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Aging highway infrastructure requires effective rating methodologies to prioritize bridges for rehabilitation and repair. To aid engineers in decision making regarding bridge maintenance, a three-dimensional (3D) visualization system is developed for rating reinforced concrete deck-girder bridge. Color codings show the most probable mode of failure for girder cross sections under combined moment-shear forces and allow an engineer to determine a rehabilitation strategy. The visualization system relies on 3D finite-element analyses using the open source framework OpenSees, making the system readily extensible to a wide range of bridge types and loading scenarios, as well as emergent reliability-based rating methodologies. Important features of the visualization system are emphasized, including the use of lighting and feature edge detection to improve the visual quality of a bridge model. Recent developments in scientific visualization are discussed for potential application to civil engineering problems.
Esch et al. (Thu,) studied this question.