About the course

This course will focus on the recent advancement in bridge engineering in terms of structure, design, construction, transportation, and performance, including both practice and research aspects. While some theoretical background behind the design codes will be explained, the step-by-step applications of the design codes will not be emphasized in this graduate level course. Instead, the bridge performance, general bridge design and analysis procedure, state-of-the-art in bridge research and application, and complicated bridge systems will be discussed.

The student outcome objectives include: (1) Understand the general picture of bridge engineering; (2) Understand complicated bridge system performance; (3) Understand the general procedures of bridge performance evaluation including the superstructure and substructure; (4) Understand the analysis for design of complicated structure system; (5) Develop fundamental skills in bridge research; and (6) Understand state-of-the-art of bridge engineering.

The specific course topics are as follows: (1) Introduction to bridges; (2) Development of transportation system in China; (3) Beam bridges; (4) Cable-stayed bridges; (5) Arch bridges; (6) Suspended bridges; (7) Steel bridges; (8) Underwater bridge foundations; (9) Composite bridges; (10) Railway bridges; (11) Rail transit bridges; (12) Bridges for maglev; (13) Bridge instrumentation and non-destructive testing; and (14) Causes and mechanisms of bridge collapse.

About the teacher

Dr. Wen Xiong is an associate professor in the School of Transportation at Southeast University and also the Chairman of the Department of Bridge Engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Bridge and Tunnel Engineering from Tongji University in 2009. He joined Louisiana State University as a post-doc researcher and worked for 2 years before joining Southeast University as a full professor in 2011. Dr. Xiong is the principal investigator of 2 National Nature and Science Foundation of China projects, 1 Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education, 2 Nature and Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province projects, etc. His main research interests are hydrology design of bridges, bridge analysis and design theory, intelligent bridges, etc. Dr. Xiong was selected in the "Six Talent Summit Plans in Jiangsu Province" program in 2018.

This course also has another two teachers Dr Xiaodong Song and Dr Ming Yang for assistance.

All materials are contributed by Southeast University.