Excessive deflections of concrete bridges affect safety, mainte-nance and management

摘要

Apart from durability, the most important factor in the whole life design ofrnprestressed concrete bridges is the Service Limit State. Various factors affecting increase of deflectionsrn(creep, shrinkage, shear effects and arrangement of layout of prestressing tendons) arernassessed. It is recommended that bridge design should be performed on two different levels, includingrntwo equivalent parts – not only common stress analysis, but also optimisation ofrnprestressing tendon layout should be compulsorily performed to reach acceptable deflectionrnvariations.