Finite element failure analysis of continuous prestressed concrete box girders

In order to analyze the load carrying capacity of prestressed concrete box girders, failure behaviors of in-situ deteriorated continuous prestressed concrete box girders under loading are experimentally observed and a finite failure analysis method for predicting behaviors of box girders is developed. A degenerated solid shell element is used to simulate box girders and material nonlinearity is considered. Since pre-stressed concrete box girders usually have a large number of curve prestressed tendons, a type of combined element is presented to simulate the prestressed tendons of box girders, and then the number of elements can be significantly reduced. The analytical results are compared with full-scale failure test results. The comparison shows that the presented method can be effectively applied to the failure analysis of in-situ continuous prestressed concrete box girders, and it also shows that the studied old bridge still has enough load carrying capacity.

Explosion resistance performance of reinforced concrete box girder coated with polyurea:Model test and numerical simulation

To study the anti-explosion protection effect of polyurea coating on reinforced concrete box girder,two segmental girder specimens were made at a scale of 1:3,numbered as G(without polyurea coating)and PCG(with polyurea coating).The failure characteristics and dynamic responses of the specimens were compared through conducting explosion tests.The reliability of the numerical simulation using LS-DYNA software was verified by the test results.The effects of different scaled distances,reinforcement ratios,concrete strengths,coating thicknesses and ranges of polyurea were studied.The results show that the polyurea coating can effectively enhance the anti-explosion performance of the girder.The top plate of middle chamber in specimen G forms an elliptical penetrating hole,while that in specimen PCG only shows a very slight local dent.The peak vertical displacement and residual displacement of PCG decrease by 74.8% and 73.7%,respectively,compared with those of specimen G.For the TNT explosion with small equivalent,the polyurea coating has a more significant protective effect on reducing the size of fracture.With the increase of TNT equivalent,the protective effect of polyurea on reducing girder displacement becomes more significant.The optimal reinforcement ratio,concrete strength,thickness and range of polyurea coating were also drawn.

Discussion on Detection and Evaluation of Simply Supported Prestressed Concrete Small Box Girder Bridge After a Fire

The article takes a simply supported prestressed concrete small box girder bridge project as an example for inspection and evaluation after a fire incident.This includes appearance detection,concrete color hardness detection,concrete strength detection,concrete surface damage layer detection,reinforcement protective layer detection,and concrete carbonation detection.It is hoped that this analysis can be used as a reference for the detection and evaluation of future bridge projects with fire incidents to smoothen its subsequent repair and maintenance.

Temperature gradients in concrete box girder bridge under effect of cold wave

The temperature distributions of a prestressed concrete box girder bridge under the effect of cold wave processes were analyzed. The distributions were found different from those under the effect of solar radiation or nighttime radiation cooling and should not be simplified as one dimensional. A temperature predicting model that can accurately predict temperatures over the cross section of the concrete box girder was developed. On the basis of the analytical model, a two-dimensional temperature gradient model was proposed and a parametric study that considered meteorological factors was performed. The results of sensitivity analysis show that the cold wave with shorter duration and more severe temperature drop may cause more unfavorable influences on the concrete box girder bridge. Finally, the unrestrained linear curvatures, self-equilibrating stresses and bending stresses when considering the frame action of the cross section, were derived from the proposed temperature gradient model and current code provisions, respectively. Then, a comparison was made between the value calculated against proposed model and several current specifications. The results show that the cold wave may cause more unfavorable effect on the concrete box girder bridge, especially on the large concrete box girder bridge. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the thermal effect caused by cold wave during the design stage.

Weakening effect of vertical prestress ducts on web sections in prestressed concrete box girder bridges

Based on experimental study result of two simply supported beams,which were prestressed by vertical tendons,the research on the weakening effect of vertical prestress ducts on web sections of prestressed concrete box girder was carried out. The test result shows that in the condition without grouting into the ducts,the cracking load is evidently lower than that with full grouting,and stirrup stress and principal tension stress at the surface of concrete will increase obviously. Meanwhile,the finite element analysis has been done to the test beams. The research is consistent with the analysis of finite element. The research tells that strengthening the detection and management for the vertical prestress grouting quality have an important meaning to prevent cracking of the prestressed concrete box girder bridge and provide one theoretical and testing basis for analyzing the cracking reason of such bridges.

Influence of concrete differential aging time on the construction phases analysis of the Fenghua River Bridge

The Fenghua River Bridge is a major structure on the highway between Hengzhang and Guojiachi, which is to be built with a four-span prestress concrete (PC) box girder and symmetrical cantilever castings. In this paper, a finite element method (FEM) model is set up to study the effects of concrete differential aging time on the construction phases of the Fenghua River Bridge by calculating the vertical displacement of the folding segment of the middle span and the longitudinal bending moment of Pier 12#. In the model, the girders are classified into 150 changing sections based on the desgn scheme, and their construction is to be carried in 16 phases respectively to build 12 blocks connected by a side folding segment and a middle folding segment, covered with a second dead load and in completion for 20 years. It is found that the internal forces and deformations of the concrete structures at the aging time of 60 d are quite different from those of 0 d aging time while the behaviors of the structures of 120 d aging time is nearly the same as those of 60 d aging time― the differences are so small that can be neglected, suggesting that the creep develops obviously about one month after the cement is hardened and the development fades later on.

Vertical temperature gradients of concrete box girder caused by solar radiation in Sichuan-Tibet railway

Spatial and temporal temperature variations are critical for concrete box girders,and non-uniform temperature distributions induced by solar radiation depend on the structural shapes and shadows cast on them.There have been many studies of temperature distributions and temperature gradients of concrete box girders,but few have considered a high altitude plateau climatic environment.In this study,the nonlinear temperature distributions of concrete box girders in the Sichuan-Tibet railway caused by solar radiation were investigated based on experimental analysis,real-time shadow-selection algorithm,and finite element method.Furthermore,a vertical temperature gradient model of the concrete box girders was obtained.The vertical temperature gradient values first rise,then decrease,and finally rise again from Chengdu to Lhasa,with samples forming a normal distribution.The recommended vertical temperature gradient value was 25℃with a confidence interval of 95%.This provides a reference for the design and maintenance of concrete box girders on the Sichuan-Tibet railway.

Temperature variation of concrete box girder bridge

On the basis of theoretical analysis and measurement on site,the temperature gradients and its variation on concrete box girder bridges resulting from ambient temperature,solar radiation,and structural temperature fields were discussed.With the help of the heat transfer theory and finite element method(FEM),the heat flux of the surface of concrete box girder was carried out,and all the heat fluxes were described as the convection.The results were compared with that from field measurements,and a good correlation was found.It was revealed that the methods,the parameters,the boundary condition used in this paper were reasonable.Last,some conclusions were obtained,which could provide the basis for box girder design under solar radiation.

Temperature Field of PC Box Girder Bridge Based on GPRS Temperature Collection System

In order to study the temperature distribution and the corresponding temperature effects on pre-stressed concrete（PC） curved box girder bridge in Shandong Province, this paper builds and adopts an automatic remote real-time temperature collection system to collect temperature data on site, and further uses the software ANSYS for analysis. Based on the comparisons between the measured data and the simulation results, the following conclusions can be drawn： 1 Our temperature monitoring system is reliable; 2 The corresponding measured data of the web plate and flange plate exposed to the sun, vary more severely than that at other positions, so these plates need higher standard design and construction requirements; 3 In the cold wave where still is sunshine, the box girder temperature effect behaves as sine-like curve.