Experimental and Numerical Investigation on the Bearing Behavior of Curved Continuous Twin I-Girder Composite Bridge with Precast Concrete Slab

Curved twin I-girder composite bridge (TGCB) is becoming popular in Chinese highway bridge building. To study its ultimate bearing behavior, in this paper, one 1 : 5 scale intact model of a two-span curved continuous TGCB was tested to failure to evaluate its safety reserve and ductility. Afterwards, based on the experimental result, 3D FE models were developed and validated. At last, using the validated 3D FE models, the effect of construction scheme, radius of curvature, yield strength of steel, concrete compressive strength, crossbeams, and bottom lateral bracings on the ultimate bearing capacity were examined. The experimental results showed that the ultimate load (Pu) is approximate 13.6 times the service equivalent load. The cracking load and yielding load are approximately 0.12 and 0.47 Pu, respectively. The ductility coefficients are 4.06 similar to 4.40. These above may indicate that the TGCB designed according to Chinese codes has good safety reserve and ductility. From parameter analysis results, it was concluded that the TGCB with full-support construction scheme has larger yield load and ultimate load compared with the one with erecting machine construction scheme. On the other hand, the ultimate bearing capacity reduces nonlinearly with the increase of curvature. Besides, the yield strength of steel, crossbeams, and bottom lateral bracings has a significant effect on the ultimate bearing capacity of curved TGCB. And the smaller the radius of curvature, the more obvious the effect of the latter two factors is. Unfortunately, it is unwise to continuous to improve the ultimate load by increasing the grade of steel for the TGCB when steel grade exceeds Q390. Moreover, in consideration of the big difference in bearing capacity between the inner girder and outer girder of the TGCB with small radius of curvature as well as the economy, it is suggested that the inner and outer steel girders of that TGCB should be designed differently.