A bridge bearing is a component of a bridge which typically provides a resting surface between bridge piers and the bridge deck. The purpose of a bearing is to allow controlled movement and thereby reduce the stresses involved. Possible causes of movement are thermal expansion and contraction, creep, shrinkage, or fatigue due to the properties of the material used for the bearing. External sources of movement include the settlement of the ground below, thermal expansion, and seismic activity. [1] There are several different types of bridge bearings which are used depending on a number of different factors including the bridge span, loading conditions, and performance specifications. [2] The oldest form of bridge bearing is simply two plates resting on top of each other. A common form of modern bridge bearing is the elastomeric bridge bearing. Another type of bridge bearing is the mechanical bridge bearing. There are several types of mechanical bridge bearing, such as the pinned bearing, which in turn includes specific types such as the rocker bearing, and the roller bearing. Another type of mechanical bearing is the fixed bearing, which allows rotation, but not other forms of movement. [3] [4]
The first bridge bearings to be used were plane bearings in the early 1800s, which included sliding bearings or roller bearings. Plane bearings allowed horizontal movement in one direction, and could therefore transfer horizontal load. Rotating bearings were used in the late 1800s and early 1900s and included rocker bearings, knuckle bearings, and ball bearings. Rotating bearings allowed movement in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Both plane bearings and roller bearings were made of metal. In the mid-1900s, deformation bearings began to be used, which were made of rubber. Deformation bearings primarily include elastomeric bearings, the most common type of bridge bearing used today. [5]
Rocker bearings have curved surfaces that allow rocking. As the bridge expands, the bearing rocks to allow movement in the horizontal direction. Rocker bearings are primarily made of steel. Rocker bearings tend to be used for highway bridges. [6]
Elastomeric bridge bearings are the most popular type of bridge bearing used today. They are made of rubber and do not have any moving parts, because the rubber itself allows movement in the bridge. Elastomeric bearings can be made at a low cost, and do not need to be maintained, like other forms of bearings that have moving parts and are made of metal. Elastomeric bearings can be reinforced with steel to make them stronger if needed. [7]
Sliding bearings have both a flat sliding surface to allow horizontal movement and a spherical surface to allow rotation. Although they used to be made of metal, sliding bearings now tend to be made of Teflon. [6]
As the name suggests, spherical bearings are in the shape of a sphere. These bearings only allow rotation, and prevent movement in the horizontal and vertical directions. [6]
They are one of the most important components of bridges.
Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. Types of friction include dry, fluid, lubricated, skin, and internal.
A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races.
Fluid bearings are bearings in which the load is supported by a thin layer of rapidly moving pressurized liquid or gas between the bearing surfaces. Since there is no contact between the moving parts, there is no sliding friction, allowing fluid bearings to have lower friction, wear and vibration than many other types of bearings. Thus, it is possible for some fluid bearings to have near-zero wear if operated correctly.
A bearing is a machine element that constrains relative motion to only the desired motion and reduces friction between moving parts. The design of the bearing may, for example, provide for free linear movement of the moving part or for free rotation around a fixed axis; or, it may prevent a motion by controlling the vectors of normal forces that bear on the moving parts. Most bearings facilitate the desired motion by minimizing friction. Bearings are classified broadly according to the type of operation, the motions allowed, or the directions of the loads (forces) applied to the parts.
A plain bearing, or more commonly sliding contact bearing and slide bearing, is the simplest type of bearing, comprising just a bearing surface and no rolling elements. Therefore, the journal slides over the bearing surface. The simplest example of a plain bearing is a shaft rotating in a hole. A simple linear bearing can be a pair of flat surfaces designed to allow motion; e.g., a drawer and the slides it rests on or the ways on the bed of a lathe.
In mechanical engineering, a rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing, is a bearing which carries a load by placing rolling elements between two concentric, grooved rings called races. The relative motion of the races causes the rolling elements to roll with very little rolling resistance and with little sliding.
Rolling resistance, sometimes called rolling friction or rolling drag, is the force resisting the motion when a body rolls on a surface. It is mainly caused by non-elastic effects; that is, not all the energy needed for deformation of the wheel, roadbed, etc., is recovered when the pressure is removed. Two forms of this are hysteresis losses, and permanent (plastic) deformation of the object or the surface. Note that the slippage between the wheel and the surface also results in energy dissipation. Although some researchers have included this term in rolling resistance, some suggest that this dissipation term should be treated separately from rolling resistance because it is due to the applied torque to the wheel and the resultant slip between the wheel and ground, which is called slip loss or slip resistance. In addition, only the so-called slip resistance involves friction, therefore the name "rolling friction" is to an extent a misnomer.
A mirror mount is a device that holds a mirror. In optics research, these can be quite sophisticated devices, due to the need to be able to tip and tilt the mirror by controlled amounts, while still holding it in a precise position when it is not being adjusted.
A linear-motion bearing or linear slide is a bearing designed to provide free motion in one direction. There are many different types of linear motion bearings.
In an automobile, ball joints are spherical bearings that connect the control arms to the steering knuckles, and are used on virtually every automobile made. They bionically resemble the ball-and-socket joints found in most tetrapod animals.
A expansion joint, or movement joint, is an assembly designed to hold parts together while safely absorbing temperature-induced expansion and contraction of building materials. They are commonly found between sections of buildings, bridges, sidewalks, railway tracks, piping systems, ships, and other structures.
Brinelling is the permanent indentation of a hard surface. It is named after the Brinell scale of hardness, in which a small ball is pushed against a hard surface at a preset level of force, and the depth and diameter of the mark indicates the Brinell hardness of the surface. Brinelling is permanent plastic deformation of a surface, and usually occurs while two surfaces in contact are stationary and the material yield strength has been exceeded.
A slide plate is a linear bearing that may be part of the expansion joints of bridges, high temperature horizontal ducts of water-tube boilers and other mechanical or structural engineering applications. In each case one plate is fixed and the other slides on top as expansion or contraction occurs.
The yaw system of wind turbines is the component responsible for the orientation of the wind turbine rotor towards the wind.
The yaw bearing is the most crucial and cost intensive component of a yaw system found on modern horizontal axis wind turbines. The yaw bearing must cope with enormous static and dynamic loads and moments during the wind turbine operation, and provide smooth rotation characteristics for the orientation of the nacelle under all weather conditions. It has also to be corrosion and wear resistant and extremely long lasting. It should last for the service life of the wind turbine) while being cost effective.
The Godavari Arch Bridge is a bowstring-girder bridge that spans the Godavari River in Rajahmundry, India. It is the latest of the three bridges that span the Godavari river at Rajahmundry. The Havelock Bridge being the earliest, was built in 1897, and having served its full utility, was decommissioned in 1997. The second bridge known as the Godavari Bridge is a truss bridge and is India's third longest road-cum-rail bridge crossing a water body.
An elastomeric bridge bearing, also known as a pot bearing or elastomeric bearing, is a commonly used modern bridge bearing. The term encompasses several different types of bearings including bearing pads, bridge bearings, laminated elastomeric bearings, and seismic isolators ... which are all generally referred to as "bridge bearing pads" in the construction industry.
A gear bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing similar to an epicyclic gear. Gear bearings consist of a number of smaller 'satellite' gears which revolve around the center of the bearing along a track on the outsides of the internal and satellite gears, and on the inside of the external gear. Each gear is in between two concentric rings. Therefore, the widths of the satellite gears must all be the same.
An integral bridge contains no expansion joints to accommodate enlargement due to increased temperature. Horizontal (axial) movements due to thermal expansion and braking loads are instead transferred to the fill adjacent to the abutment. The omission of the expansion joint removes a pathway for the penetration of chloride-bearing road salts to the bridge's sub-structure. In the United Kingdom there is a presumption that most new short to medium length bridges will be of the integral type.
A structural support is a part of a building or structure that provides the necessary stiffness and strength in order to resist the internal forces and guide them safely to the ground. External loads that act on buildings cause internal forces in building support structures. Supports can be either at the end or at any intermediate point along a structural member or a constituent part of a building and they are referred to as connections, joints or restraints.
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