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 ...

Deflection control is the crucial procedure in construction control of cantilever prestressed concrete continuous girder bridge. This paper summarizes the advantages of Grey theory’s poor information processing and abilities of Neural Network’s self-learning and adaption, and the combinational algorithm of grey Neural Network is applied to the prestressed concrete bridge cantilever construction...

This paper describes a study evaluating increase in design strength, performance and capacity when including bridge parapets in a bridge analytical model. Traditionally, concrete parapets are treated solely as superimposed dead load in an overall bridge structural design. Parapets are detailed from a safety standpoint to resist impact forces from vehicle loading. However, in the global design m...

Corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete structures and bridges is a major problem facing the departments of transportation worldwide. In the United States, maintenance and replacement costs are measured in billions of dollars. Salt environment in hot climate and the use of deicing salts in cold regions have resulted in steady deterioration of bridge decks due to corrosion. These concerns h...