This PDH Masterclass is a comprehensive, two-part series structured as a flexible, live workshop, dedicated to mastering the causes, impact of corrosion, and effective solutions for common steel bridge web failures. This two-part technical series presents the complete engineering path from complex field conditions to validated rehabilitation decisions.
Session 1 - Engineering Assessment & Modeling Approach - Tom Less, Woolpert Inc.
This session focuses on real bridge case studies where inspection findings such as curvature effects, fatigue cracking, and system interaction are translated into refined analytical representations. Engineers see how structural behavior is diagnosed, how modeling assumptions are selected, and how these models support rational repair strategies rather than assumption-based fixes.
Session 2 - From Diagnosis to Implementation - Mahesh Surla, MIDAS
This session builds on those same case studies and shifts from engineering diagnosis to practical implementation. Using the modeling logic established in Session 1, we demonstrate how those refined representations are efficiently constructed, structured, and validated through parametric modeling approaches and systematic checks of load paths, stiffness behavior, and boundary effects captured from inspection. Instruction centers on analytical modeling principles and structural behavior interpretation, illustrated through a practical FEM environment, showing how refined analysis can be applied in a repeatable and time-efficient way on real projects, including by engineers new to this level of modeling.
