The Hau system is an original bridge construction solution developed by the American engineer and inventor William Hau , and proposed by the American engineer J. Whistler for the construction of wooden bridges during the construction of the Nikolaev railway in 1840-1850s.
Project
The project was brought to Russia by J. Whistler in the drawings.
The essence of the project was that the bridge span was a wooden truss with braces , tied with transverse iron rods (the use of two materials in the supporting structures was an innovation). Metal elements made the bridge much stronger without a significant increase in the weight of the structure.
The system of Hau was theoretically rechecked and improved by the Russian engineer Dmitry Zhuravsky . Zhuravsky proved that the closer to the supports, the greater the load on the vertical weights and braces, and proposed to make truss elements of different thickness depending on their location.
These proposals were supported by Whistler and used in all the bridges on the road, and since it was built in the direct version, this required the construction of 278 artificial structures, including 184 bridges, 69 stone and cast-iron pipes and 19 overpasses. The largest railway bridges were designed and built under the direct supervision of Zhuravsky. Particularly difficult was the construction of the Verebyinsky Bridge , which had 9 spans of 54 meters each.
Links
- Article "Petersburg" Americans "" - on the website "Helping Overcome Difficulties"
- Description of the bridge across Lebyazhye - the album “The Great Way”, 1899.