Thomas Braml

Assessment of Damaged Concrete Bridges Based on a Visual Inspection

Regular bridge inspection is of great importance for the reliable use of the traffic infrastructure. This paper describes and explains a method which supports the engineers in the assessment of damaged bridges during or directly after the inspection. Based on this initial estimate, an urgent measure – i.e. lower permitted bridge class – can be carried out before more detailed inspections and calculations are done. The reliability analyses for the damaged bridges are carried out using first order and second order reliability methods (FORM and SORM). The probability of failure Pf or the safety index β of the system, respectively are the main results of the calculation procedure.

Evaluating Existing Post-Tensioned Concrete Bridges Equipped with Prestressing Steel Susceptible to Stress Corrosion Cracking

Due to extending lifetime of infrastructure in general and post-tensioned concrete bridges in particular the importance of durability aspects increases. Especially older prestressed bridges built in the 1960s and 1970s in Germany are subject of these investigations. Some of these posttensioned concrete bridges used tension wires with high susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking as we know nowadays. This paper deals with recalculation and evaluating methods for posttensioned concrete bridges including reliability analysis for endangered bridges. The procedure is shown exemplarily at an existing multi girder bridge.

Structural Reliability Assessment for Existing Composite Bridges without Design Documents

This paper will discuss the load carrying capacity of existing bridges while serving in military missions abroad. A system to classify bridges has been developed. The assessment systems work on two different levels. Level 1 is a quick assessment of the geometric input values and Level 2 requires additional material properties to determine structural analysis. If the generated military load class from the assessment is insufficient, a more accurate classification based on structural analysis will be performed.