Longitudinal Joint Performance of a Concrete Hollow Core Slab Bridge

Abstract

Hollow core slab bridges are constructed by placing prefabricated or prestressed box beams adjacent to each other, grouting the small longitudinal space (hinge-joint) between the slabs and casting a reinforced concrete deck. The longitudinal cracking appearing at hinge-joint locations leads to a premature deterioration of the deck. This paper presents a theoretical and experimental study of a hollow core slab bridge composed of three beams and a cast-in-place deck. A real-size specimen was built according to Chinese code specifications. The behavior of the longitudinal joints was investigated by applying the standard vehicle load. The tests do not highlight any longitudinal cracks. A finite element model was created from the experimental data. A finite element parametric analysis revealed some practical design indications regarding the following inputs: deck thickness, concrete strength, and hinge-joint steel bars. Furthermore, these analyses testify that C-shape and X-shape stirrups do not play an active role in preventing the joint longitudinal cracks. This research confirms the reliability of the design method, at least for static loads, while further studies are needed to investigate the effect of both periodical loadings and different temperatures on upper and lower surfaces of the beams.

Experimental Study on the System Performance of Adjacent Precast Concrete Box Beam Bridges

“…It is noted that bridge design codes, including national Chinese code JTG D-62 and AASHTO LRFD bridge design code, define the detail of hinge joints, while not requiring any calculation checks; thus empirical relations form the basis for some design guidelines. e lack of available analyses and models for the design of the connection between precast members represents an important issue in the construction of these systems [25].…”

Joint deterioration detection based on field‐identified lateral deflection influence lines for adjacent box girder bridges

“…Scholars have done considerable study on the use of static response to reflect changes in lateral connections of bridges. Barbieri et al 15 obtained the relationship between load and bridge deflection and relative displacement at joints through experiments and finite element analysis and summarized the rules of joint deterioration. Liu et al 16 proposed a damage identification algorithm in which the relative displacement of joints is introduced to simulate joint damage to identify the lateral location and extent of damaged joints in simulations.…”

Vibration-Based Monitoring for Transverse Cooperative Working Performance of Assembled Concrete Multi-Girder Bridge: System Design, Implementation and Preliminary Application

“…The assembled concrete multi-girder bridge (ACMGB), a common kind of medium and small span bridge, is widely used in China [1], South Korea [2], Japan [3] and USA [4]. For example, the concrete hollow core slab bridge [5], the adjacent box -beam bridge [6] and the concrete bulb-tee bridge [7] can be classified as the ACMGB. Its universal construction method is to erect precast concrete girders on site firstly, then construct hinge joints (shear keys) or diaphragm, and finally pour integrated deck pavement to ensure the whole structure working monolithically.…”

“…Under white noise excitation, the power spectrum density matrix of the civil enginneriing structures, G yy (iω), can be expressed by Eq (5),. where N is the number of modes, d r is a scalar constant, λ r is rth pole, Ψ is the mode shape matrix of which each column is rth mode shape φ…”