Stochastic long-term behavior of a reinforced concrete arch bridge

Abstract

Beipanjiang Bridge, a railway-reinforced concrete arch bridge with span of 445 m, is located in Guizhou, China. The self-shored technology with a frame of concrete-filled steel tube is applied in this construction, in which the frame performs as the falsework for casting concrete into arch ring and also serves as the major reinforcement of the permanent structure. The time-variant behaviors of long-span concrete arch bridge may be sensitive to the creep and shrinkage of concrete, especially when the staged construction is applied. Owing to the random property of concrete creep and shrinkage, the stochastic analysis is necessary to be employed in order to give a more rational and objective evaluation about the structural long-term behaviors. A hybrid approach including Monte Carlo sampling based on response surface method is developed in this study, based on which the statistical results of long-term deflection and time-variant stress are discussed. Finally, the stochastic contributions of input variables to structural responses are investigated with the sensitivity analyses.