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Infrastructures
Special Issues
Resilient Bridge Infrastructures
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Resilient Bridge Infrastructures

A special issue of Infrastructures (ISSN 2412-3811).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 22416

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Marinella Fossetti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, "Kore" University of Enna, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna, Italy
Interests: experimental tests on full scale structures; existing bridges; existing tunnels; seismic-resistant timber structures; cultural heritage masonry structures; structural elements in ordinary and fiber-reinforced concrete

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The safety of road networks is a fundamental prerequisite for the economic and social activity development of any modern country. Considering that the most vulnerable elements in a road network are principally bridges and viaducts, road network safety is strictly related to the resilience of these infrastructures. It is well known that existing bridges are not resilient enough under artificial or natural loads mainly because many bridges have now concluded their service life cycle. As demonstrated by recent tragedies—e.g., the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Italy—the evaluation of the resilience of existing bridges is urgent. In this field, maintenance activities, as well as static and seismic retrofitting designs require a major commitment both from the economic and the engineering point of view. A possible solution to this problem is to improve available technologies and to develop new technologies, also through close cooperation between Universities and industry stakeholders. In this way, it is possible to provide an effective decision support methodology that would allow the reduction of the risks due to a lack of resiliency of road networks. On this basis, the objective of this Special Issue is to gather contributions from academics as well as correspondents operating in the following fields: resilience of bridges; innovation in bridge technologies and materials; maintenance and retrofitting of existing bridges; structural health monitoring for bridge structures; risk-based decision making.

Prof. Dr. Marinella Fossetti
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Infrastructures is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • resilience of bridges
  • innovation in bridges technologies and materials
  • maintenance and retrofitting of existing bridges
  • structural health monitoring for bridge structures
  • risk-based decision making

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 6182 KiB  
Article
Environmental Influences on Bridge Deterioration Based on Periodic Inspection Data from Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
by Makoto Fujiu, Takahiro Minami and Jyunichi Takayama
Infrastructures 2022, 7(10), 130; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures7100130 - 30 Sep 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2751
Abstract
In the United States, many people have suffered losses caused by the collapse of deteriorated road bridges and subsequent road closures, and in Japan, bridges built during rapid economic growth are now reaching the end of their planned service period. Under these circumstances, [...] Read more.
In the United States, many people have suffered losses caused by the collapse of deteriorated road bridges and subsequent road closures, and in Japan, bridges built during rapid economic growth are now reaching the end of their planned service period. Under these circumstances, instead of corrective maintenance, regular visual inspections of the bridges are performed once every five years to implement preventative maintenance. In this study, to identify those bridges prone to rapid deterioration, deterioration rates were calculated based on data from two cycles of inspection results, and the environmental factors that impacted these rates were statistically analyzed based on Hayashi’s quantification theory type I. The results clearly show that the bridge deterioration rate is significantly impacted by its specifications (superstructure materials, bridge length, year of construction), but that environmental factors also exert an equivalent impact. Therefore, considering environmental factors that can influence deterioration is expected to aid the development of more efficient and effective bridge maintenance plans. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilient Bridge Infrastructures)
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17 pages, 2609 KiB  
Article
Developing Bridge Deterioration Models Using an Artificial Neural Network
by Essam Althaqafi and Eddie Chou
Infrastructures 2022, 7(8), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures7080101 - 31 Jul 2022
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3329
Abstract
The condition of a bridge is critical in quality evaluations and justifying the significant costs incurred by maintaining and repairing bridge infrastructures. Using bridge management systems, the department of transportation in the United States is currently supervising the construction and renovations of thousands [...] Read more.
The condition of a bridge is critical in quality evaluations and justifying the significant costs incurred by maintaining and repairing bridge infrastructures. Using bridge management systems, the department of transportation in the United States is currently supervising the construction and renovations of thousands of bridges. The inability to obtain funding for the current infrastructures, such that they comply with the requirements identified as part of maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R), makes such bridge management systems critical. Bridge management systems facilitate decision making about handling bridge deterioration using an efficient model that accurately predicts bridge condition ratings. The accuracy of this model can facilitate MR&R planning and is used to confirm funds allocated to repair and maintain the bridge network management system. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) model is developed to improve the bridge management system (BMS) by improving the prediction accuracy of the deterioration of bridge decks, superstructures, and substructures. A large dataset of historical bridge condition assessment data was used to train and test the proposed ANN models for the deck, superstructure, and substructure components, and the accuracy of these models was 90%, 90%, and 89% on the testing set, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilient Bridge Infrastructures)
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25 pages, 4287 KiB  
Article
The Italian Guidelines on Risk Classification and Management of Bridges: Applications and Remarks on Large Scale Risk Assessments
by Giuseppe Santarsiero, Angelo Masi, Valentina Picciano and Andrea Digrisolo
Infrastructures 2021, 6(8), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures6080111 - 9 Aug 2021
Cited by 73 | Viewed by 6804
Abstract
Bridges are essential for guaranteeing the functioning of transportation systems since their failure can cause serious threats to the safety, well-being and economy of modern communities, especially in emergency conditions. Following recent bridge failures, among which include the Morandi bridge in 2018, specific [...] Read more.
Bridges are essential for guaranteeing the functioning of transportation systems since their failure can cause serious threats to the safety, well-being and economy of modern communities, especially in emergency conditions. Following recent bridge failures, among which include the Morandi bridge in 2018, specific guidelines on risk classification and management, safety assessment and monitoring of existing bridges have been issued in Italy by the Minister of Infrastructure as a mandatory code. They pay particular attention to the evaluation of the residual life span of critical transportation infrastructure dating back to the 1950s and 1960s of the last century. Being a newly issued tool, the Guidelines need to be applied and tested in order to find possible drawbacks and to point out the main factors influencing their results. Therefore, in this study, after a short description of the Italian Guidelines, pointing out some differences with other approaches adopted worldwide, some advantages and disadvantages are discussed by an application to a bridge stock located in the Basilicata region (Italy). Data needed to apply the Guidelines are gathered by a purposely set up procedure that exploits existing databases on road infrastructure (OpenStreetMap) complemented by additional data retrieved by means of public image repositories (Google Street View). By accounting for the qualitative nature of the risk classification results obtained by applying the lower analysis levels of the Guidelines, a prioritization method is proposed for ranking bridges for higher assessment levels and possible interventions, as well as consequent funds allocation. The application shows that the Guidelines’ approach tends to provide conservative results. In fact, even in case of bridges with low degradation levels, the final risk classification induces actions undertaken for preliminary or detailed assessment; thus, normal operation (with periodic inspections) would not be possible anymore. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilient Bridge Infrastructures)
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24 pages, 9309 KiB  
Article
Digital Image Correlation for Evaluation of Cracks in Reinforced Concrete Bridge Slabs
by Christian Overgaard Christensen, Jacob Wittrup Schmidt, Philip Skov Halding, Medha Kapoor and Per Goltermann
Infrastructures 2021, 6(7), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures6070099 - 7 Jul 2021
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3624
Abstract
In proof-loading of concrete slab bridges, advanced monitoring methods are required for identification of stop criteria. In this study, Two-Dimensional Digital Image Correlation (2D DIC) is investigated as one of the governing measurement methods for crack detection and evaluation. The investigations are deemed [...] Read more.
In proof-loading of concrete slab bridges, advanced monitoring methods are required for identification of stop criteria. In this study, Two-Dimensional Digital Image Correlation (2D DIC) is investigated as one of the governing measurement methods for crack detection and evaluation. The investigations are deemed to provide valuable information about DIC capabilities under different environmental conditions and to evaluate the capabilities in relation to stop criterion verifications. Three Overturned T-beam (OT) Reinforced Concrete (RC) slabs are used for the assessment. Of these, two are in situ strips (0.55 × 3.6 × 9.0 m) cut from a full-scale OT-slab bridge with a span of 9 m and one is a downscaled slab tested under laboratory conditions (0.37 × 1.7 × 8.4 m). The 2D DIC results includes full-field plots, investigation of the time of crack detection and monitoring of crack widths. Grey-level transformation was used for the in situ tests to ensure sufficient readability and results comparable to the laboratory test. Crack initiation for the laboratory test (with speckle pattern) and in situ tests (plain concrete surface) were detected at intervals of approximately 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm and 0.2 mm to 0.3 mm, respectively. Consequently, the paper evaluates a more qualitative approach to DIC test results, where crack indications and crack detection can be used as a stop criterion. It was furthermore identified that crack initiation was reached at high load levels, implying the importance of a target load. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilient Bridge Infrastructures)
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23 pages, 8254 KiB  
Article
Parametric Study on the Applicability of AASHTO LRFD for Simply Supported Reinforced Concrete Skewed Slab Bridges
by Lucía Moya and Eva O. L. Lantsoght
Infrastructures 2021, 6(6), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures6060088 - 16 Jun 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4527
Abstract
Simplified code provisions can be used for the analysis and design of straight slab bridges. However, several studies question the appropriateness of simplified procedures for skewed geometries. This paper provides practical insights to the designer regarding the effects of skewness in reinforced concrete [...] Read more.
Simplified code provisions can be used for the analysis and design of straight slab bridges. However, several studies question the appropriateness of simplified procedures for skewed geometries. This paper provides practical insights to the designer regarding the effects of skewness in reinforced concrete slab bridges by evaluating how simplified and more refined analysis procedures impact the design magnitudes and resulting reinforcement layouts. The methods used for this study are analytical and numerical case studies. Eighty case study slab bridges with varying lengths, widths, and skew angles are subjected to the AASHTO HL-93 loading. Then, the governing moments and shear forces are determined using the AASHTO LRFD simplified procedures with hand calculations, and using linear finite element analysis (LFEA). Afterwards, the reinforcement is designed according to the AASHTO LRFD design provisions. From these case studies, it is found through the LFEA that increasing skew angles result in decreasing amounts of longitudinal reinforcement and increasing amounts of transverse flexural reinforcement. Comparing the reinforcement layouts using AASHTO LRFD-based hand calculations and LFEA, we find that using LFEA reduces the total weight of steel reinforcement needed. Moreover, as the skew increases, LFEA captures increased shear forces at the obtuse corner that AASHTO LRFD does not. In conclusion, it is preferable to design the reinforcement of skewed reinforced concrete slab bridges using LFEA instead of hand calculations based on AASHTO LRFD for cost reduction and safety in terms of shear resistance in the obtuse corners. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilient Bridge Infrastructures)
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