This article provides the framework for the investigation of bridge failures. It explains the types of bridge loading and presents the regulatory provisions for bridges. Some bridge failures in the U.S. that resulted in significant changes in bridge manufacturing, design, regulation, and/or maintenance are also discussed. In addition, the article provides information on traffic damage and fatigue cracking that result in bridge failures. The need for steels with better fracture toughness in bridge design is also discussed.

This article provides a basic overview of bridge corrosion, where it occurs on steel and concrete bridge structures, and how to prevent corrosion by using coatings. It describes types of bridge designs, with illustrations, and presents information on how corrosion occurs in different bridge zones and areas, with illustrations. The article concludes with a discussion on the common methods of coating systems applications on bridge structures and key elements in coating condition assessment.

The design of structural components with nominally brittle materials is largely determined by their elastic moduli, density, and tensile strength. This article discusses some of the factors involved in the design and reliability through considerations of toughness and ductility of nominally brittle materials. It describes toughening by various bridging mechanisms, as well as process zone effects and their interaction with the bridging rupture zone. The article explains the phenomena that give rise to exceptional toughness and notch-insensitive mechanical behavior. It provides a schematic illustration of a basic cell model to characterize the inelastic strains that occur in ceramic-matrix composites and their dependence on the interface friction.

Composites, particularly fiber-reinforced polymer materials, are increasingly being adopted or considered as alternatives to conventional materials for civil infrastructure applications, such as bridges, buildings, waterfront structures, waste treatment facilities, and facilities for transmission and transport of utilities. This article provides information on seismic retrofit applications and discusses the repair and strengthening of components, such as beams, slabs, large-diameter pipes, and bridge decks.

Filament winding is a process that allows the precise lay-down of continuous reinforcement in predescribed patterns at a high rate of speed. This article discusses the filament winding process and includes a comparison to other compacting and curing processes. The article describes design factors, and techniques to produce aerodynamic surfaces, improve surface smoothness, and avoid slipping and bridging of filament. The article discusses tooling and the equipment used in the filament winding process, namely, mandrel design, winding machines, tensioners, and ovens.

The selection of materials for welded construction applications involves a number of considerations, including design codes and specifications. Mobile structures have quite different materials requirements for weight, durability, and safety than stationary structures, which are built to last for many years. This article provides an overview of the service conditions. It offers guidance for material selection applications, including bridges and buildings, pressure vessels and piping, shipbuilding and offshore structures, aerospace systems, machinery and equipment, automobiles, railroad systems, and sheet metal. Material properties and welding processes that may be significant in meeting design goals are also described.

This article describes the paint systems generally used to protect steel structures, steel sheet, and bridges from corrosion, and how they deter corrosion. It provides a discussion on the basic design criteria of steel structures for corrosion protection. The article also explains the differences between prepaint and postpaint, and the steps involved in prepaint processing of steel. It presents the selection guideline for paint system evaluation. The advantages of corrosion protection are also discussed.

Bridges and highways are core components of transportation system and range from pavements with earth, gravel, or stone covered by a thin bituminous surface course to a continually reinforced Portland cement concrete (PCC) roadway with or without a bituminous wear course. This article provides information on bridges and dowels and the reinforcement used in PCC roadways that suffer from corrosion. An overview is provided on the rise in awareness of the corrosion issues affecting bridges and highways. The chemistry and structure of concrete and its role as an electrolyte in promoting corrosion are also discussed. The article addresses reinforcement, including conventional, prestressed, cable stays, and corrosion-resistant reinforcement. It deals with the electrochemical methods for the inspection and corrosion control of embedded reinforcement. The article also reviews the corrosion of metal bridges and corrosion control, including the use of weathering steels and coating systems.

Additive manufacturing (AM), also referred to as three-dimensional printing or rapid prototyping, is a set of technologies that has rapidly evolved and has drawn much research attention in the manufacturing of high value-added products. This article focuses on dentistry, one of the fields in which AM has gained much traction. It discusses the AM processes used to produce dentures, crowns, and bridges. Digitization techniques, which are the first step and provide the CAD model for AM processes, are presented. Scanning technologies that are widely used in dental manufacturing are presented in detail, and the strengths and weaknesses of each process within their applications are discussed. AM processes are discussed in detail, and the materials that are widely used in AM-embedded dental manufacturing are briefly surveyed. The final section concludes with remarks and a preview of future research and practice directions.

Polymeric floor coatings refer to flooring materials composed of multicomponent thermoset resins formulated with various fillers and pigments that are installed in situ, usually over concrete substrates. Polymeric flooring systems, specified for all industrial and commercial environments, use a variety of polymer chemistries and are constructed in a variety of methods and designs. This article provides a description of the service conditions for the polymeric flooring systems. It provides information on polymeric flooring systems, including thin-film coatings, self-leveling systems, membrane systems, broadcast systems, troweled systems, and terrazzo. The article also focuses on properties, applications, testing, and factors and requirements to be considered during the installation of polymeric floor coatings. It concludes with a discussion about coating failures, including bonding, cracking, chemical attack, and moisture that affect the polymeric floor coatings on concrete.

Construction-scale additive manufacturing, also known as construction three-dimensional printing (C3DP), has received significant attention as a technology that could transform the construction industry by offering a highly automated construction process for various applications. This article presents an overview of the current developments in C3DP as well as future prospects and discusses the technical and regulatory barriers to its widespread adoption by the construction industry. It also presents a detailed discussion on construction-scale additive manufacturing technologies.

This article focuses on the design considerations and process parameters critical to the successful implantation of wave soldering on printed circuit boards. The design considerations include the through-hole technology and the surface-mount technology. The article presents information on process parameters, which can be divided into three groups: the fluxing operation, solder wave properties, and process schedule. It provides information on various solder defects.

One of the key attributes of continuous fiber-reinforced ceramic composites (CFCCs) is their ability to undergo inelastic straining upon mechanical loading. This article reviews the mechanics of inelastic deformation and fracture of CFCCs, as needed for the development of damage-tolerant failure prediction methodologies for use in engineering design. It outlines a general framework for the description of fracture in structural materials in the presence of notches and cracks. The article describes the common classes of fracture behavior of CFCCs and presents the constitutive laws needed to describe crack-tip inelasticity. It demonstrates the effects of inelasticity on crack-tip stress fields and addresses the environmental degradation effects on damage tolerance.

This article illustrates the defects, which result because of poor-quality welds in the bridge components. The cracks resulting from the use of low fatigue strength details are also discussed. The article describes the effect of out-of-plane distortion in floor-beam-girder connection plates, multiple-girder diaphragm connection plate, and tied-arch floor beams.

This article provides a brief description of load conditions for single-shot heat treating, vertical scanning, and brazing and soldering. It discusses the various power components used in power supplies. These include capacitors, integrated power module, transformers, and various switching devices, namely, silicon-controlled rectifiers, insulated-gate bipolar transistors, and metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors. The article also provides information on frequency-multiplication harmonic-induction power supplies, namely, push-pull and half-bridge inverters and full-bridge inverters. Series resonant and parallel resonant circuits and their tuning calculations associated with output networks are also discussed. The article describes the frequency range of simultaneous dual-frequency induction heating power supply, and discusses the advantages, applications, and technical background of independently controlled frequency and power (IFP) induction heating power supply. It concludes with a description of the developments in control systems for modern induction power supplies.

This article discusses the dies, such as shear-face dies, conical-feed dies, and bridge dies, that are used in extrusion of particle-reinforced aluminum composites. It provides an overview of the effects of reinforcements on the properties of aluminum composites.

Continuous fiber composite materials offer dramatic opportunities for producing lightweight laminates with tremendous performance capabilities. This article describes the kinematics of fabric deformation and explains the algorithms used in draping simulation. It discusses the basic components, such as laminate and ply, of continuous fiber composite. The article provides information on the core sample and ply analysis. It details producibility, flat-pattern evaluations, and laminate surface offset. The article discusses various interfaces, such as the structural analysis interface, the resin transfer molding interface, the fiber placement and tape-laying interface, and the laser projection interface.

This article first describes the two methods used in the 1998 U.S. corrosion cost study. In the first method, the cost was determined by summing the costs for corrosion control methods and contract services. In the second, the cost of corrosion was first determined for specific industry sectors and then extrapolated to calculate a national total corrosion cost. The article then reports the results and conclusions of the study. It concludes with information on corrosion prevention strategies.

This article provides an overview of thermal spray processes. It describes the microstructural character of thermal spray coatings as well as the criteria for coating selection. The optimization, parameterization, and surface preparation and treatments for the thermal spray coatings are also discussed. The article illustrates the adhesion of polymer coatings and the thermal spray process used to remove lead-base paint. It provides information on the specifications, standardization, and guidelines for thermal spray applicators.