The SUPERLOAD Bridge Analysis webinar April 20 and 21 provided a great overview of the capabilities of SUPERLOAD Bridge Analysis to perform real-time structural analysis based on the configuration of the permit vehicle and the detailed engineering model for the bridges on the specified routes.
We captured a few of the top questions asked along during the webinar with answers provided by our product expert Dan Vogen. If you have any other questions about the webinar, please let us know.
Q1 Is the multi-lane with full impact an overly conservative rating?
A: The multi-lane with full impact rating does consider as many of the permit vehicles as possible, side-by-side on the bridge. This is definitely conservative, but without specific restrictions limiting travel to only the permit vehicle, there is no way to know that an overloaded dump truck or cement mixer isn’t also on the structure, next to the permit vehicle, causing as much or more stress on the bridge. This rating is intended to be engineering conservative and any of the other ratings can be considered as need be.
Q2 If we don’t want the multi-lane with full impact rating to be the default, can we change that?
A: Yes, through the administratively configured bridge analysis preferences, you can pick any rating type to be the default.
Q3 Are the different analysis options mutually exclusive or can you do more than one?
A: The analysis options are not mutually exclusive. We perform all 6 ratings all the time, and through the administratively configured bridge analysis preferences, you can define which ratings to automatically consider and what restriction / movement condition must be output based on the specific rating that allowed safe passage.
Q4 Does the system have a truck weight setting where the analysis is performed?
A: We don’t have a configurable truck weight at this time. The analysis is performed so fast, that in order to best protect the infrastructure, we do the analysis for all vehicles determined to be overweight.
Q5 Can you specify the direction of travel for the bridge?
A: We use the bridge inventory data to determine which bridges should be analyzed for each direction of travel along a route.
Q6 Is SUPERLOAD able to use data from LEAP or RM Bridge?
A: Not at the current time. If you are a LEAP or RM Bridge user, and see that this could have a positive impact on some future work, please let us know and we would like to discuss it further with you.
Q7 Can we use non-Bentley bridge data models?
A: SUPERLOAD does use the AASHTOWare BrR (previously Virtis) data along with any older AASHTOWare BARS data. Using other data sources may be possible and should be discussed.