Camilla Lewerenz was presented with the Award for Innovation in Civil Engineering for her final thesis titled “Investigation of discontinuity areas of an ortho-composite roadway deck”. She is one of four laureates chosen annually by the Eberhard Schöck Foundation.

Since 2000, the Eberhard Schöck Foundation has honored up to four outstanding civil engineering Diplom or Master’s theses every year. The aim is to promote innovative thinking and to create pioneering, economical or long-lasting buildings, in the spirit of the founder, Eberhard Schöck. The prize is endowed with 2,500 euros.

Ms. Lewerenz was also awarded with the Züblin-Stahlbaupreis prize for her thesis in Dresden in July. The thesis investigates the discontinuity areas of a bridge deck, caused by local wheel loads both lengthwise and diagonally on the bridge surface. She developed finite element method models for a deck bridge and trough bridge to analyze the stresses on studrails. She designed framework models for calculating the load distribution in accordance with engineering principles and submitted design proposals for the arrangement of the studrails and the formation of the reinforced concrete deck layer.

Summary of the Diplom thesis
A sharp increase of traffic and stress in the details of orthotropic plate steel is causing significant fatigue damage to existing steel bridges. The development of ortho-composite roadway decks presents an alternative sustainable and lightweight composite construction method. A thin layer of concrete on top of a lengthwise reinforced steel plate reduces the susceptibility of the structure to fatigue. The resulting shear forces between the cover plate and the concrete layer are absorbed by studrails. However, local stress concentrations due to wheel loads cause discontinuities within the ortho-composite roadway decks, where increased stresses on the structure occur. These can be found in the connections between longitudinal and transverse beams as well as in the midspan.

The Diplom thesis involved investigating these areas of the ortho-composite roadway decks with composite studrails. The focus lay on load distribution and bond reinforcement within the discontinuity areas of the roadway deck. The analysis and evaluation used finite element models as a basis, which were used to simulate the geometry of the structure as well as traffic loads. The framework models developed as a result provide the basis for a simplified design of discontinuity areas. The thesis also presented and investigated potential measures for reducing shear stresses for areas where increased composite shear forces occur. These results provide an important basis for the design and measurement of the ortho-composite roadway decks.

Contact:
TU Dresden
Chair of Steel Construction
Prof. Richard Stroetmann
E-Mail