Performance Evaluation through Field Testing of Century-Old Railroad Truss Bridge
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 13, Issue 2
Abstract
Research has been carried out to evaluate the structural behavior and influence of aging on a century-old steel railroad truss bridge. The structure is located in Connecticut and services a large number of trains traveling into and out of New York City. The trusses are made of built-up members, with either multiple eyebars or laced channel sections. All panel point connections are joined with true pins and the interior panels are indeterminate. The bridge had experienced problems relating to the lateral shifting of some of the middepth pins. This study was carried out to evaluate the structural behavior and live load distribution throughout the bridge. A major component of the research involved extensive field monitoring. The results show that the actual live load distribution is significantly different than expected from conventional analytical approaches that were most likely used in the original design. The load distribution in multiple eyebar elements is far from uniform, and the distribution of shear through indeterminate panels is significantly different than expected from a normal truss analysis. Significant out-of-plane bending was found in the truss due to floorbeam end rotations, which is thought to be the major factor that is causing the pins to move. The study shows the necessity of using field monitoring to better understand the behavior of older bridges prior to the design of renovation approaches.
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Acknowledgments
This study was carried out as part of a continuing twenty-year research program that has been a joint effort between researchers at the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The Connecticut Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration have provided funding for this work. The study reported in this paper is part of the research for the MS thesis of the first writer. The field monitoring was carried out by M. R. DelGrego, J. Mao, and C. Virkler, all graduate research assistants at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut, and P. F. D’Attilio and E. G. Feldblum, Division of Research, Connecticut Department of Transportation. The assistance of the Connecticut Transportation Institute, located at the University of Connecticut, is acknowledged. The writers are grateful for the opportunity to use some of the test data from the experimental study to explore the behavior of the century-old truss. All opinions and conclusions are those of the writers.
References
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 13 • Issue 2 • March 2008
Pages: 132 - 138
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 3, 2006
Accepted: Apr 25, 2007
Published online: Mar 1, 2008
Published in print: Mar 2008
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