Welcome to our first issue of Bridge Engineering for 2023. As a profession, we are often faced with unique challenges requiring bespoke solutions to ensure that we provide robust and resilient infrastructure that can be used without undue cost and disruption to the travelling public. In this issue, we have five papers that highlight these unique challenges from authors from four different international locations.
In our first paper in this issue, Nagatani et al. (2023) present an experimental study that focusses on repair of reinforced-concrete bridge decks in Japan. The study was initiated by a seemingly common problem of the breakdown of the top of the concrete road deck under repeated traffic in addition to durability issues. The authors present the findings of a targeted experimental study assessing the effectiveness of repair methods to remediate bridge decks that suffer this problem.
Zhuang et al. (2023) present their work on determining the remaining service life of supporting elements of a concrete box girder bridge that was damaged from ship impact in China. This study presents not only an interesting piece of remediation for the substantial impact damage, but also presents a detailed description of a first principles approach to estimating the remaining service life of a structure.
In our third paper, Kumbhojkar et al. (2023) present their results of study reviewing benefits and disbenefits of integral and non-integral bridges under seismic loading. The study reviews a significant number of earthquakes used for time history analysis. Using their example bridge decks, they conclude that either may be a preference depending on the desired outcome after an earthquake.
On the theme of seismic of integral bridges, Abdel-Fattah and Abdel-Fattah (2023a) present a study on the longitudinal response of integral bridges under seismic loading. Their study highlights the importance of considering structural mass, damping ratio and stiffness as one normally would, with the stiffness of backfill material for the seismic response of integral bridges. The conclusions also give some useful ideas on how to limit action effects in structural elements under seismic actions.
Abdel-Fattah and Abdel-Fattah (2023b) also provide us with our final paper of this issue. This paper undertakes a study into the effect of the geometry of a pylon on the response of a cable-stayed bridge to a sudden loss of a cable. Their study assesses two different pylon configurations using time history analysis for sudden loss of cable and presents changes in cable forces, reactions and deflections.
I hope the readership find these papers as interesting and informative as I have in editing this journal. We would encourage readers to submit discussion pieces on these articles through the regular channel. We also would encourage the entire readership to share their experiences in the profession by way of submitting an article to the journal in our regular editions.
