Principal Investigator:	Amit H. Varma
Research Assistant:	Keith J. Kowalkowski
Undergraduate Assistant:	Jason F. Shingledecker
Funding Agency:	Michigan Department of Transportation

Abstract

Research is currently being performed at Michigan State University to investigate the "Effects of Multiple Heat-Straightening on the Structural Properties of Steel." Heat-straightening is an effective and economic procedure used by many state DOT’s for repairing damaged steel bridges mostly by over height trucks. The figures illustrated above show a heat-straightening project on a damaged steel girder. The research project has four tasks. Task I involves a complete literature review of all research that has been conducted on heat-straightening as well as a survey with state DOT’s across the nation. Task II involves field monitoring of MDOT heat straightening procedures. Task III involves experimental investigations on the effects of multiple heat straightening on the structural properties of steel using small scale specimens. Task IV involves Experimental investigation of the effects of multiple heat straightening on large-scale steel beams. In Task III, ninety small scale test specimens are being damaged-heat straighten repaired at the Civil Infrastructure Lab at MSU. The parameters being investigated include the steel type, the level of damage, the level of restraining stress while heat straightening, and the number of times the specimen is damage-repaired. The figure below shows the test setup for the small scale testing in Task III. The researchers have shown for A36 steel that heat-straightening does not alter the steel enough to make it structurally inadequate regardless of the damage level, the restraining stress, and the number of times the specimen has been damaged-repaired.




Small Scale Experimental Test Setup