NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE BEARING CAPACITY OF TRANSVERSELY PRESTRESSED CONCRETE DECK SLABS

The research subject of this paper is the bearing capacity of transversely prestressed concrete bridge decks between concrete girders under concentrated loads. Experiments on a 1:2 scale model of this bridge were carried out in the laboratory and a 3D nonlinear finite element model was developed in the FEA software package DIANA to study the structural behavior and investigate compressive membrane action in deck slabs. A comparative study of the numerical and the experimental results leads to the conclusion that existing bridges still have significant residual strength due to the presence of transverse prestressing and the membrane forces and non-linear FE models can predict the load carrying capacity quite accurately. A parametric study was also carried out and results are presented. It was observed that sufficient saving in cost can be made if calibrated numerical models are employed to investigate existing structures rather than doing expensive experimental studies.