München, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2001.

Braunschweig, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2004.

Universiẗat, Diss.--Duisburg-Essen, 2006.

Techn. Univ., Diss.--Braunschweig, 2001.

Zugl.: Karlsruhe, Univ., Diss., 2006

Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2001--Aachen.

Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2002--Aachen.

In September 2000 the DAfStb issued a technical recommendation for the experimental assessment of structural safety and usability of concrete structures. By now, the influence of pavement or floor layers and of other factors on the load carrying capacity is not known exactly. In this thesis, it has been investigated how road pavements, the geometry and bridge caps reduce the actions on concrete bridge structures and how these influences should be taken into account in the experimental evaluation of the bending capacity by an additional test load increment. In co-operation with a local authority in Stralsund, Germany, comprehensive loading test could be performed at an abandoned concrete bridge with prefabricated girders. Between loading cycles, the pavement has been stepwise disassembled. In addition, the ultimate load of the structure as well as of an individual girder has been determined in fracture tests. By means of a hybrid analysis, i.e. a numerical simulation supported by experimental data, the influences of the pavement layers have been determined. These results were verified by experimental observations obtained in past bridge tests. The influence of the pavement layers on the load carrying capacity appeared to be as high as 28% at the maximum for the bridges investigated. Since the loading vehicle BELFA has been completed in March 2001, test loads can be applied now self-securing to bridges in the so-called large load circuit, i.e. the structure is loaded including supports and foundation. The technical concept, the principle and possible applications of the BELFA are described. The results presented will allow to determine the additional test load increment for compensating the influence of pavement layers, structural geometry and bridge caps in future experimental safety evaluations. For this analysis, the exact geometry of the structure, the thickness of the pavement layers as well as their material properties, especially the modulus of elasticity, have to be known. Guidelines for the analysis procedure as well as for simplifying assumptions are given. / Experimentelle Nachweise der Tragsicherheit und Gebrauchstauglichkeit von Betonbauwerken sind seit September 2000 in einer DAfStb-Richtlinie geregelt. Der Einfluss mittragender Aufbauschichten und anderer Faktoren war bisher quantitativ unbekannt. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde untersucht, wie Straßenbeläge, Bauwerksgeometrie und Kappen die Beanspruchung der Tragkonstruktion von Massivbrücken mindern und im experimentellen Nachweis der Biegetragsicherheit durch eine Überlast zu berücksichtigen sind. In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Straßenbauamt Stralsund konnten an einer Fertigteilträgerbrücke Belastungsversuche mit sukzessivem Rückbau des Fahrbahnaufbaus sowie Bruchversuche am Gesamtsystem und an ausgebauten Fertigteilträgern mit Ortbetonergänzung erfolgen. Mit Hilfe der hybriden Statik, also der Modifikation und Evaluation von Rechnungen anhand experimentell erlangter Messwerte, wurden die Einflüsse der Aufbauschichten quantifiziert und durch Auswertung weiterer Brückenbelastungsversuche verifiziert. Der Einfluss der Aufbauschichten betrug bei den untersuchten Brücken bis zu 28%. Seit der Inbetriebnahme des Belastungsfahrzeuges BELFA im März 2001 können Versuchlasten auch im großen Kräftekreislauf, d.h. am Gesamtsystem einschließlich Auflager- und Gründungssituation, selbstsichernd aufgebracht werden. Die Entwicklung des BELFA, seine Funktionsweise und seine Einsatzmöglichkeiten werden erläutert. Mit den Ergebnissen dieser Arbeit ist es zukünftig möglich, die notwendige Überlast bei Belastungsversuchen zur Kompensation der Einflüsse aus Straßenbelag, Bauwerksgeometrie und Kappen mit genauem Aufmaß der Bauwerksgeometrie und der Schichtdicken sowie mit ingenieurmäßigem Abschätzen der Materialkennwerte (E-Moduli) hinreichend genau zu bestimmen. Handlungsempfehlungen geben Hinweise zur generellen Vorgehensweise sowie für vereinfachte Rechenannahmen.

The increasing need for regional development has led engineers to find safe ways to construct the infrastructure of transportation on soft soils. Soft soil is not able to sustain external loads without having large deformations. The geotechnical properties of soft soil which is known for its low bearing capacity, high water content, high compressibility and long term settlement as well. In pavement engineering, either highway or runway as an infrastructure, a pavement encompasses three important parts namely traffic load, pavement and subgrade. Traffic load generated from tire pressure of vehicle and/or airplane wheels are usually around 550 kPa even more on the surface of the pavement. Pavement generally comprises granular materials with unbounded or bounded materials located between traffic load and subgrade, distributing the load to surface of subgrade. One of the promising soil improvement techniques is a piled embankment. When geosynthetics layer is unrolled over piles, it is known as geosynthetics supported piled embankment. Particularly in deep soft soil, when piles do not reach a hard stratum due to large thickness of the soft soil, the construction is an embankment on floating piles. Furthermore, because of different stiffness between piles and subsoil, soil arching effect would be developed there. By using Finite Element analysis, some findings resulted from experimental works and several field tests around the world as field case studies are verified. Some important findings are as follows: the stress concentration ratio is not a single value, but it would be changed depending on the height of embankment, consolidation process of subsoil, surcharge of traffic load, and tensile modulus of geosynthetics as well. Ratio height of embankment to clear piles spacing (h/s) around 1.4 can be used as a critical value to distinguish between low embankment and high embankment. When geosynthetics is applied to reinforce a pavement/embankment, the vertical distance of geosynthetics layers and number of geosynthetics layers depend on the quality of pavement material. The lower layer of geosynthetics withstands a tensile stress higher than upper layer. Primary reinforcements for geosynthetics in piled embankments are located at span between piles with maximum strains at zones of adjacent piles. Traffic load that passes through on the surface of the pavement can reduce the soil arching, but it can be restored during the off peak hours. Settlements of embankments on floating piles can accurately be modelled using the consolidation calculation type, whereas the end-bearing piles may be used the plastic calculation type. Longer piles can be effectively applied to reduce a creep. By applying length of floating piles more than 20% of soft soil depth, it would have a significant impact to reduce a creep on a deep soft soil.

The increasing need for regional development has led engineers to find safe ways to construct the infrastructure of transportation on soft soils. Soft soil is not able to sustain external loads without having large deformations. The geotechnical properties of soft soil which is known for its low bearing capacity, high water content, high compressibility and long term settlement as well. In pavement engineering, either highway or runway as an infrastructure, a pavement encompasses three important parts namely traffic load, pavement and subgrade. Traffic load generated from tire pressure of vehicle and/or airplane wheels are usually around 550 kPa even more on the surface of the pavement. Pavement generally comprises granular materials with unbounded or bounded materials located between traffic load and subgrade, distributing the load to surface of subgrade. One of the promising soil improvement techniques is a piled embankment. When geosynthetics layer is unrolled over piles, it is known as geosynthetics supported piled embankment. Particularly in deep soft soil, when piles do not reach a hard stratum due to large thickness of the soft soil, the construction is an embankment on floating piles. Furthermore, because of different stiffness between piles and subsoil, soil arching effect would be developed there. By using Finite Element analysis, some findings resulted from experimental works and several field tests around the world as field case studies are verified. Some important findings are as follows: the stress concentration ratio is not a single value, but it would be changed depending on the height of embankment, consolidation process of subsoil, surcharge of traffic load, and tensile modulus of geosynthetics as well. Ratio height of embankment to clear piles spacing (h/s) around 1.4 can be used as a critical value to distinguish between low embankment and high embankment. When geosynthetics is applied to reinforce a pavement/embankment, the vertical distance of geosynthetics layers and number of geosynthetics layers depend on the quality of pavement material. The lower layer of geosynthetics withstands a tensile stress higher than upper layer. Primary reinforcements for geosynthetics in piled embankments are located at span between piles with maximum strains at zones of adjacent piles. Traffic load that passes through on the surface of the pavement can reduce the soil arching, but it can be restored during the off peak hours. Settlements of embankments on floating piles can accurately be modelled using the consolidation calculation type, whereas the end-bearing piles may be used the plastic calculation type. Longer piles can be effectively applied to reduce a creep. By applying length of floating piles more than 20% of soft soil depth, it would have a significant impact to reduce a creep on a deep soft soil.