New Methodology for Calculation of Required Prestressing Levels in Continuous Precast Bridge Decks
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 11
Abstract
The calculation of minimum required prestressing levels in prestressed bridge deck girders is usually governed by serviceability requirements in terms of allowable stress levels. In the case of continuous structures, different quantities of prestressing steels have to be quantified for different critical locations and, owing to the structure hyperstaticity, the prestressing force required for a given critical cross section depends on the quantities of prestressing steels adopted in the remainder of the structure. This paper presents a feasible methodology for quantification of the minimum required prestress forces for different critical cross sections, avoiding the use of iterative procedures. A methodology for taking into account the variability of the structure response, owing to the uncertainty associated with the quantification of creep, shrinkage, and construction timings is also presented. Monte Carlo simulations, based on the Latin Hypercube sampling method, are used in the calculation of the statistical distribution of the long-term structure response. Two case studies are presented to show the relevance of the aforementioned variability and its consequences in terms of minimum required prestressing levels.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
Support from the Portuguese agency Agência de Inovação, through the research project Innovative Precast Solutions for High Speed Railway Lines (which is being developed in cooperation with the precast company MEBEP), is gratefully acknowledged.
References
Bazant, Z. P., and Kim, J. K. (1989). “Segmental box girder: Deflection probability and Bayesian updating.” J. Struct. Eng., 115(10), 2528–2547.
Bazant, Z. P., and Liu, K. L. (1985). “Random creep and shrinkage in structures: Sampling.” J. Struct.Eng., 111(5), 1113–1134.
Borst, R. (1991). Computational methods in non-linear solid mechanics. Part 2: Physical non-linearity, Delft Univ. of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.
CEB. (1993). CEB-FIB model code 1990, Thomas Telford, London.
Cruz, P. J., and Wisniewski, D. F. (2004). “Ave River Bridge—a major precast prestressed concrete U-girder bridge in Portugal.” PCI J., 49(4), 72–85.
European Committee for Standardization (CEN). (2003). “Actions on structures. Part 2: Traffic loads on bridges.” EN 1991-2 Eurocode 1, Brussels, Belgium.
European Committee for Standardization (CEN). (2004). “Design of concrete structures. Part 1-1: General rules for buildings.” EN 1992-1-1 Eurocode 2, Brussels, Belgium.
Freyermuth, A. H. (1969). “Design of continuous highway bridges with precast, prestressed concrete girders.” PCI J., 14(2), 14–39.
Ghali, A., Favre, R., and Elbadry, M. (2002). Concrete structures: Stresses and deformations, 3rd Ed., Spon, London.
Haldar, A., and Mahadevan, S. (2000). Probability, reliability and statistical methods in engineering design, Wiley, New York.
Hastak, M., Mirmiran, A., Miller, R., Shah, R., and Castrodale, R. (2003). “State of practice for positive moment connections in prestressed concrete girders made continuous.” J. Bridge Eng., 8(5), 267–272.
International Federation for Structural Concrete (FIB). (2012). Model code 2010 final draft, Vol. 2. FIB Bulletin No. 66, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Kwak, H. G., and Seo, Y. J. (2000). “Long-term behavior of composite girder bridges.” Comp. Struct., 74(5), 583–599.
Madsen, H. O., and Bazant, Z. P. (1982). “Uncertainty analysis of creep and shrinkage effects in concrete structures.” ACI J., 80(2), 116–127.
Marí, A. R. (2000). “Numerical simulation of the segmental construction of three-dimensional concrete frames.” Eng. Struct., 22(6), 585–596.
McDonagh, M. D., and Hinkley, K. B. (2003). “Resolving restraint moments and designing for continuity in precast prestressed concrete girder bridges.” PCI J., 48(4), 2–17.
McKay, M. D., Beckman, R. J., and Conover, W. J. (1979). “A comparison of three methods for selecting values of input variables in the analysis of output from a computer code.” Technometrics, 21(2), 239–245.
Mindlin, R. D. (1951). “Influence of rotatory inertia and shear on flexural motions of isotropic, elastic plates.” J. Appl. Mech., 18, 31–38.
Mirmiran, A., Kulkarni, S., Castrodale, R., Miller, R., and Hastak, M. (2001). “Nonlinear continuity analysis of precast, prestressed concrete girders with cast-in-place decks and diaphragms.” PCI J., 46(5), 60–80.
Montgomery, D. C., and Runger, G. C. (2011). Applied statistics and probability for engineers, 5th Ed., Wiley, New York.
Nowak, A. S., and Collins, K. R. (2000). Reliability of structures, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, New York.
Oh, B. H., and Yang, I. (2000). “Sensitivity analysis of time-dependent behavior in PSC box girder bridges.” J. Struct. Eng., 126(2), 171–179.
Osterle, R. G., Gilkin, J. D., and Larson, S. C. (1989). “Design of precast-prestressed bridge girders made continuous.” NCHRP Rep. No. 322, National Research Council, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Pan, Z., Fu, C. C., and Jiang, Y. (2011). “Uncertainty analysis of creep and shrinkage effects in long-span continuous rigid frame of Sutong Bridge.” J. Bridge Eng., 16(2), 248–258.
Sousa, C., and Serra Neves, A. (2006). “Nonlinear probabilistic analysis of precast prestressed girders made continuous.” IBRACON Struct. J., 2(1), 79–94.
Sousa, H., Sousa, C., Serra Neves, A., Bento, J., and Figueiras, J. (2013): “Long-term monitoring and assessment of a precast continuous viaduct.” Struct. Infrastruct. Eng., 9(8), 777–793.
Sousa, C., Sousa, H., Serra Neves, A., and Figueiras, J. (2012). “Numerical evaluation of the long-term behavior of precast continuous bridge decks.” J. Bridge Eng., 17(1), 89–96.
Takács, P. F. (2002). “Deformations in concrete cantilever bridges: Observations and theoretical modeling.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Structural Engineering, Norwegian Univ. of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
TNO DIANA BV. (2007). “DIANA user’s manual, Rel. 9.2.” Delft, Netherlands.
Tsubaki, T. (1988). “Probabilistic models.” Mathematical modeling of creep and shrinkage of concrete, Z. P. Bazant, ed., Wiley, New York.
Wisniewski, D. F. (2007). “Safety formats for the assessment of concrete bridges with special focus on precast concrete.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal.
Yang, I. H. (2007). “Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of time-dependent effects in concrete structures.” Eng. Struct., 29(7), 1366–1374.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 18 • Issue 11 • November 2013
Pages: 1219 - 1226
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 19, 2012
Accepted: Jan 14, 2013
Published online: Jan 16, 2013
Published in print: Nov 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.