Analysis of continuous PC box girder bridges with CSWs by using equivalent computational model

Abstract

The widespread usage of prestressed concrete (PC) box girder with corrugated steel webs (CSWs) can be attributed to its many remarkable merits over traditional concrete box girders, such as significantly reducing the deadweight of the girder, speeding up the construction process, avoiding the problem of web cracking and increasing the prestress introduction efficiency. Numerous previous studies were conducted to investigated the mechanical properties of CSWs as well as simply supported box girder bridges with CSWs, whereas very few studies focused on the FE modeling methods of continuous PC box girders with CSWs. In addition, experimental work on scale bridge models or full-scale bridges adopting the box girder with CSWs is very limited. In this paper, an equivalent orthotropic web (EOW) model was developed for CSWs and used to analyze the performance of the continuous PC box girder bridges with CSWs. To verify this model, a one-tenth-scale bridge model was developed for an existing continuous PC box girder bridge with CSWs. Both static and dynamic tests were carried out on this scale bridge model. The results obtained from the bridge finite element (FE) model with EOWs were compared to the results obtained from the bridge FE model with CSWs and also the experimental results from the scale bridge model. Good agreement was achieved between these results, indicating that the EOW model can provide a trustworthy and convenient tool in the FE analysis of PC continuous box girder bridges with CSWs.