Destructive Testing of Two Forty-Year-Old Prestressed Concrete Bridge Beams

摘要

align="left">Two specimens from a 40-year-old inverted T-beam prestressed concrete bridge were tested to destruction. These beams matched specimens tested in 1954 as the prototype for this bridge. The tests revealed that the specimens remained strong and ductile even after 40 years and that full composite action was achieved without the use of stirrups. The AASHTO Specifications provided reasonable estimates of the cracking moments and conservative estimates of the ultimate moment. The AASHTO Code also provided reasonable estimates of loss of prestress when compared to measured values. An? excellent correlation was found between the specimens tested in this research and the prototype tests of 1954 in terms of load vs. deflection behavior, cracking moments and ultimate moments.?