Papers at IABMAS 2016

This year, I did not have the chance to travel to IABMAS. However, my former student Ms. Flores-Valverde traveled to IABMAS to present her thesis work as well as the paper of myself and my coauthors.

The abstract of her paper was:

An analysis and visual inspection is presented of the bridge “Quebrada de Tambura”, this study emphasizes on the visual inspection of the bridge, the elements taken into consideration for the assessment, and the relevant failure modes that can be identified throughout the process, leading to a recommendation for maintenance. In addition, CSI Bridge software is used for a case study of the bridge “Quebrada de Tambura” located in Imbabura province in Ecuador, and where possible causes for the identified failure modes are in-cluded in the model, such as settlements. Finally, the processed and analyzed information was used for the proposal for maintenance on the bridge, including the underpinning of piles and foundations, and the use of carbon fibers (CFRP) in shear-critical beams calculated by the Sika program.

The abstract of my paper was:

In August 2014, the Ruytenschildt Bridge, a reinforced concrete solid slab bridge, in Friesland, the Netherlands was tested until failure. One of the goals of the experiment is to analyze the failure mode of the slab bridge under a tandem of 4 wheel loads and to compare the capacity of the full bridge structure to the predicted results, to have an idea of the residual strength of existing bridges. The methods used are experi-mental (testing of the bridge to failure in two of its five spans) and analytical. The analytical work involved predicting the bending moment capacity, the shear capacity and the punching capacity of the bridge. In both spans, the bridge failed in flexure. The total capacity during the experiment was significantly higher than pre-dicted. The results indicate that the traditional rating procedures for shear are very conservative when applied to slab bridges that benefit from transverse load redistribution.

Here are the slides of my paper: