Industrial Bridge Engineering -Structural developments for more efficient bridge construction

Doctoral thesis, 2008

In recent years, growing concern about the deficiencies and lack of efficiency in the construction industry has highlighted the need of research in order to make substantial improvements, rectify incongruities and succeed in progressive development. For bridges, the advantages that can be expected from an industrial construction process are especially interesting. The multidisciplinary research presented in this thesis investigates different means of creating an industrial process for bridge construction while emphasising the vast importance of structural engineering in combination with industrial issues, i.e. industrial bridge engineering. Applications of new or approved techniques, materials technology and developments, methods of design and analysis, as well as construction methods are important areas that have been considered. The increasing utilisation of information and communication technology (ICT), along with more advanced computer-based analysis and simulation methods, are contemporary trends. Seemingly, an important key to the successful construction concepts of tomorrow is to combine these factors into an efficient industrial process. One objective in the presented work has been to establish the foundations for attaining such a new process – basically through analysis of the current bridge construction process – as well as to determine the required improvements needed to provide a framework for a new industrial process. Deficiencies in the traditional bridge construction process have been recognised, as have the underlying driving forces of change. Three cornerstones of industrial bridge construction have been identified – process development, product development and productivity development – and technical necessities have been investigated. Furthermore, a study of an innovative jointing technology for connections between prefabricated concrete elements in bridges has been conducted. The aim has been to design a joint that makes the surrounding elements continuous, but still a very small joint that is easy and fast to perform, and thus highly suitable for use in industrial bridge concepts. In addition, a feasibility study of a novel industrial bridge concept has been undertaken. The concept embraces ultra-high-performance steel-fibre-reinforced concrete in composite action with fibre-reinforced polymers. Several laboratory tests and finite element analyses have been conducted. The main focus has been to investigate new or approved techniques from a design viewpoint as a continuation of recent materials developments, while also considering industrial aspects and construction characteristics such as production methods, assembly, etc.