Pre-stressed timber bridge of Eucalyptus citriodora

Author(s)

Thalita Fernandes da Fonte

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD)
• Defense date: 2004-02-20

Examining board members

Carlito Calil Junior; Antonio Alves Dias; Dener Gonçalves Prata

• Advisor: Carlito Calil Junior

Abstract

The concept of pre-stressed laminated timber bridges come from 70s, in Canada, as an alternative for the rehabilitation of damaged nailed laminated timber decks. Many researches were developed to verify the structural performance and the durability of the system, which corroborated the system\'s high efficience. Because of a great deficit in short-span and medium-span bridges in Brazil, the country has searched more and more competitive materials and technologies for their construction. Based on studies developed in other countries, since 1993 Brazil has developed studies to verify the viability of using brazilian woods to build such bridges, and the answer was positive. The present work aims to investigate the project and behavior of transversally pre-stressed timber bridges of eucalyptus, through the project and construction of the first stress-laminated timber bridge in South America. The bridge performance was evaluated as well as the influence of the guard-rail system in the deck stiffness, across proof loading. The results showed that this system is a good alternative for bridge construction in Brazil. (AU)