Load Testing of a Deteriorated Concrete Box Girder Bridge

Abstract

This paper reports on load testing of a continuous three cell concrete box girder bridge. The bridge is non-prismatic, curved in plan, and has skewed supports. The bridge is over thirty years old, and it was designed with a construction joint between two continuous spans and a span with a cantilever. The tests were carried out to evaluate the cause of large cracks extending through most of the height in some of the webs. Evaluation of the test results has shown that the distribution of strains in the bridge is significantly different than assumed in design. This has resulted in a redistribution of the load carrying capacity across the bridge. It is concluded that this is due to the varying cross-sectional dimensions and the reductions in the stiffness that occurs following development of the major cracks. The test results have been used to evaluate the bridge's overall behaviour and condition.

Keywords

bridges curved beams box girders field monitoring non-destructive testing reinforced concrete strains

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