Abstract:In highways and urban bridges, medium and small span bridges account for over 80%, in which the most of the superstructures are the small hinge joint hollow slab beams. With the aging of bridges and continuous increases of traffic volume, the disease of hinge joints is becoming increasingly serious. The single-beam stress caused by the damage of hinge joint has posed threats to bridge safety. Tracking investigations of multiple projects reveal that the damage of hinge joint is conductive. After the initial damaged hinge joints are repaired, the adjacent hinge joints often fail within a short period, which in turn causes the renewed damage to the repaired joints, resulting in a cycle of “repeated repairs with recurring failures, worsening with each repair”. From a preventive repair perspective, it is proposed that in addition to repairing already damaged hinge joints, the preventive repairs should also be conducted on hinge joints that are on the verge of failure so as to enhance the safety of bridge and reduce the maintenance costs over the full life cycle. To improve the repair effect, the systematic research is conducted on hollow slab beam hinge joint repair technologies by focusing on failure mechanisms, reinforcement methods, strengthening materials and engineering applications of hinge joints.