Engineering Investigation And Analysis Of A Major Collapse

Since the Industrial Revolution happened in Europe in the 1770s', the history of the bridge in the modern times, developing with the large industry and the communication transportation, has been more than two hundred years. After the development of more than two centuries, the number of bridges has become tremendously large. Looking back the history, we could find with no difficulty that the bridges in the modern times are developing continuously in the fight with the accident and the natural disaster.The bridge exists in the nature and satisfies our demand for use. No matter whether in the construction stage or in the use stage, the bridge is influenced inevitably by various factors such as the flood, the earthquake, the sand blown by wind, the frost, and the mud-rock flow, etc. from the nature. Meanwhile, it's also influenced by the factitious factors such as the design miscarriage, the construction miscarriage and the overload, etc. Furthermore, the performance of the bridge materials will also be degenerating continuously. Such factors listed above make the parts of the bridge structure damnified and inferior.This paper starts from several kinds of problems which often happen during the bridge construction and use, and then analyze the cause of the bridge accident and the experience from the accident through numerous statistical data and engineering examples. It goes on as follows: First, the damage on the bridge by natural disastersSince the force of the nature (the flood, the earthquake, etc.) is unavoidable, our bridge could certainly be damaged with different degree by their effect. For example:1. The damage made by the flood and the mud-rock flow2. The damage made by the earthquake3. The damage made by the wind and the sand blown by the wind.The aim of the paper is to study the damage circumstances of thebridge, understand the happening rule thus decrease the happening times of the similar accidents. Second, the damage on the bridge by the factitious factors These factors include:1. The damage made by impact of ships and vehicles2. The damage made by overload3. The damage made by the design and construction miscarriageThe main reason for the bridge damage by the factitious factors includes the imperfect design theory and structural system, the illogical construction technology and the inefficient management in the process of use.The bridge collapse accident may result in the loss of vital possessions and lives. So it is of big benefits for the bridge construction in the future to analyze and summarize the experience of the accident that has already happened. Just under such circumstances, the paper selects the topic on the bridge accident analysis, hoping that it will attract the caution of the bridge builders and provide some reference for the bridge design and construction in the future.