STUDY ON THE ULTIMATE LOAD CAPACITY OF PRESTRESSED CONCRETE CURVED BRIDGE

For prestressed concrete (P.C.) curved bridge, the method based on beam theory can not be used to analyze its behavior in ultimate state. Based on the traditional solid isoparametric element and shell theory, a new type of degenerated solid element was proposed, with bars modeled using the three-dimensional disperse model. Some key issues regarding the ultimate load capacity calculation, such as geometric nonlinear, material nonlinear and numeric algorithm were particularly discussed. The method was then validated experimentally, and used to analyze the behavior of a four-span P.C. curved bridge. The structure’s damage pattern, stress variation and deformation development were analyzed. Results show that the proposed method is feasible and reliable for real bridge analysis.