Advanced bridge safety initiative, task 1 : development of improved analytical load rating procedures for flat-slab concrete bridges - a thesis and guidelines.

Details

• Creators:
  Poulin, Timothy J. ; Davids, Bill
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Maine
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Concrete bridges
  • Slabs
  • Load tests
  • Live loads
  • Finite element method
  • Software
• Publication/ Report Number:
  ME 14-06
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Maine
• Corporate Publisher:
  Maine. Dept. of Transportation
• Abstract:
  Current AASHTO provisions for the conventional load rating of flat slab bridges rely on the equivalent strip method ; of analysis for determining live load effects, this is generally regarded as overly conservative by many professional ; engineers. As a result there are a significant number of slab bridges in Maine that are (or will be) posted for reduced ; truck weights, when in reality such postings may not be necessary. ; The objective of this study is to verify a program called SlabRate which was created using MATLAB, a numerical ; computing tool and explore the potential benefits of using it over the conventional strip width method. SlabRate ; computes the rating factors for simply-supported, continuous flat slab bridges using finite element analysis (FEA). ; The verification includes creating parallel models of identical bridges in both SlabRate and the commercial ; software, and comparing the maximum moments and locations of those moments due to a variety of live and dead ; loads. These models were used to assess SlabRate’s finite-element implementation and verify the assumptions that ; are used in SlabRate. In addition to using commercial software to verify SlabRate, live load testing of a reinforced ; flat-slab concrete bridge was done, these results were then compared with the predictions of SlabRate. To explore ; the potential benefits of using SlabRate over the conventional strip width, twenty existing bridges were load rated ; using both. Twenty one different truck configurations were analyzed, these include AASHTO’s design and legal ; trucks, along with AASHTO’s specialized hauling vehicles and MaineDoT’s rating trucks. ; The results from comparing SlabRate to commercial models and the live load test showed that its finite element ; implementation is correct for evaluating simply-supported and continuous flat slab bridges. It was also concluded ; that SlabRate can be reliably used to load rate flat slab bridges having skew angles of 20° or less. Only fourteen ; bridges of the original twenty bridges met this criteria, of which seven would have rating factors above one using ; SlabRate while below one using the conventional strip width method
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  20100506*5729
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/28481/dot_28481_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.88 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:df7e55d038c6581a8488651d74ad465b08bd50a94eb160fa4d6deef6360f984e