Thermal Load in Large-Scale Bridges: A State-of-the-Art Review

Thermal load is an important factor that must be taken into account during the procedure of bridge design and structural condition evaluation especially for those statically indeterminate bridges and cable-supported bridges. This paper presents an overview of current research and development activities in the field of thermal load in bridge, in which emphasis is placed on the thermal load models established by numerical analysis and field measurement. The theoretical formulations and boundary conditions of heat transfer in bridge are firstly outlined. And then, the states of the art of numerical solutions for temperature distribution in bridge including finite difference method and finite element method are reviewed in detail. Following that, the progress on thermal load in three types of representative bridges that are concrete bridge, steel-concrete composite bridge, and steel bridge based on field measurement data is discussed extensively. Finally, some existing problems and promising research efforts about thermal load in bridge are remarked.