Long term Mechanical Performance Analysis of Concrete Bridges in Atmospheric Environment

Abstract:

Performance degradation of concrete bridges in atmospheric environment is closely related to material damage caused by carbonation and forces. In order to evaluate quantitatively the effects of the two actions, the authors summarized the material damage models. Besides, the method for analyzing long term evolution of the concrete bridge performance was proposed and a finite element program was written in this paper. A prestressed concrete simply supported beam in atmospheric environment was investigated. The results show that both carbonation and forces have significant effect on the long term performance of the bridge, which include the loss of the cross section area and deterioration of the mechanical behavior. When considering the effects of carbonation and mechanical damage, the section loss, deflection, and degradation of flexural capacity at the mid span were more serious than those when only carbonation effect was considered.