Numerical Study of Flange-Web Junction of Prestressed Concrete Bridge with Corrugated Steel Webs

Abstract

Steel-concrete composite bridges have become popular by taking advantage of desirable properties of both materials. In particular, prestressed concrete bridges with corrugated steel webs have emerged as one of the promising bridge forms. This structural form provides excellent structural efficiency with the concrete flanges primarily taking bending and the corrugated steel webs taking shear. Most beam theories proposed for this type of bridges have assumed that the longitudinal stiffness of the corrugated web is negligible. The web is assumed to carry effectively zero longitudinal normal stress. However, longitudinal normal stresses of the web have been observed in the bonded zone of the flange-web junctions during experiments. In this chapter, the stress distribution in the bonded zone of the flange-web junctions is investigated numerically. Parametric analysis is done to identify the essential parameters. The study shows that the interaction between the web corrugations and the surrounding concrete causes longitudinal normal stresses in the bonded zones. If the bonded zone is large as compared to the whole deck section, the assumption of negligible longitudinal stiffness of web may no longer be valid. Based on the numerical study, this chapter provides some suggestions for the design of web corrugations.