Past earthquakes have demonstrated that old RC bridges may be seismically vulnerable. Bridge responses during the last decades illustrated the necessity of the seismic assessment of bridges especially those which were designed with old codes. In this research an existing concrete bridge representative of the most common bridges in the highway system in Iran are studied. Push over and nonlinear ...

This paper deals with the economic optimization of reinforced concrete road vaults and with the optimization of rectangular hollow section bridge piers typically used in road construction. It shows the efficiency of a heuristic optimization by the threshold accepting algorithm. The evaluation of solutions follows the Spanish Code for structural concrete. Design loads are in accordance to the na...

Disclaimer The contents of this report reflect the views of the author(s), who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of information presented herein. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of Investigator will thoroughly test and assess the Portable Seismic Property Analyzer (PSPA), a hand-held device that focuses on pavement layer properties. The device can be utilized on...

Advances in the fields of polymers and composites have resulted in a major development of high strength fibre reinforced polymers (FRP). These materials offer great potential for cost-effective retrofitting of concrete structures. In response to the growing need for concrete repair and rehabilitation, an experimental program was conducted at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Can...

bridges, as an essential part of transportation system, play a special role in economy, politic and military all around the world. serviceability of bridges is of high importance especially in emergencies, helping injured people and proportioning transportation after earthquakes. earthquake regulation codes, normally suggest linear methods to conduct the analysis, and nonlinear analysis is bare...

The opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in this report are those of the principal investigator and the Missouri Department of Transportation. They are not necessarily those of the U. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report presents the results of a pilot study to apply externally bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) sheets to strengthen a simple span reinforced concrete solid slab bridg...

The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to characterize the bridge material selection decisions of highway officials across the United States. Understanding product choices by utilizing the AHP allowed us to develop strategies for increasing the use of timber in bridge construction. State Department of Transportation engineers, private consulting engineers, and local highway officials w...

IN TR O D U CTIO N -TH E PROBLEM A few years ago a problem that previously had been a modest highway maintenance concern suddenly became a major source of dif­ ficulty and expense to highway departments in many areas of the coun­ try; including Indiana. In brief, concrete bridge decks, some new, started to spall, then delaminate, then come apart in relatively large chunks. The problem was quick...

Concrete overlays on bridge decks are expected to be more durable as compared with the more common asphalt solution. Besides stresses due to traffic load and temperature variations at service, the overlays are exposed to stresses due to long term shrinkage. Of interest is to evaluate the concrete overlay due to the shrinkage induced stresses at the composite interface. Three strategies have bee...

Effectiveness of maintenance programs of existing concrete bridges is highly dependent on the accuracy of the deterioration parameters utilised in the asset management models of the bridge assets. In this paper, bridge deterioration is modelled using non-homogenous Poisson processes, since deterioration of reinforced concrete bridges involves multiple processes. Minimum Message Length (MML) is ...