An Approach to Preliminary Design of Precast Pretensioned Concrete Bridge Girders

Abstract

Abstract: This paper presents an approach to the preliminary design of simple span precast pretensioned highway bridge girders using mathematical optimization methods. This type of bridge system is competitive for short and medium spans but also can accommodate long‐span bridges if girder splicing and continuity are introduced. The bridge design problem is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem and is solved by the projected lagrangian algorithm. Several design objectives are investigated either separately or simultaneously with the aim of achieving cost‐efficient bridge designs. The approach is used to generate a new set of five optimal girder sections and then to determine the girder spacing and span length capability of each precast girder. The five sections types (A, B, C, D, and E) proposed herein are more cost‐effective than the corresponding Canadian standard sections because for similar depths they achieve greater span length and girder spacing while requiring less concrete and prestressing steel. This study also enables identification of the governing design requirements (serviceability and/or ultimate limit states active constraints) that may be adopted as optimality criteria when simplified preliminary designs of this bridge type for different design codes and girder sections are required.