Composite concrete deck-over steel box girder bridges are used in curved alignments as an economical solution because of their high flexural and torsional strength. Curvature effects on bending, shear, and deflection may be ignored for bridges with light curvature. Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC), AASHTO Guide Specifications for Horizontally Curved Bridges, and AASHTO-LRFD Bridge Design Specifications specify limitations to treat a horizontally curved bridge as a straight one in structural design for only girder bending moment. Also, CHBDC curvature limitation does not differentiate between open- and closed bridge cross-sections. The curvature limitation of the ASSHTO Guide does not consider the effect of bridge width, leading to an inaccurate estimate of the structural response. To investigate the accuracy of these curvature limitations, a series of horizontally curved composite steel box-girder bridges were analyzed using finite-element modeling. The key parameters considered in this study were the degree of curvature and bridge span, width, and continuity. Longitudinal bending stresses, support reactions, deflections, and frequencies were determined and compared with those obtained for straight bridges of identical configurations. Results showed that code curvature limits were unsafe and needed to be updated. Empirical expressions were developed to determine curvature limits more accurately and reliably.
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