Radosław Szczerba

Simulation of Dynamic Behaviour of RC Bridge with Steel-Laminated Elastomeric Bearings under High-Energy Mining Tremors

In the paper a detailed analysis of dynamic responses of a reinforced concrete bridge with steel-laminated elastomeric bearings to high-energy mining tremors registered in two main regions of mining activity in Poland (i.e. Upper Silesian Coal Basin and Legnica-Glogow Copper District) was presented. The representative time histories of accelerations from both regions were used as ground motion data in calculations of the dynamic response of the structure. The two-coefficient Mooney-Rivlin model was used as a constitutive model for hyperelastic non-linear elastomeric material. It was proved that the dynamic response of the bridge was strongly dependent not only on the level of vibration amplitudes but on the dominant frequency range of the mining shock typical for the mining region as well. Also the height of elastomeric bearings occurred to have considerable influence on the total dynamic response of the bridge. Two heights of bearings were analyzed: 42 mm and 85 mm. The increase of the height of bearings caused the decrease up to 25 % in the maximal principal stresses obtained in the dynamic analysis. The behaviour of elastomeric material in case of bearings 42 mm high occurred to be strongly non-linear, whereas in case of bearings 85 mm high behaviour of elastomeric material remained almost linear.

The buckling resistance of welded plate girders taking into account the influence of post-welding imperfections - Part 1: Parameter study

Abstract Welding is the most important joining technique and offers the advantage of customizable plate thicknesses. On the other hand, welding causes residual stresses and deformations influencing the load carrying capacity. Their consideration in the design requires simple and fast models. Though welding simulation has contributed to accurately access to these values nowadays, their application to large components remains still in a less practicable range. Nevertheless, many studies emphasized the need to make corrections in recently available simplified models. Especially the influence of residual stresses seems somewhat overestimated in many cases if comparing conventional structural steel S355 and high-strength steel S690. In times of computer-aided design, an improved procedure to implement weld-inducted imperfections appears overdue. This will be presented in two parts. The first part illustrates the potential influence of post-welding imperfections exemplified for weak axis buckling in comparison with the general method in accordance with Eurocode 3. Residual stresses and initial crookedness were varied systematically in order to produce a scatter band of capacities. An approach to characterize the borders of these imperfections was untertaken before that. The excessive scattering of reduction factors for the load bearing capacity demonstrates the importance of these variables. Results were finally evaluated against advanced simulation models which will be further detailed in part two of this contribution.