No description available.

No description available.

Bridges without expansion joints are called "integral bridges." Eliminating joints from bridges crates concerns for the piles and the abutments of integral bridges because the abutments and the piles are subjected to temperature-induced cyclic lateral loads. As temperatures change daily and seasonally, the lengths of integral bridges increase and decrease, pushing the abutment against the approach fill and pulling it away. As a result the bridge superstructure, the abutment, the approach fill, the foundation piles and the foundation soil are all subjected to cyclic loading, and understanding their interactions is important for effective design and satisfactory performance of integral bridges. The ability of piles to accommodate lateral displacements is a significant factor in determining the maximum possible length of integral bridges. In order to build longer integral bridges, pile stresses should be kept low. This research project investigated the complex interactions that take place between the structural components of the integral bridge and the soil through experimental and analytical studies. A literature review was conducted to gain insight into the integral bridge/soil interactions, and to synthesize the information available about the cyclic loading damage to piles of integral bridges. The ability of the piles and the abutments to withstand cyclic loads was investigated by conducting large-scale cyclic load tests. Three pile types and three semi-integral abutments were tested in the laboratory. Experiments simulated 75 years of bridge life for each specimen by applying over 27,000 displacement cycles. Numerical analyses were conducted to investigate the interactions among the abutment, the approach fill, the foundation soil, and the piles. The original VDOT semi-integral abutment hinge experienced shear key failure as observed in two large-scale laboratory tests. The revised hinge detail did not exhibit any sign of damage. Both abutments tolerated 75-year worth of displacement cycles without any appreciable change in their behavior. Semi-integral abutments are recommended for longer integral bridges because they can reduce pile stresses. As the need to build longer integral bridges grows, the role of the semi-integral abutments is expected to become more important. The data from the experimental program indicates that steel H-piles are the best pile type for support of integral abutment bridges. Concrete piles are not recommended because under repeated lateral loads, tension cracks progressively worsen and significantly reduce vertical load carrying capacity of these piles. Pipe piles have high flexural stiffness, which results in an undesired condition for the shear stresses in the abutment. For this reason, stiff pipe piles are not recommended for support of integral bridges. Numerical analyses indicate that the interactions between the approach fill and the foundation soils create favorable conditions for stresses in piles supporting integral bridges. Because of these interactions, the foundation soil acts as if it were softer, resulting in reduction in pile stresses compared to a single pile in the same soil without the approach fill above it. / Ph. D.

No description available.

No description available.

Deformation of bridges that are induced by thermal loads can be accommodated by expansion joints and bearings. Integral Abutment Bridges have gained acceptance as a way to mitigate potential damage from thermal movements, eliminating the poor performance and maintenance costs associated with expansion joints and bearings. However, integral abutments significantly change the structural response of the bridges. Several researches including real time field monitoring and finite element analyses have been conducted on straight and skewed integral abutment bridges in order to improve an understanding on field performance of them. Some state transportation agencies have also developed guidelines for the design of straight and skewed integral abutment bridges in recent years. In contrast, very little information is available on the performance of curved integral abutment bridges. A detailed finite element model of Stockbridge Bridge, VT is used to evaluate the behavior of curved integral abutment bridges under self-weight and thermal loading. In addition, a parametric study is carried out to investigate the effects of bridge curvature and abutment backfill soil type. Finally, six additional finite element models are created to compare the responses of jointed (conventional) bridges and integral abutment bridges. Results reported include abutment displacements, rotations, moments in abutment piles, earth pressures and bridge superstructure moments. Suggestions for improvement of analytical modeling and recommendations for design of curved integral abutment bridges are made.

For creep and shrinkage investigations, relatively small cylindrical specimens are generally exposed to constant climatic conditions. The derived mainly empirical prediction models are used for the calculation of large engineering structures with massive cross-sections. In this paper, the expected values of the material models according to fib Model Code 2010 and Eurocode 2 are compared with monitoring data, which were acquired over a period of more than 12 years during a structural health monitoring of a large viaduct. It was found that in addition to the measured continuous increase in the viscous deformations, seasonal fluctuations due to climatic influences could also be detected. The numerical calculations show that the material models differ significantly in their magnitude and time course of the predicted viscous concrete deformations. In comparison with the monitoring data, a good agreement was achieved when using the material models according to Eurocode 2. The models of the fib Model Code 2010, on the other hand, underestimated the deformations of the massive bridge girder.