| Abstract [eng] |
Recently, Lithuania and other European countries have got an increased interest in the safety assessment of reinforced concrete bridges. Bridges of old construction are designed for a much lower total weight of heavy vehicles and their much lower traffic flows. Due to defects during bridge operation, changing dynamic factors and occurring overloads, a load-carrying capacity of bridges has decreased, their service life has shortened. The Master’s Thesis gives an overview of reinforced concrete bridge condition in Lithuania, the main defects and damages, and their possible causes (concrete carbonation, reinforcement corrosion, action of chlorides), introduces the reinforced concrete bridge safety factor calculation methodology used by the Slovenian bridge researchers. The bridge over the Kaunas HE has been selected as the object of analysis. During the research the main inspection was carried out, also static and dynamic tests and laboratory investigations of concrete span structure. The effect of reinforcement corrosion on stiffness and deformability of the span structure was determined. For bridge research the reinforced concrete bridge safety factor calculation method, suggested by the Slovenian scientists, was used to evaluate the general condition of bridge structure, the effect of dead loads and moving loads, the flows of heavy vehicles and the influence of dynamic loads on bridge structure. The obtained experimental results were compared with the theoretical results. The conclusions are given at the end of the Thesis. The thesis size: 81 pages, 46 pictures, 35 tables, 29 formulas, 29 literature sources. |
