Ultimate Flexural Capacity of a Severely Damaged Reinforced Concrete T-Girder Bridge
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 22, Issue 5
Abstract
Rational and precise evaluation for ultimate flexural capacity is essential for accurate prediction of the safety margin and overload capacity of existing bridges. One of the spans of a 28- year-old distressed simply supported T-girder bridge with a span of 20 m was severely damaged, and the decision to replace it with new one was made. A field destructive load test of this distressed span was performed. A nonlinear finite-element model technique was used to predict the failure load and retrace the load-versus-deflection response. The ultimate flexural capacity obtained by the destructive load test was compared with the results of a limit-states design method. The comparison revealed that the ultimate flexural capacity of the distressed bridge was more than the bending moment produced by the combined effect of self-weight and overloaded vehicles plying over it, which explains why the bridge supported overloaded vehicles for many years.
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Acknowledgments
This study is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 51508350, 51508351, and 51408379).
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 22 • Issue 5 • May 2017
Copyright
© 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 1, 2016
Accepted: Nov 16, 2016
Published online: Feb 3, 2017
Published in print: May 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 3, 2017
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