Experimental study and analysis for the long-term behavior of the steel–concrete composite girder bridge

Abstract

Due to the influence of the meteorological factors, the long-term behaviors of steel–concrete composite girders of the real bridge is different from that of indoor laboratory models. In order to address this issue, a long-term field test of 4 years was performed on the simply-supported steel–concrete composite girder bridge to study the temperature, shrinkage and creep effects. The temperature field models (TFM) and mechanical behavior models (MBM) were built in sequence and verified by the test results of the concrete deck and steel girders of 2018 and 2019 since the temperature and strain changed greatly during this period. The temperature calculated by the TFM agreed well with the test results. Although the stress of composite girders obtained by the test is different from that of the MBM, the difference in the whole service stage is small. The test results of the steel cross beam, the steel–concrete interface, the wet joint and the concrete continuous layer were also discussed, and the former three were all under compressive state, while the concrete continuous layer is under tensile state in some time period with the maximum tensile stress 3.12 MPa. Then, the verified models were used to separate the temperature strain from the long-term tested strain, and the remaining tested strain is the shrinkage and creep strain. In summer and winter, the shrinkage and creep stress calculated by the age-adjusted effective modulus method (AEMM) was different from the tested values due to the influence of air humidity, initial load age, stress level and inherent error of the prediction model. Much attention should be paid to the influence of the meteorological factors on the long-term behaviors of steel–concrete composite girder bridges.