FIELD TESTING OF HORIZONTALLY CURVED STEEL GIRDER BRIDGES: FOURTH INTERIM REPORT

AN EXPERIMENTALLY DETERMINED RESPONSE OF A SYMMETRICAL TWO-SPAN CONTINUOUS, HORIZONTALLY CURVED STEEL GIRDER BRIDGE IS COMPARED, UNDER DEAD AND STATIC LIVE LOAD CONDITIONS, WITH A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS REPRESENTING THE STRUCTURE AS A PLANAR GRID. THE STRUCTURE EVALUATED IS A FIVE-GIRDER BRIDGE WITH A CENTERLINE LENGTH AND RADIUS OF 200.25 AND 265.5 FT, RESPECTIVELY. FIELD MEASUREMENTS CONSISTED OF STRAINS, DEFLECTIONS, AND ROTATIONS IN ONE SPAN OF THE STRUCTURE. THE RESULTS SHOW THAT THE PLANAR GRID ANALYSIS METHOD, WITH PROPERLY SPECIFIED MEMBER PROPERTIES, IS A RELIABLE ANALYTICAL TOOL FOR PREDICTING DEFLECTIONS AND IN-PLANE BENDING MOMENTS. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL VALUES ARE NOTED AND SHOWN TO BE INSIGNIFICANT WITH REGARD TO THE DESIGN OF THE STRUCTURE. HOWEVER, THE EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS SHOW THAT THE MAGNITUDE OF THE LATERAL FLANGE BENDING STRESSES DUE TO DEAD LOAD, WHICH CANNOT BE DETERMINED WITH THE EXISTING THEORETICAL METHOD, IS SIGNIFICANT. /AUTHOR/