Screening Tool to Assess Adequacy of Bridge Timber Pile Bents during Extreme Scour Events
Publication: Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
Timber substructure bridges supported by three, four, or five piles were commonly used in Alabama in the past for secondary and county highway bridges. Because of the large number of such bridges in the state, the Alabama DOT recently developed a screening tool to assist its engineers in assessing the adequacy of bridge pile bents for extreme flood and scour events. The evaluation procedure employed in the screening tool is presented in this paper through the following sequence: (1) preliminary or general checks; (2) possible kick-out or plunging failure; (3) bent pile buckling failure; (4) transverse pushover failure from combined vertical gravity and lateral floodwater loadings; and (5) bent upstream pile beam-column failure from combined vertical gravity and lateral debris raft loadings. This paper discusses the theoretical background for the equations used to evaluate each failure mode in the timber screening tool, in addition to describing the flow of the screening process.
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Acknowledgments
The financial support of this work by the ALDOT and secondarily by the Highway Research Center at Auburn University is gratefully acknowledged. The assistance of ALDOT engineers George Conner, Eric Christie, and Jim Bearrentine is also gratefully acknowledged.
References
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 19 • Issue 3 • August 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 2, 2012
Accepted: Sep 9, 2013
Published online: Feb 27, 2014
Discussion open until: Jul 27, 2014
Published in print: Aug 1, 2014
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