Bridge Diseases And Failures

Bridges, being one of the most vital organs in transportation, might suffer from many kinds of deficiencies and diseases during either the construction process and/or service life. These phenomenons will affect the bridge performance and cause damages to the main structure which sometimes lead to the collapse of the bridge structure. Bridge diseases might be caused by many different factors.In this thesis, reinforced concrete bridge and steel bridge were summarized and analyzed. Reinforced concrete bridges could be classified into four categories which are beam bridge, arch bridge, cable stayed bridge and suspension bridge. As for steel bridges, the diseases can be classified into different kinds, which the important ones are fatigue and brittle failure, corrosion, buckling and mechanical failure.Nowadays, bridge structures have become one of the lifelines in modern civilization. The collapse of a bridge would be able to paralyze the whole traffic in that area which is a major disaster in modern civilization.In this thesis, the failures of the bridge are classified into human and natural factor, which the natural factor will be given a major attention.Looking back on how the bridge techniques were developing, it can be seen that the development was based mainly on confronting bridge diseases and accidents. The 21st century will be the peak for maintaining the built bridges, therefore it is very important to study the cause of bridge disease. If only it is fully understand and there is such kind of system to confront disease and disaster on the bridge, it would be possible to establish reasonable and effective, alternative in the bridge service and maintenance.Therefore, accurate analysis and study on bridge disease cause, different kind of bridges and their diseases, and disaster characteristics would have economical value and benefit in the society.