Aluminum Alloy Bridge

The opening ceremony of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was held in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, on Oct 23, 2018. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, with a total length of about 55 km, spans from Lingding Bay to Hong Kong in the east and Guangdong Zhuhai and Macao in the west.

At about 55 km Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge project, the main subject of tunnel engineering by the sea tin island, Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau, and other important parts of the connectivity line. The island as the core of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge tunnel engineering control engineering, and including the east, west island and underwater immersed tube tunnel, artificial island of the facade used in the aluminum veneer.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge USES about 50,000 square meters of aluminum veneer to cover its ceiling and curved panels. In addition, the bridge was in normal condition when super typhoon “Shanzhu” hit the coastal areas of Guangdong and Hainan this year.

The bridge project, which USES 425,000 tons of steel, about 60 Eiffel towers, is the first such large-scale use of steel box girders in the world. Although steel structure is the preferred choice for the bridge with such large tonnage, compared with steel, aluminum alloy material has low density and lightweight, which is only 34% of the same volume of steel, and its strength index is basically the same as steel. It is widely used in modern bridge construction because of its excellent elastic modulus, good corrosion resistance, and low maintenance cost.

Steel is prone to rust and poor performance at low temperature. Steel rusting will seriously affect the stability of the bridge, not only bring greater maintenance costs, but also serious safety risks. The poor performance of low temperature will make the steel bridge unable to operate under some severe weather conditions. However, aluminum alloy has strong corrosion resistance and low-temperature performance, so it can be widely used in a variety of climatic conditions and is durable. Although the cost of the aluminum bridge is generally high, the low maintenance cost may reduce the price gap to some extent.

At home and abroad, the research on aluminum bridge panel has been very mature and applied widely. The improved material research and development level also provide the technical guarantee for the research and development of new alloys that meet different performance requirements. In recent years, domestic aluminum producers have gradually set their sights on the industrial aluminum profile. It provides the foundation for the construction of aluminum alloy bridge.