Serviceability and Ultimate Safety Checks of Segmental Concrete Bridges through N-M and M-V Interaction Domains

Abstract

AbstractIn current engineering practice, safety checks on serviceability and determinations of ultimate limit states of segmental bridges built by cantilevering are generally performed, either considering separately the contributions of axial force N, bending moment M, and shear force V, or considering the interaction effects through approximate expressions supplied by building codes. During construction stages and service life, the interaction between internal forces can be of fundamental importance in establishing the actual degree of structural safety and, for this reason, a different philosophy for performing checks in segmental bridges is proposed in this paper, plotting N-M and M-V interaction domains for cracking, construction stages, and serviceability (elastic domains) as well as M-V interaction domains for ultimate limit states (failure domains). Delayed deformations as a result of creep are considered, as are bonded and unbonded prestressing. A model is developed for plotting bending-shear doma...