Web of plate girders in bridges are usually reinforced by welded transverse stiffeners inorder to improve their shear capacity. Due to problems associated with field welding and fatigue,welded stiffeners are not suitable for retrofitting existing bridges. Bolted stiffeners are a practicalalternative for strengthening girders that are expected to experience shear stresses in excess of theirdesig...

This study deals with unconventional bearing capacity analysis and the procedure of optimizing a two-cell box girder. The generalized model which enables the local stress-strain analysis of multicell girders was developed based on the principle of cross-sectional decomposition. The applied methodology is verified using the experimental data (Djelosevic et al., 2012) for traditionally formed box...

The use of heavier trucks demanded upgrading of a twenty-seven year old bridge in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Analysis of the precast prestressed concrete girders using the current AASHTO Code indicates a deficiency in the shear capacity. Shear strengthening using Carbon Fibre R_einforced Polymer (CFRP) sheets provides a low-cost solution by increasing the speed of construction and reducing tra...

Tests on eighteen small scale models which simulate the elastic and post-buckling behaviour of plate girders when subjected to shear loading are reported and discussed. Themodels were fabricated of steel and Araldite; the major aim was to assess whether small scale models can be employed to study shear buckling problems. A secondary object was to examine whether araldite could be used for predi...

Numerous cracks have been discovered in the Vårby Bridge near Stockholm, Sweden. All cracks are found at the junctions between the cross girders and the main girders, more specifically, at the welds connecting the vertical web stiffeners to the top flanges of the main girders. The cracks might possibly be causing serious problems if they are allowed to propagate through the entire length of the...

In the mid 1990's the FHWA established a High Performance Concrete (HPC) program aimed at demonstrating the positive effects of utilizing HPC in bridges. Research on the benefits of using high performance concrete for bridges has shown a number of benefits. These include increased span capacities, or wider girder spacings (and hence a fewer number of girders); increased concrete compressive and...

In the summer of 2000, we constructed the four 30-m long straight sections in the SPring-8 Storage Ring. Magnets were rearranged to make long free spaces. New girders were designed, manufactured and installed to the SPring-8 storage ring tunnel. Magnets placed on the girders were aligned on a straight line using CCD camera and laser. A long undulator was installed in one long straight section a...

Externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates are a feasible and economical alternative to traditional methods for strengthening and stiffening deficient reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete girders as shown in Fig. (1). Although extensive research has already been undertaken to investigate the behavior of CFRP strengthened bridge girders, the majority of work condu...

This paper presents the details and relevant findings of an experimental program which was conducted in three phases to investigate the behavior of steel-concrete composite bridge girders strengthened with new high modulus carbon fiber reinforced polymer (HM CFRP) materials. In the first phase, the feasibility of various lIM CFRP strengthening systems was examined. The second phase investigated...

To control the alignment of prestressed concrete bridge during construction, it is reasonable to treat the prediction of the deflection as an uncertainty. This paper presents a Bayesian updating approach to predict the deflection of prestressed concrete girders. A prior distribution is developed by using Monte Carlo stimulation with a proposed deterministic model under a variety of prestressing...