Study on the effect of length–short side ratio on the fatigue performance of the rib girder bridge's carriageway slab

Abstract

PurposeThe fatigue problems of the carriageway slabs of reinforced concrete rib-beam bridges were studied. The analysis of the carriageway slabs could not achieve the actual stress state.Design/methodology/approachBased on this characteristic, the reinforced concrete T-beam group structure system was taken as the research object. Four scale models of the carriageway slabs of reinforced concrete ribbed bridges were designed. The fatigue failure modes and actual fatigue resistance of the carriageway slabs with different length-to-side ratios were systematically studied through static load and fatigue experiments. Based on this, the concrete damage plasticity model (CDP model) was combined with numerical simulation analysis to study the influence of the length-to-short-side ratio of the carriageway slab on the fatigue performance and the remaining bearing capacity.FindingsThe results show that the fatigue failure of the carriageway slab is a three-stage failure; the ratio of the long and short sides has a significant effect on the fatigue performance of the carriageway slab. Under the same fatigue load level, the smaller the ratio of the long and short sides of the carriageway slab.Originality/valueThe fatigue resistance of the unidirectional board is significantly lower than that of the bidirectional board. It is recommended to use the bidirectional board in actual engineering design.