Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Damage Detection And Identification In Fiber Reinforced Plastic Structural Members And Field Bridges Using Acoustic Emission Technique, Archana Nair

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With the increased use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) based structural systems for rehabilitation of existing and construction of new bridges there is a requirement for identification of critical components of these structural systems and the determination of critical damage thresholds in them. Of the many available non-destructive techniques (NDT), acoustic emission (AE) monitoring had been identified as one of the most popular techniques applicable for damage discrimination in composites. The current study aimed at using patterns in AE data for the identification of damage modes exhibited by composite structural systems. The extensive experimental program involved testing of two structural …

Destructive Testing Of Composite Precast Concrete Deck Panels And Built-Up Steel Plate Girders, Wesley J. Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has implemented the use of precast concrete panels for bridge deck construction. A bridge utilizing these panels as a reconstruction method was decommissioned three years after the new deck installation, due to unrelated matters. Two sections of this bridge were salvaged and sent to Utah State University (USU) for destructive testing.

Each bridge section consisted of two built-up steel plate girders intact with the precast concrete deck panels. The precast panels were designed and constructed to achieve full composite action between the deck and built-up steel plate girders through the use of Nelson shear …

Destructive Testing And Finite-Element Modeling Of Full-Scale Bridge Sections Containing Precast Deck Panels, Travis R. Brackus

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Full-depth, precast panel deck systems are becoming more common in bridge installation and repair. The objective of these systems is to achieve the performance of cast-in-place systems while simultaneously saving time and money. The structural behavior of these systems has been the subject of scrutiny in recent research. The Utah Department of Transportation demolished a steel I-girder bridge containing a precast panel deck system and provided two full-scale specimens for this project. Destructive testing was performed at Utah State University on the specimens to investigate three failure modes: flexural, beam shear, and punching shear. Finite-element models were created using ANSYS …

Design Aids Of Nu I-Grinder Bridges, Kromel Hanna, George Morcous, Maher K. Tadros

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Analytical Seismic Fragility Curves For Skewed Multi-Span Steel Girder Bridges, Ian Sullivan

All Theses

Most of the past seismic fragility studies on typical highway bridges in the Central and Southeastern United States (CSUS) have focused on regular multi-span bridges with little to no skew. However, past earthquakes and studies have shown that skewed multi-span simply supported bridges may also be susceptible to earthquake damage, specifically causing coupled responses (longitudinal and transverse) that place more demand on individual components. With over 27 percent of simply supported steel girder highway bridges in the CSUS having a skew angle over 15 degrees, there is a specific need to further quantify the vulnerability of such bridges exposed to …

Nondestructive Testing Of Defective Astm A 514 Steel On The I ‐ 275 Combs‐Hehl Twin Bridges Over The Ohio River In Campbell County, Kentucky, Theodore Hopwood Ii, Sudhir Palle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Three defective ASTM A 514 steel splice plates were discovered on the I-275 Combs-Hehl twin bridges over the Ohio River. A follow-on in-depth field inspection of 1,356 A 514 steel plates on the bridges revealed 14 additional defective gusset and splice plates. The A 514 steel was improperly heat-treated resulting in a brittle crack-prone microstructure. Ultrasonic and impact hardness tests were used to identify the defective steel. Subsequently, the defective steel plates were either removed or lapped with additional steel plates.

A Truck-Mounted Scour Inspection System For Indot, Dennis Lyn, Thomas Cooper, Ranadeep Das

JTRP Technical Reports

Scour monitoring may be a useful tool for INDOT in dealing with local scour problems at bridge sites, and a truck-mounted scour-monitoring system is an attractive option offering flexibility in deployment and cost-effectiveness. This report deals with two aspects related to the further development of such a system: i) a web application that combines the latest available information regarding streamflow with relevant information regarding bridges considered susceptible to bridge scour, thereby assisting in truck-deployment decisions, and ii) development of an acoustic positioning system as a replacement of the original mechanical positioning in order to improve the ease of use.

The …

Estimating The Characteristic Vertical Response Of A Flexible Footbridge Due To Crowd Loading, Joe Keogh, Colin C. Caprani, Paul Archbold, Paul Fanning

Conference papers

The issue of excessive vibration of footbridges due to pedestrian loading is now well documented. Bridge vibrations produced from a crowd of pedestrians have been estimated by modifying the effect caused by a single pedestrian by an enhancement factor to take crowd synchronization into account. In this paper this approach is extended to account for the fact that all pedestrians will not have the same pacing frequencies, and the effects of distributions of pacing frequency and other parameters on the enhancement factor are investigated. It is shown that this more faithful representation of pedestrian crowd walking behaviour gives reduced vibration …

Transfer And Development Length Of Strands In Post-Tensioned Members After Anchor Head Failure, Elie El Zghayar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Post-tensioning tendons in segmental bridge construction are often only anchored within the deviator and pier segments. The effectiveness of the post-tensioning (PT) system is therefore dependent on proper functioning of the anchorages. On August 28, 2000 a routine inspection of the Mid-Bay Bridge (Okaloosa County, Florida) revealed corrosion in numerous PT tendons. Moreover, one of the 19-strand tendons was completely slacked, with later inspection revealing a corrosion-induced failure at the pier anchor location. Anchorage failure caused all PT force to transfer to the steel duct located within the pier segment that in turn slipped and caused the tendon to go …

Slides: Rifle, Silt, New Castle Community Development Plan: A Collaborative Planning Approach To Natural Gas Development, Peggy Utesch

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Peggy Utesch, Movin' Forward Consulting

25 slides

Verification Of Lrfd Bridge Design And Analysis Software For Indot, Amit H. Varma, Jungil Seo

JTRP Technical Reports

NCHRP Process 12-50 was implemented to evaluate and verify composite steel I-girder bridge design software used commonly in Indiana. A test-bed of twenty one bridges was developed with the guidance from an Indiana Department of Transportation appointed research advisory panel (RAP). The test-bed included five simple-span and sixteen multi-span bridge superstructures. More than 80 parameters were required to define a bridge and they include bridge span, girder spacing, number of beams, section type, steel strength, girder sections, and other required bridge parameters. Some of these parameters were initially selected by INDOT and practitioners.

An indigenous computer program PURDUE CSBD was …

Behavior Of Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders, Franklin B. Angomas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For this research, prestress losses were monitored in six HPC bridge girders. These measured losses were compared to predicted losses according to four sources. Prestress loss predictive methods considered for this research were: 1- AASHTO LRFD 2004, 2- AASHTO LRFD 2004 Refined, 3- AASHTO LRFD 2007, and 4- AASHTO LRFD Lump Sum method. On the other hand, the camber prediction methods used in the present research were: 1- Time dependent method described in NCHRP Report 496, 2- PCI multiplier method, and 3- Improved PCI Multiplier method. For the purpose of this research, long-term prestress losses were monitored in select girders …

Experimental Painting Of The I-64 Riverside Parkway In Louisville, Ky, Rick Younce, Theodore Hopwood Ii, Sudhir Palle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet conducted a large-scale zone maintenance painting operation on 13 elevated steel bridges along the I-64 Riverside Parkway in Louisville, KY in 2007. That work included abrasive blast-cleaning and painting of steel underlying open deck joints on 3.2 miles of steel structures. The painting was performed by spray application of one coat of a calcium sulfonate alkyd coating. The painting covered an area of 237,060 ft2 of steel cleaned and painted at a unit cost of $15.82/ft2.

The project incorporated a high level of containment as the existing coating possessed lead-based paints and the project was located …

Response Sensitivity Of Highway Bridges To Random Multi-Component Earthquake Excitation, Kyle Cronin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Highway bridges provide a critical lifeline during extreme seismic events and must maintain serviceability under a large range of earthquake intensities. Consequently, the advent of more computational power has allowed more advanced analysis approaches for predicting performance and vulnerability of highway bridges under these seismic loads. In traditional two-dimensional finite element analyses, it has been demonstrated that the incidence angle of the ground motion can play a significant role in structural response. As three-dimensional nonlinear time history analyses are used more frequently in practice, ground motions are still usually applied along a single bridge axis. It is unknown how three …

Slab-On-Girder Prestressed Concrete Bridges: Linear And Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis And Experimental Load Tests, Marcio Costa Araujo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“A diaphragm is a transverse stiffener, which is placed between girders in order to maintain section geometry”, (AASHTO, 2002). Intermediate diaphragms, usually placed at the midspan or third points of a bridge, are thought to contribute to the overall distribution of live loads in bridges. Cast-in-place concrete intermediate diaphragms were investigated in this study in order to assess their load distribution effectiveness in prestressed concrete I-girder bridges. Finite element packages (Ansys and GT STRUDL) were used to perform the analyses for multiple bridge configurations, including a parametric study of span length, girder spacing, and concrete strength. It was found that …

Implementation Of Conductive Concrete For Deicing (Roca Bridge), Christopher Y. Tuan

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Site Investigation Of Bridges On And Over The Parkways In Western Kentucky, Jindong Hu, Tong Zhao, Issam E. Harik, Jian Xie

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Determination of the seismic risk of the bridges on and over the parkways in Western Kentucky requires evaluating the current condition of the individual elements of the bridges. Except for culverts, all bridges were visually inspected, photographed and the records were stored in a database. Data of the visual inspection and the photographs were combined to form the completed site inspection forms. Any visually observed deficiencies of the bridge elements were recorded.

A Compact Disc (CD) that includes pictures of the bridges is attached to this report. The site inspection forms of all bridges on and over the parkways in …

Preliminary Seismic Evaluation And Ranking Of Bridges On And Over The Parkways In Western Kentucky, Jian Xie, Issam E. Harik, Tong Zhao, Jindong Hu

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Five parkways in Western Kentucky are located in the region that is greatly influenced by the New Madrid and Wabash Valley Seismic Zones. This report executes a preliminary screening process, known also as the Seismic Rating System, for bridges on and over parkways in Western Kentucky to identify the seismic vulnerable bridges.

The ranking of bridges derived from this rating system is based on: structural vulnerability, seismic and geotechnical hazards, and bridge importance. There are 349 bridges were ranked with the Seismic Inventory of Bridges (SIB), a user-oriented database program developed according to the Seismic Retrofitting Manual. The bridge ranks …

Sources Of End Zone Cracking Of Pretensioned Concrete Girders, Christie J. Hasenkamp, Sameh S. Badie, Christopher Y. Tuan, Maher K. Tadros

Civil Engineering Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Recent developments of high performance concrete, increasing amounts of prestressing, and increasing use of deep girders have resulted in increasing popularity of precast pretensioned concrete girders in bridge construction. These developments have increasingly contributed to end zone cracking. This paper summarizes the interim results of an ongoing research sponsored by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 18-14. The objectives of the research are: (1) to establish procedures for the acceptance, repair, or rejection of precast/prestressed concrete girders with longitudinal web cracking, and (2) to prepare a user's manual for the application of these procedures. The results from a …

Estimation Of Earthquake Loss Due To Bridge Damage In The St. Louis Metropolitan Area: Part I - Direct Losses, Ronaldo Luna, David J. Hoffman, William T. Lawrence

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The risk associated with earthquake hazards on highway systems is dependent on the complexity of a network and its redundancy in providing traffic flow. Earthquake loss estimation studies can provide decision makers with an appreciation of the importance of having a highway network resistant to earthquakes and information to make the network resistant to these events. The direct economic loss was estimated for a major metropolitan area, St. Louis, for a series of earthquake scenarios. The primary component of the study was damage to bridges within the highway system. The study zone covers the St. Louis metropolitan area and its …

Implications Of Future Heavier Trucks For Europe's Bridges, Colin C. Caprani, Bernard Enright, Eugene O'Brien

Conference papers

European road freight transport has increased by 38% between 1995 and 2005 and this strong growth trajectory seems likely to continue into the future. To address this growth without compromising the competitativeness of European transport, some countries are contemplating the introduction of longer and heavier trucks, with up to 8 axles and gross weights of up to 60 t. This has the advantage of reducing the number of vehicles for a given volume or mass of freights, reducing labour, fuel and other costs. However, many roads authorities are concerned about the implications for Europe's bridge infrastructure. For bridge loading, it …

Impact Damage Between The Collision Of A Vessel And Protective Fender Systems, Paul Joseph Kocke

LSU Master's Theses

Vessel collision with bridge pilings can cause a catastrophic event and are occurring at an alarming rate. Such events can lead to the collapse of a bridge, causing deaths, shutting down a primary route of transportation and costing millions of dollars in repairs. Today, the AASHTO Bridge Code gives designers a methodology toward designing bridge pilings to withstand the impact of an errant vessel. However, bridges designed before this code was written require a protective system that is capable of redirecting a colliding vessel without causing severe damage to the pilings or the vessel. This research will look into three …

Estimation Of Earthquake Loss Due To Bridge Damage In The St. Louis Metropolitan Area. Ii: Indirect Losses, David Lee Enke, Chakkaphan Tirasirichai, Ronaldo Luna

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An approach to estimate the indirect economic loss due to damaged bridges within the highway system from an earthquake event is presented. The indirect cost considered refers to the increased highway transportation cost only. The study zone covers the St. Louis metropolitan area and its surrounding suburban regions. An earthquake scenario centered in St. Louis, with a magnitude 7.0 is used. The direct earthquake loss was primarily damage to bridges, which causes an increase in travel time and distance within the transportation network. This information is then used as input for the indirect loss model. The indirect loss is examined …

Seismic Fragility Curves For A Typical Highway Bridge In Charleston, Sc Considering Soil-Structure Interaction And Liquefaction Effects, Matthew Bowers

All Theses

Evidence from historical earthquakes suggests that the vulnerability of highway bridges is significantly affected by large permanent ground deformations caused by liquefaction as well as soil-structure interaction (SSI). The vulnerability of a typical multi-span simply-supported (MSSS) concrete girder bridge found in Charleston, South Carolina, is evaluated with consideration for liquefaction and SSI effects. In general, existing bridges in this region were not originally designed with consideration for seismic events or liquefaction of underlying soils. Fragility curves that represent the probability of exceeding predefined performance levels of damage given an earthquake of a particular intensity are used to evaluate the effects …

Structural And Economical Impacts Of Heavy Truck Loads On Bridges, Xiang Zhou

Doctoral Dissertations

The study included in this dissertation assesses the strength, serviceability, and economic impact of overweight trucks on Louisiana bridges. Truck load configurations FHWA 3S2 and FHWA 3S3 were applied to bridge models that were originally designed for HS20-44 truck configuration to determine the effects of heavy truck loads on bridges. Behaviors of bridge components including bridge girder, deck, and diaphragm were evaluated separately.

AASHTO linear approach and finite element analysis were employed to evaluate bridge girder behaviors under the heavy truck load. Bridge models with different geometric configurations were considered. Both short term and long term effects on simple span …

Prevention Of Voc Releases From Bridge Painting Operations, Theodore Hopwood Ii, Rick Younce, Sudhir Palle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Bridge maintenance painting employs solvent-based coatings that generate volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that contribute to air-quality problems. Methods for capturing VOCs during normal Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) maintenance painting operations were investigated. One method, activated carbon adsorption, is adaptable to KYTC operations. Related factors including area of bridge, coating systems, containment volumes and VOC out gassing rates were reviewed. A commercial source of activated carbon adsorption equipment was identified and issues related to employing that technology for bridge painting were identified.

Intelligent Painting Process Planner For Robotic Bridge Painting, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Due to increased government regulations on environment, health, and safety, the cost of on-site bridge painting has quadrupled over the past several years. The construction industry faces a great challenge in how to control the increased costs of bridge painting and meet the regulations at the same time. A possible solution to address this challenge is to develop a robotic bridge painting system. The development of the robotic system can be justified by the potential improvements in safety and productivity. This paper presents the development and testing of an Intelligent Painting Process Planner. The Planner, built based on bridge feature …

Three Innovative Concepts For Short Span Steel Bridges, Aaron Jon Yakel, Atorod Azizinamini, Mohammadreza Farimani, Nazzanin Mossahebi

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Enhancing The Capability Of Rapid Bridge Replacement After Extreme Events, Yong Bai, Seong Hoon Kim, William R. Burkett

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

The potential threats of extreme events to highway bridges have received increased attention from government agencies, the engineering and construction communities, and the traveling public. These events include terrorist attacks as well as human‐induced and natural hazards such as earthquakes, explosions, fires, floods, and hurricanes. To respond to the potential threats on highway bridges, a research project was conducted to identify rapid bridge replacement processes, techniques, and needs for improvements.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve the research objectives, a detailed case study of previous bridge replacement following an extreme event was conducted. The case study was performed using a three‐step approach. …

Factors In Debris Accumulation At Bridge Piers, Dennis A. Lyn, Thomas J. Cooper, Charles Anthony Condon, Lu Gan

JTRP Technical Reports

Debris accumulation at bridge piers has been a significant problem at a number of bridge sites in Indiana, increasing risks of upstream flooding, scour, and stream instability. The current study aimed at identifying factors contributing to debris accumulation in order to formulate guidelines for the design of new bridges that would minimize their occurrence or impact. Three related approaches were taken: i) a systematic study of the available underwater bridge inspections reports, ii) a program of periodic visits and visual examination of bridge sites that were thought to be prone to debris accumulation, and iii) continued video monitoring of three …