At 9:00, on Oct. 24, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB), considered as “the 8thwonder of 21stcentury”, opened to public traffic. The 55-km bridge across the Lingding Bay connects China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) in the east and the Macao SAR and Zhuhai of Guangdong Province in the west. Behind this mega project are the wisdom and efforts of countless researchers and workers, and therein lies the wisdom and contribution of YSUers.
Wang Qingfeng and his students in the laboratory
(Photographed by CaiShangshan from the News Center)
The Qingzhou Ship Channel Bridge (QSCB) is the main section of HZMB with longest pile foundation (1150 meters) and highest cable bent tower (163 meters) among the three ship channel bridges. It is a steel box girder cable-stayed bridge with double pylons, double cable planes. Cooperating with China Railway Shanhaiguan Bridge Group (CRSBG), Wang Qingfeng and his advanced steel research group from Metastable Materials Science and Technology State Key Laboratory and National Engineering Research Center for Equipment and Technology of Cold Strip Rolling applied weathering steel to the welding of the cable-stayed anchoring box for the first time in China, which realizes the comprehensive control of welding metallurgy quality, joint mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, ensuring the excellent performance of key components without corrosion for 120 years. Besides, Prof. Wang and his group, with cooperation of CRSBG, explored a new way of developing and adopting the impact toughness control technology of the thin welded joints, aiming at the ultra-conventional manufacturing quality requirements of the steel box girder cable-stayed bridge, which greatly improves the safety of the bridge. Over the years, the advanced steel research team, led by Prof. Zhang Fucheng, has carried out extensive and close cooperation with CRSBG. They have solved many technical problems concerning frogs and bridge steel for the railway industry. For example, China had a bottle neck of railway speed increasing before they overcame the problem of the high manganese steel frog and high carbon steel rail welding technology. The welding materials and related welding technology have become the only ones in China, and have been exported to more than 20 countries.
It takes 9 years to complete the construction of HZMB. The bridge runs 55 kilometers, including 41.6 kilometers from Zhuhai-Macao Port to Hong Kong Port and 35.578-kilometer cross-sea section. “A deep chasm turned into a thoroughfare.” HZMB makes it possible to drive from Hong Kong to Zhuhai and Macau in only 30 minutes. The bridge has more than 400 new patents and seven world records, and the overall design and key technologies are all independently developed. The bridge has a long design life of 120 years, which can withstand a magnitude-8.0 earthquake, strongest typhoon, impact of a 300,000-tonvehicle and heaviest flood in the Pearl River Estuary.
[Translated by Xing Tong]
