FAILURE TEST OF A JACK-ARCH BRIDGE

An 47-ft. jack-arch bridge was loaded to failure to determine the degree of composite action between the steel beams and their concrete encasement. Measurements included strain in the top and bottom flanges of the beams, midspan deflection of all beams, and end rotation of two beams. Despite the lack of shear connectors, the beam flange strain data demonstrated that the full composite section was active in resisting load. All the collected data support the conclusion that a significant amount of end restraint is present in this nominally simply supported structure. At service loads the structure behaves like a fixed-ended beam. The end restraint dissipates with increasing load. At yield of the tension flange, the centerline moment was only about 80 percent of the simple-beam value. Service-load testing produced values for live-load distribution coefficients that differed from design values. Because of the sparsity of data, however, no changes are proposed. (FHWA)

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Prepared in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, Study Title: Load Rating of Jack Arch Bridges.
• Corporate Authors:

  New York State Department of Transportation

  Engineering Research and Development Bureau, 1220 Washington Avenue
  Albany, NY  United States  12232

  Federal Highway Administration

  Office of Research and Development, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Beal, D B
• Publication Date: 1984-2

Media Info

• Pagination: 26 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arch bridges; Deflection; Engineering moments; Failure; Flanges; Mechanical tests; Rotation; Strain (Mechanics)
• Uncontrolled Terms: Destructive testing; Steel beams
• Old TRIS Terms: Moments; Strains
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways; I24: Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00392207
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-NY-RR-84-110 Intrm Rpt., FCP 45K2-042
• Files: TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Feb 28 1985 12:00AM