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COMPOSITE PLATE GIRDER BRIDGES a State-Of-The-Art Report of UK Practice COMPOSITE PLATE GIRDER BRIDGES A State-of-the-Art Report of UK Practice JOSÉ PEDRO VILAS BOAS DE MONTALVÃO FERNANDES Dissertation submitted for the partial fullfillement of the requirements to the degree of MASTER’S IN CIVIL ENGINEERING — SPECIALISATION IN STRUCTURES Professor Dr. José Miguel de Freitas Castro Dr. Ricardo Nuno Tavares Teixeira JANUARY 2016 MESTRADO INTEGRADO EM ENGENHARIA CIVIL 2015/2016 DEPARTAMENTO DE ENGENHARIA CIVIL Tel. +351-22-508 1901 Fax +351-22-508 1446 [email protected] Editado por FACULDADE DE ENGENHARIA DA UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO Rua Dr. Roberto Frias 4200-465 PORTO Portugal Tel. +351-22-508 1400 Fax +351-22-508 1440 [email protected] http://www.fe.up.pt Reproduções parciais deste documento serão autorizadas na condição que seja mencionado o Autor e feita referência a Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Civil - 2015/2016 - Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal, 2016. As opiniões e informações incluídas neste documento representam unicamente o ponto de vista do respetivo Autor, não podendo o Editor aceitar qualquer responsabilidade legal ou outra em relação a erros ou omissões que possam existir. Este documento foi produzido a partir de versão eletrónica fornecida pelo respetivo Autor. Composite Plate Girder Bridges – A State-of-the-Art Report of UK Practice To João and Tiago, For the infinite joy they bring. To Sofia Marques da Silva, For seeding the will. Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Albert Einstein Composite Plate Girder Bridges – A State-of-the-Art Report of UK Practice ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank his employer WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in the persons of David Gulick, Andrew Porter, and especially Kelly Croke for their sponsorship in the undertaking of this work. To Professor José Miguel Castro for his willingness to tutor this dissertation written at a distance regardless of the constraints, and for his review and constructive criticism of the work. A special thanks to Dr. Ricardo Teixeira, tutor, colleague and friend. For his unflinching support, review of the text, and especially for the long hours of discussion about any subject in structural engineering. To Tony Harris, Head of Discipline – Bridges at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, for his valuable comments and insights. To my colleagues and friends Tom Corcoran and Stephen Heaney for their comments and long hours of fruitful discussion. Finally, to acknowledge Elfyn Williams at Welsh Government for providing the data on existing road bridges in Wales and Richard Stonehouse at Mabey Bridge for the data on fabrication costs used in Chapter 2. i Composite Plate Girder Bridges – A State-of-the-Art Report of UK Practice ABSTRACT The United Kingdom has a rich history in the design and construction of steel bridges. This is owed in great part to having been the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, when advances in scientific knowledge and manufacture process enabled the economic production of large quantities of steel. The invention of the steam-engine train and the construction of railways that followed provided a fertile ground for engineers of the time to continually experiment with the new material. In the following century the construction of bridges would reach spans unimaginable until then. With the rise of the automobile in the 20th century and the expansion of motorways in post-war Europe the ground was provided for the construction of many new bridges. It was in this context that steel-concrete composite bridges first made their appearance in the 1960’s. Since then composite bridges underwent continuous development to their present types. Since then composite bridges evolved continuously to the deck types that can be seen today. This dissertation intends to present a review of the state-of-the-art of UK practice in the analysis and design of steel-concrete composite bridges. Following an historical background to the evolution of steel bridges an overview of the presence of composite bridges within existing road bridges in service is set out. Typical deck cross-sections in use in the UK construction industry and their respective preferred range of application are presented, as well as information on plate girder fabrication costs. The methods used in practice today for the global analysis of composite bridge decks are addressed in following. The design actions and the rules for combinations of actions in current design codes (the Eurocodes) that define ultimate and serviceability limit states are presented. The quantification of time dependant properties of concrete and a general view of the analysis models at the disposal of practising engineers are provided. A review of the design of composite cross-sections follows, starting with the cross-section classification process and the explanation of its consequences in the cross-section resistances. The verification of cross-section resistances to bending flexure, vertical shear force, combined bending and vertical shear force, and longitudinal shear force for ultimate limit states is presented in detail. The importance of serviceability limit state checks is highlighted. Verifications of stress limitations in structural steelwork, reinforcing steel and concrete are presented as well as the control of concrete cracking by limiting crack widths. The presentation of a case study of the preliminary design of a steel-concrete composite viaduct in Wales demonstrates how the subjects covered all come together in the design of a bridge structure. It is shown how the brief requirements and the site constraints to be addressed dictated the choice of the type of superstructure, in this case a solution typical of the UK which is the ladder deck. The design actions to be considered and the type of model chosen for the global analysis of the deck are then presented. These are followed by the validation of the design by means of cross-section verifications for ultimate limit states. A summary of the merits of the proposed solution and its economy of design concludes the dissertation. KEYWORDS: bridge, steel, composite, analysis, design. iii Composite Plate Girder Bridges – A State-of-the-Art Report of UK Practice RESUMO O Reino Unido tem uma história rica no projecto e construção de pontes em aço. Tal deve-se em grande parte a ter sido o berço da Revolução Industrial, quando progressos no conhecimento científico e nos processos de fabrico possibilitaram a produção económica de aço em grandes quantidades. A invenção do comboio a vapor e a construção de ferrovias que se seguiu proporcionaram terreno fértil para os engenheiros da época experimentarem o novo material, com a construção de pontes no século seguinte a atingir vãos até então inimagináveis. Com o surgir do automóvel no século XX e a expansão da rede de autoestradas no pós-guerra proporcionou-se a construção de grande número de novas pontes. Foi neste contexto que as pontes mistas aço-betão fizeram a sua primeira aparição nos anos sessenta. Desde então as pontes mistas evoluíram continuamente até às tipologias de tabuleiros que se podem ver nos dias de hoje. Esta dissertação pretende apresentar uma revisão do estado-da-arte da prática no Reino Unido da análise e projecto de pontes mistas aço-betão. Após um enquadramento histórico da evolução das pontes em aço uma visão geral da presença das pontes mistas entre as pontes rodoviárias em service é estabelecida. As secções transversais típicas em uso na indústria da construção do Reino Unido e o seu respectivo campo de aplicação preferencial são apresentadas, bem como informação sobre custos de fabricação de vigas de alma cheia. Os métodos usados hoje na análise global de tabuleiros de pontes mistas serão abordados de seguida. As acções de cálculo e as regras para combinações de acções dos códigos de projecto actuais (os Eurocódigos) que definem os estados limite último e de serviço são apresentadas. A quantificação das propriedades diferidas do betão e uma visão geral dos modelos de análise à disposição do engenheiro são fornecidas. Segue-se uma revisão do projecto de secções mistas, com início no processo de classificação de secções e a explicação das suas consequências para a resistência da secção. A verificação das resistências à flexão, ao esforço transverso, à combinação entre flexão e esforço transverso, e ao esforço rasante é apresentada detalhadamente. A importância da verificação de estados limite de service é sublinhada. As verificações de limitação de tensões no aço estrutural, nas armaduras e no betão são apresentadas bem como o controlo de fissuração do betão pela limitação da abertura de fendas. A apresentação de um caso de estudo do estudo prévio de um viaduto misto aço-betão em Gales demonstra como os temas cobertos se combinam no projecto de uma ponte. É mostrado como os requisitos do caderno de encargos e os condicionantes locais a abordar ditaram a escolha do tipo de superestrutura, neste caso uma solução típica do Reino Unido que é o tabuleiro bi-viga com carlingas. As acções de cálculo a considerar e o modelo adoptado para a análise global do tabuleiro são apresentados. Segue-se a validação da solução através das verificações da secção para o estado limite último. Um resumo das mais-valias da solução proposta e da economia do seu projecto conclui a dissertação. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: ponte, aço, mista, análise, projecto. v Composite Plate Girder Bridges – A State-of-the-Art Report of UK Practice TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...........................................................................................................................
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