Improvement Measures for Structure System Conversions Caused by Utilising SPMTs to Lift Trusses

Abstract

Since the demand for accelerated construction is increasing these years, much attention has been paid to accelerated bridge construction (ABC) methods. The self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) are widely utilised in the ABC method as a versatile transport carrier. However, since the limitation of the SPMTs method, several structural system conversions will happen during truss installation, and tensile stress will potentially appear at the upper chord of the truss. Moreover, it is worth noticing the dynamic effects caused by utilising SPMTs to lift the truss can enlarge the impact of tensile stress. As one type of prestressing, beams prestressed with external tendons can effectively reduce the tensile stress. In order to reduce the impact of cracks caused by tensile stress, the feasibility of adopting temporary external pre-stressing tendons is discussed combined with the simulation results of MIDAS in this research.