• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.53-60
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• 2024

Prestressed concrete (PSC) bridges are vulnerable to corrosion and fracture of tendons, and in particular, structures using the internal post-tensioned with grouted system have difficulties in maintenance due to limitations of inspection. In this study, the actual behavior of PSC I girder bridge was analyzed according to tendon damage. The target PSC I girder bridge, an decommissioned highway bridge of upper and lower bridges, had the service period of 33 years and 20 years, respectively. Deflection and concrete strain were measured according to the location of damaged tendon and loading method. Regardless of the age of the bridge, its structural performance decreased when the damaged tendon was closer to the center of the girder. The change in behavior increased as the truck load approached to the girder where the tendon cut. If the load was applied to the adjacent girder where the tendon was cut, the structural performance was likely to be maintained due to the influence of the entire structural system. The change in deflection was difficult to observe visually, while the concrete strain exceeded the cracking strain. Therefore, it is recommended that future monitoring and inspection of PSC I girder bridges should focus on concrete strain or cracking.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.993-999
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• 2008

A girder height limitation is the critical parameter for rapid construction of bridge deck and construction space limitation especially in urban area such as high population area and high density habitats. A standard post-tensioned I-shaped concrete girder usually demands relatively higher girder height in order to retain sufficient moment arm between compression force and tensile force. To elaborate this issue, a small U-shaped section with wide flanges can be used as a possible replacement of I-shaped standard girder. This prestressed concrete box girder allows more flexible girder height adjustment rather than standard I-shaped post-tensioned girder plus additional torsion resistance benefits of closed section. A 30m-long, 1.7m-high and 3.63m-wide actual small prestressed concrete box girder is designed and a laboratory test for its static behaviors by applying 6,200kN amount of load in the form of 4-point bending test was performed. The load-deflection curve and crack patterns at different loading stage are recorded. In addition, to extracting the dynamic characteristics such as natural frequency and damping ratio of this girder, several excitation tests with artificial mechanical exciter with un-symmetric mass are carried out using operational frequency sweep-up. Nonlinear finite element analysis of this 4 point bending test under monotonic static load is investigated and discussed with aids of concrete damaged plasticity formulation using ABAQUS program.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.3A
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• pp.235-249
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• 2011

A new form of I-type PSC bridge girder, which has hole in the web, is proposed in this paper. Three different concepts were combined and implemented in the design. First of all, a girder was precast at a manufacturing plant as divided pieces and assembled at the construction site using post-tensioning method, and the construction period at the site will be reduced dramatically. In this way, the quality of concrete can be assured at the manufacturing factory and concrete curing can be well controlled, and the spliced girder segments can be moved to the construction site without a transportation problem. Secondly, a numerous number of holes was made in the web of the girder. This reduces the self-weight of the girder. But more important thing related to the holes is that about half of the total anchorages can be moved from the girder ends into individual holes. The magnitude of negative moment developed at girder ends will be reduced. Also, since the longitudinal compressive stresses are reduced at ends, thick end diaphragm is not necessary. Thirdly, Prestressing force was introduced into the member through multiple stages. This concept of multi-stage prestressing method overcomes the prestressing force limit restrained by the allowable stresses at each loading stage, and maximizes the magnitude of applicable prestressing force. It makes the girder longer and shallower. Two 50 meter long full scale girders were fabricated and tested. One of them was non-spliced, or monolithic girder, made as one piece from the beginning, and the other one was assembled using post-tensioning method from five pieces of segments. It was found from the result that monolithic and spliced girder show similar load-deflection relationships and crack patterns. Girders satisfied specific girder design specification in flexural strength, deflection, and live load deflection control limit. Both spliced and monolithic holed web post-tensioned girders can be used to achieve span lengths of more than 50m with the girder height of 2 m.