Book Description

A new precast-prestressed cross section was recently developed by a consortium of engineers from the six New England states, New York and members of the northeast region of PCI. The northeast extreme Tee (NEXT) beam is efficient for medium Bridge spans (50 to 80 ft long). Field formwork savings are introduced by having a flange cast integrally during fabrication of the beams at the precasting plant. Job safety is increased because a working platform is created. The flange width of the NEXT Beams can be adjusted during fabrication to accommodate roadways of different widths and skew angles. Because the section is new with complexity in its shape, the present design guidance cannot be used to evaluate LLDFs for NEXT beams within the context of the AASHTO LRFD. In particular, the use of live-load distribution factors (LLDFs) equations in LRFD for NEXT beams is not straightforward. The distance between the beam webs is variable depending on whether it is measured within a beam module or between adjacent modules. In absence of detailed information a PCI technical committee evaluated LLDFs (through AASHTO 2010 Bridge specification) for the NEXT beams used in the Brimfield Bridge by two different approaches and found one of them conservative. The conservative approach was single stem which uses the average spacing (between webs ([S1+S3]/2)) for use in the LLDF equations. The committee expressed concerns about whether trends of LLDFs would be similar for other parametric sets, and would like to standardize the methodology for the Bridge projects in Massachusetts with NEXT beam as the girder. To verify the conservativeness of single stem methodology (for the evaluation of LLDFs) for other parameters this research project was initiated. LLDFs are evaluated based on the two approaches and compared with the LLDFs obtained through finite element modeling. The results of 40-3D finite element models have been used to compare the LLDFs obtained from AASHTO 2010 Bridge design specification. The results were also used to compare different parameters that affect LLDFs of NEXT beams including span, skew angle, and beam end fixity. The finite element models were created using a Bridge prototype that is being instrumented for future field verification of the analyses. The models were created using frame elements for the beams and shell elements for the cast in place deck. The integral abutment and foundation of the Bridges was included in the models in which piles are created using frame elements and abutments are created using shell elements. The results indicate that the approach taken for the design of NEXT beams is in general conservative for interior girders of the Bridge. On the contrary such the adopted approach was not yielding the higher value of LLDFs. The variation in strains due to losses are compared by two methods (strains variation obtained from field data and strain variation obtained based on AASHTO equation of losses) to verify the AASHTO equation of losses.