July 2014 12-13 am, Professor Upul Attanayake of Western Michigan University visited our college. He did a wonderful lecture on Sustainable development of structure with examples for teachers and students of college of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, according to his research experience. The lecture consists of two parts: Recent advances in bridge engineering and jointless details for durable bridges. A lively discussion was hold after the lectures by all the participants.
Recent Advances in Bridge Engineering: The highway agencies are committed to provide the highest level of safety and mobility during each step of a project development and delivery. To fulfill the above commitment, highway agencies embrace technology and use innovations. One such example is the implementation of Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) project delivery process. This process requires the owners to consider the means and methods that are required to complete an ABC project. ABC is a paradigm shift in bridge engineering and requires a change in bridge design engineer’s thinking process to think like a contractor. Hence, experimental projects are implemented while workshops and several research projects are being carried out. This presentation will detail the lessons learned from recent projects as well the completed and on-going research at the Western Michigan University.
Jointless Details for Durable Bridges: A new bridge design and construction trend to help improve durability and rideability is to remove expansion joints over piers and abutments. One approach to achieve this is to make the deck continuous over the piers by means of a link slab while the girders remain simply supported. The need to implement link slabs is indicated by AASHTO LRFD section 2.5.2.4 which requires using a minimum number of expansion joints to improve rideability. Further, due to durability concerns associated with bridge deck joints, it is preferred to have a least number of joints or develop jointless decks. The expansion joints over the abutments can be removed by one of three methods: deck sliding over back wall, semi-integral abutments, and integral abutments. This results in expansion joints at either or both ends of the approaches. The design concerns other than link slab include backwall and wing-wall design and bearing movement. The behavior of a jointless bridge brings about many challenges to bridge designers. The complexity is augmented when skew is involved.
Professor Upul Attanayake of Western Michigan University was invited to visit our school. It is commonly agreed that the SIBERC center, as the platform to cultivate new technologies in China, will play a key role in promoting the international development of our college.
