STRUCTURES SEMINAR
Sponsored by:
Department of Architectural
Engineering
Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering
Department
of Mechanical Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University
“Advanced Methodologies for
Bridge Design”
by
Professor of Structural
Engineering
University of La Coruna, Spain
Bridges
are an important tipology in structural engineering. To cross over
topographical obstacles short, medium or long span bridges are designed to
solve the problem posed to engineer. In this talk, two applications to bridge
design for two different classes of problems will be presented. First, a
computer software devoted to minimize prestressing forces in precast concrete
beams, used in deck bridges of short or medium span length, will be described.
Then, the subject of cable supported bridges with long span subjected to wind
loads will be considered. It is very well known that the bad design of the
Tacoma Narrows against this type of load led to the failure of that structure
in year 1940. During the lecture, the current methodologies for dealing with
aeroelastic response of long span bridges will be reviewed and a computer
animation showing the deformation of a digital model of a long span bridge will
be presented.