Steel Bridges: Avanced Solutions & Technologies

The construction of metal bridges goes back to the end of the 18th century. The tendency to erect audacious and elegant bridges was maintained in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the construction of incredible bridges, some of them still holding world records. In that period new bridge-building methods were tried out and for the first time solutions were found for a number of technical problems. The individuality and elegance of these works, together with the expressiveness of the materials used in their construction (iron and steel), served as stimulus to all those who were encouraged to foster such a noble art and contributed, to a large extent, to unquestionably evidence the enormous potential of such solutions. This comprises a wide range of advantages such as a notable long-life and cost-effectiveness. Because of this effectiveness steel bridges are today competitive against other construction materials such as pre-stressed concrete.

The steel constructional industry is continuously breaking the limits and taking decisive steps to develop more daring and efficient solutions and conducting better maintenance activities.

The European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS), established in 1955, is the federation of the National Associations of Steelwork industries and covers a worldwide network of Industrial Companies, Universities and Research Institutes and plays an important role in the further development of steel structures. It encompasses all aspects of steel construction highlighting the relevance of the qualities of this steel: possibility for standardisation and prefabrication, flexibility of use, advanced technology, diversity of components and appearance.

It was considered appropriate to bring together all of the very best work that has been done in the field of steel and composite bridges at the 7th International Conference in Steel Bridges (ICSB’08), held in Guimarães, Portugal from June 4 to 6, 2008. This conference follows the tradition of previous ECCS symposiums devoted to steel bridges (Prague, 2006; Barcelona, 2003; Leipzig, 1999 and Rotterdam, 1996) and is addressed to bridge engineers, structural engineering firms, architectural firms, steel producers, steel makers, researchers, general contractors, project owners, representatives from all areas of bridge engineering, consultants, and local authorities working in all aspects of steel and composite bridges.

The interest of the international steel bridges community in all these fields has been confirmed by the high response to the call for papers. In fact, more than 80 abstracts were received at the Conference Secretariat. About 80% of them were selected for final publication as full-papers and presentation at the Conference within 13 technical sessions. Compared to the previous symposium the total of number of papers scheduled for presentation has increased from 26 to 63.

ICSB’08 covered all major aspects of steel and composite bridges, they include the following topics: aesthetics & architecture; assessment and evaluation; bridge monitoring; bridges for high-speed railways; design for durability; economic steel bridges; emerging technologies; fabrication & construction; field testing; health monitoring; high performance materials; landmark bridges; new technical and material concepts; safety and serviceability; seismic behaviour; service life prediction; strengthening and rehabilitation, the use of Eurocodes, among others.

“Steel Bridges: Advanced Solutions & Technologies” contains the lectures and papers presented at ICSB’08. It consists of a book containing the full texts of the lectures and papers presented at ICSB’08, including 6 Keynote Lectures, and 57 technical papers from 24 countries. This set provides both an up-to-date overview of the field of steel bridges engineering.