Professor Dennis Mertz passed away after a prolonged battle with cancer. He spent a large portion of his professional career working on advancing of the state-of-the-art of bridge engineering. He was a great friend and colleague to many at ACI and ASCE. Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 343, joined with ACI Committees 342 and 348, sponsored four sessions to honor his contributions and achievements in concrete bridge design and evaluation. These sessions highlighted the important work and collaborative efforts that Dr. Mertz had with others at ACI and ASCE on various topics. These sessions also combined the efforts among ACI and ASCE researchers and practitioners in addressing various topics related to the design and evaluation of concrete bridges. The scope and outcome of the sessions are relevant to ACI’s mission. They raise awareness on established design methodologies applied for various limit states covering topics related flexure, shear, fatigue, torsion, etc. They address problems related to emerging design and evaluation approaches and recent development in design practices, code standards, and related applications. The Symposium Publication (SP) is expected to be an important reference in relation to design philosophies and evaluation methods of new and existing concrete bridges and structures.

Dr. Dennis Mertz was involved with the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications [1] for 30 years. Starting with the original development of the specifications and continuing with maintenance and related course development and presentations. His last major contribution to the Specifications was to serve as Principal Investigator for the reorganization of Section 5, Concrete Structures. This presentation summarizes the changes to the structure of the Section including the increased emphasis on design of “B” and “D” regions of flexural members and introduces new and expanded material on beam ledges and inverted T-caps, shear and torsion, anchors, strut and tie modeling and durability. The product of this work was included in the 8th Edition of the Specifications as a complete replacement of Section 5.

The research paper presents an analysis of autogenous shrinkage development in self-consolidating concrete (SCC). The first stage of the study involved an evaluation of concrete susceptibility to cracking caused by shrinkage of SCC with natural and lightweight aggregate. The shrinkage was tested on concrete rings according to ASTM C 1581/C 1581M- 09a. The influence of aggregate composition, the water content in lightweight aggregate, and SRA admixture on the reduction of concrete susceptibility to cracking, due to the early-age shrinkage deformation was determined. In the second stage of the research, the innovative method measurement of autogenous shrinkage was developed and implemented. The tests were performed on concrete block samples, dimensions 35x150x1150 mm, that had the same concrete volume as ring specimen in the ASTM method. Linear deformation of the concrete samples was measured in constant periods of 500 s using dial gauges with digital data loggers. The investigation allowed evaluating of the influence of water/cement (w/c) ratio of 0.28, 0.34, 0.42, and of aggregate composition on the development of autogenous shrinkage in different stages of curing SCC. The results were compared to existing material models proposed by other researchers. The conducted study indicated a significant influence of the w/c ratio and composition of aggregate on the concrete susceptibility to crack caused by the autogenous shrinkage deformation.

With over 80 years of history, it is only in the last 20 years that the use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials has become feasible for bridge applications in part due to the ever increasing requirement to make structures last longer, with the current American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Bridge Design Specifications requiring that structures be designed for a 75 year design life; but also in the development of cost effective production techniques, and the introduction of FRP materials, which bring the cost and strength of FRP materials closer to traditional steel reinforcement. Published documents provide comprehensive recommendations on design methodology, predictive equations, and recommendations for strength and service limits states. In this paper, the background of FRP-prestressed concrete bridges is discussed and trial bridges are designed. Research needs to advance the state of the art are identified and delineated.

Fire is a possible hazard on highway bridges which causes significant economic damage, and it is also one of the least investigated of all hazards. There is a lack of knowledge on the long term performance and structural integrity of fire damaged and fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) laminate retrofitted bridges. One such rare in-service bridge was selected for this study. The fire damaged cast-in-place non-prestressed girders were previously repaired with mortar and strengthened with FRP wrapping. The girders were instrumented with strain gages and displacement transducers, and a non-destructive live load test was carried out to evaluate the structural response. The results from the load testing were used to compare two identical girder spans with and without CFRP strengthening. A full-scale non-linear finite element model of the overall bridge superstructure was created, and the test results used to calibrate the model. The carbon (CFRP) strengthened girder exhibited similar stiffness compared to the undamaged girder as evidenced by almost equivalent mid-span deflection. The girder moment capacity decreased significantly due to fire damage, and the CFRP strengthening plus mortar repair was successful in restoring the moment capacity. The finite element model provided good correlation with load test results.