• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.10 no.3 s.36
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• pp.537-551
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• 1998

The intention of this paper is to provide realistic values of design thermal loads applicable to composite box girder bridges on the basis of the statistical analysis of long-term measured temperature data. For this purpose, temperatures were recorded at a newly constructed composite box girder bridge during about 20 months. Before analyzing the extreme values, major thermal loading parameters that characterize the temperature profile are defined, and a seasonal behavior of those is examined in detail. The limit distributions of the thermal loading parameters are then determined by the tail-equivalence method, and the thermal loading parameters corresponding to selected return period are calculated. Finally, the results are compared to the specifications suggested in a current design code for thermal loads, and it is concluded that the current design code is unsuitable for representing the self-equilibrated thermal stresses in composite bridges, and the horizontal temperature difference which is not suggested in current design code should be taken Into account in particular cases.