skip to Main Content

Breaking News: The Dissertation

I’m breaking my regular stream of posts to let you know that my dissertation is now available online through the TU Delft Repository. The printed copies should be ready on Thursday – 250 books in total are coming my way.

Even though I still need to defend the thesis, on June 14th, in Delft the thesis gets printed and published before the actual date of the defense, which also serves as commencement ceremony.

 

Here’s the metadata of my dissertation, which you can access here:

Author: Lantsoght, E.O.L.
Promotor: Walraven, J.C.
Faculty: Civil Engineering and Geosciences
Department: Structural Engineering
Type: Dissertation
Date: 2013-06-14
ISBN: 9789088916328
Keywords: reinforced concrete · slabs · effective width · shear · experiments · assessment of bridges
Rights: (c) 2013 Lantsoght, E.O.L. · Creative Commons BY NC SA

The capacity of existing solid slab bridges in the Netherlands is under discussion for two reasons: 1) the increased traffic loads and volumes and 2) the fact that the majority of the existing bridges were built before 1976, and are thus reaching the end of their original life span. Upon assessment according to the governing codes, a large number of slab bridges are found to be shear-critical. However, the shear capacity as prescribed by the codes is based on experiments on beams in shear. Slabs subjected to concentrated loads (such as truck wheel load) are assumed to have additional capacity as a result of transverse load redistribution. This thesis studies the capacity of slabs under concentrated loads close to supports. A literature review, resulting in a slab shear database with 215 experiments from the literature, is used to study the mechanisms at work in one-way and two-way shear. For this research, 156 experiments were carried out on 38 half-scale bridge deck specimens. The experimental results are studied by means of a parameter analysis. To determine the capacity of slabs in shear subjected to concentrated loads, two methods are proposed in the thesis: 1) the Modified Bond Model, a new theory to determine the capacity of slabs subjected to concentrated loads; and 2) by using a code extension proposal that results from probabilistic calculations following the safety philosophy of the Eurocodes. Finally, the link to the assessment practice is made by formulating recommendations, improving the Quick Scan assessment tool of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, and then applying this to cases of existing solid slab bridges.

Share with your peers!
This Post Has 8 Comments
  1. Congratulations! (I should also soon sort out to get my thesis online.)What are you planning with those 250 print copies? While it's nice to have a handful, that seems a bit much in our digital age.Best wishes,Almut

  2. Thanks! All colleagues, friends etc will get a nice copy of the book – I though 250 copies was a lot, but today I heard that 500 can go away quickly as well!

Leave a Reply to Eva Lantsoght Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back To Top

Free Templates for your Research

Sign up here to get access to worksheets for your research that help you have more efficient meetings, reflect on your work, and plan your month. Suitable for anyone from Master’s thesis students to full professors!