United States Department of Transportation
i
Managing Florida's fracture critical bridges - phases 1 and 2 : final report.
-
2016-05-01
-
[PDF-7.46 MB]
Details:
-
Creators:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Corporate Contributors:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Resource Type:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Edition:Final report
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:Based on the definition given in the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, twin steel box-girder bridges are
classified as bridges with fracture critical members (FCMs), in which a failure of a tension member is expected to
lead to a collapse of the bridge. However, a number of such bridges with either a partial or full-depth crack in one
girder have been reported and are still providing service without collapsing. The main objective of this research
project is to understand the behavior of twin steel box-girder bridges and to develop methods for evaluating their
redundancy level in the event of the fracture of one tension member.
The research project included an experimental investigation on a small-scale steel twin box-girder bridge, field
testing of a full-scale twin box-girder, analysis of existing research and design data, and an extensive amount of
numerical analyses carried out on calibrated 3-D nonlinear finite element models. The results from this study provide
in-depth understanding of twin steel box-girder bridge behavior before and after a fracture in the tension member
occurs. In addition to the experimentally verified finite element method, the report also proposes a simplified method
for evaluating the performance of twin steel box-girder bridges and provides a list of important factors that could
control the reserve capacity of the damaged bridge.
A result of this project is the development of a comprehensive roadmap for assessing the redundancy of twin steel
box-girder bridges in which the elements of the roadmap are identified, and solutions for several of the steps are
provided. The development of solutions for remaining steps of the roadmap is proposed for a future research.
-
Format:
-
Funding:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
