed method is proved to be correct.

Mathematical models for suspension bridges nonlinear structural instability

CERN Document Server

Gazzola, Filippo

2015-01-01

This work provides a detailed and up-to-the-minute survey of the various stability problems that can affect suspension bridges. In order to deduce some experimental data and rules on the behavior of suspension bridges, a number of historical events are first described, in the course of which several questions concerning their stability naturally arise. The book then surveys conventional mathematical models for suspension bridges and suggests new nonlinear alternatives, which can potentially supply answers to some stability questions. New explanations are also provided, based on the nonlinear structural behavior of bridges. All the models and responses presented in the book employ the theory of differential equations and dynamical systems in the broader sense, demonstrating that methods from nonlinear analysis can allow us to determine the thresholds of instability.

Development and simulation of microfluidic Wheatstone bridge for high-precision sensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shipulya, N D; Konakov, S A; Krzhizhanovskaya, V V

2016-01-01

In this work we present the results of analytical modeling and 3D computer simulation of microfluidic Wheatstone bridge, which is used for high-accuracy measurements and precision instruments. We propose and simulate a new method of a bridge balancing process by changing the microchannel geometry. This process is based on the “etching in microchannel” technology we developed earlier (doi:10.1088/1742-6596/681/1/012035). Our method ensures a precise control of the flow rate and flow direction in the bridge microchannel. The advantage of our approach is the ability to work without any control valves and other active electronic systems, which are usually used for bridge balancing. The geometrical configuration of microchannels was selected based on the analytical estimations. A detailed 3D numerical model was based on Navier-Stokes equations for a laminar fluid flow at low Reynolds numbers. We investigated the behavior of the Wheatstone bridge under different process conditions; found a relation between the channel resistance and flow rate through the bridge; and calculated the pressure drop across the system under different total flow rates and viscosities. Finally, we describe a high-precision microfluidic pressure sensor that employs the Wheatstone bridge and discuss other applications in complex precision microfluidic systems. (paper)

Angalasut, an education and outreach project to create a bridge between scientists, local population in Greenland and the general public

Science.gov (United States)

Bourgain, Pascaline

2015-04-01

Bridging Science and Society has now become a necessity for scientists to develop new partnerships with local communities and to raise the public interest for scientific activities. The French-Greenlandic educational project called "Angalasut" reflects this desire to create a bridge between science, local people and the general public. This program was set up on the 2012-2013 school year, as part of an international scientific program dedicated to study the interactions between the ocean and glaciers on the western coast of Greenland, in the Uummannaq fjord. Greenlandic and French school children were involved in educational activities, in classrooms and out on the field, associated with the scientific observations conducted in Greenland (glacier flow, ocean chemical composition and circulation, instrumentation...). In Greenland, the children had the opportunity to come on board the scientific sailing boat, and in France, several meetings were organized between the children and the scientists of the expedition. In the small village of Ikerasak, the children interviewed Elders about sea ice evolution in the area. These activities, coupled to the organization of public conferences and to the creation of a trilingual website of the project (French, Greenlandic, English) aimed at explaining why scientists come to study Greenland environment. This was the opportunity for scientists to discuss with villagers who could testify on their changing environment over the past decades. A first step toward a future collaboration between scientists and villagers that would deserve further development... The project Angalasut was also the opportunity for Greenlandic and French school children to exchange about their culture and their environment through Skype communications, the exchange of mails (drawings, shells...), the creation of a society game about European fauna and flora... A meeting in France between the two groups of children is considered, possibly in summer 2015

Bridging the Gap

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kramer Overgaard, Majken; Broeng, Jes; Jensen, Monika Luniewska

Bridging the Gap (BtG) is a 2-year project funded by The Danish Industry Foundation. The goal of Bridging the Gap has been to create a new innovation model which will increase the rate at which Danish universities can spinout new technology ventures.......Bridging the Gap (BtG) is a 2-year project funded by The Danish Industry Foundation. The goal of Bridging the Gap has been to create a new innovation model which will increase the rate at which Danish universities can spinout new technology ventures....

Long Span Bridges in Scandinavia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gimsing, Niels Jørgen

1998-01-01

The first Scandinavian bridge with a span of more than 500 m was the Lillebælt Suspension Bridge opened to traffic in 1970.Art the end of the 20th century the longest span of any European bridge is found in the Storebælt East Bridge with a main span of 1624 m. Also the third longest span in Europe...... is found in Scandinavia - the 1210 m span of the Höga Kusten Bridge in Sweden.The Kvarnsund Bridge in Norway was at the completion in 1991 the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, and the span of 530 m is still thge longest for cable-stayed bridges in concrete. The Øresund Bridge with its sapn of 490...

Low internal pressure in femtoliter water capillary bridges reduces evaporation rates.

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Kun; Hwang, In Gyu; Kim, Yeseul; Lim, Su Jin; Lim, Jun; Kim, Joon Heon; Gim, Bopil; Weon, Byung Mook

2016-03-01

Capillary bridges are usually formed by a small liquid volume in a confined space between two solid surfaces. They can have a lower internal pressure than the surrounding pressure for volumes of the order of femtoliters. Femtoliter capillary bridges with relatively rapid evaporation rates are difficult to explore experimentally. To understand in detail the evaporation of femtoliter capillary bridges, we present a feasible experimental method to directly visualize how water bridges evaporate between a microsphere and a flat substrate in still air using transmission X-ray microscopy. Precise measurements of evaporation rates for water bridges show that lower water pressure than surrounding pressure can significantly decrease evaporation through the suppression of vapor diffusion. This finding provides insight into the evaporation of ultrasmall capillary bridges.

Low internal pressure in femtoliter water capillary bridges reduces evaporation rates

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Kun; Hwang, In Gyu; Kim, Yeseul; Lim, Su Jin; Lim, Jun; Kim, Joon Heon; Gim, Bopil; Weon, Byung Mook

2016-01-01

Capillary bridges are usually formed by a small liquid volume in a confined space between two solid surfaces. They can have a lower internal pressure than the surrounding pressure for volumes of the order of femtoliters. Femtoliter capillary bridges with relatively rapid evaporation rates are difficult to explore experimentally. To understand in detail the evaporation of femtoliter capillary bridges, we present a feasible experimental method to directly visualize how water bridges evaporate between a microsphere and a flat substrate in still air using transmission X-ray microscopy. Precise measurements of evaporation rates for water bridges show that lower water pressure than surrounding pressure can significantly decrease evaporation through the suppression of vapor diffusion. This finding provides insight into the evaporation of ultrasmall capillary bridges. PMID:26928329

Disassembly of an arch bridge deformed due to landslide activity and the replacement of a new bridge in the same site. Jisuberi ni yori henkei shita arch bashi no kaitai to shinbashi no kakekae

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sano, S; Morimoto, C; Tomoda, T; Mizukawa, Y; Onushi, M; Ito, T [Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

1991-10-20

This report describes the replacement process of an arch bridge deformed due to landslide activity, selection and contents of the disassembly method, and configuration of the new bridge and its design method. The Ryugu Bridge had been damaged by landslides over an extended period. It was a deck arch bridge having originally a span of 74 meters, but it had shortened by 424 mm due to landslide activity during 14 years since its completion. Then it was decided to be replaced by a new bridge having an adjustable structure to support the movement of its abutments. As disassembly of the deformed arch bridge could be dangerous, the best methodology was studied, and the disassembly was carried out by the cable method. The new bridge had box-girder parts in both side of the main truss, so as to be adjustable to the change of the span length, and the bridge was designed for a working life of 50 years if the bearing supports and expansion joints were reset every 10 years. Concerning the connecting parts between the box-girder and the main truss, appropriateness of the sectional configuration was verified by FEM analysis. 9 refs., 18 figs., 2 tab.

Exploring of PST-TBPM in Monitoring Bridge Dynamic Deflection in Vibration

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Guojian; Liu, Shengzhen; Zhao, Tonglong; Yu, Chengxin

2018-01-01

This study adopts digital photography to monitor bridge dynamic deflection in vibration. Digital photography used in this study is based on PST-TBPM (photographing scale transformation-time baseline parallax method). Firstly, a digital camera is used to monitor the bridge in static as a zero image. Then, the digital camera is used to monitor the bridge in vibration every three seconds as the successive images. Based on the reference system, PST-TBPM is used to calculate the images to obtain the bridge dynamic deflection in vibration. Results show that the average measurement accuracies are 0.615 pixels and 0.79 pixels in X and Z direction. The maximal deflection of the bridge is 7.14 pixels. PST-TBPM is valid in solving the problem-the photographing direction not perpendicular to the bridge. Digital photography used in this study can assess the bridge health through monitoring the bridge dynamic deflection in vibration. The deformation trend curves depicted over time also can warn the possible dangers.

Risk Assessment for Bridges Safety Management during Operation Based on Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xia Hanyu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, large span and large sea-crossing bridges are built, bridges accidents caused by improper operational management occur frequently. In order to explore the better methods for risk assessment of the bridges operation departments, the method based on fuzzy clustering algorithm is selected. Then, the implementation steps of fuzzy clustering algorithm are described, the risk evaluation system is built, and Taizhou Bridge is selected as an example, the quantitation of risk factors is described. After that, the clustering algorithm based on fuzzy equivalence is calculated on MATLAB 2010a. In the last, Taizhou Bridge operation management departments are classified and sorted according to the degree of risk, and the safety situation of operation departments is analyzed.

Multi-criteria decision making : AHP method applied for network bridge prioritization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Allah Bukhsh, Zaharah; Stipanovic, Irina; Klanker, Giel; Hoj, Niels; Imam, Boulent; Xenidis, Yiannis; Mandić Ivanković, Ana

2017-01-01

In bridge management systems, multi-objective decision-making has emerged as a decision support technique to integrate various technical information and stakeholder values. Different multicriteria decision making techniques and tools have been developed in the last three decades. This paper presents

Integral Abutment and Jointless Bridges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristian-Claudiu Comisu

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Integral bridges, or integral abutment and jointless bridges, as they are more commonly known in the USA, are constructed without any movement joints between spans or between spans and abutments. Typically these bridges have stub-type abutments supported on piles and continuous bridge deck from one embankment to the other. Foundations are usually designed to be small and flexible to facilitate horizontal movement or rocking of the support. Integrally bridges are simple or multiple span ones that have their superstructure cast integrally with their substructure. The jointless bridges cost less to construct and require less maintenance then equivalent bridges with expansion joints. Integral bridges present a challenge for load distribution calculations because the bridge deck, piers, abutments, embankments and soil must all be considered as single compliant system. This paper presents some of the important features of integral abutment and jointless bridge design and some guidelines to achieve improved design. The goal of this paper is to enhance the awareness among the engineering community to use integral abutment and jointless bridges in Romania.

Simple heuristics: A bridge between manual core design and automated optimization methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

White, J.R.; Delmolino, P.M.

1993-01-01

The primary function of RESCUE is to serve as an aid in the analysis and identification of feasible loading patterns for LWR reload cores. The unique feature of RESCUE is that its physics model is based on some recent advances in generalized perturbation theory (GPT) methods. The high order GPT techniques offer the accuracy, computational efficiency, and flexibility needed for the implementation of a full range of capabilities within a set of compatible interactive (manual and semi-automated) and automated design tools. The basic design philosophy and current features within RESCUE are reviewed, and the new semi-automated capability is highlighted. The online advisor facility appears quite promising and it provides a natural bridge between the traditional trial-and-error manual process and the recent progress towards fully automated optimization sequences. (orig.)

A local level set method based on a finite element method for unstructured meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ngo, Long Cu; Choi, Hyoung Gwon

2016-01-01

A local level set method for unstructured meshes has been implemented by using a finite element method. A least-square weighted residual method was employed for implicit discretization to solve the level set advection equation. By contrast, a direct re-initialization method, which is directly applicable to the local level set method for unstructured meshes, was adopted to re-correct the level set function to become a signed distance function after advection. The proposed algorithm was constructed such that the advection and direct reinitialization steps were conducted only for nodes inside the narrow band around the interface. Therefore, in the advection step, the Gauss–Seidel method was used to update the level set function using a node-by-node solution method. Some benchmark problems were solved by using the present local level set method. Numerical results have shown that the proposed algorithm is accurate and efficient in terms of computational time

A local level set method based on a finite element method for unstructured meshes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ngo, Long Cu; Choi, Hyoung Gwon [School of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2016-12-15

A local level set method for unstructured meshes has been implemented by using a finite element method. A least-square weighted residual method was employed for implicit discretization to solve the level set advection equation. By contrast, a direct re-initialization method, which is directly applicable to the local level set method for unstructured meshes, was adopted to re-correct the level set function to become a signed distance function after advection. The proposed algorithm was constructed such that the advection and direct reinitialization steps were conducted only for nodes inside the narrow band around the interface. Therefore, in the advection step, the Gauss–Seidel method was used to update the level set function using a node-by-node solution method. Some benchmark problems were solved by using the present local level set method. Numerical results have shown that the proposed algorithm is accurate and efficient in terms of computational time.

A static analysis method for barge impact design of bridges with consideration of dynamic amplification : summary.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-11-01

Several hundred Florida bridges span waterways deep enough for barge traffic. To ensure a bridge is capable of withstanding the potential impact of a barge collision, engineers use design specifications recommended by the American Association of Stat...

MFAM: Multiple Frequency Adaptive Model-Based Indoor Localization Method.

Science.gov (United States)

Tuta, Jure; Juric, Matjaz B

2018-03-24

This paper presents MFAM (Multiple Frequency Adaptive Model-based localization method), a novel model-based indoor localization method that is capable of using multiple wireless signal frequencies simultaneously. It utilizes indoor architectural model and physical properties of wireless signal propagation through objects and space. The motivation for developing multiple frequency localization method lies in the future Wi-Fi standards (e.g., 802.11ah) and the growing number of various wireless signals present in the buildings (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc.). Current indoor localization methods mostly rely on a single wireless signal type and often require many devices to achieve the necessary accuracy. MFAM utilizes multiple wireless signal types and improves the localization accuracy over the usage of a single frequency. It continuously monitors signal propagation through space and adapts the model according to the changes indoors. Using multiple signal sources lowers the required number of access points for a specific signal type while utilizing signals, already present in the indoors. Due to the unavailability of the 802.11ah hardware, we have evaluated proposed method with similar signals; we have used 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and 868 MHz HomeMatic home automation signals. We have performed the evaluation in a modern two-bedroom apartment and measured mean localization error 2.0 to 2.3 m and median error of 2.0 to 2.2 m. Based on our evaluation results, using two different signals improves the localization accuracy by 18% in comparison to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi-only approach. Additional signals would improve the accuracy even further. We have shown that MFAM provides better accuracy than competing methods, while having several advantages for real-world usage.

MFAM: Multiple Frequency Adaptive Model-Based Indoor Localization Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jure Tuta

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents MFAM (Multiple Frequency Adaptive Model-based localization method, a novel model-based indoor localization method that is capable of using multiple wireless signal frequencies simultaneously. It utilizes indoor architectural model and physical properties of wireless signal propagation through objects and space. The motivation for developing multiple frequency localization method lies in the future Wi-Fi standards (e.g., 802.11ah and the growing number of various wireless signals present in the buildings (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc.. Current indoor localization methods mostly rely on a single wireless signal type and often require many devices to achieve the necessary accuracy. MFAM utilizes multiple wireless signal types and improves the localization accuracy over the usage of a single frequency. It continuously monitors signal propagation through space and adapts the model according to the changes indoors. Using multiple signal sources lowers the required number of access points for a specific signal type while utilizing signals, already present in the indoors. Due to the unavailability of the 802.11ah hardware, we have evaluated proposed method with similar signals; we have used 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and 868 MHz HomeMatic home automation signals. We have performed the evaluation in a modern two-bedroom apartment and measured mean localization error 2.0 to 2.3 m and median error of 2.0 to 2.2 m. Based on our evaluation results, using two different signals improves the localization accuracy by 18% in comparison to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi-only approach. Additional signals would improve the accuracy even further. We have shown that MFAM provides better accuracy than competing methods, while having several advantages for real-world usage.

Bridge deterioration models to support Indiana's bridge management system.

Science.gov (United States)

2016-02-01

An effective bridge management system that is equipped with reliable deterioration models enables agency engineers to carry out : monitoring and long-term programming of bridge repair actions. At the project level, deterioration models help the agenc...

Characteristics of a plasma flow field produced by a metal array bridge foil explosion

Science.gov (United States)

Junying, WU; Long, WANG; Yase, LI; Lijun, YANG; Manzoor, SULTAN; Lang, CHEN

2018-07-01

To improve the energy utilization efficiency of metal bridge foil explosion, and increase the function range of plasmas, array bridge foil explosion experiments with different structures were performed. A Schlieren photographic measurement system with a double-pulse laser source was used to observe the flow field of a bridge foil explosion. The evolution laws of plasmas and shock waves generated by array bridge foil explosions of different structures were analyzed and compared. A multi-phase flow calculation model was established to simulate the electrical exploding process of a metal bridge foil. The plasma equation of state was determined by considering the effect of the changing number of particles and Coulomb interaction on the pressure and internal energy. The ionization degree of the plasma was calculated via the Saha–Eggert equation assuming conditions of local thermal equilibrium. The exploding process of array bridge foils was simulated, and the superposition processes of plasma beams were analyzed. The variation and distribution laws of the density, temperature, pressure, and other important parameters were obtained. The results show that the array bridge foil has a larger plasma jet diameter than the single bridge foil for an equal total area of the bridge foil. We also found that the temperature, pressure, and density of the plasma jet’s center region sharply increase because of the superposition of plasma beams.

The application of non-destructive methods in the diagnostics of the approach pavement at the bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Miskiewicz, M.; Lachowicz, J.; Tysiac, P.; Jaskula, P.; Wilde, K.

2018-05-01

The article presents the possibility of using non-destructive methods of road pavement diagnostics as an alternative to traditional means to assess the reasons for premature cracks adjacent to bridge objects. Two scanning methods were used: laser scanning to measure geometric surface deformation and ground penetrating radar (GPR) inspection to assess the road pavement condition. With the use of a laser scanner, an effective tool for road deformation assessment several approach pavement surfaces next to the bridges were scanned. As the result, a point cloud was obtained including spatial information about the pavement deformation. The data accuracy was about 3 mm, the deformations were presented in the form of deviation maps between the reference surface and the actual surface. Moreover characteristic pavement surface cross-sections were presented. The in situ measurements of the GPR method were performed and analysed in order to detect non-homogeneity in the density of structural layers of the pavement. Due to the analysis of the permittivity of individual layers, it was possible to detect non-homogeneity areas. The performed GPR measurements were verified by standard invasive tests carried out by drilling boreholes and taking cores from the pavement and testing the compaction and air voids content in asphalt layers. As a result of the measurements made by both methods significant differences in layer compacting factor values were diagnosed. The factor was much smaller in the area directly next to the bridgehead and much larger in the zone located a few meters away. The research showed the occurrence of both design and erection errors as well as those related to the maintenance of engineering structures.

Bridging the Scientific and Indigenous Communities to Study Sea Ice Change in Arctic Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Mahoney, A. R.; Zappa, C. J.; Betcher, S. R.; Hauser, D.; Whiting, A.; Goodwin, J.; Harris, C.; Schaefer, B.; Schaefer, R.

2017-12-01

Ikaavik Sikukuun (Ice Bridges) is a newly-launched research partnership in Kotzebue, Alaska, that adopts an end-to-end community-based approach to study fundamental processes underlying the mechanisms and impacts of the changing sea ice in coastal Alaska. Under guidance from a local advisory council, we will use state-of-the-art observing techniques including long-range unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to study under-observed sea ice regions during critical periods of marine mammal migration, molting and reproduction. Here, we describe what, to the best of our knowledge, is a precedent-setting approach to co-creating research questions and hypotheses that integrate indigenous knowledge (IK) and interdisciplinary scientific methods. A key element of this approach is that we established an advisory committee of local IK holders before defining specific research questions. This has enabled us to iteratively develop hypotheses that incorporate IK and respond to the research needs of the local community while also addressing key geophysical and ecological questions related to changes in the seasonal ice zone. The advisory committee will be key participants in the project team, ensuring that IK is incorporated into the design of the observing plan and the synthesis and dissemination of findings. In addition to building bridges between the scientific community and indigenous residents of Kotzebue, the legacy of our project will include a video documentary that will allow us to share the story of this partnership and our findings with a broad audience.

INVESTIGATION THE FITTING ACCURACY OF CAST AND SLM CO-CR DENTAL BRIDGES USING CAD SOFTWARE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsanka Dikova

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of the present paper is to investigate the fitting accuracy of Co-Cr dental bridges, manufactured by three technologies, with the newly developed method using CAD software. The four-part dental bridges of Co-Cr alloys were produced by conventional casting of wax models, casting with 3D printed patterns and selective laser melting. The marginal and internal fit of dental bridges was studied out by two methods – silicone replica test and CAD software. As the silicone replica test characterizes with comparatively low accuracy, a new methodology for investigating the fitting accuracy of dental bridges was developed based on the SolidWorks CAD software. The newly developed method allows the study of the marginal and internal adaptation in unlimited directions and high accuracy. Investigation the marginal fit and internal adaptation of Co-Cr four-part dental bridges by the two methods show that the technological process strongly influences the fitting accuracy of dental restorations. The fitting accuracy of the bridges, cast with 3D printed patterns, is the highest, followed by the SLM and conventionally cast bridges. The marginal fit of the three groups of bridges is in the clinically acceptable range. The internal gap values vary in different regions – it is highest on the occlusal surfaces, followed by that in the marginal and axial areas. The higher fitting accuracy of the bridges, manufactured by casting with 3D printed patterns and SLM, compared to the conventionally cast bridges is a good precondition for their successful implementation in the dental offices and laboratories.

Extension of POA based on Fiber Element to Girder Bridge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Zhenxin; Qiang Shizhong

2010-01-01

Because of its main advantage of simplicity, practicality, lower computational cost and relative good results Pushover analysis (POA) has become an effective analytical tool during the last decade for the seismic assessment of buildings. But such work on bridges has been very limited. Hence, the aim of this study is to adapt POA for nonlinear seismic analysis of girder bridges, and investigate its applicability in the case of an existing river-spanning approach bridge. To three different types bridge models the nonlinear POA, which adopts fiber model nonlinear beam-column element based on flexibility approach, with return period about 2500 years is carried out. It can be concluded that POA is applicable for bridges, with some shortcomings associated with the method in general, even when it is applied for buildings. Finally the applicable selection for monitoring point and lateral load pattern is suggested according to dynamic characteristic of girder bridges.

Proton production, neutralisation and reduction in a floating water bridge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sammer, Martina; Wexler, Adam D; Kuntke, Philipp; Stanulewicz, Natalia; Lankmayr, Ernst; Woisetschläger, Jakob; Fuchs, Elmar C; Wiltsche, Helmar

2015-01-01

This work reports on proton production, transport, reduction and neutralization in floating aqueous bridges under the application of a high dc voltage (‘floating water bridge’). Recently possible mechanisms for proton transfer through the bridge were suggested. In this work we visualize and describe the production of protons in the anolyte and their neutralization in the catholyte. Apart from that, protons are reduced to hydrogen due to electrolysis. Microbubbles are detached instantly, due to the electrohydrodynamic flow at the electrode surface. No larger, visible bubbles are formed and the system degasses through the bridge due to its higher local temperature. A detailed analysis of trace elements originating from beaker material, anode or the atmosphere is presented, showing that their influence on the overall conduction compared to the contribution of protons is negligible. Finally, an electrochemical rationale of high voltage electrolysis of low ionic strength solutions is presented. (paper)

Proton production, neutralisation and reduction in a floating water bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Sammer, Martina; Wexler, Adam D.; Kuntke, Philipp; Wiltsche, Helmar; Stanulewicz, Natalia; Lankmayr, Ernst; Woisetschläger, Jakob; Fuchs, Elmar C.

2015-10-01

This work reports on proton production, transport, reduction and neutralization in floating aqueous bridges under the application of a high dc voltage (‘floating water bridge’). Recently possible mechanisms for proton transfer through the bridge were suggested. In this work we visualize and describe the production of protons in the anolyte and their neutralization in the catholyte. Apart from that, protons are reduced to hydrogen due to electrolysis. Microbubbles are detached instantly, due to the electrohydrodynamic flow at the electrode surface. No larger, visible bubbles are formed and the system degasses through the bridge due to its higher local temperature. A detailed analysis of trace elements originating from beaker material, anode or the atmosphere is presented, showing that their influence on the overall conduction compared to the contribution of protons is negligible. Finally, an electrochemical rationale of high voltage electrolysis of low ionic strength solutions is presented.

Isolating the location of scour-induced stiffness loss in bridges using local modal behaviour

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Prendergast, L.J.; Gavin, K.; Hester, David

2017-01-01

Detecting scour by analysing bridge vibrations is receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature. Others have considered changes in natural frequency to indicate the presence of scour damage; however, little work has been reported on identifying the location of a scour hole based

Dynamic Response of a Floating Bridge Structure

OpenAIRE

Viuff, Thomas; Leira, Bernt Johan; Øiseth, Ole; Xiang, Xu

2016-01-01

A theoretical overview of the stochastic dynamic analysis of a floating bridge structure is presented. Emphasis is on the wave-induced response and the waves on the sea surface are idealized as a zero mean stationary Gaussian process. The first-order wave load processes are derived using linear potential theory and the structural idealization is based on the Finite Element Method. A frequency response calculation is presented for a simplified floating bridge structure example emphasising the ...

Observing Bridge Dynamic Deflection in Green Time by Information Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Chengxin; Zhang, Guojian; Zhao, Yongqian; Chen, Mingzhi

2018-01-01

As traditional surveying methods are limited to observe bridge dynamic deflection; information technology is adopted to observe bridge dynamic deflection in Green time. Information technology used in this study means that we use digital cameras to photograph the bridge in red time as a zero image. Then, a series of successive images are photographed in green time. Deformation point targets are identified and located by Hough transform. With reference to the control points, the deformation values of these deformation points are obtained by differencing the successive images with a zero image, respectively. Results show that the average measurement accuracies of C0 are 0.46 pixels, 0.51 pixels and 0.74 pixels in X, Z and comprehensive direction. The average measurement accuracies of C1 are 0.43 pixels, 0.43 pixels and 0.67 pixels in X, Z and comprehensive direction in these tests. The maximal bridge deflection is 44.16mm, which is less than 75mm (Bridge deflection tolerance value). Information technology in this paper can monitor bridge dynamic deflection and depict deflection trend curves of the bridge in real time. It can provide data support for the site decisions to the bridge structure safety.

Dynamic response of a monorail steel bridge under a moving train

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, C. H.; Kawatani, M.; Kim, C. W.; Nishimura, N.; Kobayashi, Y.

2006-06-01

This study proposes a dynamic response analysis procedure for traffic-induced vibration of a monorail bridge and train. Each car in the monorail train is idealized as a dynamic system of 15-degrees-of-freedom. The governing equations of motion for a three-dimensional monorail bridge-train interaction system are derived using Lagrange's formulation for monorail trains, and a finite-element method for modal analysis of monorail bridges. Analytical results on dynamic response of the monorail train and bridge are compared with field-test data in order to verify the validity of the proposed analysis procedure, and a positive correlation is found. An interesting feature of the monorail bridge response is that sway motion is caused by torsional behavior resulting from eccentricity between the shear center of the bridge section and the train load.

Existing Steel Railway Bridges Evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Vičan, Josef; Gocál, Jozef; Odrobiňák, Jaroslav; Koteš, Peter

2016-12-01

The article describes general principles and basis of evaluation of existing railway bridges based on the concept of load-carrying capacity determination. Compared to the design of a new bridge, the modified reliability level for existing bridges evaluation should be considered due to implementation of the additional data related to bridge condition and behaviour obtained from regular inspections. Based on those data respecting the bridge remaining lifetime, a modification of partial safety factors for actions and materials could be respected in the bridge evaluation process. A great attention is also paid to the specific problems of determination of load-caring capacity of steel railway bridges in service. Recommendation for global analysis and methodology for existing steel bridge superstructure load-carrying capacity determination are described too.

Long-Term Deflection Prediction from Computer Vision-Measured Data History for High-Speed Railway Bridges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaebeom Lee

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Management of the vertical long-term deflection of a high-speed railway bridge is a crucial factor to guarantee traffic safety and passenger comfort. Therefore, there have been efforts to predict the vertical deflection of a railway bridge based on physics-based models representing various influential factors to vertical deflection such as concrete creep and shrinkage. However, it is not an easy task because the vertical deflection of a railway bridge generally involves several sources of uncertainty. This paper proposes a probabilistic method that employs a Gaussian process to construct a model to predict the vertical deflection of a railway bridge based on actual vision-based measurement and temperature. To deal with the sources of uncertainty which may cause prediction errors, a Gaussian process is modeled with multiple kernels and hyperparameters. Once the hyperparameters are identified through the Gaussian process regression using training data, the proposed method provides a 95% prediction interval as well as a predictive mean about the vertical deflection of the bridge. The proposed method is applied to an arch bridge under operation for high-speed trains in South Korea. The analysis results obtained from the proposed method show good agreement with the actual measurement data on the vertical deflection of the example bridge, and the prediction results can be utilized for decision-making on railway bridge maintenance.

Long-Term Deflection Prediction from Computer Vision-Measured Data History for High-Speed Railway Bridges.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jaebeom; Lee, Kyoung-Chan; Lee, Young-Joo

2018-05-09

Management of the vertical long-term deflection of a high-speed railway bridge is a crucial factor to guarantee traffic safety and passenger comfort. Therefore, there have been efforts to predict the vertical deflection of a railway bridge based on physics-based models representing various influential factors to vertical deflection such as concrete creep and shrinkage. However, it is not an easy task because the vertical deflection of a railway bridge generally involves several sources of uncertainty. This paper proposes a probabilistic method that employs a Gaussian process to construct a model to predict the vertical deflection of a railway bridge based on actual vision-based measurement and temperature. To deal with the sources of uncertainty which may cause prediction errors, a Gaussian process is modeled with multiple kernels and hyperparameters. Once the hyperparameters are identified through the Gaussian process regression using training data, the proposed method provides a 95% prediction interval as well as a predictive mean about the vertical deflection of the bridge. The proposed method is applied to an arch bridge under operation for high-speed trains in South Korea. The analysis results obtained from the proposed method show good agreement with the actual measurement data on the vertical deflection of the example bridge, and the prediction results can be utilized for decision-making on railway bridge maintenance.

The Relation between the Electric Conductance of Nanostructure Bridge and Friedel Sum Rule

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kotani, Y; Shima, N; Makoshi, K

2012-01-01

We analyze the electric conductance through nanostructure bridges in terms of phase-shifts, which satisfy the Friedel sum rule. The phase-shifts are given by solving the eigenvalue equation obtained by extending the method applied to a single impurity problem in a metal. The local charge neutrality condition is introduced through the Friedel sum rule. It is analytically shown that the electric conductance can increase as the two electrodes separate with the condition in which the phase-shifts satisfy the Friedel sum rule. The increment of the distance between two electrodes is obtained by gradually separating interatomic distance.

Bridge Building Potential in Cross-Cultural Learning: A Mixed Method Study

Science.gov (United States)

Rienties, Bart; Johan, Novie; Jindal-Snape, Divya

2015-01-01

Although many international students experience transitional issues, most research assumes that these issues will disappear over time with increased interaction. Using principles of social network theory, this study addressed why some students become bridge builders between international and host students, while others primarily interact with…

Conserved salt-bridge competition triggered by phosphorylation regulates the protein interactome

KAUST Repository

Skinner, John J.

2017-12-05

Phosphorylation is a major regulator of protein interactions; however, the mechanisms by which regulation occurs are not well understood. Here we identify a salt-bridge competition or “theft” mechanism that enables a phospho-triggered swap of protein partners by Raf Kinase Inhibitory Protein (RKIP). RKIP transitions from inhibiting Raf-1 to inhibiting G-protein–coupled receptor kinase 2 upon phosphorylation, thereby bridging MAP kinase and G-Protein–Coupled Receptor signaling. NMR and crystallography indicate that a phosphoserine, but not a phosphomimetic, competes for a lysine from a preexisting salt bridge, initiating a partial unfolding event and promoting new protein interactions. Structural elements underlying the theft occurred early in evolution and are found in 10% of homo-oligomers and 30% of hetero-oligomers including Bax, Troponin C, and Early Endosome Antigen 1. In contrast to a direct recognition of phosphorylated residues by binding partners, the salt-bridge theft mechanism represents a facile strategy for promoting or disrupting protein interactions using solvent-accessible residues, and it can provide additional specificity at protein interfaces through local unfolding or conformational change.

Conserved salt-bridge competition triggered by phosphorylation regulates the protein interactome

KAUST Repository

Skinner, John J.; Wang, Sheng; Lee, Jiyoung; Ong, Colin; Sommese, Ruth; Sivaramakrishnan, Sivaraj; Koelmel, Wolfgang; Hirschbeck, Maria; Schindelin, Hermann; Kisker, Caroline; Lorenz, Kristina; Sosnick, Tobin R.; Rosner, Marsha Rich

2017-01-01

Phosphorylation is a major regulator of protein interactions; however, the mechanisms by which regulation occurs are not well understood. Here we identify a salt-bridge competition or “theft” mechanism that enables a phospho-triggered swap of protein partners by Raf Kinase Inhibitory Protein (RKIP). RKIP transitions from inhibiting Raf-1 to inhibiting G-protein–coupled receptor kinase 2 upon phosphorylation, thereby bridging MAP kinase and G-Protein–Coupled Receptor signaling. NMR and crystallography indicate that a phosphoserine, but not a phosphomimetic, competes for a lysine from a preexisting salt bridge, initiating a partial unfolding event and promoting new protein interactions. Structural elements underlying the theft occurred early in evolution and are found in 10% of homo-oligomers and 30% of hetero-oligomers including Bax, Troponin C, and Early Endosome Antigen 1. In contrast to a direct recognition of phosphorylated residues by binding partners, the salt-bridge theft mechanism represents a facile strategy for promoting or disrupting protein interactions using solvent-accessible residues, and it can provide additional specificity at protein interfaces through local unfolding or conformational change.

Field performance of timber bridges. 5, Little Salmon Creek stress-laminated deck bridge

Science.gov (United States)

M. A. Ritter; J. A. Kainz; G. J. Porter

The Little Salmon Creek bridge was constructed in November 1988 on the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. The bridge is a simple span, single-lane, stress-laminated deck superstructure that is approximately 26-ft long and 16-ft wide. The bridge is unique in that it is the first known stress-laminated timber bridge to be constructed of hardwood lumber. The...

Field performance of timber bridges. 9, Big Erick`s stress-laminated deck bridge

Science.gov (United States)

J. A. Kainz; J. P. Wacker; M. Nelson

The Big Erickas bridge was constructed during September 1992 in Baraga County, Michigan. The bridge is 72 ft long, 16 ft wide, and consists of three simple spans: two stress-laminated deck approach spans and a stress-laminated box center span. The bridge is unique in that it is one of the first known stress-laminated timber bridge applications to use Eastern Hemlock...

Dorsal bridge plating or transarticular screws for Lisfranc fracture dislocations.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirzner, N; Zotov, P; Goldbloom, D; Curry, H; Bedi, H

2018-04-01

Aims The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the functional and radiological outcomes of bridge plating, screw fixation, and a combination of both methods for the treatment of Lisfranc fracture dislocations. Patients and Methods A total of 108 patients were treated for a Lisfranc fracture dislocation over a period of nine years. Of these, 38 underwent transarticular screw fixation, 45 dorsal bridge plating, and 25 a combination technique. Injuries were assessed preoperatively according to the Myerson classification system. The outcome measures included the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) score, the validated Manchester Oxford Foot Questionnaire (MOXFQ) functional tool, and the radiological Wilppula classification of anatomical reduction. Results Significantly better functional outcomes were seen in the bridge plate group. These patients had a mean AOFAS score of 82.5 points, compared with 71.0 for the screw group and 63.3 for the combination group (p bridge plate group, 38.1 in the screw group, and 45.5 in the combination group (p bridge plating have better functional and radiological outcomes than those treated with transarticular screws or a combination technique. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2018;100-B:468-74.

Hydraulic modeling of flow impact on bridge structures: a case study on Citarum bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Siregar, R. I.

2018-02-01

Flood waves because of the rapid catchment response to high intense rainfall, breaches of flood defenses may induce huge impact forces on structures, causing structural damage or even failures. Overflowing stream that passes over the bridge, it means to discharge flood water level is smaller than the capacity of the river flow. In this study, the researches present the methodological approach of flood modeling on bridge structures. The amount of force that obtained because of the hydrostatic pressure received by the bridge at the time of the flood caused the bridge structure disrupted. This paper presents simulation of flow impact on bridge structures with some event flood conditions. Estimating the hydrostatic pressure developed new model components, to quantify the flow impact on structures. Flow parameters applied the model for analyzing, such as discharge, velocity, and water level or head that effect of bridge structures. The simulation will illustrate the capability of bridge structures with some event flood river and observe the behavior of the flow that occurred during the flood. Hydraulic flood modeling use HEC-RAS for simulation. This modeling will describe the impact on bridge structures. Based on the above modelling resulted, in 2008 has flood effect more than other years on the Citarum Bridge, because its flow overflow on the bridge.

Bridge Crack Detection Using Multi-Rotary Uav and Object-Base Image Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Rau, J. Y.; Hsiao, K. W.; Jhan, J. P.; Wang, S. H.; Fang, W. C.; Wang, J. L.

2017-08-01

Bridge is an important infrastructure for human life. Thus, the bridge safety monitoring and maintaining is an important issue to the government. Conventionally, bridge inspection were conducted by human in-situ visual examination. This procedure sometimes require under bridge inspection vehicle or climbing under the bridge personally. Thus, its cost and risk is high as well as labor intensive and time consuming. Particularly, its documentation procedure is subjective without 3D spatial information. In order cope with these challenges, this paper propose the use of a multi-rotary UAV that equipped with a SONY A7r2 high resolution digital camera, 50 mm fixed focus length lens, 135 degrees up-down rotating gimbal. The target bridge contains three spans with a total of 60 meters long, 20 meters width and 8 meters height above the water level. In the end, we took about 10,000 images, but some of them were acquired by hand held method taken on the ground using a pole with 2-8 meters long. Those images were processed by Agisoft PhotoscanPro to obtain exterior and interior orientation parameters. A local coordinate system was defined by using 12 ground control points measured by a total station. After triangulation and camera self-calibration, the RMS of control points is less than 3 cm. A 3D CAD model that describe the bridge surface geometry was manually measured by PhotoscanPro. They were composed of planar polygons and will be used for searching related UAV images. Additionally, a photorealistic 3D model can be produced for 3D visualization. In order to detect cracks on the bridge surface, we utilize object-based image analysis (OBIA) technique to segment the image into objects. Later, we derive several object features, such as density, area/bounding box ratio, length/width ratio, length, etc. Then, we can setup a classification rule set to distinguish cracks. Further, we apply semi-global-matching (SGM) to obtain 3D crack information and based on image scale we

BRIDGE CRACK DETECTION USING MULTI-ROTARY UAV AND OBJECT-BASE IMAGE ANALYSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Y. Rau

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Bridge is an important infrastructure for human life. Thus, the bridge safety monitoring and maintaining is an important issue to the government. Conventionally, bridge inspection were conducted by human in-situ visual examination. This procedure sometimes require under bridge inspection vehicle or climbing under the bridge personally. Thus, its cost and risk is high as well as labor intensive and time consuming. Particularly, its documentation procedure is subjective without 3D spatial information. In order cope with these challenges, this paper propose the use of a multi-rotary UAV that equipped with a SONY A7r2 high resolution digital camera, 50 mm fixed focus length lens, 135 degrees up-down rotating gimbal. The target bridge contains three spans with a total of 60 meters long, 20 meters width and 8 meters height above the water level. In the end, we took about 10,000 images, but some of them were acquired by hand held method taken on the ground using a pole with 2–8 meters long. Those images were processed by Agisoft PhotoscanPro to obtain exterior and interior orientation parameters. A local coordinate system was defined by using 12 ground control points measured by a total station. After triangulation and camera self-calibration, the RMS of control points is less than 3 cm. A 3D CAD model that describe the bridge surface geometry was manually measured by PhotoscanPro. They were composed of planar polygons and will be used for searching related UAV images. Additionally, a photorealistic 3D model can be produced for 3D visualization. In order to detect cracks on the bridge surface, we utilize object-based image analysis (OBIA technique to segment the image into objects. Later, we derive several object features, such as density, area/bounding box ratio, length/width ratio, length, etc. Then, we can setup a classification rule set to distinguish cracks. Further, we apply semi-global-matching (SGM to obtain 3D crack information and based

Multipurpose layout drawing of metalware of bridge crane load trolley

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Goncharov K.A.

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Multipurpose layout drawing of metalware of bridge crane load trolley is proposed. The numerical analysis of proposed layout drawing is conducted using the example of bridge crane load trolley with capacity of 20 t. This analysis is carried out using the finite element method.

Existing Steel Railway Bridges Evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vičan Josef

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The article describes general principles and basis of evaluation of existing railway bridges based on the concept of load-carrying capacity determination. Compared to the design of a new bridge, the modified reliability level for existing bridges evaluation should be considered due to implementation of the additional data related to bridge condition and behaviour obtained from regular inspections. Based on those data respecting the bridge remaining lifetime, a modification of partial safety factors for actions and materials could be respected in the bridge evaluation process. A great attention is also paid to the specific problems of determination of load-caring capacity of steel railway bridges in service. Recommendation for global analysis and methodology for existing steel bridge superstructure load-carrying capacity determination are described too.

Local coding based matching kernel method for image classification.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yan Song

Full Text Available This paper mainly focuses on how to effectively and efficiently measure visual similarity for local feature based representation. Among existing methods, metrics based on Bag of Visual Word (BoV techniques are efficient and conceptually simple, at the expense of effectiveness. By contrast, kernel based metrics are more effective, but at the cost of greater computational complexity and increased storage requirements. We show that a unified visual matching framework can be developed to encompass both BoV and kernel based metrics, in which local kernel plays an important role between feature pairs or between features and their reconstruction. Generally, local kernels are defined using Euclidean distance or its derivatives, based either explicitly or implicitly on an assumption of Gaussian noise. However, local features such as SIFT and HoG often follow a heavy-tailed distribution which tends to undermine the motivation behind Euclidean metrics. Motivated by recent advances in feature coding techniques, a novel efficient local coding based matching kernel (LCMK method is proposed. This exploits the manifold structures in Hilbert space derived from local kernels. The proposed method combines advantages of both BoV and kernel based metrics, and achieves a linear computational complexity. This enables efficient and scalable visual matching to be performed on large scale image sets. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed LCMK method, we conduct extensive experiments with widely used benchmark datasets, including 15-Scenes, Caltech101/256, PASCAL VOC 2007 and 2011 datasets. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the relatively efficient LCMK method.

Light-weight aluminium bridges and bridge decks. An overview of recent applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maljaars, J.; Soetens, F.; Kluyver, D. de

2008-01-01

The last decades have shown a large increase in the application of aluminium alloys for light-weight bridges. For bridge construction, aluminium alloys have some specific advantages, but also some points of attention. This paper deals with some recent projects of aluminium bridges, and for these

Radiographic localization of unerupted teeth: further findings about the vertical tube shift method and other localization techniques.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, S G

2000-10-01

The parallax method (image/tube shift method, Clark's rule, Richards' buccal object rule) is recommended to localize unerupted teeth. Richards' contribution to the development of the parallax method is discussed. The favored method for localization uses a rotational panoramic radiograph in combination with an occlusal radiograph involving a vertical shift of the x-ray tube. The use of this combination when localizing teeth and supernumeraries in the premolar region is illustrated. When taking an occlusal radiograph to localize an unerupted maxillary canine, clinical situations are presented where modification of the vertical angulation of the tube of 70 degrees to 75 degrees or of the horizontal position of the tube is warranted. The limitations of axial (true, cross-sectional, vertex) occlusal radiographs are also explored.

Bridge Diagnosis by Using Nonlinear Independent Component Analysis and Displacement Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Juanqing; Yeh, Yichun; Ogai, Harutoshi

A daily diagnosis system for bridge monitoring and maintenance is developed based on wireless sensors, signal processing, structure analysis, and displacement analysis. The vibration acceleration data of a bridge are firstly collected through the wireless sensor network by exerting. Nonlinear independent component analysis (ICA) and spectral analysis are used to extract the vibration frequencies of the bridge. After that, through a band pass filter and Simpson's rule the vibration displacement is calculated and the vibration model is obtained to diagnose the bridge. Since linear ICA algorithms work efficiently only in linear mixing environments, a nonlinear ICA model, which is more complicated, is more practical for bridge diagnosis systems. In this paper, we firstly use the post nonlinear method to change the signal data, after that perform linear separation by FastICA, and calculate the vibration displacement of the bridge. The processed data can be used to understand phenomena like corrosion and crack, and evaluate the health condition of the bridge. We apply this system to Nakajima Bridge in Yahata, Kitakyushu, Japan.

Aerodynamic problems of cable-stayed bridges spanning over one thousand meters

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Chen Airong; Ma Rujin; Wang Dalei

2009-01-01

Tbe elongating of cable-stayed bridge brings a series of aerodynamic problems. First of all, geometric nonlin-ear effect of extreme long cable is much more significant for cable-stayed bridge spanning over one thousand meters. Lat-eral static wind load will generate additional displacement of long cables, which causes the decrease of supporting rigidi-ty of the whole bridge and the change of dynamic properties. Wind load, being the controlling load in the design of ca-hie-stayed bridge, is a critical problem and needs to be solved. Meanwhile, research on suitable system between pylon and deck indicates fixed-fixed connection system is an effective way for improvement performance of cable-stayed bridges under longitudinal wind load. In order to obtain aerodynamic parameters of cable-stayed bridge spanning over one thou-sand meters, identification method for flutter derivatives of full bridge aero-elastic model is developed in this paper. Furthermore, vortex induced vibration and Reynolds number effect are detailed discussed.

Vibration analysis of concrete bridges during a train pass-by using various models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Qi; Wang, Ke; Cheng, Shili; Li, Wuqian; Song, Xiaodong

2016-01-01

The vibration of a bridge must be determined in order to predict the bridge noise during a train pass-by. It can be generally solved with different models either in the time domain or the frequency domain. The computation cost and accuracy of these models vary a lot in a wide frequency band. This study aims to compare the results obtained from various models for recommending the most suitable model in further noise prediction. First, train-track-bridge models in the time domain are developed by using the finite element method and mode superposition method. The rails are modeled by Timoshenko beam elements and the bridge is respectively modeled by shell elements and volume elements. Second, power flow models for the coupled system are established in the frequency domain. The rails are modelled by infinite Timoshenko beams and the bridge is respectively represented by three finite element models, an infinite Kirchhoff plate, and an infinite Mindlin plate model. The vibration at given locations of the bridge and the power input to the bridges through the rail fasteners are calculated using these models. The results show that the shear deformation of the bridge deck has significant influences on the bridge vibration at medium-to-high frequencies. The Mindlin plate model can be used to represent the U-shaped girder to obtain the power input to the bridge with high accuracy and efficiency. (paper)

Improving the local wavenumber method by automatic DEXP transformation

Science.gov (United States)

Abbas, Mahmoud Ahmed; Fedi, Maurizio; Florio, Giovanni

2014-12-01

In this paper we present a new method for source parameter estimation, based on the local wavenumber function. We make use of the stable properties of the Depth from EXtreme Points (DEXP) method, in which the depth to the source is determined at the extreme points of the field scaled with a power-law of the altitude. Thus the method results particularly suited to deal with local wavenumber of high-order, as it is able to overcome its known instability caused by the use of high-order derivatives. The DEXP transformation enjoys a relevant feature when applied to the local wavenumber function: the scaling-law is in fact independent of the structural index. So, differently from the DEXP transformation applied directly to potential fields, the Local Wavenumber DEXP transformation is fully automatic and may be implemented as a very fast imaging method, mapping every kind of source at the correct depth. Also the simultaneous presence of sources with different homogeneity degree can be easily and correctly treated. The method was applied to synthetic and real examples from Bulgaria and Italy and the results agree well with known information about the causative sources.

Dynamic loads during failure risk assessment of bridge crane structures

Science.gov (United States)

Gorynin, A. D.; Antsev, V. Yu; Shaforost, A. N.

2018-03-01

The paper presents the method of failure risk assessment associated with a bridge crane metal structure at the design stage. It also justifies the necessity of taking into account dynamic loads with regard to the operational cycle of a bridge crane during failure risk assessment of its metal structure.

Development of bridge girder movement criteria for accelerated bridge construction.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-06-01

End diaphragms connect multiple girders to form a bridge superstructure system for effective resistance to earthquake loads. Concrete : girder bridges that include end diaphragms consistently proved to perform well during previous earthquake events. ...

Active Control of Suspension Bridges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thoft-Christensen, Palle

In this paper some recent research on active control of very long suspension bridges, is presented. The presentation is based on research work at Aalborg University, Denmark. The active control system is based on movable flaps attached to the bridge girder. Wind load on bridges with or without...... flaps attached to the girder is briefly presented. A simple active control system is discussed. Results from wind tunnel experiments with a bridge section show that flaps can be used effectively to control bridge girder vibrations. Flutter conditions for suspension bridges with and without flaps...

Impact of overweight vehicles (with heavy axle loads) on bridge deck deterioration.

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-01

Bridge deck slabs develop compressive stresses from global flexural deformation and locally from high-level : wheel loads when it is subjected to overweight trucks. This study quantified the impact of overweight vehicles : with heavy axle loads on br...

A special purpose knowledge-based face localization method

Science.gov (United States)

Hassanat, Ahmad; Jassim, Sabah

2008-04-01

This paper is concerned with face localization for visual speech recognition (VSR) system. Face detection and localization have got a great deal of attention in the last few years, because it is an essential pre-processing step in many techniques that handle or deal with faces, (e.g. age, face, gender, race and visual speech recognition). We shall present an efficient method for localization human's faces in video images captured on mobile constrained devices, under a wide variation in lighting conditions. We use a multiphase method that may include all or some of the following steps starting with image pre-processing, followed by a special purpose edge detection, then an image refinement step. The output image will be passed through a discrete wavelet decomposition procedure, and the computed LL sub-band at a certain level will be transformed into a binary image that will be scanned by using a special template to select a number of possible candidate locations. Finally, we fuse the scores from the wavelet step with scores determined by color information for the candidate location and employ a form of fuzzy logic to distinguish face from non-face locations. We shall present results of large number of experiments to demonstrate that the proposed face localization method is efficient and achieve high level of accuracy that outperforms existing general-purpose face detection methods.

A Hierarchical Model and Analysis of Factors Affecting the Adoption of Timber as a Bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Robert L. Smith; Robert J. Bush; Daniel L. Schmoldt

1995-01-01

The Analytical Hierarchy Process was used to characterize the bridge material selection decisions of highway engineers and local highway officials across the United States. State Department of Transportation engineers, private consulting engineers, and local highway officials were personally interviewed in Mississippi, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin to identify...

Causes of Early Age Cracking on Concrete Bridge Deck Expansion Joint Repair Sections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jared R. Wright

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Cracking of newly placed binary Portland cement-slag concrete adjacent to bridge deck expansion dam replacements has been observed on several newly rehabilitated sections of bridge decks. This paper investigates the causes of cracking by assessing the concrete mixtures specified for bridge deck rehabilitation projects, as well as reviewing the structural design of decks and the construction and curing methods implemented by the contractors. The work consists of (1 a comprehensive literature review of the causes of cracking on bridge decks, (2 a review of previous bridge deck rehabilitation projects that experienced early-age cracking along with construction observations of active deck rehabilitation projects, and (3 an experimental evaluation of the two most commonly used bridge deck concrete mixtures. Based on the literature review, the causes of concrete bridge deck cracking can be classified into three categories: concrete material properties, construction practices, and structural design factors. The most likely causes of the observed early-age cracking were found to be inadequate curing and failure to properly eliminate the risk of plastic shrinkage cracking. These results underscore the significance of proper moist curing methods for concrete bridge decks, including repair sections. This document also provides a blueprint for future researchers to investigate early-age cracking of concrete structures.

Measurement of bridge deck layout prior to concrete placement : final report.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

The main objective of this research was to develop a method of measuring and : producing as built bridge drawings. This was the first step in the feasibility : assessment for automated bridge deck paving. The research goes to show the : standard meth...

Prevention of Bridge Scour with Non-uniform Circular Piers Plane under Steady Flows

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hsing-Ting; Wang, Chuan-Yi

2017-04-01

River bed scour and deposit variation extremely severe because of most of rivers are steep and rapid flows, and river discharge extremely unstable and highly unsteady during different seasons in Taiwan. In addition to the obstruction of piers foundation, it causes local scour and threatens the safety of bridges. In the past, riprap, wire gabion or wrap pier works were adopted as the protections of piers foundation, but there were no effectual outcomes. The events of break off piers still happen sometimes. For example, typhoon Kalmaegi (2008) and Morakot (2009) caused heavy damages on Ho-Fon bridge in the Da-jia river and Shuang-Yuan bridge in the Kao-Ping river, respectively. Accordingly, to understand the piers scour system and propose an appropriate protection of piers foundation becomes an important topic for this study currently. This research improves the protection works of the existing uniform bridge pier (diameter D) to ensure the safety of the bridge. The non-uniform plane of circular piers (diameter D*) are placed on the top of a bridge pier foundation to reduce the down flow impacting energy and scour by its' surface roughness characteristics. This study utilize hydraulic models to simulate local scour depth and scour depth change with time for non-uniform pier diameter ratio D/D* of 0.3,0.4,0.5,0.6,0.7 and 0.8, and different type pier and initial bed level (Y) relative under the foundation top elevation under steady flows of V/Vc=0.95,0.80 and 0.65. The research results show that the scour depth increases with an increase of flow intensity (V/Vc) under different types of steady flow hydrographs. The scour depth decreases with increase of initial bed level (Y=+0.2D*,0D*and -0.2D*) relative under the foundation top elevation of the different type pier. The maximum scour depth occurred in the front of the pier for all conditions. Because of the scouring retardation by the non-uniform plane of foundation, the scour depth is reduced for the un-exposed bridge

A Multimode Adaptive Pushover Procedure for Seismic Assessment of Integral Bridges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ehsan Mohtashami

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a new adaptive pushover procedure to account for the effect of higher modes in order to accurately estimate the seismic response of bridges. The effect of higher modes is considered by introducing a minimum value for the total effective modal mass. The proposed method employs enough number of modes to ensure that the defined total effective modal mass participates in all increments of the pushover loading. An adaptive demand curve is also developed for assessment of the seismic demand. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed method are demonstrated by conducting a parametric study. The analysis includes 18 four-span integral bridges with various heights of piers. The inelastic response history analysis is employed as reference solution in this study. Numerical results indicate excellent accuracy of the proposed method in assessment of the seismic response. For most bridges investigated in this study, the difference between the estimated response of the proposed method and the inelastic response history analysis is less than 25% for displacements and 10% for internal forces. This indicates a very good accuracy compared to available pushover procedures in the literature. The proposed method is therefore recommended to be applied to the seismic performance evaluation of integral bridges for engineering applications.

Research of diagnosis sensors fault based on correlation analysis of the bridge structural health monitoring system

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Shunren; Chen, Weimin; Liu, Lin; Gao, Xiaoxia

2010-03-01

Bridge structural health monitoring system is a typical multi-sensor measurement system due to the multi-parameters of bridge structure collected from the monitoring sites on the river-spanning bridges. Bridge structure monitored by multi-sensors is an entity, when subjected to external action; there will be different performances to different bridge structure parameters. Therefore, the data acquired by each sensor should exist countless correlation relation. However, complexity of the correlation relation is decided by complexity of bridge structure. Traditionally correlation analysis among monitoring sites is mainly considered from physical locations. unfortunately, this method is so simple that it cannot describe the correlation in detail. The paper analyzes the correlation among the bridge monitoring sites according to the bridge structural data, defines the correlation of bridge monitoring sites and describes its several forms, then integrating the correlative theory of data mining and signal system to establish the correlation model to describe the correlation among the bridge monitoring sites quantificationally. Finally, The Chongqing Mashangxi Yangtze river bridge health measurement system is regards as research object to diagnosis sensors fault, and simulation results verify the effectiveness of the designed method and theoretical discussions.

Morphological aspects of myocardial bridges.

Science.gov (United States)

Lujinović, Almira; Kulenović, Amela; Kapur, Eldan; Gojak, Refet

2013-11-01

Although some myocardial bridges can be asymptomatic, their presence often causes coronary disease either through direct compression of the "tunnel" segment or through stimulation and accelerated development of atherosclerosis in the segment proximally to the myocardial bridge. The studied material contained 30 human hearts received from the Department of Anatomy. The hearts were preserved 3 to 5 days in 10% formalin solution. Thereafter, the fatty tissue was removed and arterial blood vessels prepared by careful dissection with special reference to the presence of the myocardial bridges. Length and thickness of the bridges were measured by the precise electronic caliper. The angle between the myocardial bridge fibre axis and other axis of the crossed blood vessel was measured by a goniometer. The presence of the bridges was confirmed in 53.33% of the researched material, most frequently (43.33%) above the anterior interventricular branch. The mean length of the bridges was 14.64 ± 9.03 mm and the mean thickness was 1.23 ± 1.32 mm. Myocardial bridge fibres pass over the descending blood vessel at the angle of 10-90 degrees. The results obtained on a limited sample suggest that the muscular index of myocardial bridge is the highest for bridges located on RIA, but that the difference is not significant in relation to bridges located on other branches. The results obtained suggest that bridges located on other branches, not only those on RIA, could have a great contractive power and, consequently, a great compressive force, which would be exerted on the wall of a crossed blood vessel.

Field performance of timber bridges. 17, Ciphers stress-laminated deck bridge

Science.gov (United States)

James P. Wacker; James A. Kainz; Michael A. Ritter

In September 1989, the Ciphers bridge was constructed within the Beltrami Island State Forest in Roseau County, Minnesota. The bridge superstructure is a two-span continuous stress-laminated deck that is approximately 12.19 m long, 5.49 m wide, and 305 mm deep (40 ft long, 18 ft wide, and 12 in. deep). The bridge is one of the first to utilize red pine sawn lumber for...

Potential of TCPInSAR in Monitoring Linear Infrastructure with a Small Dataset of SAR Images: Application of the Donghai Bridge, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Zhang

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Reliably monitoring deformation associated with linear infrastructures, such as long-span bridges, is vitally important to assess their structural health. In this paper, we attempt to employ satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR to map the deformation of Donghai Bridge over a half of an annual cycle. The bridge, as the fourth longest cross-sea bridge in the world, located in the north of Hangzhou Bay, East China Sea where the featureless sea surface largely occupied the radar image raises challenges to accurately co-register the coherent points along the bridge. To tackle the issues due to co-registration and the limited number of synthetic aperture radar (SAR images, we adopt the termed temporarily-coherent point (TCP InSAR (TCPInSAR technique to process the radar images. TCPs that are not necessarily coherent during the whole observation period can be identified within every two SAR acquisitions during the co-registration procedure based on the statistics of azimuth and range offsets. In the process, co-registration is performed only using the offsets of these TCPs, leading to improved interferometric phases and the local Delaunay triangulation is used to construct point pairs to reduce the atmospheric artifacts along the bridge. With the TCPInSAR method the deformation rate along the bridge is estimated with no need of phase unwrapping. The achieved result reveals that the Donghai Bridge suffered a line-of-sight (LOS deformation rate up to −2.3 cm/year from January 2009 to July 2009 at the cable-stayed part, which is likely due to the thermal expansion of cables.

Three Dimensional Analysis of the Final Design of Pier Extensions and West Guide Wall to Mitigate Local Scour Risk at the BNSF Railroad Bridge Downstream of the Prado Dam Supplemental Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lottes, S. A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Sinha, N. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Bojanowski, C. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Kerenyi, K. [Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, McLean, VA (United States); Sharp, Jeremy [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, MI (United States), Coastal and Hydraulics Lab

2016-06-01

This report is a supplement to a previous report [ref] covering optimization of wedge shaped pier extensions to streamline large bluff body piers as a local scour countermeasure for the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad Bridge over the Santa Ana River downstream of Prado Dam in Riverside County, CA. The optimized design was tested in a 1/30 scale physical model at U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, MS, and the optimized design was used as the base for the construction design. Constructability issues having to do with both materials and site conditions including access underneath the BNSF bridge yielded a construction design that required making the pier extensions wider and either moving the western curve of the west guide wall upstream or changing its geometry.

Construction of Daiichi Tamagawa bridge; Daiichi Tamagawa kyoryo no seko

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Watanabe, O.; Tsuyoshi, T. [East Japan Railway Company, Tokyo (Japan); Ota, T.; Sato, S. [Tekken Corp., Tokyo (Japan)

1997-05-30

This paper describes the construction of Daiichi Tamagawa Bridge for JR Tazawako Line, which was reconstructed with the Akita Shinkansen Project apart from the existing line. This bridge is a three-span continuous PC cable stayed bridge. To avoid operation accidents due to snow and ice, independent two-column type with a height of 11 m without beam was employed for the main tower. For the construction of upper part, overhang election construction method was adopted, which can be applied all the year round. The main girder has a single box cross section, and a width of 5.5 m and a beam height of 2.3 m. This was also constructed by the overhang construction method. To reduce the construction period, the main tower was constructed by the precast block construction method. The whole bridge was divided into six blocks by considering the hoist performance of cranes. Reinforcement against bearing pressure and cleavage due to the cable tensile force was conducted by adopting saddle structure for the main tower. Oblique members were jointed with the main girder using lateral beams projected from lateral side of girder. Totally seven PC cables were used for each oblique member. Measurements and management during the overhang construction were also described. The construction was over without problems in August, 1996. This bridge is under test operation using test run vehicles. 2 refs., 20 figs., 7 tabs.

Strengthening of bridges by post-tensioning using monostrands in substituted cable ducts

Science.gov (United States)

Klusáček, Ladislav; Svoboda, Adam

2017-09-01

Post-tensioning is suitable, reliable and durable method of strengthening existing engineering structures, especially bridges. The high efficiency of post-tensioning can be seen in many applications throughout the world. In this paper the method is extended by a structural system of substituted cable ducts, which allows for significantly widening application of prestressing so it’s convenient mostly for application on beam bridges or slab bridges (built in years 1920 - 1960). The method of substituted cable ducts is based on theoretical knowledge and technical procedures, which were made possible through the development in prestressing systems, particularly the development of prestressing tendons (monostrands) and encased anchorages, as well as progress in drilling technology. This technique is highly recommended due to minimization of interventions into the constructions, unseen method of cable arrangement and hence the absence of impact on appearance, which is appreciated not only in case of valuable historical structures but also in general. It is possible to summarise that posttensioning by monostrands in substituted cable ducts is a highly effective method of strengthening existing bridges in order to increase their load capacities in terms of current traffic load and to extend their service life.

Remarks on crack-bridging concepts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bao, G.; Suo, Z.

1992-01-01

The article draws upon recent work by us and our colleagues on metal and ceramic matrix composites for high temperature engines. The central theme here is to deduce mechanical properties, such as toughness, strength and notch-ductility, from bridging laws that characterize inelastic processes associated with fracture. A particular set of normalization is introduced to present the design charts, segregating the roles played by the shape, and the scale, of a bridging law. A single material length, γ 0 E/σ 0 , emerges, where γ 0 is the limiting-separation, σ 0 the bridging-strength, and E the Young's modulus of the solid. It is the huge variation of this length-from a few manometers for atomic bond, to a meter for cross-over fibers - that underlies the richness in material behaviors. Under small-scale bridging conditions, γ 0 E/σ 0 is the only basic length scale in the mechanics problem and represents, with a pre-factor about 0.4, the bridging zone size. A catalog of small-scale bridging solutions is compiled for idealized bridging laws. Large-scale bridging introduces a dimensionless group, a/(γ 0 E/σ 0 ), where a is a length characterizing the component. The group plays a major role in all phenomena associated with bridging, and provides a focus of discussion in this article. For example, it quantifies the bridging scale when a is the unbridged crack length, and notch-sensitivity when a is hole radius. The difference and the connection between Irwin's fracture mechanics and crack bridging concepts are discussed. It is demonstrated that fracture toughness and resistance curve are meaningful only when small-scale bridging conditions prevail, and therefore of limited use in design with composites. Many other mechanical properties of composites, such as strength and notch-sensitivity, can be simulated by invoking large-scale bridging concepts. 37 refs., 21 figs., 3 tabs

Imaging of DNA Ultrafine Bridges in Budding Yeast.

Science.gov (United States)

Quevedo, Oliver; Lisby, Michael

2018-01-01

DNA ultrafine bridges (UFBs) are a type of chromatin-free DNA bridges that connect sister chromatids in anaphase and pose a threat to genome stability. However, little is known about the origin of these structures, and how they are sensed and resolved by the cell. In this chapter, we review tools and methods for studying UFBs by fluorescence microscopy including chemical and genetic approaches to induce UFBs in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Imaging of DNA Ultrafine Bridges in Budding Yeast

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Quevedo Rodriguez, Oliver; Lisby, Michael

2018-01-01

DNA ultrafine bridges (UFBs) are a type of chromatin-free DNA bridges that connect sister chromatids in anaphase and pose a threat to genome stability. However, little is known about the origin of these structures, and how they are sensed and resolved by the cell. In this chapter, we review tools...... and methods for studying UFBs by fluorescence microscopy including chemical and genetic approaches to induce UFBs in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae....

Effective way to reconstruct arch bridges using concrete walls and transverse strands

Science.gov (United States)

Klusáček, Ladislav; Pěkník, Robin; Nečas, Radim

2017-09-01

There are more than 500 masonry arch bridges in the Czech Road system and about 2500 in the Czech Railway system. Many of them are cracked in the longitudinal (span) direction. The barrel vaults are separated by the cracks into partial masonry arches without load bearing connection in transverse direction. These constructions are about 150 years old and they are also too narrow for the current road system. This paper presents a strengthening method for masonry arch bridges using transverse post-tensioning. This method is very useful not only for strengthening in the transverse direction, but widening of masonry arches can be taken as secondary effect especially in case of road bridges. Several bridges were successfully repaired with the use of this system which seems to be effective and reliable.

Bridge-builder in the periphery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leick, Birgit; Gretzinger, Susanne

(Virkkala 2007) and a prevalence of SMEs in niche-focused or traditional sectors (De Noronha Vaz et al. 2006; Copus et al. 2008), and, as a result, low rates of innovation and entrepreneurial activities (Labrianidis 2006; Stathoupoulou et al. 2004; Ritsäla 1999; Tödtling and Trippl 2005; Danson and De Souza...... in the periphery through enhancing inter-firm networking and networked innovativeness (Burdack et al. 2013; Tregear and Cooper 2016). We call such actors “bridge-builder”, alluding to their capacity to connect local communities of business-owners and entrepreneurs, public-policy representatives and civic actors...

Fingerprinting Localization Method Based on TOA and Particle Filtering for Mines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boming Song

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Accurate target localization technology plays a very important role in ensuring mine safety production and higher production efficiency. The localization accuracy of a mine localization system is influenced by many factors. The most significant factor is the non-line of sight (NLOS propagation error of the localization signal between the access point (AP and the target node (Tag. In order to improve positioning accuracy, the NLOS error must be suppressed by an optimization algorithm. However, the traditional optimization algorithms are complex and exhibit poor optimization performance. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a new method for mine time of arrival (TOA localization based on the idea of comprehensive optimization. The proposed method utilizes particle filtering to reduce the TOA data error, and the positioning results are further optimized with fingerprinting based on the Manhattan distance. This proposed method combines the advantages of particle filtering and fingerprinting localization. It reduces algorithm complexity and has better error suppression performance. The experimental results demonstrate that, as compared to the symmetric double-sided two-way ranging (SDS-TWR method or received signal strength indication (RSSI based fingerprinting method, the proposed method has a significantly improved localization performance, and the environment adaptability is enhanced.

49 CFR 236.312 - Movable bridge, interlocking of signal appliances with bridge devices.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Movable bridge, interlocking of signal appliances with bridge devices. 236.312 Section 236.312 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... SYSTEMS, DEVICES, AND APPLIANCES Interlocking Standards § 236.312 Movable bridge, interlocking of signal...

Efficient field testing for load rating railroad bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Jeffrey L.; Brett C., Commander

1995-06-01

As the condition of our infrastructure continues to deteriorate, and the loads carried by our bridges continue to increase, an ever growing number of railroad and highway bridges require load limits. With safety and transportation costs at both ends of the spectrum. the need for accurate load rating is paramount. This paper describes a method that has been developed for efficient load testing and evaluation of short- and medium-span bridges. Through the use of a specially-designed structural testing system and efficient load test procedures, a typical bridge can be instrumented and tested at 64 points in less than one working day and with minimum impact on rail traffic. Various techniques are available to evaluate structural properties and obtain a realistic model. With field data, a simple finite element model is 'calibrated' and its accuracy is verified. Appropriate design and rating loads are applied to the resulting model and stress predictions are made. This technique has been performed on numerous structures to address specific problems and to provide accurate load ratings. The merits and limitations of this approach are discussed in the context of actual examples of both rail and highway bridges that were tested and evaluated.

Evaluation of High-Speed Railway Bridges Based on a Nondestructive Monitoring System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mosbeh R. Kaloop

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Recently, trains’ velocities in Korea increased more than the speed used in the design of some bridges. Accordingly, this paper demonstrates the evaluation of a railway bridge due to high-speed trains’ movement. A nondestructive monitoring system is used to assess the bridge performance under train speeds of 290, 360, 400 and 406 km/h. This system is comprised of a wireless short-term acceleration system and strain monitoring sensors attached to the bridge girder. The results of the analytical methods in time and frequency domains are presented. The following conclusions are obtained: the cross-correlation models for accelerations and strain measurements are effective to predict the performance of the bridge; the static behavior is increased with train speed developments; and the vibration, torsion, fatigue and frequency contents analyses of the bridge show that the bridge is safe under applied trains’ speeds.

Seismic Response Analysis of Continuous Multispan Bridges with Partial Isolation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Tubaldi

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Partially isolated bridges are a particular class of bridges in which isolation bearings are placed only between the piers top and the deck whereas seismic stoppers restrain the transverse motion of the deck at the abutments. This paper proposes an analytical formulation for the seismic analysis of these bridges, modelled as beams with intermediate viscoelastic restraints whose properties describe the pier-isolator behaviour. Different techniques are developed for solving the seismic problem. The first technique employs the complex mode superposition method and provides an exact benchmark solution to the problem at hand. The two other simplified techniques are based on an approximation of the displacement field and are useful for preliminary assessment and design purposes. A realistic bridge is considered as case study and its seismic response under a set of ground motion records is analyzed. First, the complex mode superposition method is applied to study the characteristic features of the dynamic and seismic response of the system. A parametric analysis is carried out to evaluate the influence of support stiffness and damping on the seismic performance. Then, a comparison is made between the exact solution and the approximate solutions in order to evaluate the accuracy and suitability of the simplified analysis techniques for evaluating the seismic response of partially isolated bridges.

NUMERICAL AND ANALYTIC METHODS OF ESTIMATION BRIDGES’ CONSTRUCTIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Y. Luchko

2010-03-01

Full Text Available In this article the numerical and analytical methods of calculation of the stressed-and-strained state of bridge constructions are considered. The task on increasing of reliability and accuracy of the numerical method and its solution by means of calculations in two bases are formulated. The analytical solution of the differential equation of deformation of a ferro-concrete plate under the action of local loads is also obtained.

Cooperativity of complex salt bridges

OpenAIRE

Gvritishvili, Anzor G.; Gribenko, Alexey V.; Makhatadze, George I.

2008-01-01

The energetic contribution of complex salt bridges, in which one charged residue (anchor residue) forms salt bridges with two or more residues simultaneously, has been suggested to have importance for protein stability. Detailed analysis of the net energetics of complex salt bridge formation using double- and triple-mutant cycle analysis revealed conflicting results. In two cases, it was shown that complex salt bridge formation is cooperative, i.e., the net strength of the complex salt bridge...

Comprehensive evaluation of fracture critical bridges.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-02-01

Two-girder steel bridges are classified as fracture critical bridges based on the definition given in the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications. In a fracture critical bridge a failure of a tension member leads to collapse of the bridge. However, ...

Identification of unusual events in multichannel bridge monitoring data using wavelet transform and outlier analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Omenzetter, Piotr; Brownjohn, James M. W.; Moyo, Pilate

2003-08-01

Continuously operating instrumented structural health monitoring (SHM) systems are becoming a practical alternative to replace visual inspection for assessment of condition and soundness of civil infrastructure. However, converting large amount of data from an SHM system into usable information is a great challenge to which special signal processing techniques must be applied. This study is devoted to identification of abrupt, anomalous and potentially onerous events in the time histories of static, hourly sampled strains recorded by a multi-sensor SHM system installed in a major bridge structure in Singapore and operating continuously for a long time. Such events may result, among other causes, from sudden settlement of foundation, ground movement, excessive traffic load or failure of post-tensioning cables. A method of outlier detection in multivariate data has been applied to the problem of finding and localizing sudden events in the strain data. For sharp discrimination of abrupt strain changes from slowly varying ones wavelet transform has been used. The proposed method has been successfully tested using known events recorded during construction of the bridge, and later effectively used for detection of anomalous post-construction events.

Global/local methods research using a common structural analysis framework

Science.gov (United States)

Knight, Norman F., Jr.; Ransom, Jonathan B.; Griffin, O. H., Jr.; Thompson, Danniella M.

1991-01-01

Methodologies for global/local stress analysis are described including both two- and three-dimensional analysis methods. These methods are being developed within a common structural analysis framework. Representative structural analysis problems are presented to demonstrate the global/local methodologies being developed.

Fatigue evaluation for Tsing Ma Bridge using structural health monitoring data

Science.gov (United States)

Chan, Hung-tin Tommy; Ko, Jan Ming; Li, Zhao-Xia

2001-08-01

Fatigue assessment for the Tsing Ma Bridge (TMB) are presented based on the British standard BS5400 and the real-time structural health monitoring data under railway loading. TMB, as an essential portion of transport network for the Hong Kong airport, is the longest suspension bridge in the world carrying both highway and railway traffic. The bridge design has been mainly based on BS5400. A structural health monitoring system - Wind and Structural Health Monitoring System (WASHMS) for TMB has been operated since the bridge commissioning in May 1997. In order to assess the fatigue behavior of TMB under railway loading, strain gauges were installed on the bridge deck to measure the strain-time histories as soon as the bridge is loaded by a standard railway loading due to the service of an actual train. The strain-time history data at the critical members are then used to determine the stress spectrum, of which the rainflow method recommended for railway bridges by BS5400 is applied to count cycles of stress range. Miner's law is employed to evaluate fatigue damage and remaining service life of the bridge. The evaluated results of fatigue damage and remaining service life would help us to well understand about the fatigue design of the bridge and status in fatigue accumulation.

Timber in Bridge Structures

OpenAIRE

Detkin, Viktoria

2016-01-01

The purpose of this final year project was to study the properties of timber as a structural material and the suitability of wood in load bearing members for bridge structures. For a case study, an existing timber bridge was selected. Due to its condition the bridge should be replaced. The design of a new bridge with steel beams holding a glulam deck was made. During the case study the replacement of steel beams by glulam timber ones was discussed. Some calculations were made in order to ...

Evaluation of bridge instability caused by dynamic scour based on fractal theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Tzu-Kang; Shian Chang, Yu; Wu, Rih-Teng; Chang, Kuo-Chun

2013-01-01

Given their special structural characteristics, bridges are prone to suffer from the effects of many hazards, such as earthquakes, wind, or floods. As most of the recent unexpected damage and destruction of bridges has been caused by hydraulic issues, monitoring the scour depth of bridges has become an important topic. Currently, approaches to scour monitoring mainly focus on either installing sensors on the substructure of a bridge or identifying the physical parameters of a bridge, which commonly face problems of system survival or reliability. To solve those bottlenecks, a novel structural health monitoring (SHM) concept was proposed by utilizing the two dominant parameters of fractal theory, including the fractal dimension and the topothesy, to evaluate the instability condition of a bridge structure rapidly. To demonstrate the performance of this method, a series of experiments has been carried out. The function of the two parameters was first determined using data collected from a single bridge column scour test. As the fractal dimension gradually decreased, following the trend of the scour depth, it was treated as an alternative to the fundamental frequency of a bridge structure in the existing methods. Meanwhile, the potential of a positive correlation between the topothesy and the amplitude of vibration data was also investigated. The excellent sensitivity of the fractal parameters related to the scour depth was then demonstrated in a full-bridge experiment. Moreover, with the combination of these two parameters, a safety index to detect the critical scour condition was proposed. The experimental results have demonstrated that the critical scour condition can be predicted by the proposed safety index. The monitoring system developed greatly advances the field of bridge scour health monitoring and offers an alternative choice to traditional scour monitoring technology. (paper)

Ambient Modal Testing of the Vestvej Bridge using Random Decrement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Asmussen, J. C.; Brincker, Rune; Rytter, A.

This paper presents an ambient vibration study of the Vestvej Bridge. The bridge is a typically Danish two-span concrete bridge which crosses a highway. The purpose of the study is to perform a pre-investigation of the dynamic behavior to obtain information for the design of a demonstration project...... concerning application of vibration based inspection of bridges. The data analysis process of ambient vribration testing of bridges has traditionally been based on auto and cross spectral densities estimated using an FFT algorithm. In the pre-analysis state the spectral densities are all averaged to obtain...... measurements might have a low signal to noise ratio. Thus, it might be difficult clearly to identify physical modes from the spectral densities. The Random Decrement (RD) technique is another method to perform the data analysis process in the time domain only. It is basically a very simple and very easily...

Ambient Modal Testing of the Vestvej Bridge using Random Decrement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Asmussen, J. C.; Brincker, Rune; Rytter, A.

1998-01-01

This paper presents an ambient vibration study of the Vestvej Bridge. The bridge is a typically Danish two-span concrete bridge which crosses a highway. The purpose of the study is to perform a pre-investigation of the dynamic behavior to obtain information for the design of a demonstration project...... concerning application of vibration based inspection of bridges. The data analysis process of ambient vribration testing of bridges has traditionally been based on auto and cross spectral densities estimated using an FFT algorithm. In the pre-analysis state the spectral densities are all averaged to obtain...... measurements might have a low signal to noise ratio. Thus, it might be difficult clearly to identify physical modes from the spectral densities. The Random Decrement (RD) technique is another method to perform the data analysis process in the time domain only. It is basically a very simple and very easily...

75 FR 47215 - Special Local Regulation; Marine Events Within the Captain of the Port Sector Boston Zone

Science.gov (United States)

2010-08-05

... special local regulations on: (1) The Charles River between the Longfellow Bridge and the Harvard Bridge... local regulations are established for the following marine events: (1) Charles River One Mile Swim, Charles River, Boston, MA. (i) Location. All waters of the Charles River, from surface to bottom, between...

Field performance of timber bridges. 16, North Siwell Road stress-laminated bridge

Science.gov (United States)

J. A. Kainz

The North Siwell Road bridge was constructed during December 1994 in Hinds County, Mississippi. The bridge is a single-span, stress-laminated T-beam structure that measures 9.1 m (30 ft) long and 8.7 m (28.5 ft) wide. Performance of the bridge was monitored for 24 months, beginning at the time of installation. Monitoring involved gathering and evaluating data relative...

Field performance of timber bridges. 10, Sanborn Brook stress-laminated deck bridge

Science.gov (United States)

P. D. Hilbrich Lee; J. P. Wacker; M. A. Ritter

The Sanborn Brook bridge was constructed in August 1991, 10 miles northeast of Concord, New Hampshire, as part of the demonstration timber bridge program of the USDA Forest Service. The bridge is a simple-span, double-lane, stress-laminated deck superstructure constructed from Southern Pine lumber and is approximately 25 ft long and 28 ft wide with a skew of 14 degrees...

Bridging micro to macroscale fracture properties in highly heterogeneous brittle solids: weak pinning versus fingering

Science.gov (United States)

Vasoya, Manish; Lazarus, Véronique; Ponson, Laurent

2016-10-01

The effect of strong toughness heterogeneities on the macroscopic failure properties of brittle solids is investigated in the context of planar crack propagation. The basic mechanism at play is that the crack is locally slowed down or even trapped when encountering tougher material. The induced front deformation results in a selection of local toughness values that reflect at larger scale on the material resistance. To unravel this complexity and bridge micro to macroscale in failure of strongly heterogeneous media, we propose a homogenization procedure based on the introduction of two complementary macroscopic properties: An apparent toughness defined from the loading required to make the crack propagate and an effective fracture energy defined from the rate of energy released by unit area of crack advance. The relationship between these homogenized properties and the features of the local toughness map is computed using an iterative perturbation method. This approach is applied to a circular crack pinned by a periodic array of obstacles invariant in the radial direction, which gives rise to two distinct propagation regimes: A weak pinning regime where the crack maintains a stationary shape after reaching an equilibrium position and a fingering regime characterized by the continuous growth of localized regions of the fronts while the other parts remain trapped. Our approach successfully bridges micro to macroscopic failure properties in both cases and illustrates how small scale heterogeneities can drastically affect the overall failure response of brittle solids. On a broader perspective, we believe that our approach can be used as a powerful tool for the rational design of heterogeneous brittle solids and interfaces with tailored failure properties.

Steel-soil composite bridge

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Du, Guangli; Pettersson, Lars; Karoumi, Raid

2017-01-01

viability, while their environmental performance is overlooked. Today’s designers are urged to seek new design options to reduce the environmental burdens. Sweden owns more than 24574 bridges and most of them are short spans. Among them, the slab frame bridge (CFB) is a common solution. Soil steel composite...... bridge (SSCB), alternatively, is a functionally equivalent solution to CFB and shows advantages in low cost and easy construction. This paper compares the environmental performance between these two bridge types based on life cycle assessment (LCA). The analysis and result shows that, the SSCB...

Building water bridges in air: Electrohydrodynamics of the floating water bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Marín, Álvaro G.; Lohse, Detlef

2010-12-01

The interaction of electrical fields and liquids can lead to a phenomenon that defies intuition. Some famous examples can be found in electrohydrodynamics as Taylor cones, whipping jets, or noncoalescing drops. A less famous example is the floating water bridge: a slender thread of water held between two glass beakers in which a high voltage difference is applied. Surprisingly, the water bridge defies gravity even when the beakers are separated at distances up to 2 cm. In this paper, experimental measurements and simple models are proposed and discussed for the stability of the bridge and the source of the flow, revealing an important role of polarization forces on the stability of the water bridge. On the other hand, the observed flow can only be explained due to the non-negligible free charge present in the surface. In this sense, the floating water bridge can be considered as an extreme case of a leaky dielectric liquid [J. R. Melcher and G. I. Taylor, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 1, 111 (1969)].

Lifecycle Assessments of Railway Bridge Transitions Exposed to Extreme Climate Events

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sadudee Setsobhonkul

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Railway track components located at bridge transition zones or approach areas suffer from impact load and vibrations caused by abrupt changes in track stiffness on the bridge and the subgrade. The numerous strategies that can be used to mitigate these abrupt track stiffness changes rely on one of two concepts. The first concept is that of providing a gradual stiffness change, and the second is that of equalizing the track stiffness. A number of such mitigation methods have been developed and implemented over recent decades. Construction activities associated with these methods require various materials, processes, and uses of time, costs, and carbon emissions. In this study, eight of the most common techniques for railway bridge transition mitigation, including under ballast mats (UBMs, soft baseplates, under sleeper pads (USPs, rail pads, embankment treatments, transition slabs, ballast bonding, and wide sleepers, are compared. This study benchmarks the costs and carbon emissions of these eight mitigation techniques over the 50-year lifespan of a railway system subject to identical probabilities of four environmental scenarios: a control case, extremely high temperatures, extremely low temperatures, and flash flooding. This unprecedented study systemically investigates the effectiveness of the mitigation methods while considering the effects of 30 and 100 m bridge span lengths. Our results indicate that railway engineers should adopt different mitigation methods for different scenarios. The soft baseplate is the most appropriate method for a short-span bridge in the control case and the case of flash flooding, while ballast bonding is better for long-span railway bridges. Embankment treatment is recommended for both high- and low-extreme temperatures. However, its applicability is limited when the differential track stiffness is extremely high. Hence, alternatives that are 5–25% more expensive are proposed in parallel. The alternative

Local defect correction for boundary integral equation methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kakuba, G.; Anthonissen, M.J.H.

2013-01-01

This paper presents a new approach to gridding for problems with localised regions of high activity. The technique of local defect correction has been studied for other methods as ¿nite difference methods and ¿nite volume methods. In this paper we develop the technique for the boundary element

Field investigations of historic covered timber bridges in the USA

Science.gov (United States)

James Wacker; Travis Hosteng; Brent. Phares

2012-01-01

The Federal Highway Administration is sponsoring a comprehensive research program on Historic Covered Timber Bridges in the USA. This national program's main purpose is to develop improved methods to preserve, rehabililate, and restore the timber bridge trusses that were developed during the early 1800s, and in many cases are still in service today. The overall...

Dynamic analysis of maritime gasbag-type floating bridge subjected to moving loads

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huan-huan Wang

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper studied the dynamic response of a new gasbag-type floating bridge under the effect of a moving load. The arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE method was used to simulate the movement of seawater and air, and the penalty-based method was used to study the coupling between gasbags and fluid. A three-dimensional finite element model of the floating bridge was established, and the numerical model was verified by comparing with the experimental results. In order to prevent resonance, the natural frequencies and flexural mode shapes were analyzed. Based on the initial state analysis, the dynamic responses of the floating bridge subjected to different moving loads were investigated. Vertical displacements and radial deformations of gasbags under different loads were compared, and principal stress distributions of gasbags were researched while driving. The hinge forces between adjacent modules were calculated to ensure the connection strength. Besides, the floating bridge under wave impacting was analyzed. Those results can provide references for the analysis and design of this new floating bridge.

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Bridges

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Homeland Security — The NBI is a collection of information (database) describing the more than 600,000 of the Nation's bridges located on public roads, including Interstate Highways,...

Seismic Responses of Shot Span Bridge under Three Different Patterns of Earthquake Excitations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Daochuan; Chen Guorong; Lu Yan

2010-01-01

This paper presents a study of the influence of three different types of seismic input methods on the longitudinal seismic response of a short, three-span, variable cross-section, reinforced concrete bridge. Research progress of the seismic model is introduced briefly. Finite element model is created for the bridge and time history analysis conducted. Three different types of illustrative excitations are considered: 1) the EI-Centro seismic wave is used as uniform excitations at all bridge supports; 2) fixed apparent wave velocity is used for response analysis of traveling wave excitations on the bridge; 3) conforming to a selected coherency model, the multiple seismic excitation time histories considering spatially variable effects are generated. The contrast study of the response analysis result under the three different seismic excitations is conducted and the influence of different seismic input methods is studied. The comparative analysis of the bridge model shows that the uniform ground motion input can not provide conservative seismic demands-in a number of cases it results in lower response than that predicted by multiple seismic excitations. The result of uniform excitation and traveling wave excitation shows very small difference. Consequently, multiple seismic excitations needs to be applied at the bridge supports for response analysis of short span bridge.

Wright-Fisher diffusion bridges.

Science.gov (United States)

Griffiths, Robert C; Jenkins, Paul A; Spanò, Dario

2017-10-06

The trajectory of the frequency of an allele which begins at x at time 0 and is known to have frequency z at time T can be modelled by the bridge process of the Wright-Fisher diffusion. Bridges when x=z=0 are particularly interesting because they model the trajectory of the frequency of an allele which appears at a time, then is lost by random drift or mutation after a time T. The coalescent genealogy back in time of a population in a neutral Wright-Fisher diffusion process is well understood. In this paper we obtain a new interpretation of the coalescent genealogy of the population in a bridge from a time t∈(0,T). In a bridge with allele frequencies of 0 at times 0 and T the coalescence structure is that the population coalesces in two directions from t to 0 and t to T such that there is just one lineage of the allele under consideration at times 0 and T. The genealogy in Wright-Fisher diffusion bridges with selection is more complex than in the neutral model, but still with the property of the population branching and coalescing in two directions from time t∈(0,T). The density of the frequency of an allele at time t is expressed in a way that shows coalescence in the two directions. A new algorithm for exact simulation of a neutral Wright-Fisher bridge is derived. This follows from knowing the density of the frequency in a bridge and exact simulation from the Wright-Fisher diffusion. The genealogy of the neutral Wright-Fisher bridge is also modelled by branching Pólya urns, extending a representation in a Wright-Fisher diffusion. This is a new very interesting representation that relates Wright-Fisher bridges to classical urn models in a Bayesian setting. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Least Square-Based Self-Adaptive Localization Method for Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baoguo Yu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In the wireless sensor network (WSN localization methods based on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI, it is usually required to determine the parameters of the radio signal propagation model before estimating the distance between the anchor node and an unknown node with reference to their communication RSSI value. And finally we use a localization algorithm to estimate the location of the unknown node. However, this localization method, though high in localization accuracy, has weaknesses such as complex working procedure and poor system versatility. Concerning these defects, a self-adaptive WSN localization method based on least square is proposed, which uses the least square criterion to estimate the parameters of radio signal propagation model, which positively reduces the computation amount in the estimation process. The experimental results show that the proposed self-adaptive localization method outputs a high processing efficiency while satisfying the high localization accuracy requirement. Conclusively, the proposed method is of definite practical value.

Strengthening of Existing Bridge Structures for Shear and Bending with Carbon Textile-Reinforced Mortar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Herbrand

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Increasing traffic loads and changes in code provisions lead to deficits in shear and flexural capacity of many existing highway bridges. Therefore, a large number of structures are expected to require refurbishment and strengthening in the future. This projection is based on the current condition of many older road bridges. Different strengthening methods for bridges exist to extend their service life, all having specific advantages and disadvantages. By applying a thin layer of carbon textile-reinforced mortar (CTRM to bridge deck slabs and the webs of pre-stressed concrete bridges, the fatigue and ultimate strength of these members can be increased significantly. The CTRM layer is a combination of a corrosion resistant carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP fabric and an efficient mortar. In this paper, the strengthening method and the experimental results obtained at RWTH Aachen University are presented.

Strengthening of Existing Bridge Structures for Shear and Bending with Carbon Textile-Reinforced Mortar.

Science.gov (United States)

Herbrand, Martin; Adam, Viviane; Classen, Martin; Kueres, Dominik; Hegger, Josef

2017-09-19

Increasing traffic loads and changes in code provisions lead to deficits in shear and flexural capacity of many existing highway bridges. Therefore, a large number of structures are expected to require refurbishment and strengthening in the future. This projection is based on the current condition of many older road bridges. Different strengthening methods for bridges exist to extend their service life, all having specific advantages and disadvantages. By applying a thin layer of carbon textile-reinforced mortar (CTRM) to bridge deck slabs and the webs of pre-stressed concrete bridges, the fatigue and ultimate strength of these members can be increased significantly. The CTRM layer is a combination of a corrosion resistant carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) fabric and an efficient mortar. In this paper, the strengthening method and the experimental results obtained at RWTH Aachen University are presented.

Burning bridges: policy, practice, and the destruction of midwifery in rural Costa Rica.

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Gwynne L

2003-05-01

The trend toward hospitalization of birth has a long history in Costa Rica and currently approximately 98% of births take place in the clinical setting. Impoverished rural areas, like the town of Buenos Aires, lag behind national trends and only recently has birth moved from the home to the hospital. Costa Rica's midwife certification program co-opted rural midwives as bridges to biomedicalization, responsible for both pushing women into the biomedical setting and filling the gaps left by a limited national health care system. Despite the eventual illegalization of key practices and of home birth itself, local use of midwives' services continues, albeit with local demands that have transformed midwives into bridges to biomedical care in ways unanticipated by and invisible to national programmers. Midwives provide key services like prenatal massage, treatment of pregnancy crises, and attending unforeseen home births and women unable to afford the modest costs of hospitalization. Yet, midwives report increasing dissatisfaction and the desire to stop providing services in their communities. Practices like prenatal massage are in demand, but are no longer embedded in a system of local exchange that is socially and economically meaningful. Midwives blame their clientele for their dissatisfaction, but directly link these changes to the notions of professionalism, compensation, and changing community values. Thus, the social relationship between midwives and their clients must also be understood as a destructive force burning midwifery as a bridge to safe birth. In this essay, I argue that the process of both remodeling and subsequently destroying midwifery practices begun in the formal health care sector at the national level continues at the local level through changing values and meanings associated with midwives' practices.

National Bridge Inventory System (NBI)

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Transportation — The NBI System is the collection of bridge inspection information and costs associated with bridge replacements of structurally deficient bridges on and off the NHS....

Extracorporeal Life Support Bridge to Ventricular Assist Device: The Double Bridge Strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Marasco, Silvana F; Lo, Casey; Murphy, Deirdre; Summerhayes, Robyn; Quayle, Margaret; Zimmet, Adam; Bailey, Michael

2016-01-01

In patients requiring left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support, it can be difficult to ascertain suitability for long-term mechanical support with LVAD and eventual transplantation. LVAD implantation in a shocked patient is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Interest is growing in the utilization of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) as a bridge-to-bridge support for these critically unwell patients. Here, we reviewed our experience with ECLS double bridging. We hypothesized that ECLS double bridging would stabilize end-organ dysfunction and reduce ventricular assist device (VAD) implant perioperative mortality. We conducted a retrospective review of prospectively collected data for 58 consecutive patients implanted with a continuous-flow LVAD between January 2010 and December 2013 at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Twenty-three patients required ECLS support pre-LVAD while 35 patients underwent LVAD implantation without an ECLS bridge. Preoperative morbidity in the ECLS bridge group was reflected by increased postoperative intensive care duration, blood loss, blood product use, and postoperative renal failure, but without negative impact upon survival when compared with the no ECLS group. ECLS stabilization improved end-organ function pre-VAD implant with significant improvements in hepatic and renal dysfunction. This series demonstrates that the use of ECLS bridge to VAD stabilizes end-organ dysfunction and reduces VAD implant perioperative mortality from that traditionally reported in these "crash and burn" patients. Copyright © 2015 International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Biomechanical Comparison of Modified Suture Bridge Using Rip-Stop versus Traditional Suture Bridge for Rotator Cuff Repair

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZiYing Wu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose. To compare the biomechanical properties of 3 suture-bridge techniques for rotator cuff repair. Methods. Twelve pair-matched fresh-frozen shoulder specimens were randomized to 3 groups of different repair types: the medially Knotted Suture Bridge (KSB, the medially Untied Suture Bridge (USB, and the Modified Suture Bridge (MSB. Cyclic loading and load-to-failure test were performed. Parameters of elongation, stiffness, load at failure, and mode of failure were recorded. Results. The MSB technique had the significantly greatest load to failure (515.6±78.0 N, P=0.04 for KSB group; P<0.001 for USB group, stiffness (58.0±10.7 N/mm, P=0.005 for KSB group; P<0.001 for USB group, and lowest elongation (1.49±0.39 mm, P=0.009 for KSB group; P=0.001 for USB group among 3 groups. The KSB repair had significantly higher ultimate load (443.5±65.0 N than USB repair (363.5±52.3 N, P=0.024. However, there was no statistical difference in stiffness and elongation between KSB and USB technique (P=0.396 for stiffness and P=0.242 for elongation, resp.. The failure mode for all specimens was suture pulling through the cuff tendon. Conclusions. Our modified suture bridge technique (MSB may provide enhanced biomechanical properties when compared with medially knotted or knotless repair. Clinical Relevance. Our modified technique may represent a promising alternative in arthroscopic rotator cuff repair.

Wake-up transceivers for structural health monitoring of bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Kumberg, T.; Kokert, J.; Younesi, V.; Koenig, S.; Reindl, L. M.

2016-04-01

In this article we present a wireless sensor network to monitor the structural health of a large-scale highway bridge in Germany. The wireless sensor network consists of several sensor nodes that use wake-up receivers to realize latency free and low-power communication. The sensor nodes are either equipped with very accurate tilt sensor developed by Northrop Grumman LITEF GmbH or with a Novatel OEM615 GNSS receiver. Relay nodes are required to forward measurement data to a base station located on the bridge. The base station is a gateway that transmits the local measurement data to a remote server where it can be further analyzed and processed. Further on, we present an energy harvesting system to supply the energy demanding GNSS sensor nodes to realize long term monitoring.

Latent Class Models in action: bridging social capital & Internet usage.

Science.gov (United States)

Neves, Barbara Barbosa; Fonseca, Jaime R S

2015-03-01

This paper explores how Latent Class Models (LCM) can be applied in social research, when the basic assumptions of regression models cannot be validated. We examine the usefulness of this method with data collected from a study on the relationship between bridging social capital and the Internet. Social capital is defined here as the resources that are potentially available in one's social ties. Bridging is a dimension of social capital, usually related to weak ties (acquaintances), and a source of instrumental resources such as information. The study surveyed a stratified random sample of 417 inhabitants of Lisbon, Portugal. We used LCM to create the variable bridging social capital, but also to estimate the relationship between bridging social capital and Internet usage when we encountered convergence problems with the logistic regression analysis. We conclude by showing a positive relationship between bridging and Internet usage, and by discussing the potential of LCM for social science research. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Identification from the Natural Response of Vasco Da Gama Bridge

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cunha, A.; Caetano, E.; Brincker, Rune

2004-01-01

This paper describes the reanalysis of the ambient vibration data of Vasco da Gama cable-stayed bridge with the purpose of testing the efficiency and accuracy of two recent and promising identification methods in a large application: the Frequency Domain Decomposition (FDD) and the Stochastic...... Subspace Identification (SSI) methods. The modal estimates obtained using these alternative approaches are compared, taking also into account the estimates previously obtained with the conventional Peak Picking technique from the free vibration test of the bridge, performed at the end of construction....

Sensitivity Analysis of the Influence of Structural Parameters on Dynamic Behaviour of Highly Redundant Cable-Stayed Bridges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Asgari

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The model tuning through sensitivity analysis is a prominent procedure to assess the structural behavior and dynamic characteristics of cable-stayed bridges. Most of the previous sensitivity-based model tuning methods are automatic iterative processes; however, the results of recent studies show that the most reasonable results are achievable by applying the manual methods to update the analytical model of cable-stayed bridges. This paper presents a model updating algorithm for highly redundant cable-stayed bridges that can be used as an iterative manual procedure. The updating parameters are selected through the sensitivity analysis which helps to better understand the structural behavior of the bridge. The finite element model of Tatara Bridge is considered for the numerical studies. The results of the simulations indicate the efficiency and applicability of the presented manual tuning method for updating the finite element model of cable-stayed bridges. The new aspects regarding effective material and structural parameters and model tuning procedure presented in this paper will be useful for analyzing and model updating of cable-stayed bridges.

Multi-Hazard Assessment of Scour Damaged Bridges with UAS-Based Measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Özcan, O.; Ozcan, O.

2017-12-01

Flood and stream induced scour occurring in bridge piers constructed on rivers is one of the mostly observed failure reasons in bridges. Scour induced failure risk in bridges and determination of the alterations in bridge safety under seismic effects has the ultimate importance. Thus, for the determination of bridge safety under the scour effects, the scour amount under bridge piers should be designated realistically and should be tracked and updated continuously. Hereby, the scour induced failures in bridge foundation systems will be prevented and bridge substructure design will be conducted safely. In this study, in order to measure the amount of scour in bridge load bearing system (pile foundations and pile abutments) and to attain very high definition 3 dimensional models of river flood plain for the flood analysis, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) based measurement methods were implemented. UAS based measurement systems provide new and practical approach and bring high precision and reliable solutions considering recent measurement systems. For this purpose, the reinforced concrete (RC) bridge that is located on Antalya Boğaçayı River, Turkey and that failed in 2003 due to flood-induced scour was selected as the case study. The amount of scour occurred in bridge piers and piles was determined realistically and the behavior of bridge piers under scour effects was investigated. Future flood effects and the resultant amount of scour was determined with HEC-RAS software by using digital surface models that were obtained at regular intervals using UAS for the riverbed. In the light of the attained scour measurements and expected scour after a probable flood event, the behavior of scour damaged RC bridge was investigated by pushover and time history analyses under lateral and vertical seismic loadings. In the analyses, the load and displacement capacity of bridge was observed to diminish significantly under expected scour. Thus, the deterioration in multi hazard

Real-time stress monitoring of highway bridges with a secured wireless sensor network.

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-01

"This collaborative research aims to develop a real-time stress monitoring system for highway bridges with a secured wireless sensor network. The near term goal is to collect wireless sensor data under different traffic patterns from local highway br...

Microgravity Science Experiment of Marangoni Convection occurred in Larger Liquid Bridge on KIBO

Science.gov (United States)

Matsumoto, Satoshi; Yoda, Shinichi; Tanaka, Tetsuo

Marangoni convection is a fluid motion induced by local variations of surface tension along a free surface which is caused by temperature and/or concentration differences. Marangoni convection plays important roll in such applications as crystal growth from melt, welding, con-tainerless material processing, and so on. One of the promising techniques to grow a high quality crystal is a floating-zone method which exists cylindrical melting part at heated region. This liquid part like a column is sustained between solid rods and it has free surface on the side. For investigation of Marangoni convection, a liquid bridge configuration with heated top and cooled bottom is often employed to simplify phenomena. Much work has been performed on Marangoni convection in the past, both experimentally and theoretically. Most of the ex-perimental investigations were conducted in normal gravity but some results from microgravity experiments are now available. However, problems to be solved are still remained in scientific view point. The effect of liquid bridge size on critical Marangoni number to determine the onset of oscillatory flow is one of important subjects. To investigate size effect, the experiment with changing wide range of diameter is needed. Under terrestrial conditions, large size of liquid bridge enhances to induce buoyancy convection. Much larger liquid bridge is deformed its shape or finally liquid bridge could not keep between disks because of its self-weight. So, microgravity experiment is required to make clear the size effect and to obtain precise data. We carried out Marangoni experiment under microgravity condition in Japanese Experiment Module "KIBO". A 50 mm diameter liquid bridge was formed and temperature difference between supporting rods was imposed to induce thermocapillary flow. Convective motion was observed in detail using several cameras, infrared camera and temperature sensors. Silicone oil of 5cSt was employed as a working fluid, which Prandtl

Dynamic Analysis of Cable-Stayed Bridges Affected by Accidental Failure Mechanisms under Moving Loads

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabrizio Greco

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The dynamic behavior of cable-stayed bridges subjected to moving loads and affected by an accidental failure in the cable suspension system is investigated. The main aim of the paper is to quantify, numerically, the dynamic amplification factors of typical kinematic and stress design variables, by means of a parametric study developed in terms of the structural characteristics of the bridge components. The bridge formulation is developed by using a geometric nonlinear formulation, in which the effects of local vibrations of the stays and of large displacements in the girder and the pylons are taken into account. Explicit time dependent damage laws, reproducing the failure mechanism in the cable system, are considered to investigate the influence of the failure mode characteristics on the dynamic bridge behavior. The analysis focuses attention on the influence of the inertial characteristics of the moving loads, by accounting coupling effects arising from the interaction between girder and moving system. Sensitivity analyses of typical design bridge variables are proposed. In particular, the effects produced by the moving system characteristics, the tower typologies, and the failure mode characteristics involved in the cable system are investigated by means of comparisons between damaged and undamaged bridge configurations.

3D spatially-adaptive canonical correlation analysis: Local and global methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Zhengshi; Zhuang, Xiaowei; Sreenivasan, Karthik; Mishra, Virendra; Curran, Tim; Byrd, Richard; Nandy, Rajesh; Cordes, Dietmar

2018-04-01

Local spatially-adaptive canonical correlation analysis (local CCA) with spatial constraints has been introduced to fMRI multivariate analysis for improved modeling of activation patterns. However, current algorithms require complicated spatial constraints that have only been applied to 2D local neighborhoods because the computational time would be exponentially increased if the same method is applied to 3D spatial neighborhoods. In this study, an efficient and accurate line search sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm has been developed to efficiently solve the 3D local CCA problem with spatial constraints. In addition, a spatially-adaptive kernel CCA (KCCA) method is proposed to increase accuracy of fMRI activation maps. With oriented 3D spatial filters anisotropic shapes can be estimated during the KCCA analysis of fMRI time courses. These filters are orientation-adaptive leading to rotational invariance to better match arbitrary oriented fMRI activation patterns, resulting in improved sensitivity of activation detection while significantly reducing spatial blurring artifacts. The kernel method in its basic form does not require any spatial constraints and analyzes the whole-brain fMRI time series to construct an activation map. Finally, we have developed a penalized kernel CCA model that involves spatial low-pass filter constraints to increase the specificity of the method. The kernel CCA methods are compared with the standard univariate method and with two different local CCA methods that were solved by the SQP algorithm. Results show that SQP is the most efficient algorithm to solve the local constrained CCA problem, and the proposed kernel CCA methods outperformed univariate and local CCA methods in detecting activations for both simulated and real fMRI episodic memory data. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Strength monitoring of bridge constructions and features of its application. Part 2. Continuous monitoring of bridge construction status

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ovchinnikov Igor Georgievich

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The article describes a system of continuous monitoring of bridge constructions — a system of observation over the operating conditions and behavior of the bridge structure, which is aimed at ensuring the preservation of its functional application properties within the specified limits, realized on the continuous, long-term basis with the use of instrumentation and ensures on-line presentation of information on the status of structure. To illustrate, one may consider the existing systems of continuous monitoring for a number of bridge constructions in the United States, Japan, Europe, South Korea, Greece and Russia. The article suggests to examine the systems of continuous monitoring of «Commodore John Barry» truss bridge, «Akashi-Kaikyo» suspension bridge, «Siggenthal» reinforced-concrete arch bridge, «Nimhe» suspension bridge, «Jindo»cable-stayed bridge, «Yandzhon» suspension bridge, «Banghwa» bridge, «Seohae» bridge and «Rio-Antirrio» bridge. In addition one may consider monitoring of the longitudinal launching of the bridge superstructures over the Volga River near the village Pristannoye in Saratov region. Finally, it was drawn the conclusion that monitoring of bridge constructions from the standpoint of their consumers is aimed at solving such important problems as preservation of bridge structures, increase in service life of bridge structures through timely detection of faults and their elimination, as well as preservation of bridge structure carrying capacity by controlling their behavior during the operation and improving the efficiency of expenditure of monetary resources for repair activities by correct determination of time and type of the necessary repair.

Skin bridge versus rod colostomy in children - comparison between complications.

Science.gov (United States)

Askarpour, Shahnam; Peyvasteh, Mehran; Changai, Bahram; Javaherizadeh, Hazhir

2012-10-01

Due to economic problems, sigmoid loop colostomy using glass rod may cause problems for our patients for finding glass rod and several visits. The aim of the study was to compare rod versus skin bridge colostomy. In this study, 42 cases who are candidate for colostomy were included. Cases were randomly placed in skin bridge and rod colostomy group. Independent sample t-test and Chi-square were used for comparison. SPSS version 16.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) was used for analysis. Of 42 cases, 20 were male and 22 were female. Hirschsprung's disease was the indication of colostomy in 33 cases. In nine cases, imperforate anus was the indication of colostomy. Mean time of surgery was 79.4 and 82.5 minute for the rod and skin bridge group respectively (P>0.05). Retraction was seen in 2 case of rod group, and no case of skin bridge group. Prolapse was seen in 2 (9.5%) case of rod group and 1(4.7%) case in skin bridge. There were no reports of necrosis, stenosis, and hernia in both groups. In the skin bridge group the rates of complications were lower but the groups are too small for statistical analysis. Colostomy with a skin bridge method may decrease number of revision and expenses and may be appropriate option. Sigmoid loop colostomy using skin bridge flap may be appropriate choice in developing country. Another study with more samples is recommended to better comparison of Skin Bridge versus rod colostomy.

Field performance of timber bridges. 15, Pueblo County, Colorado, stress-laminated deck bridge

Science.gov (United States)

L. E. Hislop

The Pueblo County 204B bridge was constructed in March 1990 in Pueblo, Colorado, as a demonstration bridge under the USDA Forest Service Timber Bridge Initiative. The stress-laminated deck superstructure is approximately 10 m long, 9 m wide, and 406 mm deep, with a skew of 10 degrees. Performance monitoring was conducted for 3 years, beginning at...

Magnetic resonance imaging of flow and mass transfer in electrohydrodynamic liquid bridges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wexler, Adam D.; Drusová, Sandra; Fuchs, Elmar C.; Woisetschläger, Jakob; Reiter, Gert; Fuchsjäger, Michael; Reiter, Ursula

2017-01-01

Abstract: Here, we report on the feasibility and use of magnetic resonance imaging-based methods to the study of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) liquid bridges. High-speed tomographic recordings through the longitudinal axis of water bridges were used to characterize the mass transfer dynamics, mixing,

Principles of Bridge Reliability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thoft-Christensen, Palle; Nowak, Andrzej S.

The paper gives a brief introduction to the basic principles of structural reliability theory and its application to bridge engineering. Fundamental concepts like failure probability and reliability index are introduced. Ultimate as well as serviceability limit states for bridges are formulated......, and as an example the reliability profile and a sensitivity analyses for a corroded reinforced concrete bridge is shown....

Design and construction of superstructure in prestressed concrete cable-stayed bridge. ; Aomori Bay Bridge. PC shachokyo jobuko no sekkei to seko. ; Aomori Bay Bridge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ishibashi, T.; Fujimori, S.; Oba, M.; Tsuyoshi, T. (East Japan Railway Co., Tokyo (Japan))

1991-12-01

Aomori Bay Bridge is a 1,219m long elevated bridge, a part of No.2 Bay Highway of 1,993m in total length crossing over Aomori railway station which was planned in ordecr to integrate the port facilities of Aomori Harbor and expedite cargo traffic smoothly. Of this Bay Bridge, its main bridge portion crossing over Aomori railway station and the sea area was planned as a continuous prestressed concrete cable-stayed bridge of 498m in total length and consisting of three portions including the central portion in which the main span between the central bridge piers was 240m. It is scheduled to open in the summer of 1992. With regard to the design of this bridge, special care for the view of the bridge has been taken covering from the structure style to the accessories. For this bridge, a large scale underground continuous wall solid base with a box-shaped section consisting of 6 chambers was adopted for the base of a main tower. It has the cantilever suspension structure of the wide girder with the inverted Y-shaped pylons. For its stav cable, was adopted a large capacity stay cable with standard tensile strength of 1,942 fabricated on the site and for its covering tube, a FRP tube was adopted. In this article, the construction of the main girder and stay cables, and the construction control during their installation by projection are reported. 7 refs., 14 figs., 9 tabs.

AN ACD DIAGRAM DEVELOPED FOR SIMULATING A BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION OPERATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fahimeh Zaeri

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Success in the performance of construction projects can be substantially enhanced if plans are formulated more realistically, ahead of time. Planning includes identifying project activities, required resources, interdependencies, and also recognizing the uncertainties in the duration of activities. Inherent features of construction projects, such as high repetition, complexity and uniqueness on the one hand, and advances in technology and methodologies on the other, create more difficulties in planning construction delivery. This is true for bridge operations. This study presents an innovative incremental beam launching method with twin truss gantry. This construction method has significant advantages in terms of cost and speed of performance, but increases the level of planning and management required for the bridge operation. Further, because of the newness of the method, no specific Work Breakdown Structure nor conceptual framework has been developed as yet. The aim of the current study is to explore the use of a simulation-based tool (EZStrobe to facilitate the planning and management of a bridge construction operation (case study. The process followed in the development of a conceptual framework for the case study project is described. An Activity Cycle Diagram is produced alongside the conceptual framework and process models, with the intent of illustrating the key steps in the simulation modelling method. The developed models could assist in scheduling and controlling inherent construction features such as uncertainties, complexities, and repetitions in bridge construction projects, consequently improving their delivery.

Design, fabrication and erection of Queen Mall Bridge; Queen mall kyo no sekkei seisaku kasetsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arai, M.; Ishii, A.; Shinohara, T. [Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

1997-12-20

This paper describes design, fabrication and erection of Queen Mall Bridge, which is a new landmark in Minato-Mirai Yokohama. This bridge is two-span continuous cable stayed pedestrian bridge with a roof, and has a length 72.2 m, a width 18 m and a weight about 1,050 t. This bridge connects between the Queen`s Square and the second floor of Pacifico Yokohama. Achieving harmonious impression of the newly designed bridge in this area, glass roof was employed and all-weld method was applied to the in-site jointing of main girders and main tower in addition to the essential structural design. Since all-weld method was applied to the in-site jointing, highly accurate fabrication was considered during the in-site jointing. Due to the heavy traffic of the road below the bridge, the erection time was shortened under the severe erection conditions at night by large block method. Especially, accuracy control was considered for the whole shape management. Pre-assemble of all members was conducted just near the erection site, only 500 m away from the site, to shorten the construction time. 1 ref., 5 figs.

Towards a definition of locality in a manifoldlike causal set

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glaser, Lisa; Surya, Sumati

2013-01-01

of locality. In particular, it is difficult to define a "local" region in a manifoldlike causal set, i.e., one that corresponds to an approximately flat spacetime region. Following up on suggestions from previous work, we bridge this lacuna by proposing a definition of locality based on the abundance of m...

Optimal cross-sectional sampling for river modelling with bridges: An information theory-based method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ridolfi, E.; Napolitano, F., E-mail: francesco.napolitano@uniroma1.it [Sapienza Università di Roma, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale (Italy); Alfonso, L. [Hydroinformatics Chair Group, UNESCO-IHE, Delft (Netherlands); Di Baldassarre, G. [Department of Earth Sciences, Program for Air, Water and Landscape Sciences, Uppsala University (Sweden)

2016-06-08

The description of river topography has a crucial role in accurate one-dimensional (1D) hydraulic modelling. Specifically, cross-sectional data define the riverbed elevation, the flood-prone area, and thus, the hydraulic behavior of the river. Here, the problem of the optimal cross-sectional spacing is solved through an information theory-based concept. The optimal subset of locations is the one with the maximum information content and the minimum amount of redundancy. The original contribution is the introduction of a methodology to sample river cross sections in the presence of bridges. The approach is tested on the Grosseto River (IT) and is compared to existing guidelines. The results show that the information theory-based approach can support traditional methods to estimate rivers’ cross-sectional spacing.

Optimal cross-sectional sampling for river modelling with bridges: An information theory-based method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ridolfi, E.; Napolitano, F.; Alfonso, L.; Di Baldassarre, G.

2016-01-01

The description of river topography has a crucial role in accurate one-dimensional (1D) hydraulic modelling. Specifically, cross-sectional data define the riverbed elevation, the flood-prone area, and thus, the hydraulic behavior of the river. Here, the problem of the optimal cross-sectional spacing is solved through an information theory-based concept. The optimal subset of locations is the one with the maximum information content and the minimum amount of redundancy. The original contribution is the introduction of a methodology to sample river cross sections in the presence of bridges. The approach is tested on the Grosseto River (IT) and is compared to existing guidelines. The results show that the information theory-based approach can support traditional methods to estimate rivers’ cross-sectional spacing.

Surface green function matching for a three-dimensional non-local continuum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Idiodi, J.O.A.

1985-07-01

With a view toward helping to bridge the gap, from the continuum side, between discrete and continuum models of crystalline, elastic solids, explicit results are presented for non-local stress tensors that describe exactly some lattice dynamical models that have been widely used in the literature for cubic lattices. The Surface Green Function Matching (SGFM) method, which has been used successfully for a variety of surface problems, is then extended, within a continuum approach, to a non-local continuum that models a three-dimensional discrete lattice. The practical use of the method is demonstrated by performing a fairly complete analytical study of the vibrational surface modes of the SCC semi-infinite medium. Some results are presented for the [100] direction of the (001) surface of the SCC lattice. (author)

Bridges for Pedestrians with Random Parameters using the Stochastic Finite Elements Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Szafran, J.; Kamiński, M.

2017-02-01

The main aim of this paper is to present a Stochastic Finite Element Method analysis with reference to principal design parameters of bridges for pedestrians: eigenfrequency and deflection of bridge span. They are considered with respect to random thickness of plates in boxed-section bridge platform, Young modulus of structural steel and static load resulting from crowd of pedestrians. The influence of the quality of the numerical model in the context of traditional FEM is shown also on the example of a simple steel shield. Steel structures with random parameters are discretized in exactly the same way as for the needs of traditional Finite Element Method. Its probabilistic version is provided thanks to the Response Function Method, where several numerical tests with random parameter values varying around its mean value enable the determination of the structural response and, thanks to the Least Squares Method, its final probabilistic moments.

Bridges for Pedestrians with Random Parameters using the Stochastic Finite Elements Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Szafran J.

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The main aim of this paper is to present a Stochastic Finite Element Method analysis with reference to principal design parameters of bridges for pedestrians: eigenfrequency and deflection of bridge span. They are considered with respect to random thickness of plates in boxed-section bridge platform, Young modulus of structural steel and static load resulting from crowd of pedestrians. The influence of the quality of the numerical model in the context of traditional FEM is shown also on the example of a simple steel shield. Steel structures with random parameters are discretized in exactly the same way as for the needs of traditional Finite Element Method. Its probabilistic version is provided thanks to the Response Function Method, where several numerical tests with random parameter values varying around its mean value enable the determination of the structural response and, thanks to the Least Squares Method, its final probabilistic moments.

Evaluation and comparison of mammalian subcellular localization prediction methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fink J Lynn

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Determination of the subcellular location of a protein is essential to understanding its biochemical function. This information can provide insight into the function of hypothetical or novel proteins. These data are difficult to obtain experimentally but have become especially important since many whole genome sequencing projects have been finished and many resulting protein sequences are still lacking detailed functional information. In order to address this paucity of data, many computational prediction methods have been developed. However, these methods have varying levels of accuracy and perform differently based on the sequences that are presented to the underlying algorithm. It is therefore useful to compare these methods and monitor their performance. Results In order to perform a comprehensive survey of prediction methods, we selected only methods that accepted large batches of protein sequences, were publicly available, and were able to predict localization to at least nine of the major subcellular locations (nucleus, cytosol, mitochondrion, extracellular region, plasma membrane, Golgi apparatus, endoplasmic reticulum (ER, peroxisome, and lysosome. The selected methods were CELLO, MultiLoc, Proteome Analyst, pTarget and WoLF PSORT. These methods were evaluated using 3763 mouse proteins from SwissProt that represent the source of the training sets used in development of the individual methods. In addition, an independent evaluation set of 2145 mouse proteins from LOCATE with a bias towards the subcellular localization underrepresented in SwissProt was used. The sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each method and compared to a theoretical value based on what might be observed by random chance. Conclusion No individual method had a sufficient level of sensitivity across both evaluation sets that would enable reliable application to hypothetical proteins. All methods showed lower performance on the LOCATE

Multilevel local refinement and multigrid methods for 3-D turbulent flow

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liao, C.; Liu, C. [UCD, Denver, CO (United States); Sung, C.H.; Huang, T.T. [David Taylor Model Basin, Bethesda, MD (United States)

1996-12-31

A numerical approach based on multigrid, multilevel local refinement, and preconditioning methods for solving incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations is presented. 3-D turbulent flow around an underwater vehicle is computed. 3 multigrid levels and 2 local refinement grid levels are used. The global grid is 24 x 8 x 12. The first patch is 40 x 16 x 20 and the second patch is 72 x 32 x 36. 4th order artificial dissipation are used for numerical stability. The conservative artificial compressibility method are used for further improvement of convergence. To improve the accuracy of coarse/fine grid interface of local refinement, flux interpolation method for refined grid boundary is used. The numerical results are in good agreement with experimental data. The local refinement can improve the prediction accuracy significantly. The flux interpolation method for local refinement can keep conservation for a composite grid, therefore further modify the prediction accuracy.

Discussion on the control method of the inductor-converter bridge by simulation and experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirano, M.; Kustom, R.L.

1983-07-01

With the development of the superconducting magnet as an energy storage unit, pulsed power loads between superconducting magnets of increasing magnitude up to several hundred megawatts or more appear within the realm of possibility. An energy storage unit that is independent of the power grid can be used in applications where the pulsed power required from the power grid may cause a hazardous effect on the power system. An energy transfer system between the storage and the load units eliminates the disturbance on the power grid. An inductor-converter bridge is proposed for such a purpose. The inductor-converter bridge (ICB) is a solid state DC-AC-DC converter system for reversible energy transfer between two high-inductance inductors. The converter thyristors are naturally commutated by a set of wye-connected capacitors on the AC lines of the circuit. The circuit is designed so that, in every converter cycle, a very small fraction of the magnet energy is stored in these capacitors. The characteristics of the inductor-converter bridge are briefly summarized as follows: low energy loss, reversibility of the energy transfer direction, controllability of the energy transfer rate, and no conversion to another energy form

A Practical, Robust and Fast Method for Location Localization in Range-Based Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Shiping; Wu, Zhifeng; Misra, Anil

2017-12-11

Location localization technology is used in a number of industrial and civil applications. Real time location localization accuracy is highly dependent on the quality of the distance measurements and efficiency of solving the localization equations. In this paper, we provide a novel approach to solve the nonlinear localization equations efficiently and simultaneously eliminate the bad measurement data in range-based systems. A geometric intersection model was developed to narrow the target search area, where Newton's Method and the Direct Search Method are used to search for the unknown position. Not only does the geometric intersection model offer a small bounded search domain for Newton's Method and the Direct Search Method, but also it can self-correct bad measurement data. The Direct Search Method is useful for the coarse localization or small target search domain, while the Newton's Method can be used for accurate localization. For accurate localization, by utilizing the proposed Modified Newton's Method (MNM), challenges of avoiding the local extrema, singularities, and initial value choice are addressed. The applicability and robustness of the developed method has been demonstrated by experiments with an indoor system.

FEATURES OF DESIGN OF TIED-ARCH BRIDGES WITH FLEXIBLE INCLINED SUSPENSION HANGERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. O. Samosvat

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Purpose. Investigation and analysis of the hanger arrangement and the structural stability of a Network arch bridge – a tied-arch bridge with inclined hangers that cross each other at least twice. It is also necessary to make a comparative analysis with other types of hanger arrangements. Methodology. The authors in their research investigated a large number of parameters to determine their influence in the force distribution in the arch. Eventually they determined optimal values for all parameters. These optimal values allowed developing a design guide that leads to optimal arch design. When solving this problem, the authors used three-dimensional finite element models and the objective was to determine the most suitable solution for a road bridge, with a span of 100 meters, consisting of two inclined steel arches, located on a road with two traffic lanes, subjected to medium traffic. The virtual prototype of the model is performed by finite element simulator Midas Civil. Findings. In this study, for the bridge deck, a concrete tie appears to be the best solution considering the structural behavior of network arches, but economic advantages caused by easier erection may lead to steel or a composite bridge deck as better alternatives. Design requirements and local conditions of each particular bridge project will decide the most economic deck design.Originality. To ensure passenger comfort and the stability and continuity of the track, deformations of bridges are constricted. A network arch is a stiff structure with small deflections and therefore suitable to comply with such demands even for high speed railway traffic.
A network arch bridge with a concrete tie usually saves more than half the steel required for tied arches with vertical hangers and concrete ties. Practical value. Following the study design advice given in this article leads to savings of about 60 % of structural steel compared with conventional tied arch bridges with

Direct comparison of enzyme histochemical and immunohistochemical methods to localize an enzyme

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Noorden, Cornelis J. F.

2002-01-01

Immunohistochemical localization of enzymes is compared directly with localization of enzyme activity with (catalytic) enzyme histochemical methods. The two approaches demonstrate principally different aspects of an enzyme. The immunohistochemical method localizes the enzyme protein whether it is

Research on Fluid Viscous Damper Parameters of Cable-Stayed Bridge in Northwest China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiongjun He

2017-01-01

Full Text Available To optimize the aseismic performance of nonlinear fluid viscous dampers (FVD of cable-stayed bridge in the highly seismic zone, Xigu Yellow River Bridge in northwest China is taken as an example. Nonlinear time-history analysis method is used to research on the relation among the internal forces, displacements, and damping parameters of the 650 tonnage FVD. The method of getting the minimum of binary functions is used to obtain the optimal parameters of FVD. Also, the 1 : 1 full-scale FVD model is made and used in the constitutive relation test. Then the test result of the damping parameters can be got by normal equation method. The optimized method to obtain the damping parameters is further verified. The results indicate that seismic response in key positions of the cable-stayed bridge can be reduced by installing longitudinal nonlinear FVD between the towers and girders if choosing reasonable damping parameters C and ξ. The optimal damping parameters can be calculated accurately by the proposed method of optimizing damping parameters of nonlinear FVD, and the constitutive relation test verifies the correctness of the optimization analysis method. Conclusions concerned can be applied to the design of nonlinear FVD for cable-stayed bridges.

Field performance of timber bridges. 8, Lynches Woods Park stress-laminated deck bridge

Science.gov (United States)

J. P. Wacker; M. A. Ritter; D. Conger

The Lynches Woods Park bridge was constructed during the summer of 1990 in Newberry, South Carolina. It is a single-span, single-lane, stress-laminated deck superstructure that measures approximately 30 ft long, 16 ft wide, and 14 in. deep. The bridge is unique in that is one of the first known stress-laminated deck bridges to be constructed of Southern Pine lumber...

Improved procedure for the computation of Lamb’s coefficients in the physalis method for particle simulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gudmundsson, K.; Prosperetti, Andrea

2013-01-01

The physalis method was designed for the simulation of flows with suspended spherical particles. It differs from standard immersed boundary methods due to the use of a local spectral representation of the solution in the neighborhood of each particle, which is used to bridge the gap between the

Bridge the Gap

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marselis, Randi

2017-01-01

This article focuses on photo projects organised for teenage refugees by the Society for Humanistic Photography (Berlin, Germany). These projects, named Bridge the Gap I (2015), and Bridge the Gap II (2016), were carried out in Berlin and brought together teenagers with refugee and German...

Long-term behavior of integral abutment bridges.

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Integral abutment (IA) construction has become the preferred method over conventional construction for use with typical : highway bridges. However, the use of these structures is limited due to state mandated length and skew limitations. To : expand ...

Non-destructive inspection protocol for reinforced concrete barriers and bridge railings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chintakunta, Satish R. [Engineering and Software Consultants, Inc., 14123 Robert Paris Ct., Chantilly, VA 20151 (United States); Boone, Shane D. [Federal Highway Administration, Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center, 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22101 (United States)

2014-02-18

Reinforced concrete highway barriers and bridge railings serve to prevent errant vehicles from departing the travel way at grade separations. Despite the important role that they play in maintaining safety and their ubiquitous nature, barrier inspection rarely moves beyond visual inspection. In August 2008, a tractor-trailer fatally departed William Preston Lane, Jr. Memorial Bridge after it dislodged a section of the bridge barrier. Investigations following the accident identified significant corrosion of the anchor bolts attaching the bridge railing to the bridge deck. As a result of the information gathered during its investigation of the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) made recommendations to the Federal Highway Administration concerning Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) of concrete bridge railings. The Center for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) at Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, VA is currently evaluating feasibility of using four technologies - ground penetrating radar (GPR), ultrasonic pulse-echo, digital radiography and infrared thermal imaging methods to develop bridge inspection methods that augment visual inspections, offer reliable measurement techniques, and are practical, both in terms of time and cost, for field inspection work. Controlled samples containing predefined corrosion levels in reinforcing steel were embedded at barrier connection points for laboratory testing. All four NDE techniques were used in the initial phase I testing. An inspection protocol for detecting and measuring the corrosion of reinforced steel embedded in the anchorage system will be developed as part of phase II research. The identified technologies shall be further developed for field testing utilizing a structure with a barrier in good condition and a structure with a barrier in poor condition.

Non-destructive inspection protocol for reinforced concrete barriers and bridge railings

Science.gov (United States)

Chintakunta, Satish R.; Boone, Shane D.

2014-02-01

Reinforced concrete highway barriers and bridge railings serve to prevent errant vehicles from departing the travel way at grade separations. Despite the important role that they play in maintaining safety and their ubiquitous nature, barrier inspection rarely moves beyond visual inspection. In August 2008, a tractor-trailer fatally departed William Preston Lane, Jr. Memorial Bridge after it dislodged a section of the bridge barrier. Investigations following the accident identified significant corrosion of the anchor bolts attaching the bridge railing to the bridge deck. As a result of the information gathered during its investigation of the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) made recommendations to the Federal Highway Administration concerning Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) of concrete bridge railings. The Center for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) at Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, VA is currently evaluating feasibility of using four technologies - ground penetrating radar (GPR), ultrasonic pulse-echo, digital radiography and infrared thermal imaging methods to develop bridge inspection methods that augment visual inspections, offer reliable measurement techniques, and are practical, both in terms of time and cost, for field inspection work. Controlled samples containing predefined corrosion levels in reinforcing steel were embedded at barrier connection points for laboratory testing. All four NDE techniques were used in the initial phase I testing. An inspection protocol for detecting and measuring the corrosion of reinforced steel embedded in the anchorage system will be developed as part of phase II research. The identified technologies shall be further developed for field testing utilizing a structure with a barrier in good condition and a structure with a barrier in poor condition.

Bridge technology report

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

Please note this is a Short Discount publication. As LANs have proliferated, new technologies and system concepts have come to the fore. One of the key issues is how to interconnect networks. One means of interconnection is to use a 'bridge'. Other competing technologies are repeaters, routers, and gateways. Bridges permit traffic isolation, connect network segments together and operate at the MAC layer. Further, because they operate at the MAC layer, they can handle a variety of protocols such as TCP/IP, SNA, and X.25. This report focuses on the specific technology of bridging two netw

Monitoring of the new Arsta railway bridge using traditional and fiber optic sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Enckell-El Jemli, Merit; Karoumi, Raid; Lanaro, Flavio

2003-08-01

Stockholm consists of several islands connected by a number of bridges. Many of these bridges need to be repaired or replaced because of their age. Replacing and repairing existing bridges are of economic concern for many local authorities and governments. In order to minimize the costs for reparation and maintenance and to ensure the safety of civil infrastructures, there is an increasing need in our society for health monitoring of bridges. Monitoring helps us to understand the real behavior of the structure and lets us verify the design uncertainties. It is clear that monitoring will have a major role in the design of the future structures, and suitable monitoring systems will be designed together with the structures. The new Årsta Railway Bridge, which is under construction in Stockholm, is an optimized and very complex ten-span pre-stressed concrete structure. Each span has a length of 78 meters. The Swedish National Railway Administration (Banverket) has initiated a measuring campaign in order to study and understand the dynamic and static behavior of the bridge. The main objectives are: firstly, to monitor the bridge during the first 10 years including construction and testing period, and secondly, for the static study, to compare traditional measuring technique using strain transducers developed at Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Sweden, with the fiber optic sensors developed by SMARTEC, Switzerland. After a short overview of the existing measurement systems and technique for measuring civil infrastructures, the paper illustrates the installation of KTH's and SMARTEC's monitoring systems. In addition, some very early results are included.

Local Convergence and Radius of Convergence for Modified Newton Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Măruşter Ştefan

2017-12-01

Full Text Available We investigate the local convergence of modified Newton method, i.e., the classical Newton method in which the derivative is periodically re-evaluated. Based on the convergence properties of Picard iteration for demicontractive mappings, we give an algorithm to estimate the local radius of convergence for considered method. Numerical experiments show that the proposed algorithm gives estimated radii which are very close to or even equal with the best ones.

Assessment of bridge abutment scour and sediment transport under various flow conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Gilja, Gordon; Valyrakis, Manousos; Michalis, Panagiotis; Bekić, Damir; Kuspilić, Neven; McKeogh, Eamon

2017-04-01

Safety of bridges over watercourses can be compromised by flow characteristics and bridge hydraulics. Scour process around bridge foundations can develop rapidly during low-recurrence interval floods when structural elements are exposed to increased flows. Variations in riverbed geometry, as a result of sediment removal and deposition processes, can increase flood-induced hazard at bridge sites with catastrophic failures and destructive consequences for civil infrastructure. The quantification of flood induced hazard on bridge safety generally involves coupled hydrodynamic and sediment transport models (i.e. 2D numerical or physical models) for a range of hydrological events covering both high and low flows. Modelled boundary conditions are usually estimated for their probability of occurrence using frequency analysis of long-term recordings at gauging stations. At smaller rivers gauging station records are scarce, especially in upper courses of rivers where weirs, drops and rapids are common elements of river bathymetry. As a result, boundary conditions that accurately represent flow patterns on modelled river reach cannot be often reliably acquired. Sediment transport process is also more complicated to describe due to its complexity and dependence to local flow field making scour hazard assessment a particularly challenging issue. This study investigates the influence of flow characteristics to the development of scour and sedimentation processes around bridge abutments of a single span masonry arch bridge in south Ireland. The impact of downstream weirs on bridge hydraulics through variation of downstream model domain type is also considered in this study. The numerical model is established based on detailed bathymetry data surveyed along a rectangular grid of 50cm spacing. Acquired data also consist of riverbed morphology and water level variations which are monitored continuously on bridge site. The obtained data are then used to compare and calibrate

Mass and charge transfer within a floating water bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Fuchs, Elmar C.; Agostinho, Luewton L. F.; Eisenhut, Mathias; Woisetschläger, Jakob

2010-11-01

When high voltage is applied to pure water filled into two beakers close to each other, a connection forms spontaneously, giving the impression of a floating water bridge 1-8. This phenomenon is of special interest, since it comprises a number of phenomena currently tackled in modern water science. In this work, the charge and mass transfer through the water bridge are investigated with schlieren visualization and laser interferometry. It can be shown that the addition of a pH dye increases the H+ and OH- production with subsequent electrolysis, whereas schlieren and interferometric methods reveal another mechanism where charge and mass transfer appear to be coupled. Whereas this mechanism seems to be responsible for the electrolysis-less charge and mass transfer in the water bridge, it is increasingly superseded by the electrochemical mechanism with rising conductivity. Thus it can be shown that a pH dye does only indirectly visualize the charge transfer in the water bridge since it is dragged along with the water flow like any other dye, and additionally promotes conventional electrochemical conduction mechanisms, thereby enhancing electrolysis and reducing the masscoupled charge transport and thus destabilizing the bridge.

Myocardial Bridges and their Relationship to the Anterior Interventricular Branch of the Left Coronary Artery

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Lima Vanildo Júnior de Melo

2002-01-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To analyze the relationship between myocardial bridges and the anterior interventricular branch (anterior descending of the left coronary artery. METHODS: The study was carried out with postmortem material, and methods of dissection and observation were used. We assessed the perimeter of the anterior interventricular branch of the left coronary artery using a pachymeter, calculated its proximal and distal diameters in relation to the myocardial bridge, and also its diameter under the myocardial bridge in 30 hearts. We also observed the position of the myocardial bridge in relation to the origin of the anterior interventricular branch. RESULTS: The diameters of the anterior interventricular branch were as follows: the mean proximal diameter was 2.76±0.76 mm; the mean diameter under the myocardial bridge was 2.08±0.54 mm; and the mean distal diameter was 1.98±0.59 mm. In 33.33% (10/30 of the cases, the diameter of the anterior interventricular branch under the myocardial bridge was lower than the diameter of the anterior interventricular branch distal to the myocardial bridge. In 3.33% (1/30 of the cases, an atherosclerotic plaque was found in the segment under the myocardial bridge. The myocardial bridge was located in the middle third of the anterior interventricular branch in 86.66% (26/30 of the cases. CONCLUSION: Myocardial bridges are more frequently found in the middle third of the anterior interventricular branch of the left coronary artery. The diameter of the anterior interventricular branch of the left coronary artery under the myocardial bridge may be smaller than after the bridge. Myocardial bridges may not provide protection against the formation of atherosclerotic plaque inside the anterior interventricular branch of the left coronary artery.

Bridge SHM system based on fiber optical sensing technology

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Sheng; Fan, Dian; Fu, Jiang-hua; Huang, Xing; Jiang, De-sheng

2015-09-01

The latest progress of our lab in recent 10 years on the area of bridge structural health monitoring (SHM) based on optical fiber sensing technology is introduced. Firstly, in the part of sensing technology, optical fiber force test-ring, optical fiber vibration sensor, optical fiber smart cable, optical fiber prestressing loss monitoring method and optical fiber continuous curve mode inspection system are developed, which not only rich the sensor types, but also provides new monitoring means that are needed for the bridge health monitoring system. Secondly, in the optical fiber sensing network and computer system platform, the monitoring system architecture model is designed to effectively meet the integration scale and effect requirement of engineering application, especially the bridge expert system proposed integration of sensing information and informatization manual inspection to realize the mode of multi index intelligence and practical monitoring, diagnosis and evaluation. Finally, the Jingyue bridge monitoring system as the representative, the research on the technology of engineering applications are given.

CF60 Concrete Composition Design and Application on Fudiankou Xijiang Super Large Bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Qiu, Yi Mei; Wen, Sen Yuan; Chen, Jun Xiang

2018-06-01

Guangxi Wuzhou City Ring Road Fudiankou Xijiang super large bridge CF60 concrete is a new multi-phase composite high-performance concrete, this paper for the Fudiankou Xijiang bridge structure and characteristics of the project, in accordance with the principle of local materials and technical specification requirements, combined with the site conditions of CF60 engineering high performance concrete component materials, proportion and the technical performance, quantify the main physical and mechanical performance index. Analysis main influencing factors of the technical indicators, reasonable adjustment of concrete mix design parameters, and the use of technical means of admixture and multi-function composite admixture of concrete, obtain the optimal proportion of good work, process, mechanical properties stability and durability of engineering properties, recommend and verification of concrete mix; to explore the CF60 high performance concrete Soil in the Fudiankou Xijiang bridge application technology, detection and tracking the quality of concrete construction, concrete structure during the construction of the key technology and control points is proposed, evaluation of CF60 high performance concrete in the actual engineering application effect and benefit to ensure engineering quality of bridge structure and service life, and super long span bridge engineering construction to provide basis and reference.

Field performance of timber bridges. 12, Christian Hollow stress-laminated box-beam bridge

Science.gov (United States)

J. P. Wacker; S. C. Catherman; R. G. Winnett

In January 1992, the Christian Hollow bridge was constructed in Steuben County, New York. The bridge is a single-span, stress-laminated box-beam superstructure that is 9.1 m long, 9.8 m wide, and 502 mm deep (30 ft long, 32 ft wide, and 19-3/4 in. deep). The performance of the bridge was continuously monitored for 28 months, beginning shortly after installation....

Local Fractional Variational Iteration and Decomposition Methods for Wave Equation on Cantor Sets within Local Fractional Operators

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Dumitru Baleanu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We perform a comparison between the fractional iteration and decomposition methods applied to the wave equation on Cantor set. The operators are taken in the local sense. The results illustrate the significant features of the two methods which are both very effective and straightforward for solving the differential equations with local fractional derivative.

Hysteretic behavior of prestressed concrete bridge pier with fiber model.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hui-li; Feng, Guang-qi; Qin, Si-feng

2014-01-01

The hysteretic behavior and seismic characteristics of the prestressed concrete bridge pier were researched. The effects of the prestressed tendon ratio, the longitudinal reinforcement ratio, and the stirrup reinforcement ratio on the hysteretic behavior and seismic characteristics of the prestressed concrete bridge pier have been obtained with the fiber model analysis method. The analysis show some results about the prestressed concrete bridge pier. Firstly, greater prestressed tendon ratio and more longitudinal reinforcement can lead to more obvious pier's hysteresis loop "pinching effect," smaller residual displacement, and lower energy dissipation capacity. Secondly, the greater the stirrup reinforcement ratio is, the greater the hysteresis loop area is. That also means that bridge piers will have better ductility and stronger shear capacity. The results of the research will provide a theoretical basis for the hysteretic behavior analysis of the prestressed concrete pier.

Laboratory Testing of Precast Bridge Beck Panel Transverse Connections for Use in Accelerated Bridge Construction

OpenAIRE

Porter, Scott D.

2009-01-01

Precast concrete bridge deck panels have been used for decades to accelerate bridge construction. Cracking of the transverse connection between panels is a common problem that can damage deck overlays and cause connection leaking leading to corrosion of lower bridge elements. To better understand the behavior of bridge deck transverse female-to-female connections, shear and moment lab testing were performed at Utah State University for the Utah Department of Transportation. Two existing UDOT ...

Human Errors and Bridge Management Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thoft-Christensen, Palle; Nowak, A. S.

on basis of reliability profiles for bridges without human errors are extended to include bridges with human errors. The first rehabilitation distributions for bridges without and with human errors are combined into a joint first rehabilitation distribution. The methodology presented is illustrated...... for reinforced concrete bridges....

A bridge with a view, a view with a bridge : Identifying design considerations for bridges to strengthen regional identity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smits, J.E.P.; van der Hoeven, F.D.

2015-01-01

This paper discusses design considerations for creating high quality infrastructural artefacts with an emphasis on bridges. The authors pursue a design study and analysis approach to highlight the specifics of infrastructure design for regional identity, based on their own work on a bridge

Numerical Simulation of Vertical Random Vibration of Train-Slab Track-Bridge Interaction System by PEM

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Zhi-ping Zeng

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The paper describes the numerical simulation of the vertical random vibration of train-slab track-bridge interaction system by means of finite element method and pseudoexcitation method. Each vehicle is modeled as four-wheelset mass-spring-damper system with two-layer suspension systems. The rail, slab, and bridge girder are modeled by three-layer elastic Bernoulli-Euler beams connected with each other by spring and damper elements. The equations of motion for the entire system are derived according to energy principle. By regarding rail irregularity as a series of multipoint, different-phase random excitations, the random load vectors of the equations of motion are obtained by pseudoexcitation method. Taking a nine-span simply supported beam bridge traveled by a train consisting of 8 vehicles as an example, the vertical random vibration responses of the system are investigated. Firstly, the suitable number of discrete frequencies of rail irregularity is obtained by numerical experimentations. Secondly, the reliability and efficiency of pseudoexcitation method are verified through comparison with Monte Carlo method. Thirdly, the random vibration characteristics of train-slab track-bridge interaction system are analyzed by pseudoexcitation method. Finally, applying the 3σ rule for Gaussian stochastic process, the maximum responses of train-slab track-bridge interaction system with respect to various train speeds are studied.

Precast concrete elements for accelerated bridge construction : laboratory testing, field testing, evaluation of a precast concrete bridge, Madison County bridge.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-01-01

The importance of rapid construction technologies has been recognized by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Iowa : DOT Office of Bridges and Structures. Recognizing this a two-lane single-span precast box girder bridge was constructed ...

Vibration measurement-based simple technique for damage detection of truss bridges: A case study

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Sudath C. Siriwardane

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The bridges experience increasing traffic volume and weight, deteriorating of components and large number of stress cycles. Therefore, assessment of the current condition of steel railway bridges becomes necessary. Most of the commonly available approaches for structural health monitoring are based on visual inspection and non-destructive testing methods. The visual inspection is unreliable as those depend on uncertainty behind inspectors and their experience. Also, the non-destructive testing methods are found to be expensive. Therefore, recent researches have noticed that dynamic modal parameters or vibration measurement-based structural health monitoring methods are economical and may also provide more realistic predictions to damage state of civil infrastructure. Therefore this paper proposes a simple technique to locate the damage region of railway truss bridges based on measured modal parameters. The technique is discussed with a case study. Initially paper describes the details of considered railway bridge. Then observations of visual inspection, material testing and in situ load testing are discussed under separate sections. Development of validated finite element model of the considered bridge is comprehensively discussed. Hence, variations of modal parameters versus position of the damage are plotted. These plots are considered as the main reference for locating the damage of the railway bridge in future periodical inspection by comparing the measured corresponding modal parameters. Finally the procedure of periodical vibration measurement and damage locating technique are clearly illustrated.

Nondestructive Evaluation of Concrete Bridge Decks with Automated Acoustic Scanning System and Ground Penetrating Radar.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Hongbin; Pashoutani, Sepehr; Zhu, Jinying

2018-06-16

Delamanintions and reinforcement corrosion are two common problems in concrete bridge decks. No single nondestructive testing method (NDT) is able to provide comprehensive characterization of these defects. In this work, two NDT methods, acoustic scanning and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), were used to image a straight concrete bridge deck and a curved intersection ramp bridge. An acoustic scanning system has been developed for rapid delamination mapping. The system consists of metal-ball excitation sources, air-coupled sensors, and a GPS positioning system. The acoustic scanning results are presented as a two-dimensional image that is based on the energy map in the frequency range of 0.5⁻5 kHz. The GPR scanning results are expressed as the GPR signal attenuation map to characterize concrete deterioration and reinforcement corrosion. Signal processing algorithms for both methods are discussed. Delamination maps from the acoustic scanning are compared with deterioration maps from the GPR scanning on both bridges. The results demonstrate that combining the acoustic and GPR scanning results will provide a complementary and comprehensive evaluation of concrete bridge decks.

BUILDING A BETTER GLUTEAL BRIDGE: ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF HIP MUSCLE ACTIVITY DURING MODIFIED SINGLE-LEG BRIDGES.

Science.gov (United States)

Lehecka, B J; Edwards, Michael; Haverkamp, Ryan; Martin, Lani; Porter, Kambry; Thach, Kailey; Sack, Richard J; Hakansson, Nils A

2017-08-01

Gluteal strength plays a role in injury prevention, normal gait patterns, eliminating pain, and enhancing athletic performance. Research shows high gluteal muscle activity during a single-leg bridge compared to other gluteal strengthening exercises; however, prior studies have primarily measured muscle activity with the active lower extremity starting in 90 ° of knee flexion with an extended contralateral knee. This standard position has caused reports of hamstring cramping, which may impede optimal gluteal strengthening. The purpose of this study was to determine which modified position for the single-leg bridge is best for preferentially activating the gluteus maximus and medius. Cross-Sectional. Twenty-eight healthy males and females aged 18-30 years were tested in five different, randomized single-leg bridge positions. Electromyography (EMG) electrodes were placed on subjects' gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, rectus femoris, and biceps femoris of their bridge leg (i.e., dominant or kicking leg), as well as the rectus femoris of their contralateral leg. Subjects performed a maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) for each tested muscle prior to performing five different bridge positions in randomized order. All bridge EMG data were normalized to the corresponding muscle MVIC data. A modified bridge position with the knee of the bridge leg flexed to 135 ° versus the traditional 90 ° of knee flexion demonstrated preferential activation of the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius compared to the traditional single-leg bridge. Hamstring activation significantly decreased (p bridge by flexing the active knee to 135 ° instead of 90 ° minimizes hamstring activity while maintaining high levels of gluteal activation, effectively building a bridge better suited for preferential gluteal activation. 3.

The violin bridge as filter.

Science.gov (United States)

Bissinger, George

2006-07-01

The violin bridge filter role was investigated using modal and acoustic measurements on 12 quality-rated violins combined with systematic bridge rocking frequency f(rock) and wing mass decrements deltam on four bridges for two other violins. No isolated bridge resonances were observed; bridge motions were complex (including a "squat" mode near 0.8 kHz) except for low frequency rigid body pivot motions, all more or less resembling rocking motion at higher frequencies. A conspicuous broad peak near 2.3 kHz in bridge driving point mobility (labeled BH) was seen for good and bad violins. Similar structure was seen in averaged bridge, bridge feet, corpus mobilities and averaged radiativity. No correlation between violin quality and BH driving point, averaged corpus mobility magnitude, or radiativity was found. Increasing averaged-over-f(rock) deltam(g) from 0 to 0.12 generally increased radiativity across the spectrum. Decreasing averaged-over-deltam f(rock) from 3.6 to 2.6 kHz produced consistent decreases in radiativity between 3 and 4.2 kHz, but only few-percent decreases in BH frequency. The lowest f(rock) values were accompanied by significantly reduced radiation from the Helmholtz A0 mode near 280 Hz; this, combined with reduced high frequency output, created overall radiativity profiles quite similar to "bad" violins among the quality-rated violins.

Spectrum of OH-stretching vibrations of water in a "floating" water bridge

Science.gov (United States)

Oshurko, V. B.; Ropyanoi, A. A.; Fedorov, A. N.; Fedosov, M. V.; Shelaeva, N. A.

2012-11-01

The axial distribution (over the cross section) of the spectra of the OH-stretching band of water in a water bridge is investigated using the Raman scattering method. It is found that the axial structure of the bridge is inhomogeneous: the core at the center of the bridge contains a larger amount of water with an "icelike" structure and a presumably larger number of H+ ions, while the outer layer probably consists of water with a larger number of OH- ions.

RESEARCH OF USING OPEN DOUBLE T BEAMS FOR SPANS IN FLOATING BRIDGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

YU. M. Gorbatiuk

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The publication presents the results of calculations of spans for floating bridges with open double T beams. The purpose of research is to analyze the suitability of spans from open double T beams for floating bridges with minimum weight under loads, which is provided by standards for modern floating bridges designing. Methodology. Comparative method, analytical calculation methods (influence lines methodology, strength calculations, endurance, maximum shear stress are used in this paper. Findings. Current loads for bridges calculations are 75% more than those, for which the spans of floating bridge from NZhM-56 property are designed. The use of open double T beams that is formed with double T beam no. 70 (the height of the open one is 104 cm reduces the cross sectional area in a weakened spot, but virtually it does not influence the strength and durability of the material. The use of open double T beams for spans of floating bridges saves up to 22 % of metal that means one in five spans will made of saved metal. Savings on each spans, such as CRP, will be 33.6 - 263 thous. grn. (considering the price of 1 ton of final product 29 thous. grn.. Originality. Research allows making next step in material saving and use of open double T beams for spans in the whole. Practical value. The obtained results give us possibility to make a number of conclusions that allow us to become more familiar and more practical with the use of open double T beams for spans of floating bridges.

Online Bridge Crack Monitoring with Smart Film

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benniu Zhang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Smart film crack monitoring method, which can be used for detecting initiation, length, width, shape, location, and propagation of cracks on real bridges, is proposed. Firstly, the fabrication of the smart film is developed. Then the feasibility of the method is analyzed and verified by the mechanical sensing character of the smart film under the two conditions of normal strain and crack initiation. Meanwhile, the coupling interference between parallel enameled wires of the smart film is discussed, and then low-frequency detecting signal and the custom communication protocol are used to decrease interference. On this basis, crack monitoring system with smart film is designed, where the collected crack data is sent to the remote monitoring center and the cracks are simulated and recurred. Finally, the monitoring system is applied to six bridges, and the effects are discussed.

Probability Based Evaluation of Vehicular Bridge Load using Weigh-in-Motion Data

OpenAIRE

Widi Nugraha; Indra Djati Sidi

2016-01-01

Load and Resistance Factored Design (LRFD) method for designing bridge in Indonesia have been implemented for more than 25 years. LRFD method treating loads and strengths variables as random variables with specific safety factors for different loads and strengths variables type. The nominal loads, load factors, reduction factors, and other criteria for bridge design code can be determined to meet the reliability criteria. Statistical data of weigh-in-motion (WIM) vehicular loads measurement i...

Critical traffic loading for the design of prestressed concrete bridge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hassan, M.I.U.

2009-01-01

A study has been carried out to determine critical traffic loadings for the design of bridge superstructures. The prestressed concrete girder bridge already constructed in Lahore is selected for the analysis as an example. Standard traffic loadings according to AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) and Pakistan Highway Standards are used for this purpose. These include (1) HL-93 Truck, (2) Lane and (3) Tandem Loadings in addition to (4) Military tank loading, (5) Class-A, (6) Class-B and (7) Class-AA loading, (8) NLC (National Logistic Cell) and (9) Volvo truck loadings. Bridge superstructure including transom beam is analyzed Using ASD and LRFD (Load and Resistance Factor Design) provisions of AASHTO specifications. For the analysis, two longer and shorter spans are selected. This includes the analysis of bridge deck; interior and exterior girder; a typical transom beam and a pier. Dead and live loading determination is carried out using both computer aided and manual calculations. Evaluation of traffic loadings is done for all the bridge components to find out the critical loading. HL-93 loading comes out to be the most critical loading and where this loading is not critical in case of bridge decks; a factor of 1.15 is introduced to make it equivalent with HL-93 -Ioading. SAP-2000 (Structural Engineering Services of Pakistan) and MS-Excel is employed for analysis of bridge superstructure subjected to this loading. Internal forces are obtained for the structural elements of the bridge for all traffic loadings mentioned. It is concluded that HL-93 loading can be used for the design of prestressed concrete girder bridge. Bridge design authorities like NHA (National Highway Authority) and different cities development authorities are using different standard traffic loadings. A number of suggestions are made from the results of the research work related to traffic loadings and method of design. These recommendations may be

Intelligent control for braking-induced longitudinal vibration responses of floating-type railway bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Wei-Lian; Qin, Shun-Quan; Tu, Jian-Weia; Liu, Jia; Zhou, Qiang; Cheng, Haibin; Pi, Yong-Lin

2009-12-01

This paper presents an intelligent control method and its engineering application in the control of braking-induced longitudinal vibration of floating-type railway bridges. Equations of motion for the controlled floating-type railway bridges have been established based on the analysis of the longitudinal vibration responses of floating-type railway bridges to train braking and axle-loads of moving trains. For engineering applications of the developed theory, a full-scale 500 kN smart magnetorheologic (MR) damper has been designed, fabricated and used to carry out experiments on the intelligent control of braking-induced longitudinal vibration. The procedure for using the developed intelligent method in conjunction with the full-scale 500 kN MR dampers has been proposed and used to control the longitudinal vibration responses of the deck of floating-type railway bridges induced by train braking and axle-loads of moving trains. This procedure has been applied to the longitudinal vibration control of the Tian Xingzhou highway and railway cable-stayed bridge over the Yangtze River in China. The simulated results have shown that the intelligent control system using the smart MR dampers can effectively control the longitudinal response of the floating-type railway bridge under excitations of braking and axle-loads of moving trains.

Intelligent control for braking-induced longitudinal vibration responses of floating-type railway bridges