Bridge Engineering and Structures Division

Areas of R&D and Consultancy / Core Activities

Areas of R&D

• Application of Advanced Composites for Bridge Construction/ Rehabilitation
• Bridge Distress Diagnostics and Rehabilitation
• Development of Bridge Management System for Highway Bridges
• Characterization of Various Loads (Temperature/wind/ earthquake) for Bridge Design
• Concrete Technology & Corrosion Studies in bridges and other civil structures
• Creation of Complete Range of Independent Facility for Testing of Expansion Joints
• Design and Development of Mobile Bridge Inspection Unit
• Development of Robot for underwater inspection of bridges
• Fatigue studies on bridge components
• Wind tunnel studies on bridges and other structures
• Field Instrumentation and Health monitoring of Bridges
• Live Load Characterization for bridge design and evaluation
• Vibration studies of structures
• Assessment of present prestressing force in PSC bridges
• Bridge Aerodynamics

 Core Activities/ Consultancy

• Analysis and Design of Bridges and other Civil Infrastructures
• Bridge maintenance management system
• Development of software for structural applications
• Monitoring of structures using instrumentation including long term monitoring
• Evaluation of Load carrying capacity of bridges
• Health (Condition) Assessment of bridges and rating of bridges
• Repair and rehabilitation of bridges
• Evaluation of load carrying capacity of Road and Railway Bridges
• Quality Assurance during bridge construction
• Characterisation of bridge components and materials

Infrastructure Facilities

• Structural Testing Laboratory
• Dynamic cum Heavy Testing Laboratory with Fatigue testing System
• Field Instrumentation Laboratory
• Wind Tunnel Facility at Ghaziabad (HRDC Campus)
• Mobile Bridge Inspection Unit

Training Programmes

• Bridge Design and Construction
• Bridge Diagnostics, Performance Evaluation and Rehabilitation

Training to Students

•  Guidance to PhD, Post-graduate and Under-graduate students and research internship

Software Tools

• ATENA
• AUTOCAD
• Crystal Report
• Microsoft Developer Studio
• NISA
• REVIT
• RM -2006
• SQL
• STAAD-PRO
• STAAD-PRO-FOUNDATION

Software and database developed by the division

• CRASH  -   Software for prediction of creep and shrinkage in concrete by various analytical models
• DAPCAS - Software for finite element based dynamic analysis of prestressed concrete structures considering nonlinear material properties and effects of creep and shrinkage
• Indo-BMMS - Software for Bridge Maintenance Management System in GIS environment for RCC slab and RCC T-girder bridges
• RLAB –RC – Software for Distress Diagnostics, Performance Evaluation and Remaining Life Assessment of RC  Slab and T-girder Bridge Superstructure.
• Software for analysis of  Vortex excitation, Flutter and Buffeting of Cable Stayed Bridge Decks
• Software for degradation modelling of RCC slab and RCC T-girder bridges considering Environmental effects such as Corrosion, Alkali-silica reaction
• Software RLAB-R1 - Software for bridge distress diagnosis of RCC slab and RCC T-girder bridge superstructure
• Software to find out the load carrying capacity of RCC slab and RCC T-girder bridges
• Software to find out the rating of RCC slab and RCC T-girder bridges
• Software to find out the residual life of RCC slab and RCC T-girder bridges

Laboratory and Field Testing Facilities

• Bridge Weigh in Motion (BWIM) system
• Compression Testing Machine (200 Ton UTM)
• Non-destructive testing (NDT) facility for concrete structures
• Facilities for water proofing membranes
• Prestressing Facility
• Comprehensive Testing facility for Bridge Expansion joints
• Dynamic strain (response) measuring system
• Equipments for Corrosion and durability studies of concrete
• Equipments for Non-Destructive testing of concrete and steel components
• Facility for Testing of Elastomeric Bearing
• Material Testing Laboratory for aggregate, cement, chloroprene and  plastic
• Structural Vibration monitoring system
• Testing of protective coatings on concrete
• Testing of water proofing membranes
• Universal Testing Machine
• Vibration of structures

Significant Achievements

• Model studies on well foundation and retaining walls to achieve safe and economical design
• Study the Effect of Edge stiffening on slab bridges led to economic design.
• Established method for conversion of two simply supported spans to continuous using external prestressing.
• Development of Testing Facility for performance evaluation of bridge bearings
• Evaluation of corrosion protective coatings,
• Advanced Techniques for repair such as steel plate bonding, FRP, stitching techniques, NSM, external prestressing for retrofitting / rehabilitation of concrete bridges
• Development of Limit State Design of T- Beam Bridge
• Development of High Performance and self compacting concrete for construction Industry
• Long term health monitoring using instrumentation of road bridges
• Development of design methodology for trail suspension bridges
• Design and execution of CD structures and small bridges under PMGSY program
• Guidelines and Manual of Practice for repair of Cracks and Spalls in Concrete Structures
• Guidelines for aerodynamic design of cable stayed bridges
• Simplification of Live load for Design of Highway Bridges as per IRC loading
• Evaluation of Load carrying capacity of a number of existing bridges
• Performance evaluation of various types of railway bridges
• Design, Instrumentation and Quality Assurance of Roadway over Drains
• Development of data base management system on performance monitoring of bridges
• Development of Mobile Bridge Inspection Unit
• Development of Fiber optic strain sensors
• Use of CFRP for rehabilitation of bridges
• SOAR on Instrumentation of traffic (IRC)
• SOAR on Instrumentation of highways and tunnels (IRC)
• Performance evaluation of expansion joints of several bridges/ flyovers

Contribution to Formulation of Standards

• IS: 1893-Part (iii) “Criteria for Seismic Resistant Design of Bridges” for BIS
• New wind load clause in IRC:6.
• IRC: 6: 2010 Standard Specifications and Code of Practice of Road Bridges (Fifth Revision)
• New Clause on Barge Impact Load in IRC:6 (Approved  by Council in 2010)
• New Clause on congestion factor and snow load in IRC: 6 ( Approved  by Council of IRC in 2011)
• Rationalization of Seismic Forces for the Design of Bridges (Approved in 2008)
• Load combination and Load Factor for Limit State Design of Bridges (Approved in 2009)
• IRC:24-2010 “ Standard Specifications and Code of Practice for Road Bridges- Section V Steel Bridges ( Limit State Method), Third Revision
• IRC:112-2011 ‘Code of Practice for Concrete Road Bridges’
• IRC Special publications- Non-destructive testing techniques for bridges
• SOAR on Underwater Sea repairing of bridge components
• IRC 83(Pt 1) Roller and rocker bearings (II Rev)
• IRC 83(Pt 2) Elastomeric bearings (I Rev)
• IRC SR 22: State-Of-Art-Report: Areas Of Application And Techniques Of. Instrumentation In Traffic Engineering
• Development of IRC: SP-13 “Guidelines for Design of Culverts and Small Bridges”
• IRC: SP-56:2011 “Guidelines for Steel Pedestrian Bridges” (First Revision) 
• IRC: SP:69 “Guidelines and Specifications for Expansion Joints( First Revision)
• IRC- SP- 80 “Guidelines for Corrosion Prevention Monitoring and Remedial Measures for Concrete Bridge Structures”