A recent trend in bridge construction has been the optimization of the cost-to-performance ratio. The most effective way to optimize the cost-to-performance ratio is to maximize the efficiency of the superstructure. Currently, many bridge engineers and designers favor two- or three- girder plate superstructures, due to their cost advantages. However, research on the performance enhancements of ...

As a service to the bridge design profession, Bethlehem Steel has conducted hundreds of studies of steel plate girder bridges using its Preliminary Bridge Girder Optimization Program. The program is unique because it optimizes plate girder designs on the basis of least cost, not least weight. An evaluation of many study results leads to a number of guidelines which are offered in this paper. Wh...

Lamb waves in plates and in cylindrical pipes have been the subject of extensive study, largely because they propagate great distances with little attenuation, and can therefore be used to detect flaws. In this paper we report finite element simulations and experimental studies of Lamb waves in steel bridge girder geometries. In our studies the Lamb waves are generated by PZT wafer-type transdu...

Welding thin-plate panel structures often results in warping of the panels. Several mitigation methods, including preheating and prestressing the plates during assembly, have been investigated and used by some fabricators. This paper studies the distortion mechanisms and the effect of welding sequence on panel distortion. In this study, distortion behaviors, including local plate bending and bu...

HEPS-TF is the test facility of HEPS (High Energy Photon Source) of China. The magnet girders are used for supporting and positioning of the magnets. As the beam emittance is very low, the girder must has high adjusting precision and high stability. Besides, the girder should also be beam-based aligned. For these issues, two girder systems are designed. Both of them use cam mover mechanisms for...

this study aims to undertake a statistical study to evaluate the accuracy of nine models that have been previously proposed for estimating the ultimate resistance of plate girders subjected to patch loading. for each model, mean errors and standard errors, as well as the probability of underestimating or overestimating patch load resistance, are estimated and the resultant values are compared o...

Experimental investigation of the ultimate resistance of slender, steel-plate girder web panels to combined shear-and-patch loading indicates significant interaction between shear loading and patch loading. However, an existing interaction formula is based on experimental results. Herein, an improved design procedure for slender plate girders subjected to combined shear and patch loading is pro...

in this paper, a sensitivity analysis of artificial neural networks (nns) is presented and employed for estimating the patch load resistance of plate girders subjected to patch loading. to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed nn model, the results are compared with the previously proposed empirical models, so that we can estimate the resistance of plate girders subjected to patch loading. the ...