Experimental Study on Damage Assessment of Concrete T-beam Bridges

Abstract

The effect of damaged transverse connection of diaphragm beams on the bearing capacity of prefabricated concrete T-beam bridges was studied through model experiment and finite element analysis. On the basis of standard drawing of 16 m T-beam bridge, a prefabricated concrete T-beam bridge model on the scale of 1 to 4 was designed by using of welding steel plate. The impacts of different condition on transverse load distribution were discussed. The result shows that (1) flange connection has little impact on the transverse load distribution when the diaphragm beams are connected reliably; (2) the damage of transverse connections has much influence on the transverse load distribution of adjacent girders but it has little effect on the girders apart from them; (3) if a certain transverse connection is damaged entirely except for that of the end diaphragm beams, the load distribution would not degenerate to the conditions determined by the flange connection because of the advantageous effects of the other diaphragm beams; (4) only when the bilateral diaphragms of one beam are damaged at the same time, the lateral load distribution will degenerate to the conditions determined by the flange connection.