Rigid-Frame Bridge

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A rigid-frame bridge is a load resistant skeleton constructed with straight or curved members. It is a simple structure with top and sides of one solid piece of reinforced concrete. This design was especially popular during the 1920s. It is specially designed to resist bending, shearing, and axis loads. This type of bridge was cheaper to construct and easier to maintain and stronger than traditional bridges for its day. Wilbur Wilson, a professor of Civil Engineering and researcher of the fatigue of structures at the University of Illinois was a tremendous advocate of this type of structure. One of Wilson’s most notable discoveries was that bolts would be better to use than rivets in a rigid-frame bridge.

Rigid-Frame Bridge Impacts
Rigid-Frame Bridge

– Engineering Hall. This is where Wilson would have worked on improving bolts for rigid-frame bridges.

– Newmark Civil Engineering Hall. Current location of many civil engineering classes and offices.

 

Rigid Frame. (2017, March 23) from Wikipedia Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigid_frame

Hall, W. J. (n.d.). Wilbur M. Wilson. Retrieved from http://cee.illinois.edu/about/history/wilson (Updated link here)

Kingery, R. A., Berg, R. D., & Schillinger, E. H. (1967). Men and Ideas in Engineering. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. (Image)