Recent Advances in Bridge Engineering

[lamkin]

Recent Advances in Bridge Engineering

Book Review: Recent Advances in Bridge Engineering (1)

Aftab Mufti, Badiar Bakht, Leslie Jaeger

This text book is perhaps unusual in that I found it enjoyable to read. It is unusual in other respects, too, as will be described. The authors' intended readership is "their fellow engineers, especially in Asian countries" and it is also intended to be of assistance in teaching post-graduate studies.

In fact, the contents of the book provide advances in bridge engineering that likely do not appear in coherent book form elsewhere, and at least some of the topics should be useful to many bridge engineers. The authors write with authority, as they have direct personal experience with all of the subjects covered, either as researchers or as practicing engineers. The book is well written about important subject matter for bridge engineers.

The book does not attempt to cover all aspects of bridge engineering. Instead it covers, as the title suggests, recent advances in certain important areas typically not found in other publications, advances that were very much driven by Canadian engineers.

One major subject is the design of steel-free decks. It is now known that conventional concrete decks with steel reinforcing often sustain damage caused by corrosion of the steel bars. Deck replacement is expensive, even discounting the very real societal cost caused by traffic delays during renovation. However, the situation is worsening because unlike earlier bridges, the concrete deck is often an integral part of the bridge, such as the top flange of a main load-carrying member, as in a post-tensioned concrete box girder. The possibility of using non-corroding fibre-reinforced polymers instead of steel is an attractive alternative, so far not well understood by the profession. The subject is well covered in Chapter 8.

The first chapter explains how bridge design codes are written, with particular reference to determining design live loads and load factors. While few engineers are routinely engaged in this activity (except for the target part of the readership that is developing bridge design codes in Asia), it is often useful to understand why the code is written the way it is so that when situations occur that are not directly covered by the bridge design codes, some guidance is available.

Chapter 2 is on Analysis by Manual Calculation. But surely all analysis these days is performed by computer? Perhaps, but a reality check by manual methods can often provide a very useful review.

Chapter 3 covers Analysis by Computer. The ideas are good, but I suspect that any writing on this subject will be the first to experience obsolescence.

The fourth chapter is a comprehensive treatment of Arching Action in Deck Slabs. The discovery that the ubiquitous concrete bridge deck actually resists loads by arching action rather than by bending, and the ramifications of this behaviour in terms of both potential economy and the need to revise design methods, are major developments in bridge engineering pioneered by Canadian engineers, including the authors. All bridge engineers should understand this topic.

Cantilever Slabs, which do not act by arching, are covered in Chapter 5.

Chapter 6 provides good ideas and practical information from the authors' experience. Although few wood bridges are constructed these days, there are still a number in service or in remote areas that can usefully have their lives extended.

For relatively short spans, soil-steel structures can be much more economical than conventional beam-and-column bridges, and Chapter 7 is a useful guide to the design and construction of such structures.

Chapter 9 on Structural Health Monitoring is not an esoteric dissertation on instrumentation, but a pragmatic review of what can be gained from some generally fairly simple sets of load tests and measurements, and why such testing is of value.

Chapter 10 provides some thought-provoking ideas on Bridge Aesthetics. There are no recipes, but there is an invitation to raise consciousness of beauty and the contribution of a bridge to the aesthetics of its environment.

Finally, Chapter 11 gives an introduction to Computer Graphics.

All-in-all, it is a book that should be in any bridge engineers' library.

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