10.07.2015 Views

Evaluation and Repair of Wrought Iron and - Purdue e-Pubs ...

Evaluation and Repair of Wrought Iron and - Purdue e-Pubs ...

Evaluation and Repair of Wrought Iron and - Purdue e-Pubs ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

212.3 Case Studies <strong>of</strong> Rehabilitated <strong>Wrought</strong> <strong>Iron</strong> Bridges2.3.1 Walnut Street Bridge, Pennsylvania, 1860Through out the country there are a number <strong>of</strong> common types <strong>of</strong> truss bridges.These types are usually denoted by the engineer that patented their design, such as theWhipple Trusses <strong>and</strong> Pratt Trusses. The Walnut Street Bridge is one <strong>of</strong> these types <strong>of</strong>bridges, which is a cast <strong>and</strong> wrought iron Pratt through truss bridge that was built inHellertown, PA in 1860. This combination <strong>of</strong> materials, such as cast <strong>and</strong> wrought iron iscommon in bridges from this time period. Like many other historic wrought iron bridges,the bridge was removed from vehicular service in 1970 <strong>and</strong> then stored by the state.In 1994, graduate students at Lehigh University performed a detailed visualinspection <strong>of</strong> the Walnut Street bridge to determine if the bridge was salvageable. Therewas moderate corrosion <strong>and</strong> it was determined that a further investigation into thestructural integrity <strong>of</strong> the bridge was necessary. Mechanical testing was completed todetermine the structural properties <strong>of</strong> the materials. This testing included tensile, flexure,compression <strong>and</strong> Charpy impact tests on the materials acquired from the bridge. Fromthese tests, the strength <strong>of</strong> the various materials including wrought iron were determined.The tensile strength <strong>and</strong> charpy impact strength <strong>of</strong> wrought iron was found to becomparable to that <strong>of</strong> mild steel. However, the results <strong>of</strong> the material testing stillconcluded that it would be beneficial to restore the bridge for pedestrian use only. TheWalnut Street Bridge was rebuilt in a historical park near where it was originallyconstructed. Significant corrosion damage was found on several <strong>of</strong> the wrought irontensile members during the visual inspection <strong>of</strong> the bridge. These members werereplaced with A36 steel during restoration. A more detailed account <strong>of</strong> the rehabilitationcan be found in Rehabilitation <strong>of</strong> a Nineteenth Century Cast <strong>and</strong> <strong>Wrought</strong> <strong>Iron</strong> Bridgewritten by Perry S. Green, Robert J. Connor, <strong>and</strong> Christopher Higgins (1999).

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!