| The Confederation Bridge, constructed in Atlantic Canada in 1994--1997, is the world's longest bridge built over ice-covered water. The evaluation of the thermal and environmental data recorded on this bridge is presented. The data in question are the temperatures in several girder sections recorded by thermocouples as well as the environmental data measured by on-site sensors from 1998 to 2001 at hourly intervals. The data were first carefully screened and problematic records were identified and repaired. The temperature data were then spatially reduced to a set of thermal loading variables including average, linear differential and nonlinear residual temperatures.; The huge sets of hourly observed thermal loading variables were visualized through time series plots. Seasonality, correlation between climate parameters and thermal loading variables, and critical ambient conditions were identified. Seasonal and diurnal variation patterns of the thermal loadings were revealed by counting frequency of the peak value occurrences in each month and at each hour. The statistical random thermal loading variables were also studied by histograms and probability plots.; Concentrating on the tail part of the samples, Extreme Value Analyse was carried out for the thermal loading variables.* (Abstract shortened by UMI.); *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Microsoft Office. |
