Abstract
In this paper, a new splicing method was applied to design the girder section of bridges with the span length of 25m, 30m, 35m, 40m and 45m. A U-type precast prestressed section was also determined for each bridge. Additionally, the sectional area, beam depth and Guyon's efficiency factor of the spliced U-type sections in each span were analyzed in comparison with the present I-type PSC bridges. As a result, in spite of an increase of 31%∼50% in the sectional areas compared with the I-type precast girders, the spliced U-type the beam depth of the spliced U-type girder was designed as 2,050 mm compared with the I-type precast girder of 2,600mm in a 40m span bridge. The sectional efficiency factors of the spliced U-type sections were analyzed as 0.76∼0.99. It shows that the spliced U-type sections ar of a superior structural efficiency in contrast to the average sectional efficiency factor of 0.66 value in the I-type girders.
