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...

The knowledge of the process of the deterioration of structural resistance is crucial for existing bridge assessment. However, precisely modeling the process of loading also affects the evaluation. Indeed traffic loading is one of the main loads that a bridge is subjected to in its service time. This paper investigates the role of traffic loading on the time-dependent reliability of a given bri...

There are over six hundred thousand bridges in the U.S. which require great amount of human effort along with expensive and specialized equipment for maintenance. Current bridge inspections are manually performed by inspectors which are inefficient and unsafe. This paper presents visual and three dimensional (3D) structure inspection for steel bridges and steel structures using the developed cl...

In recent decades, the application of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites for strengthening structural elements has become an efficient option to meet the increased cyclic loads or repair due to corrosion or fatigue cracking. Hence, the objective of this study is to explore the existing FRP reinforcing techniques to care for fatigue damaged structural steel elements. This study covers the...

The research described in this paper focuses on the application of modal strain techniques on a multi-girder bridge superstructure with the objectives of identifying the presence of damage and detecting false damage diagnosis for such structures. The case study is a one-third scale model of a slab-on-girder composite bridge superstructure, comprised of a steel-free concrete deck with FRP rebars...

Many industries, such as the aerospace and the automotive industries have successfully used Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites (FRPC). These types of composite materials offer significant advantages over conventional civil engineering materials, such as concrete and steel. This is due to their chemical and corrosion resistance, lightweight, and high strength, which make them attractive for the...

A practical Bridge Management System has been developed by the author, which is referred to as the Japanese Bridge Management System (J-BMS) for existing concrete bridges. This paper introduces a newly developed bridge management system for the prestressed concrete (PC) bridges (J-BMS PC version) which is integrated with the PC bridge rating expert system (PC-BREX). The proposed system is able ...

In assessments of the seismic adequacy of existing steel bridges, the anchorage of steel truss piers to their foundations often has insufficient strength to resist seismic demands. Many other non-ductile failure locations may also exist along the seismic load path that cannot provide adequate seismic performance. Although strengthening is an option, this approach may only transfer damage to ano...

The paper gives an analysis of acoustic-emission signals measured in the course of laser cutting of steels plates DC04 and X5CrNi18-10. Laser cutting is a process in which there can be a wide range of cutting parameters, but nevertheless cutting of plate products can be accomplished. Within the range of the parameters concerned, however, the quality of a cut edge can vary quite strongly; laser-...

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...