Nonlinear Flexural Behavior of Prestressed Concrete Girder Bridges

Abstract

This paper presents a procedure to improve the accuracy of the classical grillage method for the nonlinear analysis of concrete girder bridges. The procedure uses equivalent element plastic hinge lengths that account for the actual mesh size instead of using a mesh-independent global plastic hinge length. A thorough review of the results of tests conducted on two 1/3-model prestressed concrete girders and a 1/3-model prestressed concrete girder bridge is undertaken in order to model the nonlinear properties of prestressed concrete girder bridges. The purpose of this review is to study the extent of plastification and plastic hinge length development as well as the evaluation of the validity of the grillage method for the nonlinear analysis of girder bridges. An