ENGINEERING STRUCTURES & BRIDGES

In the field of structural engineering it is often required to investigate and to evaluate issues which are not covered by the standards such as building products and types without approval, planned deviations from the standard specifications such as exceedances of plate thickness, planning and execution errors or damages. These should be examined and evaluated in terms of their influences on the load capacity, serviceability and durability.

With the development of European standards from the 90s, there was the chance to redevelop the fracture mechanic method to avoid brittle fracture. With the help of concepts based on this development and an adjustment of the input parameters of the safety analysis based on fracture mechanics, a method was developed, which enables the improved use of advanced steels in welded structures. This concept was developed by our partners, the Institute of Steel Construction at RWTH Aachen and the Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy (Dr.-Ing. Peter Langenberg, now Managing Director of our partner IWT) and is the basis of our know-how in the fracture mechanics evaluation of components.

Due to the enhanced knowledge and the extensive experience of our staff, we are able to offer the following services in the business of structural engineering:

• Examination / assessment / evaluation of the strength and stability, serviceability and durability) of existing steel and composite structure
• Investigation and evaluation of damages (causation, effect on the load capacity, lifecycle)
• Expertise for component parts without abZ/ETA in the context of a specific approval on an individual basis (ZiE) or a company internal approval (UiG)
• Fracture mechanic analyses to evaluate the low temperature behaviour and the brittle fracture behaviour according to the background of DASt-Richtlinie 009 and EN 1993-1-10
• Evaluation of the fatigue behaviour of components based on different concepts (nominal stress method, local stress method, notch stress method, fracture mechanical method) according to different national and international regulations (e.g. EN 1993-1-9, IIW-reccomendation, FKM-Richtlinie)
• In the field of bridge structures: Aeroelastic investigations concerning galloping, flutter, etc. in the wind tunnel

The knowledge gained is steadily incorporated in all other areas of our activities and thus lead to an improvement of our quality and efficiency.

For the analysis of component and material samples for material characterization and damage diagnostics the facilities of various institutes of the RWTH Aachen are available. In addition, to perform component tests the experimental facilities of our cooperation partner (Institute of Steel and Light Weight Constructions at RWTH Aachen) are used. Also measurements on site are performed.