Understanding and Reevaluating Fracture Critical - Part 3, An Approach to System Analysis [B8]

The current criteria that bridge designers and owners use for determining the fracture critical status of a steel bridge design are fundamentally based on assessing redundancy of the structure and its resistance to failure. However, there are no clear, concise, generally accepted, science-based methods of determining structural redundancy in a bridge structure and no consensus agreement of failure.

Part 3 of this series will look at research into and practical approaches to system analysis of two girder bridges. Part of the discussion will include how one can define a ""family"" of bridges and what detailing strategies can be applied to resolve the question of structural redundancy. Also included will be an introduction to the Proposed Guide Specifications for system analysis developed as part of NCHRP 12-87a and Proposed Guide Specifications for Evaluating Member Level Redundancy.

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