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Engineering Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct
article
info
Article history:
Received 21 January 2009
Received in revised form
24 July 2009
Accepted 22 December 2009
Available online 15 January 2010
Keywords:
Balanced cantilever
Segmental construction
Cast-in-place
Creep
Shrinkage
Deflection
abstract
Segmentally constructed concrete cantilever bridges often exhibit larger deflections than those predicted
by the design calculations. The slender and long spans in combination with the fact that permanent loads
are only partially compensated for by prestressing are reasons for the large deflections that increase
during the life time of the bridge, although at a decreasing rate. The rate of drying shrinkage may be one
reason for the accelerating displacement of cast-in-place bridges. The construction of continuous spans
instead of introducing joints has both comfort and durability advantages. The continuous span is however
more complicated to design, and secondary restraint moments due to creep, shrinkage and thermal
effects develop at the connection. The results of analyses of the stepwise cast-in-place construction of
a balanced cantilever bridge with time-dependent material properties show both higher deflection than
those originally assumed in the design calculations and high stresses in the webs due to stressing of the
tendons in the bottom flange. The analyses show significant effects of creep during cantilevering and of a
non-uniform drying shrinkage rate on the continuous bridge.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Prestressed segmentally constructed concrete bridges are
sensitive to a long-term increase in deflection and are often subjected to an increasing long-term deflection. The total vertical
displacement of such bridges is a result of a large downward displacement due to the dead load, live loads and a large upward
displacement due to prestress. The long-term increase in displacements is of great importance for the serviceability, durability and
reliability. Due to this, it is important to be able to obtain accurate
predictions of the deformation of these bridges during construction and their service life. Several bridges have been closed or repaired due to excessive deflection before the end of their initially
assumed service life. The cost of a reduced service life is tremendous for society, the owners and users.
Box-girder bridges are traditionally analysed according to
theory of bending where the cross-sections are assumed to remain
plane. This theory is, however, too simplified to capture the
deformation of boxgirder bridges accurately. The main deficiency
of this theory is that it cannot capture the shear lag effect in the
slabs due to the dead weight and the prestress. The shear lag
causes a nonlinear distribution of normal stresses over the top
and bottom flanges in the cross-section. Neglecting the shear lag
effect may lead to a considerable underestimation of the long-term
0141-0296/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2009.12.030
0
H1
V1
12 13
1039
10
6
34
34
33
33
32
9
74
120
70
54
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
2
2
2
2
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
4
Fig. 2. Elevation of the Grndal bridge with the tendon arrangement and the extent of cracking on the web facing south.
amount of reinforcement is increased in the mid-span to a diameter of 20 mm in the horizontal bars. Prestressing cables are provided in the upper flange as they are necessary in the construction
stage, and the cables in the bottom flange are post-tensioned after
the completion of the superstructure when the centre segment is
cast. The tendon arrangement for the main-span is shown in Fig. 2
together with a sketch of the extent of cracking in the web.
1.2. Balanced cantilever construction
The principle of the free cantilever construction method is that a
previously cast segment serves as the work basis for the execution
of the next segment. A form traveller is attached to the previously
cast segment and carries the form work for the new segment that
is to be cast. An illustration of a form traveller is shown in Fig. 4.
According to Hewson [13], the weight of the traveller used for insitu construction with the balanced cantilever technique is usually
40120 tonnes for spans between 50 and 200 m. This interval in
the weight of traveller is slightly smaller according to Takcs [3]
where it typically weights 500900 kN. After a segment is poured
the traveller remains as a support for the newly cast segment
until it has reached sufficient strength and can be stressed to
the existing cantilever arm with post-tensioned tendons anchored
in the new segment [14]. To compensate for the long-term
deflections, an upward displacement during cantilevering occurs
due to tensioning of the tendons. These planned displacements are
commonly referred to as camber.
The main-span of the Grndal bridge was symmetrically cast
from piers seven and eight, see Fig. 1. The cantilever arms consist
of 13 segments, each 4 m long, from the piers, and where two
adjacent cantilevers meet they are joined with one 1.4 m long
centre segment to close the structure. The segments were cast with
a travelling form at intervals of 1 week.
2. Finite element analysis
The analyses presented in this paper have been performed with
the finite element (FE) software Abaqus/Standard 6.7 [15]. The
modelling approach used is a three-dimensional model using shell
1040
A
SECTION
A-A
1/3
fcm
(1)
fcm0
r
Ec ( t ) =
s 1
exp
28
t
Ecs
(2)
1041
Fig. 5. Development of (a) elastic modulus, (b) creep coefficient, (c) shrinkage strain and (d) non-uniform shrinkage rate.
2.1.2. Shrinkage
Shrinkage has been implemented according to Eurocode 2 [17]
where the total shrinkage is the sum of the autogenous and the
drying shrinkage. The drying shrinkage is defined as
cd = ds (t , t0 )kh cd,0
(3)
with
ds (t , t0 ) =
(4)
(t ts ) + 0.04 h3
ds2 ffcm
c0
(5)
with
RH = 1.55 1
100
3 !
(6)
(8)
and
(7)
where
as = 1 exp0.2
RH
ca (t ) = as (t )ca ()
ca () = 2.5(fck 10) 106
t ts
(9)
1042
(t , t0 ) = 0 c (t t0 )
0 = RH (fcm )(t0 )
(11)
with
1 RH /100
(12)
0.46(h/100)1/3
(fcm ) =
5.3
(13)
fcm /10
(t0 ) =
1
0.1 +
(14)
t0
c (t t0 ) =
0.3
t t0
(15)
H + t t0
with
H = 150 1 + 1.2
RH
100
18 !
E0
3(1 2)
h
100
+ 250 1500.
E0
2(1 + )
KR ( t )
K0
E0
2(1+)(1+(t ,t0 ))
E0
2(1+)
E0
3(12)(1+(t ,t0 ))
E0
3(12)
(19)
(1 + (t , t0 ))
1
(1 + (t , t0 ))
(20)
2.1.4. Relaxation
The relaxation of the prestressing tendons can be defined with
the same visco-elastic material model that is used to define creep
in concrete. The relaxation has been implemented according to
Eurocode 2 [17] where, for low relaxation wire and strands, the
relaxation loss can be calculated according to
1pr
= 0.66 105 1000 exp9.1
pi
kR (t ) =
(17)
(18)
t
1000
0.75(1)
(21)
(16)
G0
gR (t ) =
kR (t ) =
GR (t )
(10)
RH = 1 +
gR (t ) =
GR (t )
G0
KR ( t )
K0
=1
(22)
= 1 .
(23)
The relaxation is included in the material properties for the tendons. The prestress loss may be higher than predicted by textbook
formulas that is why the total loss of prestress is calculated in the
analysis where it is dependent on the creep and shrinkage of the
concrete.
2.2. Segmental construction phase
The segmental construction has been performed in the finite
element analyses where the whole structure was initially modelled
with the geometry of the planned final structure according to the
construction drawings. As a first step, all elements in the cantilever
arms were deactivated, i.e. removed from the calculation. In
subsequent steps, the casting sequence in the cantilevering process
was simulated, the corresponding segments being activated in
the finite element model. The elements are activated with the
Abaqus command with strain so that they are added at a
zero state in a smooth conjunction with previously cast segments.
Each calculation step corresponds to 1 week to simulate the
casting sequence and the development of the material properties.
The elements are introduced in the beginning of each step with
their dead weight and a low value of the elastic modulus. As the
calculation of the step progresses, the concrete cures and as a result
the elastic modulus, creep and shrinkage increase. In the beginning
of the next step, this segment is post-tensioned and a new segment
1043
3. Results
To study the influence of the different time-dependent material properties and effects, several different models have been performed. It is of interest to study their impact on the deflections and
the stresses in the cantilevers during the construction process. It is
especially of interest to see if the built-in stresses from tensioning, the bottom tendons could be sufficient to initiate cracking in
the webs. The development of the elastic modulus, creep, weight of
the form traveller, relaxation and shrinkage have all been studied
separately as well as their combined effect.
3.1. Camber
The calculated camber of the two cantilevers on each side of
pier 8 is shown in Fig. 6 for a visco-elastic model, with creep and
shrinkage included, depending on the weight of the traveller. The
weight of the newly cast segment is included in all the calculations.
Hence, the total load shown in the legend of the figure is the load
of the traveller and does not include the weight of the newly cast
concrete. The interval of the load of the traveller shown in the
figure is between 200 and 1000 kN. In the figure, the displacement
measured in-situ is also shown. It can be seen that some of the
segments of the cantilever 8V08V13 cast in-situ deviated from
an ideal curve, and hence they had to be corrected to get back on
track. The index 8V08V13 refers to the cantilever segments 013
cast from pier 8 towards the main-span, i.e. on the left-hand side
of pier 8 in Fig. 2.
1044
Fig. 8. Elevation of the bridge after closing the structure. The zero level corresponds
to the elevation according to the construction drawings.
Fig. 9. Elevation of the bridge after stressing the tendons in the bottom flange. The
zero level corresponds to the elevation according to the construction drawings.
1045
+2.75
+2.50
+2.25
+2.00
+1.75
+1.50
+1.25
+1.00
+0.75
+0.50
+0
Y
Z
Fig. 11. Tensile stresses in the cantilevers after stressing the bottom tendons.
Fig. 10. Elevation of the bridge after 2 years including the load of ballast. The zero
level corresponds to the elevation according to the construction drawings.