Ⅷ-12 Maintenance of Steel

Bridges

Mr. Jun MURAKOSHI

Team Leader,
Bridge Structure Team,
Structures Research Group,
Public Works Research Institute
Maintenance of Steel Bridges

Jun MURAKOSHI
Bridge Team, PWRI

Contents of presentation

■Major Damage of Steel bridges and

Countermeasures
- Corrosion of Steel member
- Fatigue） of RC deck
- Fatigue crack of steel member

■Current R/D at PWRI

1
 Bridge type
Others Recent trend of steel bridges
4% (5,461)
Others
13% (47)

Steel Bridge I-girder

Prestressed Steel
39% (56,136)
Concrete Bridge Bridge 51% (1,242)
39% (55,222) Box-girder
36% (131)

Reinforced
Concrete Bridge
18% (25,702) Fewer plate girder
9% (223)
（Length >30m as in 2000 ～ 2003）
Bridge number by bridge type
（Length >15m as of 2002.4） http://www.jasbc.or.jp/kyoryodb/index.cgi

Number of bridge by year of construction

30,000

The others
25,000
PC bridges
Number of bridges

20,000
RC bridges
15,000 Steel bridges

10,000

5,000

0
1991～95
1971～75

1976～80

1981～85

1986～90
1966～70
1926～30

1946～50
1941～45

1951～55

1956～60

1961～65
1931～35

1936～40

1996～2000

Length >15m as of 2002.4

2
 Major causes of replacement of
steel bridges (1986-1995)
・Most are functional problem so far.
・About 12% is Deterioration of superstructure.
⇒ Deterioration of concrete deck, Corrosion of steel members
(Importance of preventive maintenance)
Damage of
Others Others
EQ resistance （2.8%） superstructure
（1.7%） （12.1%） （6.8%）

Damage
of substructure Corrosion
（1.5%） （26.0%）
Load capacity
Improving Road （67.2%）
Alignment（45.9%）
Fatigue of Concrete Decks
Improving Road Width
（67.2%）
（31.5%）

603 bridges 73 bridges

Deterioration factor
-Corrosive environment-
Severe geographical feature Splashed in Winter
・Long & slender country, Airborne salts
coastal area, mountainous area
・Much rain, Seasonal wind in winter,
Typhoon
・About 60% area is snowy and cold
etc.

De-icing salts
use

3
 Deterioration factor
-Traffic Conditions-
Heavy traffic in urban area

Heavy truck

Corrosion of steel bridge

Corrosion of girders Corrosion protection

4
 Corrosion prevention method
Measures Mechanism In case of deterioration

Painting Protection by paint Repainting

Weathering Protective rust layer Repair with painting

steel
Hot dip Protective layers by Repair with painting
galvanizing zinc and alloys, and
Sacrificial protection
Metal spray Spray deposit and Repair with painting
Sacrificial protection by
zinc-aluminum pseudo-
alloys

Weathering steel highway bridge

5
 Classification of environment
for weathering steel bridge
Area category Area where W/S can be used
(Minor effect of airborne salt)
Japan Sea Coast Ⅰ Areas over 20 km from coast
Ⅱ Areas over 5 km
Pacific Ocean Coast Areas over 2 km
Seto Inland Sea Coast Areas over 1 km Japan Sea Coast Ⅰ
Okinawa Island NA
(where the amount of airborne salt
is less than 0.05 mg/dm2/day）
Japan Sea Coast Ⅱ

Pacific Ocean Coast

Seto Inland Sea

Okinawa

Prevention of corrosion
Manual for painting and corrosion protections
for steel highway bridges

・Revised in 2005
to reduce LCC for prevention of corrosion

・Contents of the revised manual

Part 1: General
Part 2: Painting
Part 3: Weathering steels
Part 4: Hot dip galvanizing
Part 5: Metal spray

6
 Corrosion of girder end
Stiffener
・Rain water leakage from road surface
through expansion joint
・Corrosive environment (Humid, stuffy )
Web

Loss of
thickness Deformation

33 mm

Buckling caused by section loss

Corrosion of girder end

Corroded area was cut

and replaced with new
steel members.

7
 Corrosion of through truss
Corrosion in upper chord

Upside
down

Corrosion in lower chord

Corrosion of inside of box girder

Accumulation of
dropping of birds

Corrosion by stagnant water

8
 Current research theme

■Repair method for prevention system of corrosion

(New material Team)
・Repair methods for
-corroded weathering steel bridges,
-hot dip galvanized bridges,
-metal sprayed bridges

■Retrofit method of severe corrosion at girder ends

of steel bridge (Bridge Team)
・Selection of repair methods
・Effectiveness of repair method by bolted connection plate for corrosion
members

Damage of reinforced concrete deck

Transverse direction crack Cracks in a grid pattern

Falling of concrete
portions

9
 Damage of road surface

Fatigue of concrete deck

„Concrete deck is subjected to traffic load
⇒Cracks, Dropping of concrete portion

・Improvement of durability
(Revision of design code several times)
・Increase of thickness
・Increase of design moment
・Increase of amount of rebars
・Waterproofing of deck surface, etc.

・Fatigue Evaluation by wheel running test

10
 Wheel Running Machine
Load
Deck

Deformation

Cracking
on the
bottom

床版
Deck

主桁
Girider

Major Research Issues:

- To establish evaluation method for durability of concrete decks
- To evaluate effectiveness of repair methods for concrete decks
- To evaluate durability of newly developed bridge decks

S-N curve by wheel running test

Loading / Static punching shear resistance

Dry

1973 Spec

1964 Spec Wet

103 104 105 106 107

Cycles to failure
Provided by Prof S. Matsui et al., Osaka Univ.

11
 Deterioration process of RC deck

①Initial cracks ②Formation of grid

due to shrinkage cracks due to truck
causes tranvese wheel loading
cracks

⇒Improvement of flexure
CFRP Sheet bonding,
③Increase of grid ⑤Punching shear Steel plate bonding, etc.
crack density. failure (concrete
Occurrence of dropping)
penetrating cracks
(Water leak and
free lime)

④Decrease of
punching shear ⇒Improvement of shear resistance
strength ⇒Reconstruction
Increase of thickness of deck from
upper and/or lower side, etc.

Bridge deck strengthened by CF sheets

12
 Bridge deck strengthened by CF sheets

Crack monitoring
is available.

Draining leakage water out to prevent

the sheets from disbonding

Bridge deck strengthened

by increasing deck thickness with SFRC

13
 Bridge deck strengthened
by increasing deck thickness with SFRCSFRC

Before repair After repair

Deck was
overlaid
by SFRC.

Asphalt and
SFRC
upper concrete
cover Existing
was removed. concrete

Replacing concrete deck

by using steel forms

14
 Replacing concrete deck
by using precast composite panels
Next lane was
already replaced.

Old deck was removed.

One of new panel

After
replacing

Fatigue of steel bridge

Major factors of fatigue damage

・Heavy truck traffic

・Design
-Improper structural detail
(Low fatigue resistance)
-Secondary stress
(Analytical model vs. Actual bridge)

・Fabrication
-Welding quality, welding defects

15
Fatigue crack at hinges of
cantilever through truss

Strengthened by bolted
stiffened steel member

Fatigue crack at
weld of sole plate

16
 Fatigue crack at
weld of sole plate

・Replace bearing
・Replace with extended sole plate
・Strengthened by bolted stiffened
steel member

Fatigue cracks of steel piers

at beam to column connection

Crack

17
 Fatigue cracks of steel piers
at beam to column connection

Cracks

脚上面溶接部

60 30
用
賀

5
用賀側 1

■Intersection of 3 Weld line : prone to weld defect

(Internal un-welded zone, Weld crack in high constraint region)
■Beam to column connection
(Geometrical stress concentration)

Retrofit -plate stiffening-

• Reduction of Live load stress
• Support the beam in case of
brittle failure
• Compensation for section loss
due to stiffening plate

18
Fatigue cracks of orthotropic steel deck
cross girder

trough rib

transverse rib

Welded thin(12mm) steel plate

Direct wheel load

Complicated plate bending

Stress concentration

Fatigue damage

Fatigue cracks of orthotropic steel deck

U-rib

Transverse rib

19
 Current Research Theme

„ Retrofit method for fatigue damage of

orthotropic steel deck
・Replace asphalt pavement with SFRC
・Strengthened by bolted splice plate

20