Bridge Rating Using Influence Surface for Curved Bridge Structures

Fu, C. C.; ,

Bridge Rating Using Influence Surface for Curved Bridge Structures

by C. C. Fu, Univ of Maryland, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Computing in Civil Engineering

Abstract:

A fairly sizeable number of curved steel bridges in Louisiana need to be rated and influence lines required to be stored. A methodology is developed and rating procedures are established. A PC-based computer package which contains pre-, main- and post-processors has been developed to rate the bridge and, in the mean time, store the influence lines. The requirement for the storage of the influence lines is to rate any overload in the future without reruns. The influence for moment, shear, torsion, and reaction are generated and information is passed to the post-processor. The function of the post-processor is to process the influence lines based on the on-line instruction of the user. The user can process any point in any girder of any influence lines (moment, shear, torsion or reaction) from the stored data base and the influence lines can be graphically shown on the computer screen. The usage of this package would give the state or local agencies the ability to quickly and accurately rate the load capacity of the bridges. Potential savings to those agencies from using this tool is expected to be large. The completeness of the pre- and post-processors will facilitate the user to model the bridge and handle the vast volume of data contained in the influence lines.

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