Introduction

Prestressed concrete bridges are of paramount importance in the context of Civil Engineering infrastructures, mainly by its ability to optimize resources (i.e. structural materials), increase the span length, and its long-term performance due to the compression effect. Indeed, such bridge typology has been widely explored worldwide with thousands of bridges being built since the second half of the last century. Typically, with a design lifetime of 100 years, we, as a society, will be facing during the current XXI century the end of the lifetime of several of them, meaning that the assessment, in addition to the design and construction, will become a required skill in future generations of structural engineers. In other words, the paradigm on the study of prestressed concrete bridges is being pushed to incorporate the society requirements, i.e. updating the knowledge on their effective lifetime by means of better simulations on the effective behaviour of such critical structures.

In this context, this course aims to offer the fundamental knowledge devoted to the design, construction, and assessment requirements of prestressed concrete bridges by considering the entire lifetime. Based on a novel and comprehensive approach, this course is planned in a set of modules with independent focus but altogether builds the required holistic view on the subject in the presented context.

Objectives

In this context, the course objectives can be organized as follows (bottom-up):

• To review concepts related to theoretical concepts and calculation approaches
• To introduce to the current codes of practice and guidelines
• To perform hand calculations focussing on the different bridge components
• To distinguish between design and assessment towards computational calculations
• To understand the long-term performance in the context of asset management.

In a bottom-up approach, the course is set in five main modules, starting from basic concepts to the desired understanding on design, construction, and maintenance of such structures:

• – Module 1 – Actions and combination of actions on prestressed concrete bridges: 
  1. Type of actions,
  2. Combination of different actions and its likelihood,
  3. Concept of both Serviceability and Ultimate limit states.

• – Module 2 – Structural systems devoted to simulating the structural performance of:
• 1. The majority: Simply supported bridges,
  2. The typical: Two- and three-span bridges,
  3. The landmarks: Multi-span bridges.

• – Module 3 – Suitable hand calculation methods to estimate prestressing loads and internal forces:
  1. The prestressing: The equivalent loading scheme,
  2. The internal forces: The moment distribution method (Hardy Cross).

• – Module 4 – Checking both serviceability and safety requirements:
  1. The span sections: For bending forces,
  2. The support sections: For shear forces,
  3. The special sections: End-anchorage forces.

• – Module 5 – Long-term performance in the context of asset management along the bridge lifetime:
  1. Controlling bearing movements due to temperature effects,
  2. Quantifying prestress losses due to creep, shrinkage, and relaxation,
  3. Checking excessive deflections due to the critical combination of geometric and material features.

The learning method used along the course is based on online resources, available by the virtual Campus, with a clear and straightforward approach. For this, the planned 5 modules (described above), will be based on comprehensive documentation covering theory, practical applications as well as practical exercises to be solved by the students. Hence, the course will be materialized by:

• – Lecture notes and complementary documentation with the theory,
• – Recorded lectures explaining the content on the lecture notes,
• – Exercises to apply and consolidate the theory,
• – Live classes, through videoconferences (webinars), for clarification on the exercises,

Tutorial support along all course period by email to enhance students’ progress.

Helder Sousa

Dr Helder Sousa is an expert, with 17 years of international experience and strong exposure to the industry sector, on Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applied on Civil Engineering infrastructures and Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey, UK.

With core expertise in Civil Engineering (PhD, 2012, http://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/68424), his scientific knowledge spans from (before PhD conclusion) advanced Finite Element Analysis of full-scale structures to (after PhD conclusion) Bayesian statistics and Value of Information theory, mainly single and sequential updating methods, passing through wide experience in tacking big-data streams collected by monitoring systems installed on full-scale bridges. Altogether makes Dr Sousa holding a holistic and singular profile with a comprehensive view and perception on the different levels of science, i.e. fundamental research and applied research.

With 42 conference papers, 15 scientific journal papers, 2 book chapters, more than 35 oral presentations in several countries of Europe and beyond, as well as 4 short-scientific missions at top leading R&D Institutes in Europe (ETH Zurich in Switzerland, TNO R&D institute in Netherlands, CEREMA in France and COWI in Denmark), makes Dr Sousa has one of the leading researchers in his research field.

Awarded with several research grants and consultancy funding, highlighting his Individual Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (2015-17, http://www.lostprecon.eu/) and his recent role as the leader of the Innovation Committee of the European COST Action TU1402 – Quantifying the Value of Structural Health Monitoring, as a legal representative of the BRISA Group (2014-19, http://www.cost-tu1402.eu/Action/Innovation-Committee). Currently, he is Guest Editor in the top-ranked scientific journal Structure & Infrastructure Engineering and (co-)leads two special sessions in the next European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (Italy, 2020) and in the 13th ASCE Specialty Conference on Probabilistic Mechanics and Reliability (New York, 2020). His enrolment in scientific committees at the European level and wide experience in acting as a reviewer for national and international science councils is also a clear demonstration of his leadership and independence skills.

In the context of this course, the following publications on international top-scientific journals in the field of Civil Engineering might be of relevance for interested people:

• – Sousa, H. (2020) “Advanced FE modelling supported by monitoring towards management of large civil infrastructures – The case study of Lezíria Bridge.” Structural Concrete, the official journal of the fib (accepted for publication, 18th March 2020).
• – Sousa, H., A. Rozsas, A. Slobbe and W. Courage (2020). “A novel pro-active approach towards SHM-based bridge management supported by FE analysis and Bayesian methods.” Structure and Infrastructure Engineering 16(2): 233-246. (http://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2019.1649287)
• – Sousa, H., L. O. Santos and M. Chryssanthopoulos (2019). “Quantifying monitoring requirements for predicting creep deformations through Bayesian updating methods.” Structural Safety 76: 40-50. (http://doi.org/10.1016/j.strusafe.2018.06.002)
• – Sousa, H., B. J. A. Costa, A. A. Henriques, J. Bento and J. A. Figueiras (2016). “Assessment of traffic load events and structural effects on road bridges based on strain measurements.” Journal of Civil Engineering and Management 22(4): 457-469. (http://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.897991)
• – Sousa, H., J. Bento and J. Figueiras (2014). “Assessment and Management of Concrete Bridges Supported by Monitoring Data-Based Finite-Element Modeling.” Journal of Bridge Engineering 19(6): 05014002. (http://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0000604)

All of our courses are offered 100% online, through our intuitive Virtual Campus. Topics are taught through:

• – Videos
• – Interactive multimedia content
• – Live classes
• – Texts
• – Case studies
• – Evaluation exercises
• – Additional documentation

The content is updated in each new course edition, so that knowledge is acquired around the latest news and state-of-the-art geotechnical engineering technology.

One of the most interesting aspects of our courses is the use of live videoconferences, in which teachers and students interact in a continuous exchange of knowledge and problem solving. In addition to this, students can make use of the platform’s forum, a meeting point where they can interact with teachers and other students.

A tutoring system will also be established by email, which will resolve any possible doubts about the course, and which will serve as a point of connection for students with specific questions on each module.

Students can also download the course documentation, including texts, videos and exercises.

The course Introduction to the design and assessment of Prestressed Concrete Bridges is a comprehensive course and structured on a bottom-up approach, meaning that no special knowledge is required in the subject. Hence, this course might be of interest to (but not limited, of course):

• – Graduated engineers with interest in getting into the subject to towards a postgraduate course in structural engineering,
• – Postgraduate engineers with interest to review concepts and improve skills related to design vs. assessment of prestressed concrete structures,
• – Researchers aiming for deep learning on the effective long-term performance of prestressed concrete bridges, mainly the coupled effect of geometric and materials features.

At the end of the course, and as accreditation of knowledge acquired and of the technical and practical training, students who correctly complete the corresponding evaluation tests of the geotechnical engineering course will obtain an academic certificate issued by Ingeoexpert. This digital certificate is protected by Blockchain technology, making it unique and tamper-proof, thus enabling companies to verify its authenticity.

It can also be downloaded by students, forwarded by email and shared on social networks, as well as embedded on any website. You can see an example here.

The field of prestressed concrete bridges is of paramount importance in the context of Civil Engineering infrastructures. Indeed, it is envisaged that in the XXI century, issues related to their maintenance will become critical as their design lifetime will be reached. Taking into account the comprehensive approach of this course, the following job prospects are envisaged, mainly:

• – Expert for design and construction offices,
• – Consultant for bridge owners, insurance companies, professional associations, among others,
• – Advanced structural engineering towards the assessment of the effective lifetime of existing prestressed concrete bridges.