MONITORING AND PROTECTION OF TIMBER-CONCRETE BRIDGES

Preservation and Protection of Timber Bridges

Wood has been successfully used as a bridge material for thousands of years, but before the early 1900’s most structures were built of untreated timber. Protection from decay and deterioration was afforded by using the heartwood of naturally durable species or by covering the structure to protect it from weathering. Although many bridges constructed of un­ treated timber performed well (some la...

Rational maintenance of timber bridges

The present paper provides some ideas about how decisions concerning maintenance of timber bridges should be made in a rational way. First, a brief discussion is provided concerning the evolution of maintenance strategies in general and it is suggested that maintenance of timber bridges should follow a risk-based approach. Then the discussion moves on to the condition assessment of timber bridg...

Construction assessment and long-term prediction of prestressed concrete bridges based on monitoring data

The long-term assessment of large civil infrastructures such as prestressed concrete bridges is a challenging task. The real time history related to the phased construction, the influence of the adopted construction method, the characterization of the employed concrete and the environmental conditions are crucial aspects for accurate predictions based on Finite Element Models. Data from long-te...

Assessment and management of concrete bridges supported by monitoring data-based Finite Element modelling

4 The long-term assessment of large and complex civil infrastructures, such as 5 prestressed concrete bridges, based on Finite Element (FE) modelling remains a 6 challenging task. The construction process, the influence of erection methods, the 7 characterization of concrete properties, geometric accuracy and environmental 8 conditions are key factors involved in the development of robust FE mo...

Evaluation of Sealers for Concrete Bridges