This paper presents a distribution free method for predicting the extreme wind velocity from wind monitoring data at the site of the Runyang Suspension Bridge (RSB), China using the maximum entropy theory. The maximum entropy theory is a rational approach for choosing the most unbiased probability distribution from a small sample, which is consistent with available data and contains a minimum of spurious information. In this paper, the theory is used for estimating a joint probability density function considering the combined action of wind speed and direction based on statistical analysis of wind monitoring data at the site of the RSB. The joint probability distribution model is further used to estimate the extreme wind velocity at the deck level of the RSB. The results of the analysis reveal that the probability density function of the maximum entropy method achieves a result that fits well with the monitoring data. Hypothesis testing shows that the distributions of the wind velocity data collected during the past three years do not obey the Gumbel distribution. Finally, our comparison shows that the wind predictions of the maximum entropy method are higher than that of the Gumbel distribution, but much lower than the design wind speed.
Yang DENG You-liang DING Ai-qun LI Guang-dong ZHOU
Field measurement of strong wind characteristics is of great significance for the development of bridge wind engineering. Located in east China, the Runyang Suspension Bridge (RSB) with a main span of 1490 m is the longest bridge in China and the third longest in the world. During the last four years, the RSB has suffered from typhoons and strong northern winds on more than ten occasions. To determine the strong wind characteristics of the RSB, wind measurement data obtained from field tests during strong winds and data from the wind environment monitoring subsystem of the structural health monitoring system (SHMS) of the RSB were combined to analyze the wind speed and direction, variation in wind speed with height, turbulence intensity, turbulence integral length, wind friction speed and the power spectrum. Comparative studies on the characteristics of these different strong winds were carried out based on the current wind-resistant design specification for highway bridges. Results showed that some regularity in wind characteristics can be found in these different typhoons passing through the RSB. The difference between a strong northern wind and a typhoon is relatively clear, and in summer the typhoon is the dominant wind load acting on the RSB. In addition, there were some differences between the measured strong wind characteristics and the values suggested by the specification, especially in respect to turbulence intensity and turbulence integral length. Results provide measurement data for establishing a strong wind characteristic database for the RSB and for determining the strong wind characteristic parameter values of this coastal area in east China.
In order to establish an environmental-condition-normalized structural damage alarming method,the seasonal correlation analysis of wavelet packet energy spectrum(WPES)and temperature of Runyang Suspension Bridge is performed by means of the 236-day health monitoring data.The analysis results reveal that the measured WPES has remarkable seasonal correlation with the environmental tempera-ture.The seasonal change of environmental temperature accounts for the variation of the damage alarming parameter Ip of the dominant frequency bands with an averaged variance of 200%.The statis-tical modeling technique using a 6th-order polynomial is adopted to formulate the correlation between the WPES and temperature,on the basis of which the abnormal changes of measured damage alarming parameter Ip are detected using the mean value control chart.It is found that the proposed method can effectively eliminate temperature complications from the time series of WPES and exhibit good capa-bility for detecting the damage-induced 10% variances of the damage alarming parameter Ip.And the proposed WPES-based method is superior the modal frequency and hence is more suitable for online real-time damage alarming for long-span bridges.
A reliability assessment method of fatigue life based on the long-term monitoring data is developed for welded details in steel box girder,and the application research is presented with examples of welded rib-to-deck details in Runyang Bridges. Firstly the fatigue damage limit-state function is established based on S-N curves and Miner's rule,and the probability distribution characteristics of the coefficients in the function are discussed in detail. The uncertainties in fatigue loading effects are mainly studied based on long-term monitoring data. In the traditional studies,only the uncertainty of equivalent stress range is considered in fatigue reliability assessment. However,stress cycle number is also treated as a random variable in this paper because we know traffic flow every day differs in a thousand ways. Then the optimization method is employed to calculate the fatigue reliability. After studying the changing law of the reliability indices with time and the effect of the randomness of stress cycle number on reliability,the effect of the traffic growth on the reliability is studied. This study shows that the uncertainty in the fatigue life of the welded details can be well studied based on structural health monitoring,so it is necessary to carry out long-term strain monitoring of the welded details for accurate fatigue reliability assessment during the whole service period.
By using of long-term monitoring data of Runyang Suspension Bridge,the improved back-propagation neural networks (BPNNs) are formulated for modeling the correlations between modal frequencies and environmental conditions including wind,temperature and vehicle load.Then,with the correlation models the environmental effects on modal frequencies are quantified and the abnormal changes of measured frequencies are detected by means of the hypothesis tests.Analysis results reveal that BPNN-based correlation models improved by both early stopping and Bayesian regularization techniques exhibit excellent generalization capability.And the developed correlation models can effectively reduce the environmental variability in modal frequencies.The t-test method provides a good capability to detect the damage-induced 0.16% and 0.12% abnormal changes of the 5th and 6th modal frequencies,respectively.Hence,the proposed method is suitable for real-time monitoring of suspension bridge conditions.
DING YouLiang,DENG Yang & LI AiQun Key Laboratory of Concrete and Prestressed Concrete Structure of Ministry of Education,Southeast University,Nanjing 210096,China
This paper addresses the problem of condition assessment of bridge expansion joints using long-term measurement data under changing environmental conditions.The effects of temperature,traffic loading and wind on the expansion joint displacements are analyzed and interpreted,which reveal that measured displacements are observed to increase with an increase in temperature and to decrease with increased traffic loading,while the correlation between displacement and wind speed is very weak.Two regression models are developed to simulate the varying displacements under the changes in temperature and traffic loadings.Based on these models,the effects of the environmental conditions are removed to obtain the normalized displacement.Statistical process control using mean value control charts is further used to detect damage to the bridge expansion joints.The results reveal that the proposed method had a good capability for detecting the damage-induced 1.0%variances of the annual changes in the expansion joint displacements.
A new multi-functional bridge seismic isolation bearing(MFBSIB) is designed and its mechanical model is developed in this paper.Combining an upper sliding device and a lower energy dispassion isolation device effectively,the new MFBSIB can adjust the deformation caused by temperature,vehicle breaks,and concrete creep,etc.,in addition to dissipating energy.The switch of 'slide-isolation' is achieved and the efficiency of both upper and lower parts is validated through experiment with a model.The shear performance curve established in this paper is verified to be efficient in describing the mechanical characteristics of the bearing through experiment.It is proved through both numerical calculation and experimental analysis that the new MFBSIB is endowed with enough vertical rigidity,good energy dissipation ability,stable overall performance,and good realization in expected goals.Its performance is slightly influenced by shear stress,while affected by vertical pressure,loading frequency,slide limit,etc.,diversely.The results could provide reference for study and application of the new MFBSIB.
The spatial resolution of conventional distributed fiber optic sensors is 1 m at best,which is inadequate to locate the damage precisely.We adopt an improved sensing technique based on the Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA).The stepped pump light is input to stimulate the phonon so that the spatial resolution can be increased to centimeter order and the strain accuracy of 25 micro-strains is obtained.The feasibility of this sensing technique is demonstrated through strain measurement of three concrete box-girders in bending.Experimental results show that the improved BOTDA measurement can provide a comprehensive description on the strain distribution of steel rebar or concrete.Compared with the conventional strain gauges,the improved BOTDA measurement is more stable.By virtue of higher spatial resolution and better measurement accuracy,it has become possible to perform crack detection and localization for concrete structures.
Time domain analysis is an essential implement to study the buffeting behavior of long-span bridges for it can consider the non-linear effect which is significant in long-span bridges. The prerequisite of time domain analysis is the accurate description of 3D turbulence winds. In this paper, some hypotheses for simplifying the 3D turbulence simulation of long-span cable-stayed bridges are conducted, considering the structural characteristics. The turbulence wind which is a 3D multivariate stochastic vector process is converted into four independent 1D univariate stochastic processes. Based on recorded wind data from structural health monitoring system (SHMS) of the Sutong Bridge, China, the measured spectra expressions are then presented using the nonlinear least-squares fitting method. Turbulence winds at the Sutong Bridge site are simulated based on the spectral representation method and the Fast Fourier transform (FFT) technique, and the relevant results derived from target spectra including measured spectra and recommended spectra are compared. The reliability and accuracy of the presented turbulence simulation method are validated through comparisons between simulated and target spectra (measured and recommended spectra). The obtained turbulence si-mulations can not only serve further analysis of the buffeting behavior of the Sutong Bridge, but references for structural anti-wind design in adjacent regions.
Hao WANGZhou-hong ZONGAi-qun LITeng TONGJie NIUWen-ping DENG
