Analysis of Curved Box Girder Bridges

A discrete strip energy method is presented for the analysis of curved box girder bridges of arbitrary cross section and various forms of curved folded plate structures simply supported at the two ends and composed of elements that may, in general, be segments of conical frustra. The method is based on harmonic analysis in the circumferential direction. The total potential energy of the structure is discretized into energy due to extension and bending and energy due to shear and twisting. The two types of circumferential strip elements are obtained by using a modified finite difference discretization in the transverse direction. The use of minimum energy principles yields two types of element matrices which are assembled to form the overall stiffness matrix of the structure following stiffness matrix procedures. Results of two examples obtained by the method are compared with available solutions.