Effect of uneven multilane truck loading of multigirder bridges on component reliability. (6th May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhou, Junyong; Liu, Yuanyuan; Yi, Jiang
• Is Part Of: Structural concrete. Volume 21:Number 4(2020)
• Page Start: 1644
• Page End: 1661
• Publication Date: 2020-05-06
• Subjects: bearing capacity -- component performance -- fatigue reliability -- lane load disparity -- multigirder bridge -- multilane -- traffic load; Reinforced concrete -- Periodicals; 624.1834
• DOI: 10.1002/suco.201900475
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1464-4177

Abstract

Abstract: Premature failure of bridge components, caused by heavy trucks, is a major safety concern. Current studies well characterize the integral structural behavior of bridges under realistic stochastic traffic loading. However, there is little research on the differences in traffic loads over multiple lanes (a worldwide traffic phenomenon) and the resulting difference in the bridge component performance. In this paper, several sets of unidirectional two‐lane, three‐lane, and four‐lane weigh‐in‐motion data are available for the statistical evaluation of typical multigirder concrete bridges with structural types of slab beams, T‐shape beams, and box beams. Lane‐occurrence behavior, volume, load, and weight correlation of trucks are determined to have the largest impact on failure probability. Extreme and equivalent load effects (LEs) under multilane truck loading are calculated to assess bearing capacity and fatigue performance. The greater the number of lanes, the larger the discrepancies of truck volume and weight by lane. The differences in the traffic LE and reliability indices for each girder in the same bridge increase with greater number of lanes, shorter span, and weaker lateral girder connection. These results provide the background of designing or maintaining the bridges to pursue uniform target reliability of each girder component under realistic multilane truck loading.