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Zhan Su*; Qian Wang, PhD, PE, Assistant Professor Huanzi Wang, PhD, PE, Senior Bridge Engineer
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering AECOM Technology
Manhattan College 2101 Webster St, Suite 1900
Riverdale, NY 10471 Oakland CA 94612
*Email: zsu.student@manhattan.edu; Tel: 917-860-2218; Email: huanzi.wang@gmail.com; Tel: 510-622-6608
Email: qian.wang@manhattan.edu; Tel: 718-862-7469
AbstractThis paper presents a study of structural Settlement study of bridge structures and foundations has
performance of highway bridges under given foundation been performed for a long time [1-5]. However, the study of
settlements. The ultimate objective of this research is to analyze bridge foundation settlements has been primarily focused on
and develop acceptable levels of bridge foundation settlements approach slabs in the literature [2-5]. Bridge settlement criteria
under ultimate and service limit states, which are not adequately are not adequately addressed in the current bridge design
addressed in current bridge design standards. In order to design standards, such as the AASHTO specifications [6]. There is a
modern bridges to accommodate any expected foundation need to study bridge settlements and improve bridge design
settlements, structural engineers need to consider foundation practice to adequately address bridge foundation settlements,
movements and quantify their impacts on the performance of
and their short-term and long-term impacts on the bridge
bridge superstructures. In this paper, one type of widely used
highway bridges, cast-in-place posttensioned concrete box girder
superstructures, such as bridge girders and decks.
bridges, is considered and settlement analyses are performed to The ultimate objective of this research is to analyze and
study the induced bridge girder stresses due to foundation or pier develop acceptable levels of bridge foundation overall and
settlements. Two sets of bridge examples are studied with differential movements considering service and strength limit
different bridge skew angles and horizontal curve radii, to states. In this paper, cast-in-place posttensioned concrete box
investigate the effects of these parameters. A state-of-art bridge girder bridges are considered, which are widely used in
analysis finite element (FE) program is used to analyze various
highway bridge constructions. Settlement analyses are
bridge responses. It is shown that the bridge girder curvature
performed to study the induced bridge girder stresses due to
and skew angle can impact the girder stresses due to foundation
or pier settlements, and the trends are plotted using a numerical
various foundation or pier settlements. Two sets of bridge
parametric study. Based on the evaluation of stress increase due examples are adopted with different bridge skew angles and
to settlements, an acceptable pier settlement limit can be further horizontal curve radii, to study the effects of these parameters
determined based on allowable girder stresses in the next stage of on additional bridge girder stresses due to pier settlements. A
the study. state-of-art FE program for bridge analysis - CSI-Bridge [7] is
used to analyze the bridge responses.
Keywordsfoundation settlement; numerical study; cast-in-
place concrete; highway bridges; finite element (FE) II. BRIDGE SETTLEMENT STUDY
Figure 4. Pier Settlement Cases Figure 5. Bridge Girder Deformed Shapes (Dead Load + Settlement)
Figure 8. Bridge Girder Stress Change (%) Due to Pier Settlements (1 inch)