LOADING CONSIDERATIONS IN CONCRETE BRIDGES: A PLEA FOR REALISM

摘要

It is observed that world over, the multifaceted and multidimensional civil and structural engineering activities are governed by Standards, Specifications and Codes of Practice formulated by experts who draw upon local experience and take reference of the other developed codes of practice in similar conditions though not necessarily geographically. However, there is in fact substantial difference in the treatment of loads and their action on structures between the state of art Standards, Specifications and Codes of Practice in the world today, e.g. BS [1], AASHTO[2], EUROCODES[3] and IRC[4], etc. The basic philosophy governing design in any document remains essentially that : "A structure shall be designed to sustain with a defined probability all actions likely to occur within the life span of the structure to maintain stability during unprecedented actions and or defects & to have adequate durability during the intended life span of the structure. " Structural engineers aim to define exact problems with an estimate of at least approximate behavior of the structure instead of finding exact solutions to approximate problems. It is thus important that the basic problem is defined as exactly and uniformly as possible to arrive at correct assessment of stresses in structures.