Design, Construction and Testing of Captive Column Bridge Girders

摘要

This research project called for selection of material, design of cross-section, construction and load testing of a full-scale, 40 foot simple span, bridge girder. Revisions to the project added a study of the captive column member as it might be used in highway sign support systems and luminaire support systems. The girder was designed, constructed and subjected to static load tests equivalent to HS-20 highway loading. The girder responded to load in a predictable and repeatable manner. Load-deflection characteristics measured in the laboratory agreed very well with those predicted by the computer model. The girder suffered no measureable deterioration after more than one million cycles of full load application. Load capacity of the girder was limited by deflection criteria rather than stress limits. Special computer programs were developed for modeling sign and luminaire supports for highway applications.