Continuous Box Girder Research Articles

Experimental and Simulation Analysis of Prestressed Concrete Continuous Box Girder Bridge

Experimental and Simulation Analysis of Prestressed Concrete Continuous Box Girder Bridge

Considering Low Frequency Sound Propagation in Bridge Design

This paper investigates low frequency sounds radiated from a two-span continuous steel box girder bridge, three-span continuous steel plate girder bridge and three-span continuous prestressed concrete bridge. Those three bridges were selected as candidate bridges crossing a rural town. Velocity responses of bridges are estimated by a three-dimensional traffic-induced bridge vibration analysis, and those velocity responses are used in the frequency-domain sound propagation analysis by means of boundary element method. The propagation of sound pressure in the time-domain was also investigated. The inverse fast Fourier transformation was used to convert the sound pressure in the frequency-domain to the sound pressure at any point around the bridges in the time-domain. The analytical study showed that the lowest sound pressure level among three bridges was observed at the two-span continuous steel box girder bridge demonstrated.

Influence Lines of Bridges with Box-Girder Cross-Section under Torsion and Distortion

Influence lines of torsion and distortion internal forces of large concrete and steel cable-stayed bridges with continuous box-girders. Application for real bridges: (i) steel SNP bridge over river Danube in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, (ii) concrete Harp bridge over pond Jordán near Tábor, Czech Republic.

7-Span Continuous PC Box Girder High-Speed Railway Bridge Sharing Substructure with Road Bridge─Hokuriku Shinkansen Kuzuryugawa Bridge─

7-Span Continuous PC Box Girder High-Speed Railway Bridge Sharing Substructure with Road Bridge─Hokuriku Shinkansen Kuzuryugawa Bridge─

Short- and long-term analyses of shear lag in RC box girders considering axial equilibrium

An analytical method considering axial equilibrium is proposed for the short- and long-term analyses of shear lag effect in reinforced concrete (RC) box girders. The axial equilibrium of box girders is taken into account by using an additional generalized displacement, referred to as the longitudinal displacement of the web. Three independent shear lag functions are introduced to describe different shear lag intensities of the top, bottom, and cantilever plates. The time-dependent material properties of the concrete are simulated by the age-adjusted effective modulus method (AEMM), while the reinforcement is assumed to behave in a linear-elastic fashion. The differential equations are derived based on the longitudinal displacement of the web, the vertical displacement of the cross section, and the shear lag functions of the flanges. The time-dependent expressions of the generalized displacements are then deduced for box girders subjected to uniformly distributed loads. The accuracy of the proposed method is validated against the finite element results regarding the short- and long-term responses of a simply-supported RC box girder. Furthermore, creep analyses considering and neglecting shrinkage are performed to quantify the time effects on the long-term behavior of a continuous RC box girder. The results show that the proposed method can well evaluate both the short- and long-term behavior of box girders, and that concrete shrinkage has a considerable impact on the concrete stresses and internal forces, while concrete creep can remarkably affect the long-term deflections.

连续曲线钢箱梁桥车桥耦合动力响应参数分析

采用七自由度空间曲梁单元和七自由度车辆模型模拟桥梁和车辆，基于频率功率谱等效的方法模拟桥面不平度，分析了连续曲线钢箱梁的车桥耦合动力响应，建立起车桥耦合系统动力学模型，经自编程序对其进行动力响应研究。结果表明：当桥梁曲率半径小于某定值后，其各项响应量值将迅速增大，且扭矩的动力放大效应要大于弯矩；桥梁位移动力放大系数随横向加载车道数的减小而增大，随纵向车辆行驶间距的增大而增大，但响应量值大大减小。 By simulating the bridge with 7-DOF spatial curved beam element and the vehicle with 7-DOF ve-hicle model, the vehicle-bridge coupled dynamic response of continuous curve steel box girder bridge was investigated. As vibration source, the road irregularity was simulated by frequency power spectrum equivalent method. The vehicle-bridge coupled dynamics model was established and its dynamic response was studied by self-compiled program. The results show, when bridge curve radius is less than a fixed value, its various responsive values increase rapidly, and the dynamic magnified factor (DMF) of torque is larger than bending moment; the DMF increases with the decrease of transversal loaded-lane-number and the increase of longitudinal vehicle distance, but corresponding responsive value is greatly reduced.

Damage identification and bearing capacity evaluation of bridges based on distributed long-gauge strain envelope line under moving vehicle loads

In this article, a new method to identify damage and assess the bearing capacity of a bridge is put forward, and the long-gauge strain influence line coefficient is chosen as the damage index. First, the relationship between the local element bending stiffness and long-gauge strain was studied according to the theory of the strain influence line under moving vehicle loads. Then, the static strain response is extracted from the long-gauge strain history using empirical mode decomposition method, and the maximum value is used to construct the strain envelope coefficient curve. A series of studies on damage identification and bearing capacity assessment based on the long-gauge strain envelope coefficient index are conducted, and a real bridge test is carried out on a continuous box girder bridge. The numerical analysis and practical bridge test results show that the method exhibits good performance in locating and quantifying damage, and that it has engineering significance in bearing capacity evaluation and post-bridge structure reinforcement design.

Study of vertical bending vibration behavior of continuous prestressed concrete box girders with corrugated steel webs

Prestressed concrete girders with corrugated steel webs have received considerable attention in the past two decades due to their light self-weight and high prestressing efficiency. Most previous studies were focused on the static behavior of corrugated steel webs and simple beams with corrugated steel webs. The natural frequencies are very important characteristics when evaluating the dynamic responses of a bridge under external loads; however, very few studies have been conducted to investigate the dynamic behavior of full prestressed concrete girders or bridges with corrugated steel webs, and no simple formulas are available for estimating the natural frequencies of prestressed concrete girder bridges with corrugated steel webs. In addition, experimental work on full-scale bridges or scale bridge models is very limited. In this article, formulas for predicting the vertical bending vibration frequencies of prestressed concrete box girders with corrugated steel webs are proposed based on Hamilton’s energy variational principle. A one-tenth scale model is developed for an existing prestressed concrete box-girder bridge with corrugated steel webs. The frequencies predicted by the proposed formulas are compared to the finite element analysis results and also the experimental results from the scale bridge model. Good agreement is achieved between these results, indicating that the proposed formulas can provide a reliable and efficient tool to predict the vertical bending vibration frequencies of prestressed concrete box-girder bridges with corrugated steel webs.

The smart PFD with LRB for seismic protection of the horizontally curved bridge

Recently, number of smart material are investigated and widely used in civil construction and other industries. Present study investigates the application of smart semi-active piezoelectric friction damper (PFD) made with piezoelectric material for the seismic control of the horizontally curved bridge isolated with lead rubber bearing (LRB). The main aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of hybrid system and to find out the optimum parameters of PFD for seismic control of the curved bridge. The selected curved bridge is a continuous three-span concrete box girder supported on pier and rigid abutment. The PFD is located between the deck and abutments or piers in chord and radial directions. The bridge is excited with four different earthquake ground motions with all three components (i.e. two horizontal and a vertical) having different characteristics. It is observed that the use of semi-active PFD with LRB is quite effective in controlling the response of the curved bridge as compared with passive system. The incorporation of the smart damper requiring small amount of energy in addition with an isolation system can be used for effective control the curved bridge against the dynamic loading.

Long-Term Monitoring of Composite Bridge across Odra River on the D47 Freeway

The article presents the results and analysis of long-term monitoring of the bridge across the Odra River on the D47 freeway in the Czech Republic near Ostrava. Structural system of this bridge is formed by a continuous composite box girder with spans from 49 to 102 m. Total length of the bridge is 402 m. The bridge was equipped by strain gauges and force sensors during the construction. The monitoring has been kept on for 10 years. The measured values are compared with the results of calculations.

Seismic protection of the horizontally curved bridge with semi-active variable stiffness damper and isolation system

Seismic vibration due to earthquake can damage the curved bridges that are the main interconnecting component for traffic separation structures of the urban highway system. Failure of bridges during and after a seismic event is vulnerable as bridges are lifeline structures. This work investigates the application of semi-active variable stiffness damper for a seismic control of the horizontally curved bridge isolated with different passive devices. The main objectives of the study are to investigate the effectiveness of the hybrid system and to find the optimum hybrid system for the seismic control of the curved bridge with different control laws of a damper. The selected bridge is a three-span continuous concrete box girder supported on pier and rigid abutment. The bridge deck is modeled as a single spine beam and the supporting pier is modeled as linear lumped mass system. The bridge is excited with four different ground motions having different ground motion characteristics with all three-ground motion components (horizontal as well as vertical). The results of the analysis demonstrate that the use of semi-active variable stiffness damper with different isolators is very effective in controlling the response of the curved bridge. The combination of semi-active variable stiffness damper and lead rubber bearing can provide an effective way for overall seismic control of the curved bridge. The use of modified switching control law for damper is as effective as switching control law with less number of sensors.

A comparative study between structural properties of pre-tensioned inverted T-girder and actual post-tensioned box girder in bridge construction

In this study a full scale 3D analysis of post-tensioned box section and pre-tensioned inverted T-girder section is carried out by considering only vertical loadings. The aim of this research is to investigate long span box Girder Bridge with pre-tensioned inverted T-girder using splicing technique. 4 lanes of 150m long (3 spans @ 50 m) post-tensioned box girder bridge with 12 cells and 13.54 m wide deck is considered as the bridge model and that the equivalent box section consists of 13 numbers of inverted pre-tensioned girder having two different lengths spliced at the points of inflection of continuous length of the bridge. The inverted T-girders are used to support the deck panel with superimposed load on it. The structural analysis of the bridge is done using CSi Bridge employing Integrated 3D Bridge Design Software based on finite element method for both longitudinal and transverse direction. In the analysis, AASHTO LRFD-2006 is used by subjecting Uniformly Distributed Load (UDL), edge loads, knife edge loads, and heavy vehicles load on the bridge deck. Moving vehicles load is placed at different locations to determine the maximum and minimum moments, stresses and flexural effects. Actual post-tensioned box section flexure, shear, torsion and stress in both longitudinal and transverse analyses showed lower values when compared to pre-tensioned inverted T-girder section. Assuming monolithic behaviour, the actual box section provided better stiffness rather than equivalent one. Nevertheless composite behaviour of the equivalent section can be accepted as an alternative solution for long span continuous box Girder Bridge where cost is a major factor in particular.

Bending, Shear and Patch Loading Interaction Behaviour of Slender Steel Sections

The new Hárosi Danube bridge on the M0 highway around Budapest has been designed and erected between 2010-2012. The superstructure of the bridge is a continuous steel box girder with 3 spans (3 x 108.5 m). The independent static check in the final stage and during the launching phases are made by the BME Department of Structural Engineering. The current paper focuses on the numerical modelling technique and on the specialities of the static check of this bridge structure during launching. An additional research program is also related to the static check of this bridge structure, which was made in cooperation with the University of Stuttgart and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. During launching nearly all cross-sections come at least once over a support where a concentrated reaction force, large bending moment and shear forces are introduced and hereby buckling problems may arise in the slender web panel. In the current version of EN1993-1-5 [1] there is no standard design method to take the interaction of these three effects into account. Therefore our research work focuses on the interaction behaviour of longitudinally unstiffened and stiffened steel girders under the combination of bending, shear and patch loading.

Loading Test of the Rákóczi Danube Bridge in Budapest

In frame of the tramway network development in Budapest a new tramway line has been established on the south part of Budapest, which crosses the Danube on the Rákóczi-bridge. The bridge superstructure is a continuous double-cell steel box girder having 6 spans with the largest span of 98.52 m. The bridge was originally designed to carry four traffic and two tramway lanes, however the tramway line was only built on the bridge in 2015 and opened for the traffic with an increased tramway load level than originally planned. Related to this tramway network development the required static calculations and the loading test of the Rákóczi-bridge was executed by the BME Department of Structural Engineering. A complex loading test program was developed to check the static and dynamic behaviour of the bridge structure using 20 trucks and 4 trams having the total weight of 1040 tons. The loading test program involved local and global loading conditions investigating the local and global structural behaviour of the bridge under the combined effect of the truck and tramway loads. An extended dynamic loading test program was also carried out to investigate the dynamic behaviour of the bridge under the trucks and tramways separately. The current paper focuses on the results of this complex loading test program.

Numerical and Experimental Modeling of the Static Response of Simply Supported Thin-Walled Box Girder Bridges

This paper presents numerical and experimental modeling of the static response of simply supported thin-walled reinforced concrete box girder bridges. The work is executed to verify the validity of software developed by the authors for the finite strip analysis of continuous thin-walled box girder bridges and also to observe the effect of flange width on the static response of these type of structural elements under service load from experimental and numerical studies. The laboratory load/deformation relationship is presented in the form of deflection ratios that is displayed alongside the finite strip analysis results of the same loading condition. The results obtained from the laboratory experiment and the software showed very good agreement and are, averagely, 21.5% and 19.5% higher than that of the beam theory solution respectively. Verification of the software with published solutions is also conducted. The results from the developed software showed very good agreement with literature in terms of deflection and stress distributions. These results suggest that the effect of shear deformation, which is more significant on deflection than on stresses, increases with increase in flange width and that the developed software is capable of capturing the general behavior of thin-walled box girder bridges. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v34i4. 4

Analysis and monitoring on jacking construction of continuous box girder bridge

It is hard to guarantee the strict synchronization of all the jacking-up points in the integral jacking of a large-span continuous box girder bridge. This paper took the Hengliaojing Bridge as background, which need jacking up as an object with 295m length and more than 10,000tons weight, adopted 3D software to calculate the unsynchronized jacking-up working conditions, and studied the relationships between the unsynchronized vertical difference and the girder's deformation behaviour. The aim is to verify the maximum value of the unsynchronized vertical difference, and guide the construction and ensure safety. The monitoring system with its contents is introduced corresponding to the analysis. The results of the deck relative elevations prove that it is difficult to avoid the deck torsional deformation for jacking different; especially the side span shows more deformations for its smaller stiffness. The maximum difference is smaller than the limited value with acceptable stresses in the sections. The jacking heights of the pier in each construction step are controlled regularly according to the design. The shifting of the whole bridge in longitudinal direction is smaller than in transverse direction. The several beginning steps are the key to adjust their support reactions. This study is one parts of the fundamental research for the code "Technical specification for bridge jacking-up and reposition of China". The whole synchronous jacking project of the main bridge set a world record by the World Record Association for the whole bridge jacking project with the longest span of the world.

BEHAVIOR OF WEBS OF BOX-GIRDER SPAN DURING LAUNCHING

The results of observation on the behavior of web cambers of continuous box girder superstructure 964 m long of Kama Bridge at city Perm during longitudinal launching are presented.

Special Issue on Design, Analysis, and Construction of Segmental Bridges

Special Issue on Design, Analysis, and Construction of Segmental Bridges

Numerical Analysis of the Moving Formwork Bracket Stress during Construction of a Curved Continuous Box Girder Bridge with Variable Width

This paper is based on a curved continuous box girder with variable width. The bracket stress in the process during construction in mobile formwork system is monitored and analyzed. It has elaborated the contents which mobile formwork bracket monitored and methods in the construction of curved continuous box girder with variable width. The bracket stress was analyzed using the numerical analysis method. Accordingly, the theoretical value related to bracket stress is calculated by finite element software-Midas Civil 2010. The model of the combination of transverse and longitudinal shift is put forward, which ensures the security of mobile formwork during construction. A real-time monitoring system is established, and reasonable warning value is set. Furthermore, the data related to bracket stress is measured. Eventually, comparing the values of the field measurement with the one of theoretical calculation, we concluded that the bracket remained safe in the construction process. The analysis of the bracket will afford the experience for the similar bridge constructions and embody preferable practical value.

Influence of Longitudinal Cracks in Bottom Flange of Concrete Continuous Box Girder

Longitudinal crack in bottom flange is one of the most common defects in concrete box girder bridges. This paper focuses on the influence of the longitudinal cracks on the mechanical properties of box girder using numerical method. Smear crack model and strain softening model was employed to simulate cracking process. Parameter analysis was also carried out to study the effect of length, crack depth and amounts of cracks in bottom flange. The results indicate longitudinal cracks in one span have a significant effect on the transverse stress and deflection, but have little effect on the other spans. The negative effects of longitudinal cracks increase with the crack length and depth. When the crack length is up to 10% of the girder span, the deflection of the span amplifies to 13%. Compared with the length and depth, the amounts of cracks don’t have much influence on the deformation of girder but affect stress.