Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Glulam Timber Bridges For Local Roads, Zachary Charles Carnahan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The most common type of bridges on South Dakota (SD) local roads are prestressed precast double-tee bridges. Currently, there is only one double-tee girder manufacturer in South Dakota (SD). In an attempt to provide more bridge type selection options for local governments, a study was performed at South Dakota State University to investigate the feasibility and performance of new types of single-span bridges suitable for local loads with low traffic. In one part of the study, Mingo (2016) developed a fully precast bridge incorporating full-depth deck-panels and prestressed inverted bulb-tee girders. The study presented in this thesis was performed to …

Continuous Long-Term Health Monitoring Using Ultrasonic Wave Propagation, Ece Erdogmus

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Indiana Local Road And Bridge Conditions, Indiana Ltap

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

In response to an appilcation requirement for the Community Matching Grant Fund Program, 354 asset management plans for roads and bridges were submitted in 2016 which contain the current conditions of local agency roads and bridges. This report describes these conditions and suggests the funding levels necessary to improve and maintain these assets at defined condition levels over a ten-year period. A ten-year horizon was used so as to correspond to previous LTAP studies performed in 2003 and 2009. The ten-year time period is also comparable to other Indiana studies.

Development Of A Transition Between An Energy-Absorbing Concrete Barrier And A Rigid Concrete Butress, Tyler L. Schmidt, Ronald K. Faller, Jennifer D. Schmidt, John D. Reid, Robert W. Bielenberg, Scott Rosenbaugh

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

From 2010 to 2015, MwRSF researchers developed the RESTORE barrier, which is a restorable MASH TL-4 median barrier with a steel and concrete rail supported by elastomer posts and steel skids. The research effort reported herein describes the initial development of a transition from the RESTORE barrier to a rigid TL-4 concrete buttress.

The previously-developed RESTORE barrier LS-DYNA model was validated against three full-scale vehicle crash tests. Several design concepts were generated through a series of brainstorming efforts. The primary transition concept consisted of a pin and loop connection between the RESTORE barrier and rigid concrete buttress, which was designed …

Performance Assessment Of Deteriorated And Retrofitted Steel Hp Piles, Joshua Steelman, Steven Stauffer

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Seismic Design Of A Prestressed Concrete Bridge, Alperen Ozel

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Latest advancements in software have become an indispensable tool in structural analysis. The main goal of this thesis is to examine dynamic responses of bridges in seismic activity with the help of such tool as CSi Bridge. Therefore, throughout this study, a prestressed concrete bridge model will be thoroughly designed. In the first section, the required materials and structural components will be introduced. The following section will cover calculations required for modeling. The actual modeling of the structure will be carried out in Section 3. In Section 4, the set of required analysis for seismic design such as modal, pushover …

Live-Load Test And Finite-Element Model Analysis Of A Steel Girder Bridge, Jake L. Morrill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Utah Transportation Center in conjunction with the Mountain Plains Consortium sponsored a study to investigate the performance, and condition of a steel, twin, I-girder bridge. The bridge is located on the Idaho-Oregon border near Payette, Idaho, and was designed to carry traffic over the Snake River.

Bridge Diagnostics Inc. was contracted by the Idaho Transportation Department to perform a live-load test on the bridge. This testing included the placement of 62 gauges that measured the response of the bridge as heavy trucks were driven across it.

A 3-D finite-element model of the bridge was generated and compared to the …

Warning Systems Evaluation For Overhead Clearance Detection, Clayton Rogers

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

The accurate detection of road vehicle heights is a need that arises in departments of transportation across the nation. Usually, this dimension is required to solve various transportation issues. In particular, numerous bridges in the state of Georgia have been affected by repetitive crashes of tall vehicles against their structural elements. As an example, a recent inspection report of the Houlihan Bridge over the Savannah River documents damages resulting from numerous hits by overheight vehicles. This case emphasizes the urgency of finding preventive measures. To address this issue, a number of solutions are investigated. The known methods of vehicle height …

Post-Repair Seismic Assessment Of Rc Bridges Damaged With Fractured Column Bars - A Numerical Approach, Ruili He, Yang Yang, Lesley H. Sneed

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Seismic repair of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns has been studied extensively during the past several decades; however, few studies have been conducted on the influence of the column repair (member level) on the post-repair performance of bridge structures (system level). In a previous experimental study by the authors, a method was developed to rapidly repair severely damaged RC bridge columns to enable the quick reopening of the bridge to emergency traffic. Thus, a lower limit state was used for the repair design, so that the lateral strength and drift capacity of a repaired RC column with fractured longitudinal bars …

Static And Dynamic Characterization Of Tied Arch Bridges, John Edward Finke

Doctoral Dissertations

"Tied arch bridges have been designed and constructed since the late 19th century. With their open vista owing to minimalist features tied arch bridges continue to appeal the public. Tied arch bridges are both aesthetic and economical alternates to long span bridges holding a place in the hierarchy of major bridges. They fit in a niche between viable and economical plate girder spans and short cable stayed bridge spans. There are several variations of the tied arch with the most common form being those having vertical hangers, stiff tie girders and slender arch ribs. This tied arch variation is examined …

Development Of Pre-Stressed Cfrp Fatigue Retrofits For Common Steel Bridge Connections, Korey Albert Pough

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Aging or deterioration of the nation’s bridge infrastructure is a significant issue that requires attention. Causes for much of this deterioration can be attributed to two main factors, 1) corrosion, and 2) metallic fatigue, both of which work together to reduce the strength and serviceability of bridge components over time. In many instances, strengthening of bridge components using localized retrofits offers an economical and fast solution for increasing the longevity of existing steel bridges; however, such retrofits must be resilient to further corrosion and fatigue damage. In this study, a localized retrofit is developed using pre-stressed Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer …

Proportioning And Properties Of Ultra-High Performance Concrete Mixtures For Application In Shear Keys Of Precast Concrete Bridges, Zhengqi Li

All Dissertations

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is defined as a cementitious based composite material with compressive strengths above 150 MPa, pre-and post-cracking tensile strengths above 5 MPa, and enhanced durability. To achieve desired properties, UHPC is typically produced with low water-cementitious materials (w/cm) ratio (i.e. w/cm < 0.25), high cementitious materials content (i.e. >1000 kg/m3), high quality aggregate, high dosage of high-range water reducing admixture (HRWRA) and reinforcing fibers. UHPC has distinct advantages in applications where narrow formwork and dense reinforcement are inevitable, high compressive strength concrete material is required and the surrounding environment is aggressive. The construction of shear keys in precast bridges is one of the important …

Integrated 3d Bridge-Condition Visualization (Bcv) To Facilitate Element-Based Bridge Condition Rating (Ebcr), Zhigang Shen, Wayne Jensen

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Routine inspection and maintenance records are essential for bridges to function well throughout their intended lifespan. Although existing bridge management systems are efficient at data storage, it is difficult to conduct comprehensive data analysis and management due to the lack of data integration mechanism. Engineers have to manually put many pieces of bridge drawings and inspection data together to make maintenance or repair/rehab decisions. Building information modeling (BIM) can be applied in bridge asset management area, including bridge inspection/rating to help to integrate the many data pieces. In this project we developed a 3D bridge inspection data management system, using …

Right Hand Fork Pedestrian Bridge Final Report, Ren Gibbons

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Right Hand Fork is a tributary canyon whose stream enters the Logan River nine miles east of the mouth of Logan Canyon near Logan, Utah. The access bridge to a popular recreational area, the Hobbit Caves, was damaged in 2011 by flooding. We propose that a new bridge be designed and constructed for the Forest Service to replace the current structure to ensure public safety and minimize environmental impact. We plan to use a longer bridge span that will situate the abutments higher on the stream bank and reduce possible water damage during flood events. Bridge costs will be minimized …

State Of Accelerated Bridge Construction (Abc) In The United States, Mike Ofili

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this project is to develop a toolkit for the design and construction of bridges using prefabricated materials primarily to reduce the closure time and on-site construction time of newly constructed bridges or bridges undergoing renovation. The research focuses specifically on short span bridges in Georgia (40,60,80, and 120ft spans).

Areas of primary concern for this project were design, constructability, structural analysis, the use of concrete and steel girders, cost efficiency, and industry surveys. In this particular portion of the study, the surveys proved to be most effective when combined with information obtained existing research as well as …

Spatial Time-Dependent Reliability Analysis Of Reinforced Concrete Slab Bridges Subject To Realistic Traffic Loading, Donya Hajializadeh, Mark Stewart, Bernard Enright, Eugene J. Obrien

Articles

Resistance and loads are often correlated in time and space. The paper assesses the influence of these correlations on structural reliability/probability of failure for a typical two-lane RC slab bridge under realistic traffic loading. Spatial variables for structural resistance are cover and concrete compressive strength, which in turn affect the strength and chloride-induced corrosion of RC elements. Random variables include pit depth and model error. Correlation of weights between trucks in adjacent lanes and inter-vehicle gaps are also included and are calibrated against Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) data. Reliability analysis of deteriorating bridges needs to incorporate uncertainties associated with parameters governing the …

A Review Of Probabilistic Methods Of Assessment Of Load Effects In Bridges, Eugene J. Obrien, F Schmidt, Donya Hajializadeh, X-Y Zhou, Bernard Enright, Colin C. Caprani, Simon Wilson, Emma Sheils

Articles

This paper reviews a range of statistical approaches to illustrate the influence of data quality and quantity on the probabilistic modelling of traffic load effects. It also aims to demonstrate the importance of long-run simulations in calculating characteristic traffic load effects. The popular methods of Peaks Over Threshold and Generalized Extreme Value are considered but also other methods including the Box-Cox approach, fitting to a Normal distribution and the Rice formula. For these five methods, curves are fitted to the tails of the daily maximum data. Bayesian Updating and Predictive Likelihood are also assessed, which require the entire data for …

Nonlinear Analysis Of Isotropic Slab Bridges Under Extreme Traffic Loading, Donya Hajializadeh, A. Salam Al-Sabah, Eugene J. Obrien, Debra F. Laefer, Bernard Enright

Articles

Probabilistic analysis of traffic loading on a bridge traditionally involves an extrapolation from measured or simulated load effects to a characteristic maximum value. In recent years, Long Run Simulation, whereby thousands of years of traffic are simulated, has allowed researchers to gain new insights into the nature of the traffic scenarios that govern at the limit state. For example, mobile cranes and low-loaders, sometimes accompanied by a common articulated truck, have been shown to govern in most cases. In this paper, the extreme loading scenarios identified in the Long Run Simulation are applied to a non-linear, two-dimensional (2D) plate finite …

Earthmoving Productivity In Urban Bridge Construction, Seonghoon Kim, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Earthmoving operations in urban bridge reconstruction projects are analyzed to identify significant factors that impact relatively low productivity. The research project was conducted in the urban interchange reconstruction of Interstate Highway 235 (I-235) in Des Moines, Iowa. By using observational studies and a statistical analysis method, the factors were identified, including match factor, number of passes, and loading cycle time per bucket. Number of truck, match factor, travel time, and hauling distance were identified as the unique factors for the off-site earthmoving project, while the start time and travel time were significant factors for the on-site project. This research also …

Investigation Of Closure Pour Elimination For Phased Construction Of Steel Girder Bridges, Terri R. Norton, Armando Shane

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Development Of Bridge Girder Movement Criteria For Accelerated Bridge Construction, Genda Chen, Yi Bao

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

End diaphragms connect multiple girders to form a bridge superstructure system for effective resistance to earthquake loads. Concrete girder bridges that include end diaphragms consistently proved to perform well during previous earthquake events. However, whether concrete bridges without end diaphragms are definitively inadequate in seismic performance is yet to be answered. The 2010 Chile Earthquake indicated that properly designed bridge girders and their lateral movement stoppers (shear keys) may perform equally well with those with end diaphragms. In this report, a feasibility study on the design of girder bridges without end diaphragms is presented. This study is particularly significant in …

Bridge Failure Rates, Consequences, And Predictive Trends, Wesley Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The intent of this investigation is to assess the number of bridge collapses in the United States, describe, in a numerical form, negative impacts resulting from collapsed bridges, and, last, analyze conditions of bridges prior to collapse and note similarities. Bridge collapse data is scarcely recorded, as such; an isolated region (New York State) over a period of time (25 years), wherein data has been collected of this nature, was used to determine the number of bridge collapses in the region annually. Probability and statistics were used to estimate the average number of bridge collapses throughout the United States and …

Risk-Based Bridge Inspection Practices, Rebecca Reising

Open Access Theses

Improving bridge safety, reliability, and the allocation of bridge inspection resources are the goals of the proposed risk based bridge inspection practices. Currently, most bridges in the United States are inspected at a fixed calendar interval of 24 months, without regard to the condition of the bridge. Newer bridges with little or no damage are inspected with the same frequency as older, more deteriorated bridges thus creating inefficiency in the allocation of inspection resources. Because of limited resources, it is not possible to spend the necessary time examining bridges that are in poor condition and require extra attention since equal …

Uncertainty Treatment In Performance Based Seismic Assessment Of Typical Bridge Classes In United States, Mohammad Mehdizadeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bridge networks are expensive and complex infrastructures and are essential components of today's transportation systems. Despite the advancement in computer aided modeling and increasing the computational power which is increasing the accessibility for developing the fragility curves of bridges, the complexity of the problem and uncertainties involved in fragility analysis of the bridge structures in addition to difficulties in validating the results obtained from the analysis requires precaution in utilization of the results as a decision making tool. The main focus of this research is to address, study and treatment of uncertainties incorporated in various steps of performance based assessments …

Repair Of I-65 Expressway Bridges Using Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (Cfrp) Composites, Ching Chiaw Choo, Abheetha Peiris, Issam E. Harik

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This report documents the repair of five locations along the I-65 Expressway in Jefferson County, KY. The repair involved: (1) the precast prestressed concrete girder spans between Jacob Street and Gray Street, (2) the reinforced concrete bearing pads of Bridge Pier 4 at the intersection of Jefferson Street and Preston Street, (3) the reinforced concrete bearing pads of Bridge Pier 6 near the intersection of Main Street and Hancock Street, (4) the precast prestressed concrete girder spans between Chestnut Street and Gray Street and (5) the reinforced concrete pier column on East Muhammad Ali Blvd.

The precast prestressed concrete girders …

Repair Using Steel Fiber Reinforced Polymer On Us 150 Bridges, Ching Chiaw Choo, Abheetha Peiris, Issam E. Harik

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The report details the pre-construction monitoring, planning and design, and construction of the retrofit measures on the US150 bridge over Beech Fork River in Nelson County, KY and Cartwright Creek bridge on the border of Washington-Nelson County, KY. All reinforced concrete girders of the five-span Beech Fork River bridge and three-span Cartwright Creek bridge of deck-girder construction had developed diagonal cracks near or at the transition of the variable-and-constant depth regions.

To remedy the problem steel fiber reinforced polymer (SFRP) sheets were selected as the means of retrofit due to their strength and stiffness, as well as conformability and flexibility. …

Developing A Model To Enhance Labor Productivity Using Bridge Construction Benchmark Data, Seonghoon Kim, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The Labor Working Status Monitoring (LWSM) Model that incorporates the WRITE and the industry benchmark data was developed through the five steps to enhance labor productivity in bridge construction operations. The first step of the development process was to conduct a literature review, followed by the second step which was to develop the WRITE. During the development, the authors identified the necessary hardware and software for the WRITE and outlined a schematic to show the connection of major hardware components. The third step was to develop the LWSM Model for monitoring the on-site construction labor working status by comparing data …

Structural Reliability Analysis Of Corroded Steel Girder Bridge, Mohammed Shaalan Al Badran

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The natural aging, environmental impact, and appropriate design are certainly playing a serious role in safety of the bridges function. The functional safety of bridge constitutes a prime element of the transportation system serving commuters, passengers and freight. According to Federal Highway Administration, the steel bridges share represents a large amount of the United States’ bridges. In last century, the collapse of both the Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant, West Virginia over the Ohio River on December 15, 1967 and over the Mianus River Bridge in Connecticut on June 28, 1983 showed that steel corrosion has been the leading reason …

Evaluating Different Bridge Management Strategies Using The Bridge Management Research System (Bmrs), Timothy Paul Stroshine

Open Access Theses

This project investigated the effects of varying two different elements of bridge management strategies. The first element was a trigger value (an NBI condition rating for a bridge component) at which a maintenance treatment can be performed. The second element was the budget.

A new software program, the Bridge Management Research System (BMRS), was created to test these elements of bridge management strategies for Indiana's bridge network. BMRS is a simplified version of a previous bridge management software package developed by Purdue University, the Indiana Bridge Management System (IBMS). To test variations in the trigger values, three different bridge management …

Application Of Multi-Hazard Seismic-Blast Detailing For Highway Bridges, Dominique Morton Torres

Dissertations and Theses

The increase of worldwide terrorist attacks on public transportation has heightened our concerns of protecting the nation’s transportation infrastructure. Highway bridges are an attractive target for terrorist attacks due to ease of accessibility and their overall importance to society. The primary objective of this research is to investigate multi-hazard seismic-blast correlations of blast-induced bridge components through numerical simulations of a high-precision finite element model of a typical highway bridge in New York. Seismic-detailing for blast loading on bridges has been investigated to study the correlations between seismic design for blast load effects. High-precision 3D Finite Element models of bridges detailed …