Title: Long-Term Behavior of a Composite Prestressed Concrete Railway Bridge: Part I--Experiment

Author(s): Jenn-Chuan Chern and Young-Gee Wu

Publication: Symposium Paper

Volume: 129

Issue:

Appears on pages(s): 1-18

Keywords: creep properties; humidity; prestressed concrete; shrinkage; railroad bridges; strains; structural analysis; General

DOI: 10.14359/1320

Date: 12/1/1991

Abstract:
In modern computerized structural analysis, realistic material laws should be used. This research will present a constitutive law and a numerical procedure based on the finite element method for the analysis of a prestressed concrete structure including the time-dependent effects due to the load history, creep, shrinkage, aging of concrete, and relaxation of prestress. A 32.1 meter (105 ft) long U-shaped railway bridge, composed of two precast post-tensioned concrete girders and an in situ cast prestressed young concrete slab, was instrumented to observe its long-term structural behavior and used for the comparisons with numerical analysis. To evaluate and predict the structural behavior of this concrete structure, the related experiments were designed and performed both in the field and laboratory. Some material properties needed for the analysis were obtained through the extensive program carried out in the laboratory with controlled environments. This paper will describe the details of structure, test program, and experimental results.