Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Advancing Transportation Infrastructure Resilience Through Transportation Geotechnique: Optimizing Design, Monitoring and Maintenance Strategies for Enhanced Bridge Performance
Abstract
This research explores methods to enhance the performance, resilience, and maintenance practices of bridges in transportation infrastructure through numerical simulation, laboratory studies, and field investigations. First, the research evaluates the effectiveness of grade beam (GB) piles in minimizing settlements at bridge transition zones. By reducing the number of GB piles to 30-50% of the abutment piles, the differential settlement is still within the acceptable range, and construction costs are reduced by 47% Additionally, the interaction between the soil and geosynthetics is studied through pullout and direct shear box tests to evaluate the interface parameters. These parameters are used in a numerical study to evaluate the inclusion of the geosynthetic layers instead of GB piles on the transition zone. From the laboratory tests, a new model is proposed to better predict the bearing capacity of geosynthetic transverse ribs by accounting for the inclination effects the soil imposes on the ribs, and the results align well with the measurements. Also, the numerical study demonstrates the efficiency of geosynthetic reinforcement in reducing differential settlements at the bridge transition zone. The angular distortion in all modeled cases with geosynthetic reinforcement remains below the limit of 0.004 required by the FHWA. In addition, the construction cost is reduced by approximately 80% compared to the original design that includes GB piles. The study examines integral abutment bridges (IABs) that have become popular due to cost savings. These bridges lack expansion joints, causing intricate interactions between abutment and backfill soils during thermal movements. Field and numerical studies investigate the behavior of curved integral abutments under thermal loads and cyclic temperature changes, confirming the satisfactory performance of IABs. Lastly, the research explores using distributed fiber optics sensing as an early warning system to predict differential settlement in hard-to-access soil locations. The results show the ability of the fiber optic cable to measure the settlement efficiently.
Subject Area
Civil engineering|Geotechnology|Materials science|Transportation
Recommended Citation
Alhowaidi, Yusuf, "Advancing Transportation Infrastructure Resilience Through Transportation Geotechnique: Optimizing Design, Monitoring and Maintenance Strategies for Enhanced Bridge Performance" (2023). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI30572431.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI30572431