Experimental and Numerical Assessment of Historical Steel-Concrete Composite Bridge Decks Without Mechanical Connectors

In old Dutch inner cities like Amsterdam a large number of steel-concrete bridge decks built between 1880 and 1960 remain in service nowadays and currently need assessment of their bearing capacity. A significant number of these decks were designed without any mechanical connectors like shear studs in the interface between concrete and steel....

Monitoring structural responses during load testing of reinforced concrete bridges: a review

Nowadays, with the aging of the bridges and the advancements in technology, load testing has emerged as an effective method to assess existing concrete bridges with missing information, or where analytical methods do not provide an accurate assessment. Two types of load tests are identified: diagnostic load tests and proof load tests. Both...

Multi-level decision-making strategy for preparation of proof load and failure tests

Load testing and in some cases failure (or collapse) testing of bridges is a method to learn more about the behaviour of full-scale bridges in site conditions. Since such experiments, especially failure tests, are expensive, an extensive preparation of these tests is important. This paper addresses the question of when a bridge is a good...

Shear Experiments of Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders

For the assessment of existing slab-between-girder bridges, the shear capacity and failure mode are under discussion. Previous research showed that the static and fatigue punching capacity of the slabs is sufficient as a result of compressive membrane action. The girders then become the critical elements. This research studies the shear capacity...

Bridge Load Testing: State-of-The-Practice

Bridge load testing can answer a variety of questions about bridge behavior that cannot be answered otherwise. The current governing codes and guidelines for bridge load testing in the United States are the 1998 NCHRP Manual for Bridge Rating through Load Testing and Chapter 8 of the AASHTO Manual for Bridge Evaluation. Over the last two...

Extended CSDT model for shear capacity assessments of bridge deck slabs

The shear strength evaluation of reinforced concrete bridge deck slabs by accurate models can indicate strength reserves and avoid costly operations necessary for the extension of their lifetime. This article introduces an approach that extends the Critical Shear Displacement Theory model (CSDT) for reaching higher levels of approximation of...

Monitoring Shear Behavior of Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders Using Acoustic Emission and Digital Image Correlation

In the Netherlands, many prestressed concrete bridge girders are found to have insufficient shear–tension capacity. We tested four girders taken from a demolished bridge and instrumented these with traditional displacement sensors and acoustic emission (AE) sensors, and used cameras for digital image correlation (DIC). The results show that AE...

Stop Criteria for Flexure for Proof Load Testing of Reinforced Concrete Structures

Existing bridges with large uncertainties can be assessed with a proof load test. In a proof load test, a load representative of the factored live load is applied to the bridge at the critical position. If the bridge can carry this load without distress, the proof load test shows experimentally that the bridge fulfills the requirements of the...

Hydrodynamic and debris-damming failure of bridge decks and piers in steady flow

In countries with steep rivers, such as Japan and the United States, bridges fail on an annual basis. Bridges on spread footings are especially susceptible to failure by hydrodynamic loading, often exacerbated by debris damming. Here, such failures are investigated via small scale model laboratory experiments and full scale numerical...

Mapping surface deformation and thermal dilation of arch bridges by structure-driven multi-temporal DInSAR analysis

Arch bridges are important transportation infrastructures widely distributed in China, but they are prone to structural defects due to aging without routine inspection and maintenance. Therefore, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of these bridges is urgently needed by civil engineers to effectively reduce the risk of bridge damage or...

Beam Experiments on Acceptance Criteria for Bridge Load Tests

Loading protocols and acceptance criteria are available in the literature for load tests on buildings. For bridges, proof load tests are interesting when crucial information about the structure is missing, or when the uncertainties about the structural response are large. The acceptance criteria can then be applied to evaluate if further loading...

Proof load testing of the viaduct De Beek

Proof load testing can be a suitable method to show that a bridge can carry the required loads from the code without distress. This paper addresses the preparation, execution, and analysis of a proof load test on a four-span reinforced concrete solid slab bridge, viaduct de Beek. The bridge has one lane in each direction, but was restricted to a...

The shear capacity of reinforced concrete members with plain bars

Assessment of the capacity of the existing infrastructures has become more relevant in the recent years. With regard to the concrete bridges, the shear capacity of a large amount of existing concrete slab bridges reinforced with plain (smooth) bars are of concern. However, it was argued that the shear formula that is currently adapted in the...

Ruytenschildt Bridge: Field and laboratory testing

A large number of existing reinforced concrete solid slab bridges in the Netherlands are found to be insufficient for shear upon assessment. However, research has shown additional sources of capacity in slab bridges, increasing their total capacity. Previous testing was limited to half-scale slab specimens cast in the laboratory. To study the...