Response Modification Approach for Safe Extension of Bridge Life
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 17, Issue 4
Abstract
A large portion of highway bridges in the United States are reaching or have reached their intended design lives. To avoid replacing a large number of bridges simultaneously, methodologies to safely extend their lives are important to help avoid high replacement costs and to schedule bridge replacement over a longer time window. This paper proposes an approach to extend the fatigue life of vulnerable steel bridges through a response modification apparatus, consisting of a mechanical amplifier and a response modification device, which provides supplemental stiffness and damping to the bridge. Because of the relatively small deflections encountered under typical service loads, the use of a mechanical amplifier allows for a smaller apparatus and enables a more efficient device to provide adequate response modification forces to the bridge. Herein, the use of a scissor jack as the mechanical amplifier is proposed for use in bridge applications, and its utility in concert with a passive stiffness device is demonstrated by application to a simple beam structure. Reductions in moment ranges of 37% and safe life extensions of 300% are achieved on a simple beam model with the proposed response modification apparatus.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota for financially supporting this work through the projects “Response Modification for Enhanced Operation and Safety of Bridges” and “Innovative Technologies for Lifetime Extension of an Aging Inventory of Vulnerable Bridges.”
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 17 • Issue 4 • July 2012
Pages: 728 - 732
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 16, 2011
Accepted: Aug 11, 2011
Published online: Aug 13, 2011
Published in print: Jul 1, 2012
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