Hybrid interaction of timber decks in movable bridges

Highway traffic bridges have been subjected to increasing loads over the past decades. Some of the movable bridge leafs in these highway bridges were constructed in the 1960s and they are now close to the end of their intended life span. These bridge leafs were typically designed and executed with hardwood deck boards. In the initial design...

Bonded FRP/steel deck-to-girder connections: Renovation of movable bridges

Many movable bridges, built in the 1950’s and 1960’s, reach their end of service life or do not meet future traffic demands. Renovation of those bridge, if possible, is preferred over newly built from an economical point of view. Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) decks prove to be excellent for retrofitting bridge decks compared to traditional...

The effect of push-pull rod on the dynamic behavior of movable bridges

In the Netherlands the design of a movable bridge and machinery part is based on the design standard NEN 6786:2001 (2001). When the bridge is in motion the calculations for the machinery part focus on the dynamic loads (torque) generating at the motor shaft. The calculation of these loads is carried out using tabulated formulas of the standard,...

Application and environmental evaluation of fibre reinforced polymers in movable bridge design

This thesis consists of a research study concerning the application and environmental performance of Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRP) for application in movable bridge design. The research is accompanied by a proposed redesign exploiting the advantageous properties of FRP and a life cycle assessment (LCA) of multiple FRP variants’ environmental...