Abstract
Curved steel–concrete composite box beams are widely used in urban overpasses and ramp bridges. In contrast to straight composite beams, curved composite box beams exhibit complex mechanical behavior with bending–torsion coupling, including constrained torsion, distortion, and interfacial biaxial slip. The shear-lag effect and curvature variation in the radial direction should be taken into account when the beam is sufficiently wide. Additionally, long-term deflection has been observed in curved composite box beams due to the shrinkage and creep effects of the concrete slab. In this paper, an equilibrium equation for a theoretical model of curved composite box beams is proposed according to the virtual work principle. The finite element method is adopted to obtain the element stiffness matrix and nodal load matrix. The age-adjusted effective modulus method is introduced to address the concrete creep effects. This 26-DOF finite beam element model is able to simulate the constrained torsion, distortion, interfacial biaxial slip, shear lag, and time-dependent effects of curved composite box beams and account for curvature variation in the radial direction. An elaborate finite element model of a typical curved composite box beam is established. The correctness and applicability of the proposed finite beam element model is verified by comparing the results from the proposed beam element model to those from the elaborate finite element model. The proposed beam element model is used to analyze the long-term behavior of curved composite box beams. The analysis shows that significant changes in the displacement, stress and shear-lag coefficient occur in the curved composite beams within the first year of loading, after which the variation tendency becomes gradual. Moreover, increases in the central angle and shear connection stiffness both reduce the change rates of displacement and stress with respect to time.
Highlights
Curved steel–concrete composite box beams have gradually become one of the main design types for urban overpasses and ramp bridges due to their light weight, high torsional rigidity, and rapid construction
For a steel–concrete composite structure, longitudinal and transverse slips exist at the interface between the steel beam and the concrete slab of the curved composite box beam
This paper introduces a constitutive relationship for concrete shrinkage and creep on the basis of the proposed beam finite element and further develops a new finite beam element that can consider the long-term behavior of curved composite box beams
Summary
Curved steel–concrete composite box beams have gradually become one of the main design types for urban overpasses and ramp bridges due to their light weight, high torsional rigidity, and rapid construction. Introduced a time-dependent constitutive model and established a one-dimensional theoretical model that can consider the shear-lag effect and the long-term behavior Based on this model, the long-term behavior of composite beams was studied under prestressed loads [14]. Gara et al [15] introduced a shape function to develop a beam element with 13 DOFs that can consider the interfacial slip in composite beams and the shear-lag effect of concrete slabs and analyzed the long-term behavior of the structure by using a stepwise calculation method. Ranzi and Bradford [16] proposed beam elements for the long-term behavior of composite beams, considering interfacial slip and concrete time-dependent effects according to the direct stiffness method and single-step method.
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