“Design Optimization of Box Girder Bridges for Improved Structural Performance”

Abstract

Bridge construction today has achieved a worldwide level of importance. Bridges are the key elements in any road network Use of box girder is gaining popularity in bridge engineering fraternity because of its better stability, serviceability, economy, aesthetic appearance and structural efficiency. In a prestressed concrete box girder bridge, the need to contain and deviate the longitudinal tendons of the internal prestressing increases the web thickness and the self-weight of the deck. As the span increases, the reduction of dead load is a primary need. Reductions to dead load permit savings in equipment costs while creating a reserve for service loads. External prestressing allows the combination of conventional materials to create innovative prestressed composite structures. Compared with conventional prestressed concrete box girders, these structural schemes are lighter and more efficient, and may extend the field of application of several conventional construction techniques. In present study a shapes of Box Girder Bridges in that Box girder bridge and Trapezoidal girder bridge made up of prestressed concrete which is analysis for moving loads as per Indian Road Congress (IRC:6) recommendations, Prestressed Code (IS: 1343) and also as per IRC: 18 specifications. The results show that the analytical calculation results agree well with the numerical calculation results using ANSYS, thus proving the accuracy of the analytical calculation method in this paper.