Design of bridges

Assignment-1
Name: K.S.C. SEKHARENDRA
Reg.no:17MST0022

Box girder bridge:

construction:
 A box girder is formed when two web plates are joined by a common flange at both the
top and the bottom. The closed cell which is formed has a much greater torsional stiffness
and strength than an open section and it is this feature which is the usual reason for
choosing a box girder configuration.
 The box girder deck may be constructed in two ways, namely, precast/prefabricated or
in situ. Using precast concrete or prefabricated steel allows for good quality control
under factory conditions. The size of the units is usually determined by the size of the
largest available lifting equipment and site accessibility. It is usually quicker than in situ
construction.
 In situ construction is carried out using a travelling formwork, a temporary metal
structure which supports the concrete deck while it is being poured. The size of the
formwork depends on the size of the spans but it is usually designed to allow the deck
to be constructed in segments while being supported off the previous completed deck.
 A deck unit is completed on either side of a column so as to ensure balance is maintained,
hence it is called balanced cantilever construction. The construction continues to
midspan where it then joins the deck construction from the adjoining column. These
decks usually incorporate prestressing or post tensioning to facilitate construction and
also to reduce the size of the box girder that would otherwise be required.
Bridge design:
 T or I-girder bridges are the most common example under this category and are very
popular because of their simple geometry, low fabrication cost, easy erection or casting
and smaller dead loads. In this paper study the India Road Loading considered for design
of bridges, also factor which are important to decide the preliminary sizes of concrete box
girders. Also considered the IRC:18-2000 for “Prestressed Concrete Road Bridges” and
“Code of Practice for Prestressed Concrete” Indian Standard. Analyze the Concrete Box
Girder Road Bridges for various spans, various depth and check the proportioning depth.

 The various type of loads, forces and stresses to be considered in the analysis and design
of the various components of the bridge are given in IRC 6:2000(Section II. But the
common forces are considered to design the model are as follows:

 Dead Load(DL): The dead load carried by the girder or the member consists of its own
weight and the portions of the weight of the superstructure and any fixed loads supported
by the member. The dead load can be estimated fairly accurately during design and can be
controlled during construction and service.

 Superimposed Dead Load (SIDL): The weight of superimposed dead load includes
footpaths, earth-fills, wearing course, stay-in -place forms, ballast, water-proofing, signs,
architectural ornamentation, pipes, conduits, cables and any other immovable
appurtenances installed on the structure.

 Live Load(LL): Live loads are those caused by vehicles which pass over the bridge and are
transient in nature. These loads cannot be estimated precisely, and the designer has very
little control over them once the bridge is opened to traffic. However, hypothetical loadings
which are reasonably realistic need to be evolved and specified to serve as design criteria.
There are four types of standard loadings for which road bridges are designed.
 IRC Class A loading, which is normally adopted on all roads on which permanent bridges
and culverts are constructed.

 The thickness of the web shall not be less than d/36 plus twice the clear cover to the
reinforcement plus diameter of the duct hole where ‘d’ is the overall depth of the box girder
measured from the top of the deck slab to the bottom of the soffit or 200 mm plus the
diameter of duct holes, whichever is greater.
 Cross section of box girder bridge

References:
 IRC: 18 – 2000 “ DESIGN CRITERIA FOR PRESTRESSED CONCRETE ROAD
BRIDGES (POST – TENSIONED CONCRETE)” THE INDIAN ROADS CONGRESS.
 IRC: 6- 2000 “STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS AND CODE OF PRACTICE FOR
ROAD BRIDGES”THE ROAD CONGRESS.
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge:
 Akashi Strait Bridge, also called Akashi Kaikyo Bridge or Pearl Bridge, suspension
bridge across the Akashi Strait (Akashi-kaikyo) in west-central Japan.
 It was the world’s longest suspension bridge when it opened on April 5, 1998. The six-
lane road bridge connects the city of Kobe.
 The Akashi Strait Bridge is 12,831 feet long (3,911 meters) and has three spans. The central
span is 6,532 feet (1,991 meters) long, and each of the two side spans measures 3,150 feet
(960 meters). The two main supporting towers stand 975 feet (297 meters) above the strait’s
surface, making it one of the tallest bridges in the world. The central span was originally
designed to be 6,529 feet (1,990 meters) long, but the Kobe earthquake of 1995 forced the
two towers, which were still under construction, more than 3 feet (1 meter) farther apart.
 The Akashi Strait Bridge stands in a seismically unstable region that also experiences some
of the Earth’s most severe storms. Thus, engineers thus used a complex system of
counterweights, pendulums, and steel-truss girders to allow the bridge to withstand winds
of up to 180 miles (290 km) per hour. Despite these buffers, the bridge can expand and
contract several feet in a single day. The challenges posed by the bridge
inspired innovations in wind-tunnel and cable-fabrication technology.
Structural Components
The basic structural components of a suspension bridge system are
 Stiffening girders/trusses: Longitudinal structures which support and distribute moving
vehicle loads, act as chords for the lateral system and secure the aerodynamic stability of
the structure.
 Main cables: A group of parallel-wire bundled cables which support stiffening
girders/trusses by hanger ropes and transfer loads to towers.
 Main towers: Intermediate vertical structures which support main cables and transfer
bridge loads to foundations.
 Anchorages: Massive concrete blocks which anchor main cables and act as end supports
of a bridge.

Components of suspension bridge

Structural design aspects:
 External anchorage is most common. Self-anchored main cables are fixed to the stiffening
girders instead of the anchorage; the axial compression is carried into the girders.
 Towers are classified into rigid, flexible, or locking types. Flexible towers are commonly
used in long-span suspension bridges, rigid towers for multispan suspension bridges to
provide enough stiffness to the bridge, and locking towers occasionally for relatively short-
span suspension bridges.
 Stiffening girders may be I-girders, trusses, and box girders. In some short-span suspension
bridges, the girders do not have enough stiffness themselves and are usually stiffened by
storm ropes. In long-span suspension bridges, trusses or box girders are typically adopted.
Igirders become disadvantageous due to aerodynamic stability. There are both advantages
and disadvantages to trusses and box girders, involving trade-offs in aerodynamic stability,
ease of construction, maintenance.

Anchorage system in Akashi kaikyo bridge

 The elastic theory and the deflection theory are in-plane analyses for the global suspension
bridge system. In the theories, the entire suspension bridge is assumed a continuous body
and the hanger ropes are closely spaced.
1. The cable is completely flexible.
2. The stiffening girder is horizontal and straight. The geometric moment of inertia is
constant.
3. The dead load of the stiffening girder and the cables is uniform. The coordinates of
the cable are parabolic.
4. All dead loads are taken into the cables
Design procedure:

 The general procedure of suspension bridge design is as fallows

 Lateral force caused by wind or earthquake tends to be transmitted from the stiffening
girder to the main cables, because the girder has larger lateral deformation than the main
cables due to difference of the horizontal loads and their stiffness. Moisseiff first
established the out-of-plane analysis method considering this effect

Design procedure flow chart

  In recent years, there are no cases of suspension bridges collapsing or even being seriously
damaged due to earthquakes. During construction of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the relative
location of four foundations changed slightly due to crustal movements in the 1995 Hyogo-
ken Nanbu Earthquake. Fortunately, the earthquake caused no critical damage to the
structures. Although the shear forces in the superstructure generated by a seismic load are
relatively small due to the natural frequency of the superstructure being generally low, it is
necessary to consider possible large displacements of the girders and great forces
transferring to the supports.
 The superstructure of a suspension bridge should take into account long-period motion in
the seismic design. A typical example of a seismic design is as follows. The superstructure
of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge was designed with consideration given to large ground
motions including the long period contribution. The acceleration response spectrum from
the design standard. Time-history analysis was conducted on a three-dimensional global
bridge model including substructures and ground springs.
 The design method for steel towers follows. The basic concepts for design of concrete
towers are similar. For the transverse direction, main towers are analyzed using small
deformation theory. This is permissible because the effect of cable restraint is negligible
and the flexural rigidity of the tower is high. For the longitudinal direction, Birdsall’s
analysis method is generally used. However, more rigorous methods, such as finite
displacement analysis with a three-dimensional model which allows analysis of both the
transverse and longitudinal directions, can be used, as was done in the Akashi Kaikyo
Bridge. An example of the design procedure for main towers.

Reference:
 Harazaki, I., Suzuki, S., Okukawa, A. "Suspension Bridges." Bridge Engineering
Handbook. Ed. Wai-Fah Chen and Lian Duan.
Sydney Harbour Bridge:

Introduction
 There are only few bridges around the world so famous that the city is recognized by them.
One of these landmarks is Sydney Harbour Bridge (fig. 1). An arch bridge made of steel.
It is located in Sydney, Australia and crosses port Jackson. The locals had also nicknamed
it as The Coat hanger because of it shape.
 It was constructed to hold six lanes of traffic, two lanes for trains, two lanes for trams and
two footpaths. Its deck is still the widest for a long span bridge (according to Guinness
World Records) and tallest steel arch bridge. It was also the tallest structure in Sydney until
1967.
 The huge amount of steel in the arch makes the bridge look more stable (fig. 2). Also the
complexity and the big steel parts make the arch look like solid from every angle. The
small depth of the deck is helping as the arch seems that it doesn’t hold a heavy weight.
But at the same time the whole shape looks really simple. The eye is concentrating in the
arch instead of the deck and keeps in mind the shape of the arch with a nice uniform ending
under it from the deck.

Sydney harbor bridge

Construction:
 The competition for the construction tenders started in 1922 either with an arch or a
cantilever design (Fig. 5). The British firm Dorman Long and Co Ltd, Middlesbrough won
it the next year with a design similar to the New York City's Hell Gate Bridge (fig.7). Many
people disappointed because a foreign firm was chosen so the firm assured that the entire
workforce for the construction would be Australians.
 Small-scale models were made of a number of girders for testing to destruction, in order to
check the design. But the actual size of the bridge was too big so even these models were
15 meters long. At that time there wasn’t any machine big enough to test them. So the firm
made a new one in its headquarters in Middlesbrough. The results from these testing were
extremely helpful and information about the strength of the bridge was obtained from the
tests.

Types of shapes considered

 The construction began with a demolition of 800 homes in 1923. The excavation was 12.2
meters deep (and 30 meters long by 13 meters wide) in a variable yellow stone with
horizontal seams of clay and shale After it was filled with special reinforced high-grade
concrete laid in hexagonal formations.
 The bridge is mainly constructed by steel. About 79% came from Middlesbrough in the
North East of England (traveling from the other end of the world) and the rest was
Australian-made (only 21%). But it was fabricated in Sydney, in new workshops, specially
built and equipped for the project. In those workshops 800 men were employed. The total
steel used in the project was 38,390 tons for the arches and 52,800 tones in total.
 The steel members of the arch were lifted from water and placed from two cranes, each
one at the top of the constructed half. Each crane was capable of lifting weights up to 120
tons.
 When the construction of the two-half finished, the bridge passed its most difficult test. A
strong wind blew full on the side of the bridge. Fortunately, the steel ropes were strong
enough to support the construction. After that, the cables were taken off one by one until
the two parts joined. The process should finish fast enough so the effect from temperature
difference between day and night would not affect the construction.
 At the same time, there was also the construction of the four pylons in process. The granite
used at the face of them (about 17,000 cubic meters) was quarried near Moruya (about 250
km south of Sydney), where about 250 Australian, Scottish and Italian stonemasons and
their families lived in a temporary settlement. For the transportation of the granite, three
ships were specifically built to carry it. The inside of the pylons is made by concrete and
their height is 89 meters. Even though, they don’t have any structural usage but constructed
for aesthetical purposes only.
 All the parts were connected by rivets as it was the most common technique for metal
framed structures. They were also used in the Eiffel Tower. The total number of rivets used
in the construction was about 6 million.
 The bridge is pinned and each of the four pins is 4.2 meters long and 368 millimeters in
diameter. After the construction of the arch, the construction of the deck was the easy part.
The cranes that were used to lift the arch members, they also used for the lifting of the deck
members.
 The bridge was opened on 19 March 1932, almost eight years since the contract was signed
(March 1924). The total financial cost of the bridge was £10,057,171. That was way too
higher (more than double) than the estimated one when the contract was let to the British
firm 8 years earlier for the sum of £4,218,000. The cost covered by loans which they finally
paid off 56 years later (in 1988).
 The bridge is located in Australia so it should be checked by the Australian Codes. The
association of state, territory and federal road and traffic authorities in Australia
(Austroads) was established in 1989 to replace National Association of Australian State
Road (NAASRA). The code is AS 5100-2004 with AS 5100.2-2004 for the design loads
with the SM1600 designing loading. Unfortunately, there was not free access to the public
for the code and it should be purchased only from citizens live in Australia. In this paper,
the British code (BS 5400) is used instead. It is one the more strict codes in the world. So,
if the construction passes these standards then it can pass the Australian ones too.
 The arch of the bridge is allowed to move vertically by the temperature effects. It may rise
or fall by 18 centimeters due to heating or cooling. Also the deck can be expanded by 420
millimeters.
 The bridge can handle much more weight than nowadays standards. At the time, it was
constructed, the standards were even lower. At that period, the bridge was crossed, except
with cars, but with also few people on their horse or their stage-coach. The reason that the
construction was so strong is probably that it was the era that the cars started being
widespread. Also the bridge engineers were reinforcing their structure as they were not
sure that it was stable.
 The steel bridges are vulnerable to the corrosion. The bridge should be keep painted in
short periods as the paint protects the steel parts. The inspections for any damaged parts
should continue. If it is checked in regular bases and all the damaged parts are replaced,
the bridge will not have any problem of collapsing. Last year, the bridge celebrated the
75 years from the opening date. The structure can easily be stable for at least another 75
years.
Reference:
 Sofoklis Taratoris “ a critical analysis of the design and construction of the sydney
harbor bridge” by Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath.