Editorial
This issue is a collection bridge design enables slender superstructures and com-
of scientific contributions
from three countries, Ger-
many, Japan and the USA,
and is dedicated to Prof. Dr.
Eng. Akimitsu Kurita, Osaka
Institute of Technology, for
his excellence in scientific
work and his dedication in
mentoring and teaching.
Eight scientific articles focus
on topics with current re-
search demand, addressing innovative design, life cycle
assessment and management of steel and steel-concrete
composites structures.
The first paper deals with an unanswered question in
fire safety design, i.e. the ability to identify efficiently the
governing failure mode of a bridge subjected to severe fire
loading and ranking the regions of the structure with the
greatest fire exposure risk.
The second paper fills a gap in the current Eurocode
4. For specific composite column types, the general de-
sign method, as it is proposed, gives no guidance on the
verification of the required level of safety. The study in-
troduced here provides clarity and a solution in this re-
spect.
The third paper links sustainability and structural de-
sign undertaken in the preliminary design phase in the
form of an efficient automated methodology that targets
optimization in the preliminary structural design of
steel-concrete composite buildings.
The fourth paper provides an overview of the design
of composite bridges with integral abutments. This type of
Ernst & Sohn Verlag fr Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin Steel Construction 10 (2017), No.1
bines advantages with respect to production, maintenance
and economic and socio-economic costs.
The fifth paper introduces a new method for detecting
small-scale internal defects in composites. The method al-
lows the level of integrity of structural components with
complicated geometry to be quantified within seconds of
response time.
The sixth paper introduces a new dynamic amplifica-
tion factor for evaluating vehicle dynamic effects for the
life cycle fatigue design of short-span bridges taking into
account environmental effects.
The seventh paper focuses on the phenomenon of
concrete early-age shrinkage effects in steel-concrete com-
posite structures. The objective was to develop an efficient
analysis method coupling physical monitoring with numer-
ical simulation.
The eighth paper describes a method that increases
the longevity of metal components. Experimental tests and
numerical analyses were conducted in order to shed light
on the effectiveness of high-frequency peening processes.
I hope you enjoy reading the contributions as much as
I did.
Dr.-Ing. habil. Marcus P. Rutner, Associate Professor
Stevens Institute of Technology, USA
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