Strategies for mitigation of the failure of concrete pedestals supporting bridge girder bearings

This thesis explains on the numerical study of localized damage mechanism in concrete pedestals supporting bridge girder bearings. It examined the structural response of concrete pedestals dealing with complex contact interaction behaviour between steel bearing plate and concrete. Three dimensional nonlinear explicit finite element micro models of concrete pedestals were analyzed with various pedestal heights, edge clearance distances, loading geometries, confinement reinforcements and loading eccentricities. Also included are few mitigation strategies had been proposed to minimize the effect of localized failure and therefore which can then improve the structural performance of concrete pedestals