Engineering Commons^™

The Bridge Between Beauty And Functionality, Justin R. Vander Werff

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"While our human creatureliness and limited understanding often lead us to pit form and function against each other, God provides glimpses of their unity."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­balancing aesthetics and practicality in design from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/the-bridge-between-beauty-and-functionality/

Seismic Performance Of Precast Girder-To-Cap Beam Connections Designed For Abc, Sri Sritharan, Justin Vander Werff, Robert Peggar, Ron Bromenschenkel

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The behavior of critical connections between prefabricated elements in bridges utilizing accelerated bridge construction (ABC) methods continues to be of utmost interest. Some of these connections will experience excessively high demand in regions that are susceptible to high seismic load. This paper presents a large-scale experimental study that investigated seismic performance of the connection between precast concrete I-shaped girders and a concrete inverted-tee cap beam using two different details. The ability of the girder-to-cap connection to successfully resist positive moment and the corresponding shear under combined gravity and seismic effects was of particular interest. The effect of vertical seismic acceleration …

Integral Precast Girder-To-Cap Connections For Accelerated Bridge Construction In Seismic Regions, Justin Vander Werff

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Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) is increasingly desired and needed, due to the aging transportation infrastructure across the United States and the always-growing demand placed on our nation’s highway system. Precast concrete is a common way to incorporate ABC techniques. Advantages over typical cast-in-place concrete methods include speed of field construction, improved quality control, and decrease in detoured traffic during construction, among others. However, precast concrete structures have not been used to their full potential in high seismic regions, due to the deficiency of precast concrete connections in past earthquake events. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is eager to incorporate …