Engineering Commons^™

New Technologies In Short Span Bridges: A Study Of Three Innovative Systems, Andrew Lahovich

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Short span bridges are commonly used throughout the United States to span small waterways and highway overpasses. New technologies in the civil engineering industry have aided in the creation of many unique designs of these short span highway bridges in efforts to decrease construction cost, decrease maintenance costs, increase efficiency, increase constructability, and increase safety. Three innovative systems, the Integral Abutment Bridge, “Bridge-in-a-Backpack”, and the Folded Plate Girder bridge will be analyzed to study how the bridges behave under various types of loading.

Detailed finite element models were created for integral abutment bridges of varying geometry. These models are used …

Historic Bridge Evaluation Using Finite Element Techniques, Helena M. Charron

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The present study examined the application of modern, computer-based analysis methods to two existing historic bridges in Massachusetts. The first bridge featured in this study is the Woronoco Bridge, a reinforced concrete open spandrel arch bridge that was constructed in 1923. It was hoped that a computer-based, parametric study of this bridge would prove it to be deck-stiffened, similar to select bridges of Swiss engineer Robert Maillart. However, the results do not support that there was any intent to reduce bending in the arch as a result of increasing the stiffness of the bridge deck. Instead, the Woronoco Bridge appears …