ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF PARTIALLY PRESTRESSED CONCRETE BRIDGES UNDER THERMAL LOADING

Theory is developed for the inelastic thermal analysis of partially prestressed concrete bridge superstructures, including the effects of cracking and nonlinearity of material properties. An experimental investigation involving the thermal loading of T-beam and box-girder beam partially prestressed models of about one-sixth scale is described. Forces, deflections, and crack widths predicted by the theoretical analysis are compared with experimental results. From the study several design recommendations are made.