Damage assessment of the longitudinal connection of simple supported-to-continuous girder bridges constructed with hollow slabs

摘要

Simple supported-to-continuous girder bridges are commonly and widely used in bridge engineering in China. For this type of bridges, normally, the longitude connections are casted in-site by concrete. The quality of the casted concrete is difficult to control. After a large number of field surveys, damages are often found in the transversal and longitudinal connections. These damages may result in unfavorable effects to the bridge system and shorten the durability of the bridges. Therefore it is of great interests to investigate the behavior of the concoctions on this kind of bridges. This paper presents a numerical study of the longitudinal connections of simple supported-to-continuous girder bridges. Then by series parametric study, the effect of the damages on the connections on the mechanical behavior of the bridge is investigated.