Assessment of bridges in aggressive maritime environment

Abstract

<p>Research on development of assessment procedures for existing bridges exposed to wind load will be presented in this paper. Both linear and the nonlinear methods are used and a probabilistic model of wind load is developed. The results were evaluated following the demands defined by current European design codes and specific location conditions. This procedure is validated by its application to major Adriatic arch bridges with spans ranging from 200 m to almost 400 m as a part of an extensive project to develop their appropriate maintenance strategy.</p>

Balance of nature and engineering requirements on existing arch bridges

“…Three steps of the limit state evaluation of the arches exposed to wind load are developed [2]. In the first step analysis, using geometrical non-linearity for elements under compression only, was performed.…”

“…In order to sustain the equilibrium between the nature (wind load in some specific locations of Croatian coast, with its turbulent action together with local terrain shape, exceeds the maximum reference wind velocity of 35-40 m /s and almost all parts of Croatia are regions of high seismicity) and requirements on concrete structures based on contemporary standards, research on development of assessment procedures for existing arch bridges exposed to wind load and located in seismic active areas is developing through last few years [1,2,3].…”