Lateral Load Distribution for Prestressed Concrete Girder Bridge

PSC 거더교의 하중횡분배에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to examine the accuracy of the code provisions on lateral load distribution factors of prestressed concrete girder bridges. Most designers in Korea use the lever method or lateral load distribution formula in the existing design codes. However, the methods do not account for the effect of bridge skew or direction of diaphragm. Therefore, this study analysed the prestressed concrete girder bridge with grillage model for various girder spacings, directions of diaphragms, span lengths, and skews, and compared the results with those of existing design code. It has been found that lateral load distribution factors were proportional to the girder spacing while they were not significantly affected by the change of span length, direction of diaphragm, and skew. For bending moments, lateral load distribution factors from the grillage analysis were 60%~68% of those from Korean bridge design code. Therefore, the code provisions result in very conservative design. For support reactions, however, lateral load distribution factors from the grillage analysis were slightly greater than those from Korean bridge design code. Therefore, the capacity of bearings of the bridge with a large skew should be determined by grillage analysis.