Shear and moment capacity of the Ruytenschildt Bridge
My colleagues and I wrote a paper for IABMAS 2016, which was presented by my student Karen Flores.
The abstract of the presentation on the shear and moment capacity of the Ruytenschildt Bridge is as follows:
In August 2014, the Ruytenschildt Bridge, a reinforced concrete solid slab bridge, in Friesland, the Netherlands was tested until failure. One of the goals of the experiment is to analyze the failure mode of the slab bridge under a tandem of 4 wheel loads and to compare the capacity of the full bridge structure to the predicted results, to have an idea of the residual strength of existing bridges. The methods used are experi-mental (testing of the bridge to failure in two of its five spans) and analytical. The analytical work involved predicting the bending moment capacity, the shear capacity and the punching capacity of the bridge. In both spans, the bridge failed in flexure. The total capacity during the experiment was significantly higher than pre-dicted. The results indicate that the traditional rating procedures for shear are very conservative when applied to slab bridges that benefit from transverse load redistribution.
You can find the slides here:
Karen also presented the paper of her BSc thesis project. The abstract of this paper is as follows:
An analysis and visual inspection is presented of the bridge “Quebrada de Tambura”. This study emphasizes on the visual inspection of the bridge, the elements taken into consideration for the assessment, and the relevant failure modes that can be identified throughout the process, leading to a recommendation for maintenance.
In addition, CSI Bridge software is used for the case study of the bridge “Quebrada de Tambura” located in the Imbabura province in Ecuador, and where possible, causes for the identified failure modes are included in the model, such as settlements.
Finally, the processed and analyzed information was used for the proposal for maintenance of the bridge, including the underpinning of piles and foundations, and the use of carbon fiber reinforcements (CFRP) in shear-critical beams as calculated by the Sika program.