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Everyone in the State depends on its "infrastructure": the structural, transportation, lifeline, and communication public works. As Oregon's land-grant university, OSU leads in technological innovation for the betterment of society. Application of OSU's resources is succeeding both in development of solutions to existing problems as well as in training engineers prepared for the future. The overwhelming challenges:-renovation and replacement our public works, in general, and maintenance of our communication and information exchange systems, in an environment of continual technological change. Research at OSU is preserving not only the state's treasures - but also its treasuries. |
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Space-age technology, and Oregon State University engineers teamed with the Oregon Department of Transportation and industry, have provided a new lease on life for the Horsetail Creek Bridge in the Columbia River gorge. And the innovations used to save this 85-year-old relic may soon help rescue other decaying infrastructure across Oregon and the United States.
For civil engineers weaned on concrete and steel, the new "fiber reinforced polymers" now carrying traffic over Horsetail Creek are nothing short of a revolution. They hold the potential to address a growing, $200 billion national crisis. "Historic structures are deteriorating faster than our ability to replace them. It's a scary and costly problem."
"There's a huge need to repair existing buildings and bridges, which are deteriorating faster than our ability to replace them," says Damian Kachlakev, assistant professor of civil engineering at OSU. "It's a really scary and very costly problem."
There's also a need to develop more economical systems for the future of construction. These fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) have had aerospace and military uses for years. But the mainstream construction industry is just now waking up to their potential.
Five times lighter than steel, FRPs are up to 10 times stronger and with a corrosion resistance that should make them last longer than any conventional material. They create a flexible but incredibly strong material that is resistant to earthquakes, yet they are about the thickness of a sheet of plastic laminate. Kachlakev says. "The process of applying them is more like hanging wallpaper than laying a reinforced concrete beam."
In the Horsetail Creek Bridge, reinforcing steel had probably corroded, and it had an inadequate structural design in the first place. It was 96 percent deficient in shear strength and unsafe by current standards.
By taking advantage of OSU's developing expertise in testing, evaluating, and working with the new materials, The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) opted to save the structure. Fiber optic sensors implanted in the material will help scientists monitor the FRP performance over time and under various loads.
"ODOT estimates that about 75 percent of the bridges in Oregon need strengthening," Kachlakev says. "And that's just a fraction of the problem we face nationally and internationally. We think FRP materials can play a major role in solving this crisis."
OSU scientists are studying the existing FRP systems in Europe, Japan and the U.S. as well as developing their own. They will test various types of FRPs and help develop national building standards for this technology.
"OSU faculty and graduating students are among the most highly trained in the nation in this technology"
OSU civil engineering faculty and students are becoming the most highly trained in the nation in use of these systems. Already, seven of the university's graduate students are focusing on these materials. In just the past year, this blossoming OSU research program has attracted more than $300,000 in grants and industry support, with a promise of more research funding in the near future.
And more good news - the FRP materials are comparatively cheap. "Just the cost of enlarging a couple of existing concrete beams to support the Horsetail Creek Bridge would have been $70,000, not counting all the hidden expenses and public inconvenience," Kachlakev says. "We were able to repair the whole structure for a total of $30,000. The bridge didn't even need to be closed while the work was going on."
The first bridge in the United States to use these materials to correct such a severe structural deficiency may very well serve its role gracefully in the gorge for another century or two.
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