Performance of a Prestressed Concrete Pedestrian Bridge System under Equivalent Static Lateral Impact Loads

2013-08-01
Baran, Eray
French, Catherine
The resistance of prestressed concrete through-girder (PCTG) pedestrian bridges to lateral loads was studied in response to the increasing number of vehicular impacts in the United States. This research was motivated by the lack of reported studies analyzing the behavior of such bridges to lateral impact loads, as well as their potential vulnerability in comparison with bridges that are better able to redistribute and transfer locally applied impact loads through alternate load paths. Pedestrian bridges are of lighter construction than highway bridges and they do not have the high degree of redundancy, making them more vulnerable to collapse in the event of vehicular impact. Results from static lateral load analyses using three-dimensional, geometrically nonlinear, full-scale finite element (FE) models of a typical bridge system and bridge subassemblages were used to evaluate the characteristics of the system. The FE models were calibrated with experimental test data on typical subassemblages and connection details for PCTG bridges. Results of the experimental part of the program have already been published elsewhere. This paper summarizes the observations obtained from nonlinear static FE analyses of a PCTG pedestrian bridge system subjected to lateral impact loads. The analyses indicated that the location of impact, the type of connector, and the flexibility of the end support details affected bridge performance. Improved connection details are suggested for enhanced PCTG pedestrian bridge performance.
Journal Of Performance Of Constructed Facilities

Suggestions

Experimental Determination of Resistance Characteristics of Support Details Used in Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders
Baran, Eray; French, Catherine; Schultz, Arturo (American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2009-09-01)
Static load tests were performed on support details used at the ends of prestressed concrete pedestrian bridge girders to determine the resistance characteristics of girder supports in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the girders. The specimens tested represent support details that have also been widely used in prestressed concrete highway bridges in Minnesota and in other states. Two specimens, one representing the free-end detail and one representing the restrained-end detail were s...
Service life assessment of existing highway bridges with no planned regular inspections
Caner, Alp; Yanmaz, Ali Melih; Yakut, Ahmet (American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2008-03-25)
Safety of a highway infrastructure system depends very much on the proper maintenance of bridges. The level of required maintenance is, typically, determined through a series of regular field inspections with the guidance of safety–economy trade-off. In Turkey, bridge maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation are currently performed on an as-needed basis. Time-dependent reliability analysis cannot be utilized for Turkish bridges for the time being since the majority of the bridges are either not regularly ins...
Comparative Study on the Effect of Number of Girders on Live Load Distribution in Integral Abutment and Simply Supported Bridge Girders
Yalcin, O. Fatih; Dicleli, Murat (SAGE Publications, 2013-06-01)
In this study, the effect of the number of prestressed concrete girders on the distribution of live load effects among the girders of integral abutment bridges (IABs) and simply supported bridges (SSBs) is investigated. For this purpose, two and three dimensional finite element models (FEMs) of several single-span IABs and SSBs are built and analyzed. In the analyses, bridges with various superstructure properties, such as span length, girder type and size, slab thickness are considered. The finite element ...
Behavior of girder floor beam connections in prestressed concrete pedestrian bridges subjected to lateral impact loads
Baran, Eray; French, Catherine (American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2007-11-01)
Each year a large number of concrete bridges are subjected to impact by overheight vehicles or vehicles carrying overheight objects. Most bridge owners in the United States are concerned with the increasing trend of bridges impacted by overheight vehicles, thereby increasing the urgency to evaluate the resistance of bridges to lateral impact loads. The present integrated numerical and experimental study investigates the behavior of a critical connection, between girders and floor beams, in a type of bridge ...
Renovation of a safety-inspection methodology for river bridges
Yanmaz, Ali Melih; Caner, Alp (American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2007-09-21)
River bridges and related infrastructural elements need to be monitored and inspected periodically for deterioration and loss of function due to aging, adverse hydraulic conditions, and chemical attacks. Necessary protective works and related actions should then be implemented to increase safety. Types of items to be inspected would be categorized as structural, geotechnical, hydraulic, and structural material conditions. Requirements for periodic inspections and the ways of handling these activities were d...
Citation Formats
E. Baran and C. French, “Performance of a Prestressed Concrete Pedestrian Bridge System under Equivalent Static Lateral Impact Loads,” Journal Of Performance Of Constructed Facilities, pp. 450–459, 2013, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/44919.