Strengthening design of a through tied arch bridge in Guangdong province

Applications of tied arch bridges at the beginning are that they break through restrictions on that requirements on pier, abutmemt and foundation are high for traditional arch bridges, at the same time they are handsome in appearance and long in span ability, as a result, many reinforced concrete tied arch bridges were built in China in the 1990s. However, the increasing in traffic volume and frequentation in overweight vehicles, which make more and more serious diseases for such bridges so that reinforcement measures must be taken. Mei Jiang Bridge is a through tied arch bridge, which was evaluated as a dangerous bridge through test. In order to retain its unique historical and cultural values, it was decided to adopt reinforcement measures to rebuild its beautiful shape and restore its using function after the project review and research demonstration of related experts. According to the bridge diseases described in the detection report, this paper discusses how to adopt mature reinforcement measures such as rebar-planting, section enlargement method, prestress strengthening and carbon fiber strengthening etc. to carry out reasonable and effective reinforcement design for Mei Jiang Bridge. Then a finite element model is established by MIDAS/Civil program to analyze and verify the reinforcement effect. Analysis results and practices show that the reinforce method is effective and the strengthening design could be provided as references for the similar bridges.