Introduction to the Design and Assessment of Prestressed Concrete Bridges
23rd July 2025
09:00-16:00 BST
Summary
Date & Time
23rd July 2025
09:00-16:00 BST
Location
Online
On Demand Until
Until 30th July 2025
Price
£250+VAT
About the course
Prestressed concrete bridges are of paramount importance in the context of Civil Engineering infrastructures, mainly due to their ability to optimize resources (i.e. structural materials), increase the span length, and their long-term performance due to the compression effect. Indeed, such bridge typology has been widely explored worldwide, with thousands of bridges built since the second half of the last century. Typically, with a design lifetime of 100 years, we, as a society, will be facing during the current XXI century the end of the lifetime of several of them, meaning that the assessment, in addition to the design and construction, will become a required skill in future generations of structural engineers.
In a bottom-up approach, the course is set in four main modules, starting from basic concepts to the desired understanding of the design, construction, and maintenance of such structures.
Agenda
1. Actions and combination of actions on prestressed concrete bridges, mainly:
(i) type of actions
(ii) Combination of different actions and their likelihood
(iii) Concept of both Serviceability and Ultimate limit states
2. Structural systems devoted to simulating the structural performance of:
(i) The majority: Simply supported bridges
(ii) The typical: Two- and three-span bridges
(iii) The landmarks: Multi-span bridges
3. Suitable hand calculation methods to estimate prestressing loads and internal forces, more precisely:
(i) The prestressing: The equivalent loading scheme
(ii) the internal forces: The moment distribution method (Hardy Cross).
4. Checking both serviceability and safety requirements, mainly:
(i) The span sections: For bending forces
(ii) The support sections: For shear forces
(iii) The special sections: End-anchorage forces
Presenters
Dr Helder Sousa is an expert, with more than 20 years of international experience and strong exposure to the industry sector (UK, Portugal, Italy and Uruguay) on Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applied to Bridge Engineering and a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey, UK.
With core expertise in Civil Engineering (PhD, 2012, http://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/68424), his scientific knowledge spans from (before PhD conclusion) advanced Finite Element Analysis of full-scale structures to (after PhD conclusion) Bayesian statistics and Value of Information theory, mainly single and sequential updating methods, passing through wide experience in tacking big-data streams collected by monitoring systems installed on full-scale bridges. Altogether Dr Sousa holds a holistic and singular profile with a comprehensive view and perception on the different levels of science, i.e. fundamental research and applied research.
With 50 conference papers, 20 scientific journal papers, 6 book chapters, more than 35 oral presentations in several countries of Europe and beyond, as well as 4 short-scientific missions at top leading R&D Institutes in Europe (ETH Zurich in Switzerland, TNO R&D institute in the Netherlands, CEREMA in France and COWI in Denmark), makes Dr Sousa has one of the leading researchers in his research field.
Awarded with several research grants and consultancy funding, highlighting his Individual Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (2015-17) and his role as the leader of the Innovation Committee of the European COST Action TU1402 – Quantifying the Value of Structural Health Monitoring (2014-19, http://www.cost-tu1402.eu/Action/Innovation-Committee ). Currently, he is Vice-chair of the IABSE TG 1.4. Probabilistic nonlinear finite element modelling, quality control and lifetime assessment for today's engineering practice and Co-convenor on the new Task Group in the fib Commission 3 focussing on Quality management in concrete construction. His enrolment in scientific committees at the European level and wide experience in acting as a reviewer for national and international science councils (European Commission, Portugal, Belgium and Kazakhstan) is also a clear demonstration of his leadership and independence skills.
Format
The format of this event will be a webinar using "Zoom Webinars".
There will be opportunity to interact with the lecturer throughout the session, both though allocated Q&A sessions, or leaving text based questions throughout the presentation which the lecturer will be able to answer at convenient opportunities.
Attendance certificates are available on request after the completion of the webinar.
Registration
If you would like to register and pay now, please click the button below "Register Now". If you would prefer an invoice (for VAT exemptions/ purchase order requirement etc...) please click the button "send me an invoice" and complete the registration form, and our admin team will be in touch.
Price
The cost of registering for this webinar will be £250+VAT.
Group rates are available on all our courses. If you would like to discuss what group discounts we have available you can reach us at info@etsols.com.