Comparison of methods for solving vibration response of Plate Girder Bridge

2004-2005 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

A layered beam element for modeling de-bonding of steel bars in concrete and its detection using static measurements

Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. In the formulation of finite elements, the variation of elemental internal forces and displacements are interpolated. The force interpolation functions are known to reproduce the variations of forces better than the interpolation functions on the displacements. Layered section beam model is not as complicated as the fiber model, and yet, it is much more accurate than ordinary beam model. The force-based finite element is revisited in this paper with its application in the numerical studies of a damage detection strategy for a reinforced concrete beam under static load. Two kinds of damages are studied including the cracking or other local damage of the concrete and the bonding between the concrete and the steel bar. Both kinds of damages in an element can be detected separately or in combinations with the proposed strategy. The force-based layered finite element is shown to be a practical, accurate, and efficient representation of the bonding damage of steel bars in concrete structures

Identification of Railway Ballasted Track Systems from Dynamic Responses of In-Service Trains

© 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers. Railway track is one of the most important parts of the railway system, and monitoring its condition is essential to ensure the safety of trains and reduce maintenance cost. An adaptive regularization approach is adopted in this paper to identify the parameters of a railway ballasted track system (substructure) from dynamic measurements on in-service vehicles. The vehicle-track interaction system is modeled as a discrete spring-mass model on a Winkler elastic foundation. Damage is defined as the stiffness reduction of the track due to foundation settlement, loosening in the rail fastener, and lack of compaction of the ballast. Accelerometers are installed on the underframe of the train to capture the dynamic responses from which the interaction forces between the vehicle and the railway track are determined. The damage of the railway track can be detected via changes in the interaction force. Numerical results show that the proposed approach can identify all stiffness parameters successfully at a low moving speed and at a high sampling rate when measurement noise is involved

Drive-By Blind Modal Identification with Singular Spectrum Analysis

© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers. Drive-by bridge parameter identification has been an active research area in recent years. An instrumented vehicle passing over a bridge deck captures dynamic information of the bridge structure without bridge closure and on-site instrumentation. The vehicle dynamic response includes components associated with the bridge surface roughness and the vehicle and bridge vibration. It is a challenge to separate these components and extract the bridge modal parameters from the vehicle response. A novel drive-by blind modal identification with singular spectrum analysis is proposed to extract the bridge modal frequencies from the vehicle dynamic response. The single-channel measured vehicular response is decomposed into a multichannel data set using singular spectrum analysis, and the bridge frequencies are then extracted via the blind modal identification. Numerical results showed that the proposed method is effective and robust to extract the bridge frequencies from the vehicle response measurement even with Class B road surface roughness. The effects of the moving speed and the vehicle parameters on the identification were studied. A vehicle-bridge interaction model in the laboratory was studied to further verify the proposed method using one- and two-axle vehicles

Damage identification of supporting structures with a moving sensory system

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd An innovative approach to identify local anomalies in a structural beam bridge with an instrumented vehicle moving as a sensory system across the bridge. Accelerations at both the axle and vehicle body are measured from which vehicle-bridge interaction force on the structure is determined. Local anomalies of the structure are estimated from this interaction force with the Newton's iterative method basing on the homotopy continuation method. Numerical results with the vehicle moving over simply supported or continuous beams show that the acceleration responses from the vehicle or the bridge structure are less sensitive to the local damages than the interaction force between the wheel and the structure. Effects of different movement patterns and moving speed of the vehicle are investigated, and the effect of measurement noise on the identified results is discussed. A heavier or slower vehicle has been shown to be less sensitive to measurement noise giving more accurate results

The impact of maternal employment on breast-feeding duration in the UK Millennium Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship of maternal employment characteristics, day care arrangements and the type of maternity leave pay to breast-feeding for at least 4 months. DESIGN: Cohort study. SETTING: Babies aged 9 months in the Millennium Cohort Study, born between September 2000 and January 2002. SUBJECTS: A total of 6917 British/Irish white employed mothers with singleton babies. RESULTS: Mothers employed part-time or self-employed were more likely to breast-feed for at least 4 months than those employed full-time (adjusted rate ratio (aRR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.30 (1.17-1.44) and 1.74 (1.46-2.07), respectively). The longer a mother delayed her return to work postpartum, the more likely she was to breast-feed for at least 4 months (P for trend < 0.001). Mothers were less likely to breast-feed for at least 4 months if they returned to work for financial reasons (aRR 0.86, 95% CI 0.80-0.93) or used informal day care arrangements rather than care by themselves or their partner (aRR 0.81, 95% CI 0.71-0.91). Mothers were more likely to breastfeed for at least 4 months if their employer offered family-friendly (aRR 1.14, 95% CI 1.02-1.27) or flexible work arrangements (aRR 1.24, 95% CI 1.00-1.55), or they received Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) plus additional pay during their maternity leave rather than SMP alone (aRR 1.13, 95% CI 1.02-1.26). These findings were independent of confounding factors, such as socio-economic status and maternal education. CONCLUSIONS: Current policies may encourage mothers to enter or return to employment postpartum, but this may result in widening inequalities in breast-feeding and persistence of low rates. Policies should aim to increase financial support and incentives for employers to offer supportive work arrangements

Moving loads identification on slab-on-girder bridge by use of state variables

2005-2006 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Sensitivity method of vehicle parameters identification through dynamic responses of bridge

2006-2007 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Cloning and expression analysis of two distinct HIF-alpha isoforms – gcHIF-1alpha and gcHIF-4alpha – from the hypoxia-tolerant grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idellus

BACKGROUND: Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) are involved in adaptive and survival responses to hypoxic stress in mammals. In fish, very little is known about the functions of HIFs. RESULTS: We have cloned and characterized two distinct HIF-alpha cDNAs – gcHIF-1alpha and gcHIF-4alpha – from the hypoxia-tolerant grass carp. The deduced gcHIF-1alpha protein is highly similar to the HIF-1alphas (57–68%) from various vertebrate species, while gcHIF-4alpha is a novel isoform, and shows an equivalent degree of amino acid identity (41–47%) to the HIF-1alpha, HIF-2alpha and HIF-3alpha proteins so far described. Parsimony analysis indicated that gcHIF-4alpha is most closely related to the HIF-3alpha proteins. Northern blot analysis showed that mRNA levels of gcHIF-1alpha and gcHIF-4alpha differ substantially under normoxic and hypoxic conditions, while Western blot studies demonstrated that the endogenous protein levels for both gcHIF-1alpha and gcHIF-4alpha are similarly responsive to hypoxia. Our findings suggest that both gcHIF-1alpha and gcHIF-4alpha are differentially regulated at the transcriptional and translational levels. HRE-luciferase reporter assays show that both proteins function as transcription activators and play distinct roles in modulating the hypoxic response in grass carp. CONCLUSION: There are at least two distinct HIF-alpha isoforms – gcHIF-1alpha and gcHIF-4alpha – in the hypoxia-tolerant grass carp, which are differentially expressed and regulated in different fish organs in response to hypoxic stress. Overall, the results suggest that unique molecular mechanisms operate through these two HIF-alpha isoforms, which underpin the hypoxic response in the hypoxia-tolerant grass carp