Affiliation:
1. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
2. Department of Civil Engineering, Kirikkale University, 71450 Kirikkale, Turkey
Abstract
AASHTO specifications provide vertical thermal gradients for the thermal design of precast, prestressed concrete bridge girders. However, the thermal behavior of the girders pertains to not only vertical thermal movement but also lateral thermal movement. Thus, a one-year experimental and analytical study was conducted on a prestressed concrete BT-1600 girder segment to investigate both the vertical and lateral thermal gradients with variations in environmental conditions. The vertical thermal gradients were compared using current AASHTO recommendations. In addition, this study evaluated the lateral thermal gradients, which are not provided in the specifications, to propose a second-order curve. To determine the magnitudes of the thermal gradients in different environmental conditions, this study has developed equations that calculate the maximum vertical and lateral temperature differentials from daily climatic information. Results of the study showed that the predicted temperature differentials provided good agreement with the measured values. Finally, thermal deformations induced by the vertical and lateral thermal gradients were evaluated using an analytical method derived from one-dimensional beam theory.
Subject
Building and Construction,Civil and Structural Engineering
Cited by
56 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献