• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.507-512
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• 2002

Prestressed concrete I-girders were used in the bridge applications in the early 1950s. During the last four decades, the most widely used girder length of bridges have been below 30 meters. The main objective of this study is to develope the alternative section for widely spaced girder of 30 meters span bridge. Girder spacing, the number of strands and compressive strength of concrete are major parameters for widely spaced girders. The optimal girder spacing is determined through the parameter studies of design using widely spaced girders. 30m span bridges of widely girder spacing must use high-strength concrete. Although the basic unit cost of concrete is higher for high-strength concrete, it may be partially or even fully offset by reduced quantities of concrete as result of the smaller number of girders used. High-strength concrete girders have more prestressing strands per girder, but the total number of strands for all of the girders is less than that required for the larger number of normal-strength concrete girders. It could design PSC-I Birdge with widely spaced girder owing to high-strength concrete.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.329-334
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• 2019

Traffic flow capacity of some old road bridges is insufficient due to limited deck width. In such cases bridge deck widening is a common solution. For multi-girder reinforced concrete (RC) bridges it is possible to add steel-concrete composite girders as the new outermost girders. The deck widening may be combined with bridge strengthening thanks to thickening of the existing deck slab. Joint action of the existing and the added parts of such bridge span must be ensured. It refers especially to the horizontal plane at the interface of the existing slab and the added concrete layer as well as to the vertical planes at the external surfaces of the initially outermost girders where the added girders are connected to the existing bridge span. Since the distribution of the added concrete is non-uniform in the span cross-section the structure is particularly sensitive to the added concrete shrinkage. The shrinkage induces shear forces in the aforementioned planes. Widening of a 12 m long RC multi-girder bridge span is numerically analysed to assess the influence of the added concrete shrinkage. The analysis results show that: a) in the vertical plane of the connection of the added and the existing deck slab the longitudinal shear due to the shrinkage of the added concrete is comparable with the effect of live load, b) it is necessary to provide appropriate longitudinal reinforcement in the deck slab over the added girders due to tension induced by the shrinkage of the added concrete.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.497-507
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• 2020

This paper presents a numerical method for evaluating fire performance of prestressed concrete (PC) T shaped bridge girders under combined effect of structural loading and hydrocarbon fire exposure conditions. A numerical model, developed using the computer program ANSYS, is employed to investigate fire response of PC T shaped bridge girders by taking into consideration structural inherent parameters, namely; arrangement of prestressing strands with in the girder section, thickness of concrete cover over prestressing strands, effective degree of prestress and content of prestressing strands. Then, a sequential thermo-mechanical analysis is performed to predict cross sectional temperature followed by mechanical response of T shaped bridge girders. The validity of the numerical model is established by comparing temperatures, deflections and failure time generated from fire tests. Through numerical studies, it is shown that thickness of concrete cover and arrangement of prestressing strands in girder section have significant influence on the fire resistance of PC T shaped bridge girders. Increase in effective degree of prestress in strands with triangular shaped layout and content in prestressing strands can slow down the progression of deflections in PC T shaped bridge girder towards the final stages of fire exposure, to thereby preventing sudden collapse of the girder. Rate of deflection based failure criterion governs failure in PC T shaped bridge girders under most hydrocarbon fire exposure conditions. Structural inherent parameters incorporated into sectional configuration can significantly enhance fire resistance of PC bridge girders; thus mitigating fire induced collapse of these bridge girders.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.303-311
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• 2019

The depth of superstructure is the summation of the height of girders and the thickness of the deck floor. In this study, it is aim to determine the maximum span length of girders and minimum depth of the superstructure of prestressed concrete I-girder bridge. For this purpose the superstructure of the bridge with the width of 10m and the thickness of the deck floor of 0.175m, which the girders length was changed by two meter increments between 15m and 35m, was taken into account. Twelve different girders with heights of 60, 75, 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170 and 180 cm, which are frequently used in Turkey, were chosen as girder type. The analyses of the superstructure of prestressed concrete I girder bridge was conducted with I-CAD software. In the analyses AASHTO LRFD (2012) conditions were taken into account a great extent. The dead loads of the structural and non-structural elements forming the bridge superstructure, prestressing force, standard truck load, equivalent lane load and pedestrian load were taken into consideration. HL93, design truck of AASHTO and also H30S24 design truck of Turkish Code were selected as vehicular live load. The allowable concrete stress limit, the number of prestressed strands, the number of debonded strands and the deflection parameters obtained from analyses were compared with the limit values found in AASHTO LRFD (2012) to determine the suitability of the girders. At the end of the study maximum span length of girders and equation using for calculation for minimum depth of the superstructure of prestressed concrete I-girder bridge were proposed.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.295-316
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• 2015

A bridge widening technology using steel-concrete composite system was developed and is presented in this paper. The widened superstructure system consists of a newly built composite steel-concrete girder with concrete deck and steel diaphragms attached to the existing concrete girders. This method has been applied in several bridge widening projects in China, and one of those projects is presented in detail. Due to the higher stiffness-to-weight ratio and the rapid erection of composite girders, this widening method reveals benefits in both mechanical performance and construction. As only a few methods for the design of bridges with different types of girders are recommended in current design codes, a more accurate analytical method of estimating live load distribution on girder bridges was developed. In the analytical model, the effects of span length, girder pacing, diaphragms, concrete decks were considered, as well as the torsional and flexural stiffness of both composite box girders and concrete T girders. The study shows that the AASHTO LRFD specification procedures and the analytical models proposed in this paper closely approximate the live load distribution factors determined by finite element analysis. A parametric study was also conducted using the finite element method to evaluate the potential load carrying capacities of the existing concrete girders after widening.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.395-414
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• 2013

The present study fundamentally investigated the mechanical performance of the rib-stiffened super-wide bridge deck with twin box girders in concrete, which is a very popular application to efficiently widen the bridges with normal span. The shear lag effects of the specific cross-sections were firstly studied. The spatial stress distribution and local stiffness of the bridge deck with twin box girders were then investigated under several typical wheel load conditions. Meanwhile, a comparative study for the bridge deck with and without stiffening ribs was also carried out during the investigation; thereby, a design optimization for the stiffening ribs was further suggested. Finally, aiming at the preliminary design, an approximate methodology to manually calculate the bending moments of the rib-stiffened bridge deck was analytically proposed for engineers to quickly assess its performance. This rib-stiffened bridge deck with twin box girders can be widely applied for concrete (especially concrete cable-stayed) bridges with normal span, however, requiring a super-wide bridge width due to the traffic flow.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.297-313
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• 2011

As bridge conditions in the United States continue to deteriorate, rapid bridge replacement procedures are needed. Decked precast prestressed concrete (DPPC) girders are used for rapid bridge construction because the bridge deck is precast with the girders eliminating the need for a cast-in-place slab. One of the concerns with using DPPC girders as a bridge construction option is the durability of the longitudinal joints between girders. The objectives of this paper were to propose a method to use a spring element modeling procedure for representing welded steel connector assemblies between adjacent girders in DPPC girder bridges, perform a preliminary study of bridge performance under multiple loading scenarios and bridge configurations, and discuss model flexibility for accommodating future field data for model verification. The spring elements have potential to represent the contribution of joint grout materials by altering the spring stiffness.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.2
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• pp.193-204
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• 2019

This paper presents results from experimental and numerical studies on the response of steel-concrete composite box bridge girders under certain localized fire exposure conditions. Two composite box bridge girders, a simply supported girder and a continuous girder respectively, were tested under simultaneous loading and fire exposure. The simply supported girder was exposed to fire over 40% of its span length in the middle zone, and the two-span continuous girder was exposed to fire over 38% of its length of the first span and full length of the second span. A measurement method based on comparative rate of deflection was provided to predict the failure time in the hogging moment zone of continuous composite box bridge girders under certain localized fire exposure condition. Parameters including transverse and longitudinal stiffeners and fire scenarios were introduced to investigate fire resistance of the composite box bridge girders. Test results show that failure of the simply supported girder is governed by the deflection limit state, whereas failure of the continuous girder occurs through bending buckling of the web and bottom slab in the hogging moment zone. Deflection based criterion may not be reliable in evaluating failure of continuous composite box bridge girder under certain fire exposure condition. The fire resistance (failure time) of the continuous girder is higher than that of the simply supported girder. Data from fire tests is successfully utilized to validate a finite element based numerical model for further investigating the response of composite box bridge girders exposed to localized fire. Results from numerical analysis show that fire resistance of composite box bridge girders can be highly influenced by the spacing of longitudinal stiffeners and fire severity. The continuous composite box bridge girder with closer longitudinal stiffeners has better fire resistance than the simply composite box bridge girder. It is concluded that the fire resistance of continuous composite box bridge girders can be significantly enhanced by preventing the hogging moment zone from exposure to fire. Longitudinal stiffeners with closer spacing can enhance fire resistance of composite box bridge girders. The increase of transverse stiffeners has no significant effect on fire resistance of composite box bridge girders.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.353-362
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• 2022

Bridge fire hazard has become a growing concern over the last decade due to the rapid increase of ground transportation of hazardous materials and resulting fire incidents. The lack of fire safety provisions in steel bridges can be a significant issue owing steel thermal properties that lead to fast degradation of steel properties at elevated temperatures. Alternatively, the development of composite action between steel girders and concrete decks can increase the fire resistance of steel bridges and meet fire safety requirements in some applications. This paper reviews the fire problem in steel bridges and the fire behavior of composite steel-concrete bridge girders. A numerical model is developed to trace the fire response of a typical bridge girder and is validated using measurements from fire tests. The selected bridge girder is composed by a hot rolled steel section strengthened with bearing stiffeners at midspan and supports. A concrete slab sitting on the top of the girder is connected to the slab through shear studs to provide full composite action. The validated numerical model was used to investigate the fire resistance of real scale bridge girders and the effect of the composite action under different scenarios (standard and hydrocarbon fires). Results showed that composite action can significantly increase the fire resistance of steel bridge girders. Besides, fire severity played an important role in the fire behavior of composite girders and both factors should be taken into consideration in the design of steel bridges for fire safety.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.469-488
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• 2015

Thermal loads, especially thermal gradients, have a considerable effect on the behaviors of large-scale bridges throughout their lifecycles. Bridge design specifications provide minimal guidance regarding thermal gradients for simple bridge girders and do not consider transversal thermal gradients in wide girder cross-sections. This paper investigates the three-dimensional thermal gradients of arch bridge girders by integrating long-term field monitoring data recorded by a structural health monitoring system, with emphasis on the vertical and transversal thermal gradients of wide concrete-steel composite girders. Based on field monitoring data for one year, the time-dependent characteristics of temperature and three-dimensional thermal gradients in girder cross-sections are explored. A statistical analysis of thermal gradients is conducted, and the probability density functions of transversal and vertical thermal gradients are estimated. The extreme thermal gradients are predicted with a specific return period by employing an extreme value analysis, and the profiles of the vertical thermal gradient are established for bridge design. The transversal and vertical thermal gradients are developed to help engineers understand the thermal behaviors of concrete-steel composite girders during their service periods.