Project C19.2020 Summary:
Many Bridges failed during flooding events due to bridge scour or waterborne debris impacts or their combinations. It is essential to evaluate the risk of bridge failures before flooding and make predictive management to ensure the safety of the bridge. The present study is proposed by an interdisciplinary team, and the goal is to establish a systematic framework to apply analytical, computational, and experimental techniques to evaluate these effects on future life of bridges. Surveys, literature reviews, and simulations are also performed to evaluate possible methods to reduce the damages from scours and debris impacts. After collecting information on flooding damages to bridges and failures due to bridge scour and waterborne debris effects, the team will collect existing flooding, scour and waterborne debris related data in the New England region including historical flood data from different measuring stations, such as those from NOAA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Field monitoring will be implemented on-site to measure water speed, water level, scour depth, as well as displacements and accelerations of bridge components to evaluate scour effects. Statistical analysis will be performed to assess the probability of failure of the bridges using flood data. Data-driven approaches as well as vehicle-bridge-scour-debris interaction based numerical simulations will be implemented to find correlations between the key flooding and scour parameters and the structural responses (displacements and accelerations). The time-variant bridge system model will be updated, as well to consider deterioration and scour damages. Resilience options will be evaluated, as well.
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Wei Zhang, P.E.
Institution:
University of Connecticut
Co-PIs:
Dr. Ramesh Malla
Dr. Nalini Ravishanker
Project Type:
Competitive-Funded Research
Start Date:
10/1/2020
Project Cost:
$400,043
Project Status:
In Progress
End Date:
9/30/2023
Agency ID:
69A3551847101
Sponsors:
University Transportation Centers Program, Department of Transportation
University of Connecticut
Implementation of Research Outcomes:
Our project is in the preliminary stage. We worked on a new risk based framework to quantify the debris generated from weather events for bridges. Tree conditions, river and flow conditions and precipitation information were included in the analysis to predict debris dimensions and sizes.
Impacts and Benefits of Implementation:
This project is in its initial research phase. Impacts and benefits of the research will be reported after the implementation phase.
Related Links:
www.dm2l.uconn.edu
Recent project related publications of interest:
Ma, X., Zhang, W. (2021). “Evaluating Tsunami Damage of Wood Residential Buildings in a Coastal Community Considering Waterborne Debris from Buildings”, Engineering Structures, Volume 244, 1 October 2021, 112761.
Ma, X., Zhang, W. (2020) “Fatigue Life of Weldment Details of Existing Orthotropic Steel Bridge Considering the Scour Effects”, ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, 25(10). October 2020 https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0001612
Anagnostou, E., & Zhang, W. (2017). Resiliency Analysis of Storm Surge for Interstate 95 Right-of-Way at Long Wharf / New Haven, CT. Report Number:
CT-2299-F-17-3.
Malla, R. B., Jacobs, D., Dhakal, S., and Baniya, S., “Dynamic Impact Factors on Existing Long-span Railroad Bridges,” Rail Safety Project – 25 Final Report, Transportation Research Board, Washington D.C., Feb. 2017, 40 pages.
Serhiyenko, V., Mamun, S. A., Ivan, J. N. and Ravishanker, N. (2016). Fast Bayesian Inference for Modeling Multivariate Crash Counts on Connecticut Limited Access Highways, Analytic Methods in Accident Research, 9, 44-53.
Ray, B. K., Liu, Z., and Ravishanker, N. (2006). Dynamic Reliability Models
for Software using Time-dependent Covariates. Technometrics 1, 1-10
Downloadable Documents
Printable Project Information Sheet
June 2021 Quarterly Progress Report
September 2021 Quarterly Progress Report
December 2021 Quarterly Progress Report