Performance Evaluation of Damage-Integrated Girder Bridges

Within the bridge community, there is a divide between the parties in design and preservation. Designers primarily focus on static conditions at the time of construction with limited consideration of future conditions related to maintenance, whereas preservation professionals emphasize on maintenance and repair practices with limited focus on design behavior and system performance. Similar to the concept of immediate depreciation of a new vehicle purchase, bridges in-service begin to degrade after they are placed in service, albeit at a lower rate. Current maintenance practices are not sufficient to predict the exact consequential effects that are imposed on the performance and serviceability of bridge system under the influence of routine degradation conditions. As a result, the main objective of this research is to establish a framework to integrate different sources of damage mechanisms into the measure of system performance, based on which serviceability and remaining service life of deteriorated superstructures can be effectively evaluated. The corresponding investigation of this research program will be conducted on a numerical analysis platform with association of limited experimental database for validation of the proposed models and conceptual methodology. In future, the proposed framework can be developed into a performance-based assessment tool that can be widely implemented by transportation agencies.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $90000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT12-G-UTC03

  140553-A

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center

  Pennsylvania State University
  201 Transportation Research Building
  University Park, PA  United States  16802-4710
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Virginia, Charlottesville

  Center for Transportation Studies
  P.O. Box 400742, Thornton Hall, D228
  Charlottesville, VA  United States  22903
• Principal Investigators:

  Harris, Devin

• Start Date: 20121001
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20131231
• Source Data: RiP Project 33482

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridge superstructures; Design; Deterioration; Girder bridges; Maintenance; Service life; Serviceability
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01470888
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT12-G-UTC03, 140553-A
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jan 30 2013 1:00AM