| There are more than 600,000 bridges in the United States. As of 2003, more than one-fourth of the total population of bridges in the United States has been identified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Over 120,000 bridges have been recommended for replacement. Repair and replacement of a large number of existing bridges cause safety, environmental, and socioeconomic problems. In order to minimize these problems current trend is towards the process of accelerated or rapid bridge construction. In order to accelerate the bridge construction/replacement process, several bridge systems have been developed utilizing precast concrete components. Bridges are constructed assembling precast components and joining them by posttension or any other means. Most of bridge superstructure systems that are built with precast segments fall within the category of orthotropic bridge decks. The drawback of these bridge superstructure systems is the lack of available design models for the design of transverse connection between precast members.; The motivation behind this study was the lack of analysis models available for the design of precast orthotropic bridge superstructure systems. The unavailability of such analysis models necessitated the use of empirical design rules. The empirical rules with numerous changes could not prevent the failure of the joints between precast components that emerged as longitudinal reflective deck cracks on precast orthotropic bridge superstructure systems. Longitudinal reflective deck cracking is identified as the leading cause of premature deterioration of bridges that consist of precast orthotropic bridge superstructure systems.; Analysis models of orthotropic bridge superstructure systems can be developed using the concepts of macromechanics and the representative volume elements in conjunction with the finite element (FE) method. Macromechanical modeling procedure for precast orthotropic bridge superstructure system is developed in this dissertation. Numerical example is presented using a side-by-side box-beam bridge superstructure system. |
