Resilient bridge designs
“Bridgeworks are rendered deficient within a few years of service due to the exponential traffic increase and the climate-related hazards that exacerbate the actions. Thus, it is urgently required to deliver resilient bridge designs that respond with minimal damages and are able to adapt to extreme loading conditions”.
In response to the above urgent need we deliver solutions for resilient design of bridgeworks, by integrating:
- damage-free designs which respond to extreme hazards with minimal losses
- construction methods and detailing to enable quick recovery and mitigate economic & societal consequences
- accelerated bridge constructions and designs to enhance safety, quality & durability
- structural versatility to enable adjustments of the system properties to changing loads and requirements
adaptable foundation with re-centering capabilities
& resilient column design for adjusting stiffness and damping stresses on the resilient foundation & column for dynamic rotations
displacements of a bridge foundation rocking on elastomer
pier rocking on concrete surface
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Integral bridges
“Maintenance of infrastructure, including bridges, is a pressing global challenge that drains trillions of investment worldwide. Integral abutment bridges (IABs) are jointless structures without bearings or expansion joints, which require minimum maintenance, hence offering significant cost savings to bridge owners. Thus, providing sustainable and resilient designs, which will enable the use of IABs into longer and more demanding bridges is essential, in view of the expansion of our highways and railways.”
integral bridge and frequent design challenges
The main challenge in IAB design is the interaction of the bridge with the backfill soil. In response to this challenge, we deliver solutions for sustainable IAB designs integrating:
- use of recycled materials to alleviate the interaction between the bridge and the backfill
- advanced numerical modelling and understanding of complex bridge backfill interactions under multiple hazards
- in depth understanding of the risks and the use of mitigation measures to reduce the losses to catastrophes, such as floods and earthquakes
dynamic analysis of integral bridge with backfills
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Bridge bearings and isolation
“Bearing and vibration alleviation devices have a broad range of applications in the design of damage-free & resilient structures spanning from buildings to bridges, nuclear power plants, artefacts, heritage structures and machines. The integrity of these structures relies heavily on the response of these devices. Thus, it is important to develop detailed models capable of capturing their behavior under multiple extreme loads such as earthquakes and wind loads.”
examples of bridge bearings (isolation)
On the basis of the expertise of the team, a range of research results have strengthened the understanding around bearings used in bridge and building constructions and in particular:
- design of bridges with bearings
- interaction of shear and axial loading of bearings & bearing uplift
- preliminary design of isolated structures & software development
- testing & certification of bearings
bridge pier rotation excerting bearing uplift
modelling of bearing vertical response
bearing axial stresses under combined shear and axial loads
evolution of axial stresses (abaqus non-linear modelling)