Bridge Aesthetics – Functional and Structural Needs versus Architectural Imagination

<p>Relations between structural form as well as service function of bridges and their aesthetics are analysed. Irrespective of their scale bridges always affect their surroundings or landscape. Therefore, they not only have an engineering and economic meaning but also a social and a cultural one. In some cases, especially older bridges have an additional symbolic or a historic meaning. Contemporary trends concerning bridge aesthetics are discussed. Commonly modern bridge structures ideas are controversial – their forms often seem to be more important than their service function and classical aesthetic principles are rather rarely observed. Presented problems are exemplified by bridge structures in Poland and in other countries. Conclusions concerning the relations between the bridge aesthetics and bridge function are formulated. Some remarks on the future trends in the bridge engineering are also presented.</p>

Deviation saddles for cables bridges: development and qualification ofstay cable technology

<p>Deviation saddles for cables are regularly used in projects such as cable stayed bridges, suspended bridges or extradossed bridges. The choice of a deviation saddle may be imposed to improve the bridge aesthetics with a slender pylon and to simplify the construction with a solid pylon section. Saddles are a proper anchorage and must be designed such as to ensure a safe transfer of vertical forces and of differential forces of stay cables into the pylon structure.</p><p>For parallel strand cables, since grouted stay cable tends to disappear from commonly accepted design and technologies, due to corrosion protection and fatigue issues, the most widely used concept of saddle is made of a battery of individual tubes, placed inside a guide pipe poured of concrete.</p><p>The most recent saddle system developed consists in allowing the passage of the strands through the saddle without individual tubes. Strands go directly through concrete recesses within the Ultra High Performance Fiber Concrete (UHPFC) matrix. Recesses are made thanks to reusable rubber bars removed after poured concrete is hardened. Thanks to an optimized cross section of the recesses, individual holes maximize the friction between the concrete and specially sheathed strands with local application of a cohesive sheathing (Cohestrand®), which allow strands to transfer important asymmetrical loads to the saddle without sliding. Meanwhile, a continuous corrosion protection is ensured by the strand sheathing from one deck anchorage to the other.</p><p>This make the use of saddle a cost-effective and durable mean to deviate and anchor parallel strand cables, that suits Owners needing simple but robust design for stay cable or extradossed bridges. Such saddle bridge design is nowadays clearly described in the 7<span>th</span> edition of the PTI recommendations, that specifies the qualification process of saddle technologies, especially in regards to the accurate definition of a minimum friction coefficient.</p>

Exploration of Cable-Supported Pedestrian Bridges

<p>The variety of transparency, lightness, and shape of cable-supported bridges is being actively utilized in the design of pedestrian bridges. Moreover, the pedestrian bridge, which is demanded to play a key role as a harmonious structure with surrounding landscape, is being reborn as a landmark sculpture. Considering that understanding design trends is very important step to establish design guide lines for future design, existing cable-supported pedestrian bridges developed until recently have been investigated considering structural material, structural system, and architectural styles. The visual inspiration of the pedestrian bridge is felt in the sense of the structure and the structural form is determined to satisfy the geometric design requirements while considering the efficiency and stability of the cable structure. Therefore, it is needed to identify the main variables affecting the cable-support structures and understand the true beauty of bridges by comparing and analyzing various bridge cases based on major variables. This paper will focus mainly on the following issues:</p><p>(1) the classification of types of cable-supported pedestrian bridges; (2) the identification of the important factors affecting structural forms and (3) an integrated framework for future pedestrian bridges considering form, function, and behavior. Note that the relationship between structural form and visual form is explained using graphical approach. It is expected that this study will help to explore future pedestrian bridges considering bridge aesthetics.</p>

Conspectus of Bridge Criticism

The study on bridge criticism is an interdisciplinary research of the theory of bridge engineering, architectural criticism, art criticism and bridge aesthetics. It is an important part of design theory of bridges. Generally speaking, bridge criticism is the identification and evaluation of creative thoughts of bridges, the design of bridges, the process of bridge construction and service, and the social individual and public using of bridges. This research focuses on the forming process, operating model, characteristics and value of bridge criticism. The main research contents include axiology, subjectivity theory, semiotics and methodology of bridge criticism. Based on theories of bridge criticism, this paper comes up with an evaluation method of urban bridges.