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better way to design bridges

by: Ara Ashikian | 09/20/2016
Estimated Reading time: 6 - 9 minutes

The Traditional Approach

Large infrastructure projects these days might consist of a main crossing along with multiple roads and interchanges. During the design pursuit stages,
teams need to collaborate across multiple locations and disciplines in order to prepare technical and financial proposals against a field of strong
competitors. If successful, the challenges faced during the detailed design, fabrication and construction stages are no less daunting.
For instance, an experienced bridge engineer might look at the proposed highway alignments and establish suitable locations for the substructure and
put forward some viable superstructure options that reflect the corresponding span lengths as well as the type of construction that would be
appropriate for the given location.
In order to validate these concepts, a number of separate analysis models would be developed, from the very simple continuous beam models to the
more complex 3D finite element models, as needed as the design evolves. Often, the results from these analysis models would be imported into various
custom spreadsheets to carry out the detailed code checking aspects to meet the requirements of design standards.
Once the design process is sufficiently advanced, the time consuming task of creating the design drawings takes place. In most cases, this task is still
very much the domain of the tried and true 2D CAD world. In addition, increasingly so these days, separate and more detailed 3D models need to be
created to present the design visualizations to the various stakeholders.
In the above workflow, while some of the software in the individual steps, such as for structural analysis, can be quite powerful and sophisticated, the
fundamental limitations have not really evolved in the last couple of decades. In most cases, investigating even relatively minor design variations, such
as different number of spans or girders, let alone larger changes such as the type of a superstructure, usually requires one to start all over again. The
traditional approach for tackling these challenges is simply no longer sufficient.
Another consideration is that in order to converge to the best solutions (by taking aesthetic, technical and financial issues into account), it would be
beneficial to shift the design efforts towards the earlier design stages and allow for the exploration of a wider set of viable options. The corresponding
decisions would have a greater impact than the ones made by fine tuning, during the detailed design stage, a prematurely chosen option.
Unfortunately, in the traditional workflow, the time and effort required to develop a design leaves little room for such a shift.

A Better Approach BIM and bridges

In the vertical construction industry, the use of building information modeling (BIM) has already become the norm. Multidisciplinary teams can
leverage software tools such as Autodesks Revit to tackle the design workflows much more effectively than was the case in the past.
For infrastructure projects, the scale of the projects as well as the inherent geometric complexities of the alignments and structures make for a more
challenging proposition.
Autodesk is harnessing the power of cloud computing in order to offer a better way for tackling these type of projects. In doing so, Autodesk is taking a
step back and looking at the big picture rather than focusing on individual applications in isolation. In this way, the Autodesk applications will allow
users to create and modify different aspects of the central data model in a coordinated way.
Starting with Autodesks InfraWorks 360, models for the entire project can be quickly setup that aggregate terrain elevation data, aerial imagery, point
clouds, existing infrastructure, and most likely, a number of emerging data sources in the future. This provides teams with a rich contextual setting to
explore various options in a collaborative and multidisciplinary manner.


In the case of bridges, experienced bridge engineers and designers can be leading the process by interacting directly with the fully parametric and
dynamic components of their models. They can directly apply their past experience and knowledge to create and modify all the relevant parameters
that define the components of the bridges: define the type of bridge superstructure, the number of girder lines, the number of piers, the type of
foundations; graphically move or skew a pier to reflect the site constraints; adjust any one of the dynamic parameters exposed by the pier, such as the
dimension of the columns or the pier cap. Quickly see at a glance, the detailed quantities for the selected pier, superstructure vs substructure or the
bridge as a whole, regardless of the geometric complexities. By leveraging Autodesk Inventors powerful solid modeling capabilities, users can extend
the available libraries by creating their own parametric custom bridge components.



In order to provide users with guidance during the bridge option development stages, the girders of the superstructure can be analyzed and checked
with cloud based services that leverage Autodesk Structural Bridge Design (ASBD)s capabilities. In the case of pre-stressed girders, where possible, a
suitable tendon layout, that meets the requirements of the design standards, is identified. Similar capabilities are planned to generate line girder or
grillage/finite element models suitable for analyzing and checking steel plate girders and composite box girders to ASHTO LRFD 7 requirements.

Moreover, in the future, by leveraging the new Autodesk Forge cloud platform, 3rd party structural analysis software partners will be able to extract
their own analytical representations from the Autodesk BIM model and provide more advanced or specialized capabilities.
While the modeling of the bridges may appear to be deceptively simple, by virtue of the fact that the underlying components are based on accurate
parametric geometry, they can readily be progressed towards detailed design without having to be recreated. In fact, a full model can be quickly
opened up in Autodesks Civil3D or Revit software where the rest of the team of designers and technicians can complete the detailed modeling. In
order to accommodate the complex geometric requirements of civil structures in general and bridges in particular, a number of enhancements are
being developed in Revit itself. These will allow users to model reinforcing steel and to properly dimension structural components that have arbitrarily
complex geometric layouts. Further enhancements are also being made to handle an increased level of detail for steel structures, including
connections. With all these enhancements, creating a live model of the project becomes feasible.



With the help of such detailed and accurate models, construction drawings can be effectively created and the models themselves can be leveraged in
different phases of the projects lifecycle. While much more can be said in the so called BIM to Field domain, just the ability to export rebar schedules
and structural steel in a coordinated way to the fabrication and construction stages presents many advantages.

This overall BIM approach will allow teams to make small or big changes at the concept or detailed design stages without having to rework or start all
over again. By making sure that the various Autodesk solutions work harmoniously together and with the central data, the burden and strain of
attempting to keep data in sync becomes an artifact of the past. By championing the use of open standards, such as IFC, the Autodesk solutions will
offer even greater possibilities.

Ara Ashikian
Ara is a product line manager focused on InfraWorks 360 and structural bridge design.