Trestle Bridge Research Articles

Model for Wastage Allowance and Strength Properties of Pipe Piles Exposed to Marine Corrosion

The study’s objective is to analyze the mechanical properties of steel pipe piles as a part of a trestle bridge subjected to five years of natural marine corrosion degradation. Sixteen tensile specimens are extracted from the steel pipe piles in the splash, tidal, and immersion zones. The experimental tensile test results are used to establish regression equations defining the elastic modulus, yield strength, strain hardening index, and strength coefficient for the true stress–strain curves of the three regions. A non-linear time-dependent mathematical model is exploited to identify the corrosion degradation, using the data from one single corrosion degradation measurement campaign. The analysis indicates that the splash zone is experiencing the most severe corrosion degradation, and there are progressive losses in the mechanical properties of each zone as the corrosion degradation progresses. The established relationships of the mechanical properties, as a function of the ratio of corroded plate thickness to the as-built one, can be used as a fast-engineering approach to identify the mechanical properties of severely corroded piles. The corrosion degradation allowance is also defined using the first-order reliability method, accounting for existing uncertainties covered by the partial safety factors. By examining the impact of marine corrosion on the mechanical properties of marine structures and developing predictive models to assess the corrosion’s effect on material strength and corrosion allowance, the study aims to improve offshore structures’ safety, design, and maintenance.

The Gokteik Viaduct: A Tale of Gentlemanly Capitalists, Unseen People, and a Bridge to Nowhere

This article explores technical and socio-political factors that impacted construction of the Gokteik Viaduct railway bridge in Shan State, Burma, and the recurring failure of political powers to complete a continuous railway between Rangoon (Yangon) and Yunnan. Under rather contentious circumstances, the British government awarded an American steel company with the contract to construct what would become the world’s longest railway trestle bridge at the time of its completion in 1900. As an engineering marvel of its era, the Gokteik Viaduct is in the same category as the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Until now, however, scarce research has explored the Gokteik Viaduct in terms of historicity and factors that ultimately prevented this structure from fulfilling its intended purpose of transporting trainloads of marketable goods between Burma and Yunnan. This raises an ironic question: How could engineers construct such a remarkable bridge to service a railway that was never finished? Furthermore, why does the Gokteik Viaduct largely remain unexamined in terms of its noteworthy place in the geopolitics of Southeast Asia? In answering such questions, the authors conclude that the “unseen” story of the Gokteik Viaduct is not only about engineering prowess but of a political and social environment that continues to bedevil massive infrastructure projects in Upper Burma today.

Topograficzno-historyczna geneza nazw własnych krakowskich mostów i innych budowli służących przeprawie

The following paper is dedicated to the analysis of 41 proper names (including 18 historical names) of structures in Cracow used for crossing water and terrain, identified architecturally as bridges, footbridges, trestle bridges and flyovers. These names have got a rather distinct structure: the anteposition contains a generic name, while the postposition comprises an individualising determinant, such as an adjective or a noun in genitive case, less frequently nominative: most Dębnicki (bridge), most Wandy (bridge), most Lajkonik (bridge); kładka Ojca Bernatka (footbridge), estakada Obrońców Lwowa (trestle bridge). Most of these terms have toponymic or anthroponymic motivation connected with Cracow, others belong to exceptions. There is a tendency for using commemorative names, introduced with the preposition imienia/im. (named after): most im. Kardynała Franciszka Macharskiego. Due to the fact that these structures are located in the city, their names belong to urbanonymy. The physical appearance and function of these facilities make it possible to apply in their names the notion of hodonymy. In the Russian language the term gefironim has been used in reference to these names. In terms of the type of denoted structures, the notion gefironim is narrower than an urbanonym, but it is wider when it comes to the area in which these structures are located.

Long-Term Performance of Trestle Bridges: Case Study of an Indonesian Marine Port Structure

A precast reinforced concrete (RC) T-beam located in seaport Terminal Peti Kemas (TPS) Surabaya built in 1984 is used as a case study to test the accuracy of non-destructive test techniques against more traditional bridge evaluation tools. This bridge is mainly used to connect the berth in Lamong gulf and the port in Java Island for the logistic purposes. The bridge was retrofitted 26 years into its life by adding two strips of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) due to excessive cracks observed in the beams. Non-destructive field measurements were compared against a detailed finite element analysis of the structure to predict the performance of the girder in terms of deflection and moment capacity before and after the retrofitting work. The analysis was also used to predict the long-term deflections of the structure due to creep, crack distribution, and the ultimate moment capacity of the individual girder. Moreover, the finite element analysis was used to predict the deflection behavior of the overall bridge due to vehicle loading. Good agreement was obtained between the field measurement and the analytical study. A new service life of the structure considering the corrosion and new vehicle demand is carried out based on field measurement using non-destructive testing. Not only are the specific results beneficial for the Indonesian port authority as the stakeholder to manage this structure, but the approach detailed also paves the way for more efficient evaluation of bridges more generally over their service life.

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of the Early Life History Stages of the Native Olympia Oyster Ostrea lurida (Carpenter, 1864) in a Restoration Site in Northern Puget Sound, Wa

For effective long-term restoration of depleted marine species, it is critical that populations are able to replenish themselves through reproduction. The Olympia oyster Ostrea lurida (Carpenter, 1864), the only native oyster species on the West Coast of North America, is the subject of a number of restoration efforts across its range. Information about the distribution of its early life history stages is critical for the design of effective and connected restoration networks. In this study, spawning adults (brooders), planktonic larvae, and settlers were mapped in Fidalgo Bay, Anacortes, WA, an active restoration site in the Salish Sea. Sampling was conducted weekly from May through August 2013 at five intertidal and three subtidal stations. Brooding adults, planktonic larvae, and settlers were sampled. Environmental variables measured were temperature, relative water flux (a proxy for flow), tidal height, and submersion time of traps and shell strings. A low percentage of individuals sampled were brooding (maximum 13%) throughout the sampling period, but abundance peaked in early July. Small planktonic larvae (153–243 µm) were present throughout the sampling period, but peaked in mid-July, whereas large larvae (243–333 µm) were mostly only found in mid-July. Overall, there was high variability in the distribution of larvae and settlement among various locations or depths throughout Fidalgo Bay. Planktonic larvae and settlers were much more abundant near conspecifics and at a trestle bridge that could have affected hydrodynamics and, therefore, settlement. In addition, settlement increased with increasing water flow in the intertidal, but not in the subtidal, zone. More settlement occurred at –0.3 m below mean lower low water (MLLW) than at stations above or below this elevation, indicating that postlarvae prefer to settle at an intermediate elevation band in the intertidal zone. Temperature was the most important variable measured, with an association between the increasing presence of planktonic larvae and settlement with increasing temperature. In sum, prerecruitment processes appear to be very important in determining the spatial distribution of Olympia oysters in Fidalgo Bay. These results suggest that restoration of Olympia oysters is improved by the addition of appropriate substrates in sites that contain conspecifics and are just below MLLW.

Structural responses of a modular thin-walled steel trestle structure

ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to investigate the structural behaviors of a modular thin-walled steel trestle bridge structure that is used to convey bulk cargo and found widespread use in coal and electric power industries. This modular thin-walled steel trestle utilizes corrugated sheets as both structural and enclosure component along with top and bottom stringer components and adopts a modular construction. As a new structural format, its behavior has not been well understood and no related literature was available. This study provides a first full-scale experimental investigation on this thin-walled trestle and establishes a detailed computational model with a focus on the modeling assumption of the modular connection. The experimental test showed the ultimate loading capacity of the trestle under vertical loading and revealed that the failure was initiated by the buckling of the top stringers near the middle span, which shed light on the understanding of behavior of the whole structure for design and analysis. The detailed computational model was validated with the experimental test and parametric studies were carried out to investigate the influence of several selected structural components, such as the corrugated sheet, the top stringer, and the bottom stringer, on the behavior of the proposed trestle. Ultimately, the results indicate how these components may be optimized.

Reference-free structural dynamic displacement estimation method

Displacements of structural systems under service loads can provide crucial performance and safety information. Nevertheless, measurement of displacements is a difficult and expensive task, because of the need for a stationary reference to which the measuring devices attached. Some methods have stemmed from developing indirect displacement estimation by converting measured accelerations into dynamic displacement. This research develops a new approach based on a generalized minimization problem with Tikhonov regularization, resulting in an efficient and stable FIR filter. In particular, the developed filter is suitable for suppressing low-frequency noise with little ripple and without adding phase distortion. The adequacy of the proposed reference-free displacement estimation method is demonstrated by numerical simulations using field accelerations and displacements of a railroad bridge under a test train, by laboratory experiments reproducing these field displacements with a servo-hydraulic motion simulator, and by a field test using actual displacements and accelerations records of a timber trestle bridge under revenue service traffic. All results show good agreement between the measured and estimated dynamic displacements, demonstrating the efficacy of this method estimates the dynamic displacements of structural systems.

Study on Equivalent Vehicle Loading on Panel of Trestle Bridge for Excavation

Earthwork vehicle is the main construction vehicle that runs on the trestle bridge of excavation. The latest Load code for the design of building structures has not yet provided the equivalent vehicle loading on the trestle bridge panel in China. Considering the number of earthwork vehicles, the span and the thickness of the trestle bridge panel and other factors, the unfavorable distribution of wheels of earthwork vehicle had been analyzed. The equivalent uniformly distributed vehicle loading was obtained by means of the software ABAQUS. The results may be the references to the designers of the trestle bridge for excavation.

Geodetic monitoring (TLS) of a steel transport trestle bridge located in an active mining exploitation site

Abstract Underground mining exploitation causes, in general, irregular vertical and horizontal shifts in the superficial layer of the rock mass. In the case of construction objects seated on this layer, a deformation of the object’s foundation can be observed. This leads to additional loads and deformations. Identification of surface geometry changes in construction objects located within the premises of underground mining exploitation areas is an important task as far as safety of mining sites is concerned. Surveys targeting shifts and deformations in engineering objects preformed with the use of classic methods are of a selective nature and do not provide the full image of the phenomenon being the subject of the observation. This paper presents possibilities of terrestrial laser scanning technology application in the monitoring of engineering objects that allows for a complete spatial documentation of an object subjected to the influence of an active mining exploitation. This paper describes an observation of a 100 m section of a steel transport trestle bridge located on the premises of hard coal mine Lubelski Węgiel “Bogdanka” S.A. carried out in 2015. Measurements were carried out using a Z+F Imager 5010C scanner at an interval of 3.5 months. Changes in the structure’s geometry were determined by comparing the point clouds recorded during the two measurement periods. The results of the analyses showed shifts in the trestle bridge towards the exploited coal wall accompanied by object deformation. The obtained results indicate the possibility of of terrestrial laser scanning application in studying the aftereffects of underground mining exploitation on surface engineering objects.

Railroad Bridge Condition Evaluation Using Onboard Systems

AbstractTransportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) is investigating the feasibility of using vehicle-based systems to detect railroad bridge impairments to supplement regular bridge inspections. Test results show that an onboard track deflection measurement system and two different track geometry measurement systems are capable of detecting changes in pier elevations, and some of the systems can detect changes in bridge span deflection in an open-deck trestle. A series of tests detecting weak stringers and pier elevation changes in an open-deck trestle bridge was performed at the Bridge Deflection Test Facility (BDTF). This paper presents results from three vehicle-based systems in different test setups: (1) A track deflection measurement system and a track geometry measurement system were tested on a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) track measurement vehicle, (2) another track geometry measurement system was tested on a lightweight passenger car, and (3) a track deflection measurement system was ...

The Sulphur Creek Trestle Preservation Project

The Sulphur Creek Trestle Preservation Project Carolyn Barske (bio), Sunhui Sim (bio), Frances Osborn Robb (bio), and Jonathan Steadman (bio) On september 25, 1864, confederate troops under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked Union forces guarding the Sulphur Creek Trestle Bridge, located one mile south of Elkmont, Alabama, in Limestone County. The ensuing battle was the bloodiest in north Alabama, with more than 200 Union and forty Confederate troops killed. Forrest took as prisoners the remaining 820 Union soldiers. The Confederates burned Sulphur Creek Trestle Bridge, the tallest bridge on the Nashville & Decatur line, making rail travel from Nashville to Decatur impossible. The previous day, September 24, Forrest and his men defeated Union forces at Athens, Alabama, and destroyed an additional section of the Nashville & Decatur railroad line. Both engagements were part of a campaign to destroy Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s supply lines, which were necessary for his movement east through Georgia. The Nashville & Decatur railroad line connected in Decatur with the Memphis & Charleston Railroad which led directly to Chattanooga, Tennessee. These rail lines were essential for moving supplies for Union forces from Nashville to Chattanooga during Sherman’s [End Page 287] Atlanta Campaign. The Confederate victories at Athens and Sulphur Creek Trestle had less effect upon Sherman’s Georgia campaign than if they had been carried out earlier in the year, as Forrest had urged, when disarray and disagreement over the attacks’ necessity within the Confederate command structure resulted in delay. Nevertheless, the Battle of Sulphur Creek Trestle resulted in a welcome victory for the Confederacy. It also represents the first major engagement involving United States Colored Infantry (USCI) in north Alabama, as black federal soldiers serving in the 110th and 111th USCI regiments fought in close proximity to the plantations where they had previously been enslaved. In the fall of 2013, the Departments of History and Geography at the University of North Alabama received a grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program to expand and update a 1973 National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Battle of Sulphur Creek Trestle. That 1973 nomination, submitted by the Alabama Historical Commission, resembles many National Register nominations from the early phase of the National Register process. After the National Register was created in 1966, preservationists hurried to nominate as many properties of historic significance as possible to begin the process of documenting the American cultural landscape. These early nominations were often very brief and lacked sufficient context, and sometimes they included only a fraction of the significant landscape. The 1973 Sulphur Creek Trestle Fort National Register nomination is a case in point. It encompassed only the fort site itself and protected just 0.787 acres. The expanded boundaries of the recent nomination, submitted in 2015, covers 317.018 acres, including the former location of the Sulphur Creek Trestle Bridge, the Union rifle pits located outside the fort site, the Confederate artillery positions, and the probable location of Forrest’s campsite the night before the attack on the fort. The expanded historic context helps to place the events of the battle of Sulphur Creek Trestle within the larger narrative of the Civil War in north Alabama and middle Tennessee. Through the development of battlefield maps, story maps, and a [End Page 288] website, the research team has made significant contributions to the documentation of the battle and the dissemination of this information to the public. The expanded National Register nomination helps historians understand how the landscape and topography of the battle site contributed to a Confederate victory. The original 1973 nomination does not explain how and why the Union troops were overwhelmed during the battle. What the original nomination tells us is that in 1864, the fort sat on a hilltop that is extremely steep on the north, east, and west sides, which would have made it difficult for enemy troops to launch a linear attack from any of these directions. The southern edge of the fort faced an open field on a plateau, which would have given Union forces a clear line of fire on advancing enemy troops. Rifle pits surrounded the fort’s perimeter, approximately 400 yards of which remain intact. Additional rifle pits were...

Reference-Free Displacements for Condition Assessment of Timber Railroad Bridges

Current railroad bridge inspection and rating practices include observing bridge movement under live loads to help assess bridge conditions. Recent research has shown that transverse displacements of timber trestle bridges can capture critical changes in bridge serviceability (the ability to safely carry out railroad operations) as a function of railroad loading, speed, and direction. Measuring bridge movement under trains in the field is difficult and expensive because a fixed reference point is not normally available, thus creating the need to erect independent scaffolding to create good reference points near a timber bridge. This research demonstrates the potential of using reference-free accelerations collected with wireless smart sensors to estimate railroad bridge transverse displacements under live train loads. Focus is placed on timber trestle bridges, which comprise approximately 24% of the total inventory length of railroad bridges in the United States. The results show that wireless smart sensors can estimate transverse displacements of timber railroad trestles and could become an effective tool for campaign monitoring of railroad bridges (with applications toward helping overall bridge assessment).

Research on the Wind Tunnel Force Balance Tests of Long-Span Closed Coal Trestle

Structures with long span and high flexibility are very sensitive to the wind forces, so it is necessary to study on the wind effects on such structures. In this paper, based on section model wind tunnel high-frequency force balance tests, two horizontal base bending moments and shear forces of the typical supporting columns as well trestle bridge deck of the closed coal trestle under different wind directions were measured. The shape coefficients and their variations with the wind directions of the typical supporting columns as well trestle bridge deck were calculated then analyzed by the mean values of base forces. The experimental values of the shape coefficients were compared with those in the Chinese Load Code, the results shown that both were in good agreement, which verified the reliability of the test, which also illustrated that wind-resistant design of the coal trestle in accordance with the Code was reasonable. Based on analysis of the variances of base forces between overall model with and without surrounding buildings, influences of surroundings buildings were studied. Interference factors were proposed which provided the basis for the base forces checking and wind-resistant design of the long-span closed coal trestle structures.

Historical crane on the redesigned original trestle bridge as a memorial of Gdansk Shipyard

The paper includes selected aspects of the study, whose goal is to hold the historical crane 642-24 in its current location after the modification of trestle bridge static scheme. The scope of the paper includes the assessment of current technical condition of the object, a presentation of FEM analyses, a description of the assumed load cases, results of the static calculations, checking the effort of construction elements, global and local structure stability and its dynamic characteristics.

余部橋りょうの橋桁横取り・旋回施工に関する実証実験・解析および実施工結果

余部橋りょうの橋桁横取り・旋回施工に関する実証実験・解析および実施工結果

Design and Application of 40m T- Beam Installation with Steel Trestle Bridge Made by Type- 64 Military Railway Girder

In the case of installation of 40m pre-stressed reinforced concrete T-beam of Bridge A in a high energy-consuming industrial park, difficulties such as poor geology within bridge spans, too heavy T-beam and lack of conditions for installation of steel trestle bridge have been overcome. Finally, the problem of 40m T-beam installation has been resolved through reasonable design and by using type-64 military railway girder to make steel trestle bridge [1].Meanwhile, due to the restriction of terrain, T-beam is pre-cast on the base of lead road with 100m of corner radius, 97 meters away from the bridge. Through proper design of 60-ton track transport beam automobile to match the stress of the steel trestle bridge [2], the issue of transportation of T-beam have been successfully resolved, which has accelerated the construction progress of Bridge A, ensured the timely completion of construction, and greatly reduced the construction cost, which can provide beneficial references for design and installation of similar projects.

An integrated sea–land transportation system model and its theory

To enhance the efficiency of intermodal transportation for large quantities of goods, the current sea–land transportation system has been reviewed and systematically analyzed, and a bottleneck is pinpointed in the linkage or goods transfer between the waterway and railway. The bottleneck impacts the efficiency of the goods through transportation combining the two modes. To eliminate the existing bottleneck and inefficiency towards intermodality, a new type of flexible double-rail track has recently been invented together with innovations both in trestle bridges and in train ferries. The outcomes of the research in progress show that the flexible double-rail track is feasible from the viewpoints of both geometry and engineering mechanics, it can be used to improve the compatibility of a trestle bridge with various types of train ferries and hence it can support the development of train ferries on a large scale. Based on the innovations, an integrated sea–land transportation system model is proposed as a systematic solution, which is expected to effectively overcome the existing bottleneck and to enhance the efficiency of the whole sea–land combined transportation. Further research on this system model and its major components is also addressed in the paper.

Application of External Prestressing Technology in the Steel Trestle Bridge of the Three Gorges Permanent Ship Lock

Application of External Prestressing Technology in the Steel Trestle Bridge of the Three Gorges Permanent Ship Lock

Use of highly productive methods of concreting the second-stage lock at the Dnepr hydroelectric station

1. When organizing the concreting of shaft-type locks or deep structures similar to them it is expedient to construct transport roads at two levels: at the level of the lock bottom and at upper levels along the flanks of the rock cut. In this case the craneless delivery of concrete to the blocks being concreted is effective. Delivery should be by concrete dump carts from trestle bridges, from short cantilever approaches with subsequent transport of the concrete from the receiving hopper to the block by a spout. made of polyethylene tubes. The concrete should be placed in the blocks in layers of increased thickness, 1–2 m, with the use of heavy packet vibrators of the type IV-90, VI-697, et al. 2. Polyethylene spouts with a diameter of 400 mm, the design of which is presented in Fig. 3, can be used effectively in the case of a drop of the concrete up to 30 m and a block area up to 200 m2. Such spouts can quickly be made at any construction site. 3. For placing concrete in massive lock structures, including heavily reinforced zones, the V1-697 vibrators, which permit concreting in layers up to 2 m thick, are most effective. It is necessary to begin their industrial manufacture in the immediate future. This pertains also to self-proplled manipulators for transporting the packet vibrators in the blocks being concreted. 4. The technological system for concreting the chamber developed and introduced during construction of the second-stage lock at the Dnepr hydrodevelopment reduced the consumption of cement by 50 kg per 1 m3 of concrete and labor by 15% on concreting the blocks and doubled the concreting rate with a high work quality.

Technical-economic advantages of hydraulic-fill and reinforced-concrete structures, as compared to metal structures in construction for oil production

1. The construction of dikes and earth foundations for oil-drilling work in the sea (to depths of 7 m) or in marshy areas results in a considerable saving of materials and labor. The rates of construction for these structures are higher, by a factor of 1.5, than for steel trestle bridges. 2. The use of precast reinforced concrete in the construction of marine trestle bridges for oil extraction results in a considerable saving of steel. The amount of this saving, with reference to steel structures, is 60%, or 900 tons for every kilometer of trestle bridge. The cost of the structures is reduced by 12–15%. 3. The long service life of hydraulic-fill dikes (up to 100 years) and reinforced-concrete structures (more than 30 years) permits a more rational extraction of oil in the sea, without time limitation, similar to extraction on dry land. 4. The rejection of steel trestle bridges in favor of the other types of structures results in a substantial reduction of the capital investment for each ton of the steel substituted, in comparison to the allied branches of the national economy. 5. In hydraulic-fill dikes and reinforced-concrete trestle bridges, large maintenance expenses are not required, there are no expenditures for protection of the steel against corrosion, and the requirements for sea transport, as well as other costs related to the organization of sea work, are reduced.