Evaluation of a High Performance Concrete Box Girder Bridge
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Evaluation of a High Performance Concrete Box Girder Bridge Andreas Greuel T. Michael Baseheart, Ph. D. Graduate Research Assistant Associate Professor of Civil University of Cincinnati Engineering Cincinnati, Ohio University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio Bradley T. Rogers Engineer LJB, Inc. As part of the FHWA (Federal Highway Admin- Dayton, Ohio istration) High Performance Concrete Bridge Program, two full-scale truckload tests of Bridge GUE-22-6.57 were carried out. The main ob- jectives of these tests were to investigate the static and dynamic response of the high perfor- Richard A. Miller, Ph. D. mance concrete (HPC) structure. A secondary Associate Professor of Civil Engineering objective was to investigate the load transfer University of Cincinnati between the box girders through experimental Cincinnati, Ohio middepth shear keys. The structure was loaded using standard Ohio Department of Transporta- tion (ODOT) dump trucks. A model test of the bridge was conducted as well. It was found that the bridge behavior is well predicted using sim- ple models. The bridge behaves as a single unit and all girders share the load almost equally. Bahram M. Shahrooz, Ph. D. The dynamic behavior of the bridge is typical Associate Professor of Civil for comparable structures. Engineering University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio 60 PCI JOURNAL he use of high performance con- located on US Route 22, a heavily in that the Ohio box girder has only a crete (HPC) can lead to more traveled two-lane highway near Cam- 5 in. (127 mm ) thick bottom flange Teconomical bridge designs be- bridge, Ohio. rather than the 5.5 in. (140 mm) flange cause the designer can often eliminate The new bridge replaced a 70 ft used in the AASHTO box. As a result, girder lines, use shallower sections or (21.4 m) single span, steel stringer the Ohio box can accommodate only extend the span of a section and elimi- bridge with a concrete deck. The hy- a single, full layer of 23 strands in the nate the need for intermediate supports. draulic requirements required the span bottom flange and a partial layer of While the use of HPC can lead to lower of the new bridge to be increased to four strands and several layers of two initial costs through elimination of piers 115.5 ft (35.2 m ). Note that the bridge strands in the webs. or girder lines, the high durability of was originally designed as a three- If the bridge were designed using HPC can also lead to lower long-term span, noncomposite, adjacent box the largest Ohio box (B42-48, see costs because of reduced maintenance girder system using normal strength Fig. 3), standard 5500 psi (39 MPa) and a longer bridge life. concrete [5500 psi (35 MPa)] and 0.5 concrete and 0.5 in. (13 mm) diam- Despite the above advantages, as de- in. (13 mm) diameter strands [see Fig. eter strands, the maximum span of signers use longer and shallower spans 1(b)]. the girder would be 110 ft (33.5 m). with fewer girders, the structures become Normally, a span of 115.5 ft (35.2 m) If the steel area is increased by using more flexible. This leads one to ques- would not be too long for a box girder. 0.6 in. (15 mm) diameter strand, the tion whether the structures will deflect However, the Ohio box girder (see Fig. girder could easily span the required or vibrate excessively or if the greater 3) differs from the AASHTO standard length. However, the larger strand flexibility will affect the load distribution between adjacent box girders. In 1998, the Ohio Department of Fig. 1(a). Transportation (ODOT) constructed HPC single-span design. a HPC, adjacent box girder bridge. In this bridge, a preliminary design for a three-span bridge was converted to a single-span design [see Figs. 1(a) and 1(b)]. Prior to construction, research- ers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) formulated the high performance concrete mixes which would be used and conducted several tests on proto- type girders. The prototype test results showed the simple span box girders to be suf- Fig. 1(b). ficiently strong and ductile. These tests Original, three-span confirmed that girder behavior was design. predictable using linear elastic theory prior to cracking and a strain compat- ibility approach for the ultimate be- havior. Satisfied with prototype girder performance, ODOT let the contract for the bridge construction, yet, there were still questions as to how the ac- tual bridge would behave. To try to answer these questions, the UC research team tested the bridge during and after construction. This paper summarizes the result of destruc- tive and nondestructive testing of pro- totype girders and of nondestructive testing the completed bridge structure. BRIDGE DESCRIPTION Bridge GUE-22-6.57 is a 115.5 ft (35.2 m) long prestressed, noncompos- ite, adjacent box girder bridge [see Fig. 1(a)]. The cross section of the bridge is shown in Fig. 2. The structure is Fig. 2. Cross section of HPC bridge. November-December 2000 61 This bridge utilizes an experimental shear key at middepth of the cross section. This shear key configuration was found to be less susceptible to cracking.1 After tying adjacent girders together with non-prestressed threaded rods located transversely through dia- phragms at the ends and quarter points of the bridge (see Fig. 4), the shear keys are grouted. Note that in this configuration, only the shear key itself was to be grouted. The area above the middepth shear key was filled with sand and a sealant was applied to the top of the joint to further guard against leakage (see Fig. 5). Fig. 3. Ohio B42-48 section. MATERIAL PROPERTIES The first task for the UC research generates a greater prestressing force water from the bridge surface to leak team was developing a mix design and, therefore, high strength concrete between the sides of adjacent box which would produce extremely du- is required. girders. rable concrete that had high release Another reason for using HPC is Leakage can cause serious damage and ultimate strengths. To make the that it has a high durability. Adja- to the tendons and reinforcement when girder span the required 115.5 ft (35.2 cent box girders have shear keys cast water and deicing chemicals penetrate m), it was determined that the concrete between the girders to transfer shear the concrete. Leakage is a major prob- would need a minimum compressive between adjacent girders. Shear keys lem with adjacent box girder bridges, strength of 10 ksi (70 MPa ). For dura- of adjacent box girder bridges tend so HPC with its high durability is an bility, a rapid chloride permeability of to crack, and subsequently, allow ideal choice for this type of structure. less than 1000 coulombs was desired. The mix was designed using the ma- terials which the precaster had avail- able. Normally, Type I cement is used for HPC, but the precaster usually used Type III and it was not economically desirable to change to Type I. To improve durability and strength, a water to cementitious material ratio (w/c+p) of less than 0.3 was chosen and microsilica was added to the mix. The precaster did not have a silo avail- able to store the microsilica, so it was batched from bags. To avoid having to weigh the microsilica separately, the mix was designed using single bag increments of 25 lb (11.3 kg). This is why there is an unusual per- centage (11.8 percent) for the micro- silica. Because of the low w/c+p ratio and presence of microsilica, a water reducer was required both to provide enough workability and to defloculate the cement particles so the microsilica would be able to fit in between them and densify the mix. The fine aggregate was natural river sand. A No. 8, partially crushed, river gravel (3/8 in. or 10 mm max.) was used as the coarse aggregate. Be- Fig. 4. Installing tie rods. cause the aggregate was only partially 62 PCI JOURNAL Fig. 5. strain gauges were placed between the Middepth shear key strands at approximately 1 ft (3 m) and tie rods. intervals from each end of the girder prior to casting. After the girder had cured and the strands were cut, the measured strain was used to determine that somewhere between 35 in. and 48 in. (0.89 and 1.2 m) the transfer was complete. This means that the transfer length was between 60D and 80D (where D is the strand diameter). The AASHTO crushed, the aggregate/paste bond did the research team could verify the be- Standard Specifications2 use a transfer not appear to be particularly good and havior of the girders. An in-depth dis- length of 50D, the AASHTO LRFD this appeared to limit the concrete cussion of the prototype fabrication Specifications5 use a transfer length of strength. Making the specified strength and destructive testing can be found in 60D while a transfer length of 80D has required a high cement content. The a previous work.4 For completeness, a been suggested in the literature.6 specified strength could have been summary is presented here. The prototype girders were subjected obtained with lower cement contents One area explored was the trans- to destructive testing. Each girder was and/or higher w/c+p ratios with the fer length for 0.6 in. (15 mm) diam- supported on neoprene pads such that use of a better aggregate (e.g., crushed eter strand when used with HPC. To the test span was 115.5 ft (35.2 m) and limestone).