Fatigue Life of Reinforced Concrete Integral Bridge

Abstract

Integral bridges with long spans are becoming popular day by day, as they are easy to construct with long spans and require fewer maintenance efforts due to the absence of bearings. However, due to movement restraints, fatigue stresses build-up that leads to a reduction in a useful life. In this paper results of an analytical study are presented for the fatigue life of an integral bridge exposed to transient loads. Transient analysis of reinforced concrete integral bridge of total length 156 m having 5 continuous spans with the central maximum span of 40 m has been done using ANSYS. The roles of deformation and strain that occur in the bridge have been found to influence fatigue life. Further, midpoint deflection in the longest span, its variation with loading history and its influence on fatigue life has also been analyzed and found to match satisfactorily with standard results.