Long-Term Behavior of Precast Segmental Cantilever Bridges

Abstract

An investigation is conducted to quantify long-term effects on a family of four precast segmental bridges. Segments are prefabricated, transported, and set into place with an appropriate lifting device and a launching gantry. Attention has been paid to the effects of long-term deformations of concrete, to avoid noticeable geometrical variations in its shape but also to account for redistribution of stresses, which creates a difficult analytical problem to solve. An attempt is made to provide a practical treatment of serviceability analyses of this type of concrete structure, having an evolutive process of erection, presenting: (1) an “exact” incremental step-by-step time approach; (2) a simplified approach for the inclusion of time dependent effects of creep and shrinkage; and (3) a comparison of both approaches, in order to treat these kinds of problems by means of a simplified approach.