| Summary: |
Presently, the prefabrication industry does not exploit the potentialities offered by materials of the
types HPFRC and UHPFRC. This Project aims at conceiving new products for railway bridge
decks, taking full benefit of the potentialities offered by these materials. HPFRC will be used to
conceive and develop precast pretensioned girders without ordinary reinforcement in the general
area of the girder and coupling beams in the modular system of the bent-type frame. UHPFRC
will be used to conceive innovative connection solutions between precast elements, thus obtaining
proper structural behaviour and high durability without continuity post-tensioning applied in-situ.
Small and medium span structures (up to 30m) are envisaged in this Project. Besides that, a
system of precast planks (effective in service) will be developed for railway bridge decks, suitable
for the new girders, as well as segmented columns and their continuity connections. In order to
reach these objectives, the Project comprehends tasks devoted to conceptual design, computational
analyses, safety verifications considering all the relevant limit states and laboratorial works. The
laboratorial tasks will allow defining the material compositions, characterizing the material properties,
validating the structural performance of the new products and supporting the development of design
criteria. The Project team gathers all the required competencies to reach the Project objectives. The
leader (Mota-Engil Engenharia e Construção, MEEC) has a vast experience in construction and
rehabilitation of railway structures and in concrete prefabrication. The second partner (Faculdade
de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, FEUP) gathers scientific and technical competencies in all the Project domains, as well as laboratorial infrastructures which are essential for the Project
development. |