Experimental Investigation of Redundancy of Twin Steel Box-Girder Bridges Under Concentrated Load
Twin steel box-girder bridges are classified as fracture critical bridges in which a failure of an element member would be expected to cause a portion of or entire bridge to collapse based on the definition given in AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications. However, a number of such bridges with a partial or even full-depth crack in one girder, which didn’t collapse and still carried a substantial amount of load, have been reported. Plus, the test data regarding the behavior of fractured twin steel box-girder bridges subjected to concentrated load is very scarce. For these reasons, a series of elastic tests, a cyclic test, and ultimate load tests on small-scale twin steel box-girder bridge specimens were carried out to investigate the behavior and the redundancy of twin steel box-girder bridges, especially under concentrated load. The ultimate objective of the project is to develop overall strategies to assess the redundancy of two steel box girder bridges. In this paper, only the results from elastic and cyclic tests are discussed. The results from elastic tests showed that twin steel box-girder bridges didn’t collapse immediately as a result of fracture of one tension member even under the worst-case scenario. The deck and the intact girder together were able to provide stability and load-carrying capability for twin steel box-girder bridges when one girder was completely fractured. The results also suggested the railings and continuity could be sources that could significantly improve the redundancy level in twin steel box-girder bridges.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFF20 Standing Committee on Steel Bridges.
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Corporate Authors:
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Authors:
- Pham, Huy
- Taghinezhad, Ramin
- Azizinamini, Atorod
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
- Date: 2017
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 16p
- Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Box girder bridges; Bridge railings; Cracking; Cyclic tests; Elastic analysis; Girders; Load tests; Redundancy
- Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01626760
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 17-03649
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Feb 27 2017 9:26AM