Thermal Behavior of Composite Bridges

Abstract

This paper presents the analytical results obtained from a parametric study on the thermal behavior of three types of composite bridge structures subjected to solar radiation, namely, a plate‐girder, a single‐cell box, and a two‐cell box‐girder concrete‐steel composite bridge. A series of transient temperature distributions and the thermal stresses for a few selected temperature cases corresponding to a given geographic location and assumed environmental conditions are computed. The results of this study confirm that a steady‐state thermal condition never exists within a bridge structure, in that ambient air temperature and intensity of solar radiation are both time‐dependent. The effects of convection coefficient, slab overhang, and air temperature inside an enclosed box on the temperature distributions of the bridge deck are examined and discussed.