Prestressed concrete construction relies on the application of compressive stresses to concrete elements. The prestressing force is typically applied through the tensioning of strands that react against the concrete and induce compression in the concrete. Loss of prestress is the decrease of this pre-applied stress. The conservative estimation of the prestress losses is imperative to prevent undesired cracking of the prestressed element under service loads. A large fraction of the prestress losses is a consequence of concrete deformations. This fraction of the losses can be identified as strain-related losses, and these occur due to instantaneous elastic shortening, and time-dependent creep and shrinkage. Creep and shrinkage of concrete depend on many factors that are extremely variable within concrete structures. The time-dependent behavior of concrete is not well-understood, but recent findings in the topics of concrete creep and shrinkage provide a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms affecting the nature of these two phenomena. However, current design practices and prestress loss estimation methods do not reflect the state-of-the-art knowledge regarding creep and shrinkage. The main objective of this dissertation was the study and estimation of strain-related prestress losses in simply supported pretensioned bridge girders. Simply supported pretensioned girders are widely designed, produced and frequently used in bridge construction. Due to this common use, pretensioned concrete bridge girders has become fairly standardized elements, which results in a reduced variability in the behavior of pretensioned bridge girders, as compare to that of less standardized concrete structures. Hence, a simplified method was calibrated to estimate prestress losses within pretensioned girders to an adequate level of accuracy. To achieve an acceptable accuracy experimental data from the monitoring of pretensioned simply supported girders was used for the calibration of the method. The accuracy of this simplified method is comparable to that achievable using more elaborate methods developed for generic concrete structures. / text

Precast/Prestressed concrete girders are commonly used in bridge construction in the United States. The application and diffusion of the prestress force in a pretensioned girder causes a vertical tension force to develop near the end of the beam. Field surveys of the beam ends of pretensioned bridge girders indicate that many of the PCBT beams used in the Commonwealth of Virginia develop cracks within the anchorage zone region. The lengths and widths of these cracks range from acceptable to poor and in need of repair. Field observations also indicate deeper cross sections, very heavily prestressed sections, and girders with lightweight concrete tend to be most susceptible to crack formation. This research examined a new strut-and-tie based design approach to the anchorage zone design of the PCBT bridge girders used in Virginia. Case study girders surveyed during site visits are discussed and used to illustrate the nature of the problem and support the calibration of the strut-and-tie based model. A parametric study was conducted using this proposed design model and the results of this study were consolidated into anchorage zone design tables. The results of the parametric study were compared to the results obtained using existing anchorage zone design models, international bridge codes, and standard anchorage zone details used by other states. A set of new standard details was developed for the PCBT girders which incorporates elements of the new design approach and is compatible with the anchorage zone design aids. A 65 ft PCBT-53 girder was fabricated to verify the new strut-and-tie based design model. This girder contained anchorage zone details designed with the new model. The new anchorage zone details were successful at controlling the development of anchorage zone cracks. The new design approach is recommended for implementation by the Virginia Department of Transportation. / Master of Science

Bridges form a vital link in the physical infrastructure and must be maintained in a "safe working order" at all times. It is estimated that there are currently 20,000 timber road bridges in service throughout Australia. Increasing demands on these bridges due to heavier and faster moving loads, together with deterioration are placing these aging structures at a higher risk of collapse. Unfortunately, many local governments and government departments have neglected the benefits of preventative maintenance and have opted for "just in time" repairs. This is especially true for timber bridges. This past neglect has placed bridge stock in a poor state that is only now being recognised as a significant problem. A key component of this research is to develop improvements to this current situation. This research thesis generates detailed knowledge on the load carrying capacities of timber bridges and new non destructive testing techniques that can be substituted for conventional testing procedures. For the first time guidelines have been developed for undertaking capacity assessment on timber bridges by specifying intervention levels for notched timber and limiting maximum allowable strains in timber members. This newly acquired knowledge will enable Asset Managers to more accurately determine the capacity of sniped timber bridge girders to enable appropriate retrofitting and maintenance while also allowing the safe movement of heavy vehicles. The knowledge generated through destructive testing of timber girders and the analysis of the vast amount of experimental data has enabled the first instance of developing specifications for replacement girders. These specifications detail both functional and performance related targets for three different types of replacement girders. Testing of these replacement girders also demonstrates that through some minor modifications that the specification targets can be met. The outcomes of this thesis provide an innovative approach to accessing the condition and capacity of timber girders and to increasing the safety and life of timber bridges in Queensland. By using new techniques such as Non-destructive testing, species identification and limiting maximum allowable strains, as described in this thesis, the road transport network can be safety used by heavy and permit vehicles. It is only through the effective management of timber bridge maintenance and rehabilitation that Australia can have an efficiently running road transportation network.

Diploma thesis is focused on design of road bridge bearing structure over road in Jihlava. The construction is girder with 3 fields beard by local supports. Calculations were made in the program called Scia Engineer. Appraisals were made by hand.

Prestressed concrete is a popular construction material for highway bridges. A variety of girder span values, cross-sectional shapes, and prestressing strand layouts has been used in bridges across the United States. A major concern for such bridges is the possibility of corrosion damage in the prestressing strands or reinforcing bars, which is commonly caused by the use of deicing salts on the deck or saltwater spray in coastal regions. The present study aims at establishing analytical tools for the accurate simulation of chloride ingress, corrosion and mechanical damage (cracking) in the concrete, and for the evaluation of the impact of corrosion on the flexural and shear strength of bridge girders. First, an efficient and accurate analytical scheme is formulated to enable the calculation of the load-carrying capacity of corrosion-damaged girders. The analyses rely on two types of models, namely, beam models and nonlinear truss models. The latter are deemed necessary to obtain reliable estimates of the shear capacity, as beam models are not well-tailored for capturing shear failures. A procedure to account for the reduction in area and deformability of corroded strands, based on visually observed corrosion damage, is proposed and implemented. The models are calibrated and validated with the results of experimental tests on prestressed girders which exhibited varying levels of corrosion damage. Further analyses allow the comparison of the capacity of corrosion-damaged girders to that of their undamaged counterparts. The accuracy of a simplified procedure, using equations in the AASHTO code to determine the flexural and shear capacity of the damaged girders, is also determined. Subsequently, a computation scheme was proposed to describe the intrusion of chloride ions in prestressed bridge girder sections. The approach accounts for multiple, coupled processes, i.e., heat transfer, moisture transport, and chloride advective and diffusive transport. The constitutive models for moisture and chloride transport rely on previous pertinent work, with several necessary enhancements. The modeling scheme is calibrated with data from previous experimental tests on concrete cylindrical and prismatic specimens. The calibrated models are then validated using data from chloride titration tests conducted on girders removed from two bridges in Virginia after 34 and 49 years of service. The results indicate that the proposed framework can accurately reproduce the experimentally measured chloride content. The modeling approach also allows the evaluation of the accuracy of simplified, design-oriented tools for estimating the evolution of chloride content with time. The multi-physics simulation scheme is further refined to account for the corrosion-induced mechanical damage (cracking), by incorporating a phenomenological description of the electrochemical reaction kinetics, generation of expansive corrosion products, and subsequent development of tensile stresses and cracking in the surrounding concrete. The impact of cracking on the chloride and moisture transport mechanisms is also taken into account. The last part of this dissertation pursues the quantification of the uncertainty governing the chloride ingress in bridge girders, through the use of a stochastic collocation approach. The focus is on understanding how the inherent uncertainty in the value of input parameters (e.g., material transport parameters, ambient conditions etc.) is propagated, leading to uncertainty in the evolution of chloride content and the expected corrosion initiation time for a given bridge. / Doctor of Philosophy / Prestressed concrete is widely utilized in the construction of highway bridges in the United States. A significant concern arises regarding potential corrosion damage in the prestressing strands or reinforcing bars, which is commonly attributed to the application of deicing salts on the deck or exposure to saltwater spray in coastal regions. This study aims to develop analytical tools that can accurately simulate the intrusion of corrosive agents (namely chloride ions), and subsequent damage (cracking) in concrete. Furthermore, the research seeks to assess the impact of corrosion on the bearing capacity of bridge girders. Two different classes of analytical approaches are pursued. The first class employs purely mechanical (stress/deformation) models for capturing the strength, deformability and failure modes of girders with visual corrosion damage. These models rely on two approaches to capture the flexural and shear capacity of specimens, namely, beam-based models and truss-based models. The impact of corrosion is established through appropriate modification of the model parameters, based on the extent of visually observed corrosion damage. The analytical approaches are validated through a series of experimental tests previously conducted on corrosion-damaged girders. The second class of analytical approaches employs multi-physics models, to describe the mechanisms leading to corrosion-induced damage. The models account for heat transfer, moisture transport, and chloride transport in prestressed beam sections. Model parameters are calibrated with experimental tests in literature. The computational scheme is used to quantitatively describe the chloride ingress on bridge girders decommissioned from two different bridges in Virginia, after 34 and 49 years of service. The analysis results are found capable of capturing the actual chloride content at various depths from the exposure surface, as determined by chloride titration tests. The temporal evolution of chloride on the surface of prestressing strands indicates that corrosion has been taking place over a period of time for the two bridges. The multi-physics simulation approach is further enhanced to account for the corrosion-induced mechanical damage (cracking), by explicitly incorporating a description of the reaction kinetics, generation of expansive corrosion products and subsequent development of cracking in the surrounding concrete. The last part of this dissertation pursues the quantification of the uncertainty in the expected service life of prestressed concrete bridge structures. Given the inherent uncertainty to key values of model parameters, a parametric study is employed to investigate the propagation of uncertainty to the time history of chloride content at particular locations of the section and the probability of corrosion initiation at specific age values.

The topic of the thesis is safe and economical design of a bearing bridge structure according to valid regulations and standards. The structure is reviewed by limit states of ultimate and serviceability. The solution includes time dependent analysis of the structure.