Author(s): Manuel D'Angelo; Francesco Ballio; Giovanni Ravazzani

Linked Author(s): Manuel D'Angelo, Francesco Ballio, Giovanni Ravazzani

Keywords: Bridge; Vulnerability; Field dat

Abstract: Several studies demonstrated that hydraulic phenomena are the most common cause of collapse for river bridges. Among them, scour is the predominant mode of failure during a flood. Historical evidence of river bridge failures has raised the attention of the technical community on hydraulic processes. In this study, a database of 146 bridges which collapsed for hydraulic processes was built i) to calculate the bridge failure rate in Italy, ii) to discern the incidence of the type of hydraulic phenomenon, and iii) to understand which are the parameters that make a bridge more susceptible to failure. The analysis of bridge failures confirmed scour as the primary mode of failure. However, river planimetric dynamics played a relevant role as well. Finally, the length of the bridge and the drainage basin area were revealed as two paramount parameters for hydraulic bridge susceptibility to collapse.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/IAHR-39WC2521711920221366

Year: 2022