Ricerc@Sapienza

The main characteristics of an original bamboo-steel composite truss structure are presented in this work. Specifically, the considered system is a spatial truss structure whose upper chord and diagonal bars are made by glubam elements whereas its lower chord is made by steel members with a hollow cross-section. This novel structural system has been conceived to build roofs and low/mid-span bridges (for example, footbridges), in such a way to ensure easy and rapid construction, efficient use of the constituent materials, low manufacturing costs and good environmental sustainability.

Dissipative properties of a structural system are difficult to be characterized in real structure. Nevertheless, damping features may be dominant in several operating conditions of railway bridges influencing fatigue life or passenger comfort during train passage. Observations treating real data acquired in operational condition on steel and concrete railway bridges belonging to the Italian network permits to highlight dissipative sources and features.