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Leahy, Cathal
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Leahy, Cathal
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Leahy, Cathal
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Now showing 1 - 10 of 14
- PublicationConsidering Traffic Growth in Characteristic Bridge Load Effect CalculationsTraffic volumes and weights increase with time. This is an important consideration in order toaccurately calculate characteristic load effects for the design and assessment of bridges. A modeling approach is presented which can allow for future growth of truck weights and volumes when assessing truck loading on bridges. Weigh-in-motion data from a site in the Netherlands is used as an example to demonstrate traffic growth at that site. In assessing the effect of growth on characteristic load effects, different growth rates for both truck volumes and truck weights are considered. It is found that growth of truck weights has considerablymore influence although growth in truck volumes also has a significant effect.
328 - PublicationCalculation of the Dynamic Allowance for Railway Bridges from Direct Measurement(Civil-Comp Press, 2016-04-08)
; ; ; ; ; In a traditional deterministic assessment, a dynamic amplification factor (DAF) is applied to the static loading in order to account for dynamics. The codified DAF values are appropriately conservative in order to consider the wide range of structures and load effects to which they are applied. In the current analysis, a site specific assessment dynamic ratio (ADR) is calculated from direct measurement on an 80 year old steel truss Railway Bridge. The ADR is defined as the ratio of characteristic total stress to the characteristic static stress. The application of ADR is a relatively new concept which has rarely been considered for railway bridges. An assessment performed on the bridge in question showed a decrease in the dynamic allowance when considering the site specific ADR, corresponding to a 26% decrease in calculated stress. The measurements available were also used to derive a robust stochastic model for dynamic allowance which considered the correlation between DAF and stress level. The developed model was applied to a probabilistic assessment and resulted in a 9% increase in reliability.450 - PublicationModelling Extreme Traffic Loading on Bridges Using Kernal Density EstimatorsKernel density estimators are a non-parametric method of estimating the probability density function of sample data. In this paper, the method is applied to find characteristic maximum daily truck weights on highway bridges. The results are then compared with the conventional approach.
224 - PublicationThe Effect of Traffic Growth on Characteristic Bridge Load EffectsFreight traffic in the European Union is increasing with time. This paper describes a method for considering this growth when assessing traffic loading on bridges and examines the effect of this growth on characteristic load effects. The Eurocode Load Model 1 is used for the design of new bridges. As this model can be overly conservative for the assessment of existing bridges, a scaled down version can be used by applying a–factors to the load model. This is usually done by modelling the traffic loading on the bridge using site-specific weigh-in-motion data and calculating the a–factors in accordance with the results. In this paper, weigh-in-motion data from a site in the Netherlands is used to demonstrate the proposed approach. 40-year simulations of traffic loading are performed on various bridges. The simulations consider year-on-year growth in both the volume and weight of trucks. Time-varying generalized extreme value distributions are then fitted to the simulated data and used to calculate the characteristic load effects. The results are then compared with the load effects generated by Load Model 1 in order to calculate the associated factors. It is found that an increase in truck weights has the most significant influence on the factors but that increased flow also has a significant effect.
307Scopus© Citations 27 - PublicationProbabilistic modelling of bridge safety based on damage indicators(Elsevier, 2016-10-01)
; ; ; ; ; This paper introduces the various aspects of bridge safety models. It combines the different models of load and resistance involving both deterministic and stochastic variables. The actual safety, i.e. the probability of failure, is calculated using Monte Carlo simulation and accounting for localized damage of the bridge. A possible damage indicator is also presented in the paper and the usefulness of updating the developed bridge safety model, with regards to the damage indicator, is examined.336Scopus© Citations 8 - PublicationA Review of the HL-93 Bridge Traffic Load Model Using an Extensive WIM Database(American Society of Civil Engineers, 2014-10)
; ; ; HL-93, the current bridge traffic load model used in the United States is examined here. Weigh-in-motion (WIM) data from 17 sites in 16 states containing 74 million truck records are used to assess the level of consistency in the characteristic load effects (LEs) implied by the HL-93 model. The LEs of positive and negative bending moments and shear force are considered on single- and two-lane same-direction slab and girder bridges with a range of spans. It is found that the ratio of WIM-implied LE to HL-93 LE varies considerably from one LE to another. An alternative model is proposed that achieves improvements in consistency in this ratio for the LEs examined, especially for the single-lane case. The proposed model consists of a uniformly distributed load whose intensity varies with bridge length.541Scopus© Citations 19 - PublicationEvaluation of bridge safety based on Weigh-in-Motion data(Civil Engineering Research Association of Ireland, 2016-08-30)
; ; ; ; ; This paper investigates various concerns, sensitivities of and correlation between the different parameters influencing the load on a bridge and its resistance to that load. The actual safety, i.e. the probability of failure, is calculated by combining the dead load, Weigh-in-Motion data based traffic load and resistance models. The usefulness of updating the developed bridge safety model using damage indicators from a Structural Health Monitoring system is also examined.202 - PublicationEstimating characteristic bridge traffic load effects using Bayesian statistics(2015-07-15)
; ; ; This paper investigates the use of Bayesian updating to improve estimates of characteristic bridge traffic loading. Over recent years the use Weigh-In-Motion technologies has increased hugely. Large Weigh-In-Motion databases are now available for multiple sites on many road networks. The objective of this work is to use data gathered throughout a road network to improve site-specific estimates of bridge loading at a specific Weigh-In-Motion site on the network. Bayesian updating is a mathematical framework for combining prior knowledge with new sample data. The approach is applied here to bridge loading using a database of 81.6 million truck records, gathered at 19 sites in the US. The database represents the prior knowledge of loading throughout the road network and a new site on the network is simulated. The Bayesian approach is compared with a non-Bayesian approach, which uses only the site-specific data, and the results compared. It is found that the Bayesian approach significantly improves the accuracy of estimates of 75-year loading and, in particular, considerably reduces the standard deviation of the error. With the proposed approach less site-specific WIM data is required to obtain an accurate estimate of loading. This is particularly useful where there is concern over an existing bridge and accurate estimates of loading are required as a matter of urgency.179 - PublicationCoarse Master Equations for Binding Kinetics of Amyloid Peptide Dimers(ACS, 2016-07)
; ; ; ; We characterize the kinetics of dimer formation of the short amyloid microcrystal-forming tetrapeptides NNQQ by constructing coarse master equations for the conformational dynamics of the system, using temperature replica-exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations. We minimize the effects of Kramers-type recrossings by assigning conformational states based on their sequential time evolution. Transition rates are further estimated from short-time state propagators, by maximizing the likelihood that the extracted rates agree with the observed atomistic trajectories without any a priori assumptions about their temperature dependence. Here, we evaluate the rates for both continuous replica trajectories that visit different temperatures, and for discontinuous data corresponding to each REMD temperature. While the binding-unbinding kinetic process is clearly Markovian, the conformational dynamics of the bound NNQQ dimer has a complex character. Our kinetic analysis allows us a quantitative discrimination between short-lived encounter pairs and strongly bound conformational states. The conformational dynamics of NNQQ dimers supports a kinetically driven aggregation mechanism, in agreement with the polymorphic character reported for amyloid aggregates such as microcrystals and fibrils.431Scopus© Citations 26 - PublicationValidation of Scenario Modelling for Bridge Loading(Technika, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 2016-09)
; ; ; Accurate estimates of characteristic bridge load effects are required for efficient design and assessment of bridges, and long-run traffic simulations are an effective method for estimating the effects. For multi-lane same-direction traffic, truck weights and locations on the bridge are correlated and this affects the calculated load effects. Scenario Modelling is a recently developed method which uses weigh-in-motion (WIM) data to simulate multi-lane same-direction traffic while maintaining location and weight correlations. It has been unclear however whether the method may produce unrealistic driver behaviour when extrapolating beyond the weigh-in-motion measuring period. As weigh-in-motion databases with more than about a year of data are not available, a microsimulation traffic model, which can simulate driver behaviour, is used here to assess the accuracy of extrapolating traffic effects using Scenario Modelling. The microsimulation is used to generate an extended reference dataset against which the results of Scenario Modelling are compared. It is found that the characteristic load effects obtained using Scenario Modelling compare well with the reference dataset. As a result, for the first time researchers and practitioners can model two-lane same-direction traffic loading on bridges while being confident that the approach is generating accurate estimates of characteristic load effects as well as effectively reproducing the complex traffic correlations involved.498Scopus© Citations 3