Effect of holes and segmentation on the structural behavior of a prestressed concrete girder

Abstract

The developed Holed, Incrementally Prestressed Concrete (H-IPC) girder represents various advanced design concepts. First, the entire self-weight can be considerably reduced by introducing holes in the web, with minimal effect on the moment of inertia. Also, prestress can be efficiently introduced in an incremental way by distributing the anchorages at the holes. The girder can maintain the same sections throughout the span by preventing concentration of the anchorages. This can further reduce self-weight, fabricating time, and cost. Furthermore, the spliced girder system makes it possible to extend the span to more than the conventional length since the segments can be transported and prefabricated on site. The objective of this study is to verify the various advantages of the original design concepts by examining the structural behavior obtained from the loading tests of the 50 m-long full-scale girder specimens. The effect of the holes in the web on overall behavior is one of the main concerns in the test. The test results of a segmented specimen are also compared with those of a non-segmented specimen to investigate the effect of segmentation. It is demonstrated that the segmental H-IPC girder can be effectively used for the design and construction of long-span girder bridges.