STATIC TESTS OF HIGHWAY BRIDGES, NEW STANDARD

Information on the developed standard for static tests of highway bridges is presented. The main provisions of this standard are briefly outlined. Current state building regulations for determining the technical condition of load-bearing structures of road bridges in certain cases provide for field tests. Traditionally, bridge tests are divided into static and dynamic, in which static or dynamic loading is used, respectively. The modern development of devices and tools used in bridge testing provides ample opportunities for obtaining information about the actual operation of structures under load. In practice, the problem arises of fully using these opportunities, for which, as the history of technology development shows, the most effective toolkit is the implementation of relevant standards. SE “DerzhdorNDI” on the order of Ukravtodor developed the project of the national standard DSTU XXXXX:20XX ” Directive for static tests of highway bridges”. The article explains the main requirements that form the basis of the project of the developed standard, namely: – use of the maximum possible load for more reliable extrapolation of the test results to the calculated values of the design loads; – determination of compliance with the requirements of limit states and reliability of structures based on their actual characteristics, rather than a simple comparison with a certain calculated response; – determination of natural integral characteristics of structures (equivalent stiffness, lines of influence of certain responses, etc.). For the first time, the standard provides for express tests. Mandatory testing stages are considered: – field measurements of the responses of the structure to the test load and calculations of the same responses for the accepted calculation model; – adjustment of the calculation model; – verification of the strength of the structure for normative design loads by means of calculations using the adjusted model; – the actual characteristics of structures are determined, which are subsequently used to monitor their technical condition. Keywords: road bridge, test, static load, technical condition.