Investigation on Temperature Effect of Bridge Bearing System during Steel Bridge Deck Pavement Paving

Abstract

Observed damages of bridge bearings in some engineering projects during high-temperature asphalt pavement paving has attracted more attention to the dramatic temperature effect during the paving process. In this research, field monitoring was conducted for measuring the temperature variations and temperature-induced responses of bridge components during the asphalt mixture paving, and the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge in China was used for illustration. Based on the transient temperature field theory, a temperature field model of steel beam picked out from Jiujiang Bridge was established using the commercial finite-element (FE) package Abaqus, and the element-deletion method was used to simulate the dynamic paving process of asphalt pavement. The temperature responses of steel beam were calculated by applying the temperature load during the pavement paving to the steel beam model, and the field monitoring data validated the numerical simulation method. Finally, the validated simulation method was used for safety analysis of a bridge bearing system during pavement paving. The results show that the temperature field and temperature responses of a steel bridge during the pavement paving present spatiotemporal variation characteristic, and these temperature effects are likely to cause damage in the bridge bearings. To ensure the structural safety of the bridge bearing system in Jiujiang Bridge, the width of each paving area should be no larger than 5.5 m.