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Procedia Engineering 40 (2012) 328 332

Steel Structures and Bridges 2012

Sliding parts of bridge bearings

. Nittmannova,*
a
Department of Metal and Timber Structures, Slovak university of technology in Bratislava, Radlinskho 11, Bratislava, 813 68, Slovakia

Abstract

Structural bearings are designed according to EN 1337-1 to 11, where the requirements for the design and
manufacture of bearings for bridges and buildings are specified. The use of some modern sliding materials in
bearings is not covered by the standard EN 1337. The European technical approval (ETA) or national approvals
must be used in such occasion. The backing plates in bearings must be designed so that they fulfill the ultimate
and serviceability limit states. Usually the later influences their design. The paper deals with the different
parameters that influence the deformation of backing plates. Parametric studies have been performed with the
use of the FEM program ANSYS. The purpose is to derive a formula or recommendations that can be used also
in the presence of new sliding materials with their higher stiffness and strength.

2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and review under responsibility of University of ilina, FCE, Slovakia.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Keywords: bearings, backing plates, deformation, sliding materials

1. Bridge bearings

Structural bearings are designed according to EN 1337-1 to 11, where the requirements for the design and
manufacture of bearings for bridges and buildings are specified. Sliding parts of bearings have to be used
according to the standard EN 1337-2. This European Standard specifies the characteristics for the design and
manufacture of sliding elements and guides which are not structural bearings but only parts of them. In modern
bridge bearings sliding parts are made up of PTFE-layers and bearing-bottom-parts with constant or variable
thickness (in the case of calotte-bearings) which transfer the loads over a mortar joint on the massive
substructure. A numerical calculation method for bearings of this kind is presented including an axisymmetric
halfspace model for the substructure.
_________

* Tel.: +421-259-274-367
E-mail address: lubica.nittmannova@stuba.sk

1877-7058 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2012.07.103
 . Nittmannov / Procedia Engineering 40 (2012) 328 332 329

1.1. Method for the deformation calculation of backing plates attached to concrete according to EN 1337-2

When we use this method, it must be met: the concrete strength class is at least C 25/30 in accordance with
EN 1992-1-1, the steel grade is at least S355 in accordance with EN 1993-1-1 and all design requirements of
sliding materials given in EN 1337-2.Then maximum relative deformation w1 over the diameter L is given by
the equation below:
0.55
'w .kc .D c .kb .Db (1)
L

with kc 1.1  1.7  0.85.db / L  .  2  db / L0  if L0 d db d 2.L0 (2)

kc 1.1 if db ! 2.L0 (3)

NQd NGd
Dc  (4)
Ecd Ecrd
kb 0.30  0.55.db / L (5)
2 0.4
L 3.L0 (6)
Db .
L  2.tb db
where
db is the diameter of the backing plate
tb is the thickness of the backing plate, for backing plates with a concave surface the calculation may be

based on the equivalent constant thickness tb tb,min  0.6 tb,max  tb,min 
L is the diameter of PTFE sheet
L0 is the reference diameter =300 mm
NQd is the design axial force due to variable actions
NGd is the design axial force due to permanent actions
Ecd is the design secant modulus of elasticity of concrete
Ecrd is the design reduced modulus of elasticity of concrete, for the determination of creep when acted
upon by permanent design actions NGd  Ecrd # 1/ 3.Ecd 

The above approximate procedure may also be applied to square plates and rectangular plates if they are
idealized to circular plates of diameter db 1.13.ab where ab is the side of the square plate or the minor side
of the rectangular plate.

As the settlement of concrete is practically only modifiable by the plates geometry and the stiffness of
concrete or mortar, (L+2.tp) only describes the load distribution within the plate. The thickness shows no other
influence on stiffness. Thus it does not make any sense to influence the sheet deformation w by the thickness
tp. Changing the plane surface or the compressions is much more efficient. The deformation verification should
be seen as a proof of serviceability. The presented reasons explain, why according to this rule the necessary
thickness of plate is either very low or so high that it is much more economic to change other parameters.
Nevertheless, a proof is required to assure the functionality of the sliding element. The substitute for the stress
verification is a practical follow-up effect.
330 . Nittmannov / Procedia Engineering 40 (2012) 328 332

A significant demand guarantying a minimum thickness of plate, which is advantageous for transport and
installation of the bearings is at least 4% of the plates diameter DLp, i.e. t p t 0.04.DLp

1.2. Sliding surfaces, compressive stress verification

According to EN 1337-2, verification of contact pressures on the assumption of rigid body load application
shall be executed. The following condition must be satisfied for the fundamental combination of actions:
fk fk
N Sd d . Ar .O. A, (12)
Jm Jm
where: NSd is the design value of the axial force due to the design values of action
fk is the characteristic compressive strength of the sliding material given in table 1.
m is the partial safety factor for sliding
A is the contact area of sliding surface
is the reduction coefficient to take into account of the load eccentricity
Ar is the reduced contact area of the sliding surface whose centroid is the point through which
NSd acts with the total eccentricity e, which is caused by both mechanical and geometrical
effects. This area shall be calculated on the basis of the theory of plasticity assuming a
rectangular stress block (see Fig.1). The eccentricity can be neglected for guides bends.

Table 1. Characteristic compressive strength for sliding materials

Material Action fk (MPa)

PTFE for main bearing surfaces Permanent and variable loads 90
PTFE for guides Variable loads 90
Temperature, shrinkage and creep 30
Permanent loads 10
CM1 Permanent and variable horizontal loads 200
CM2 Permanent and variable horizontal loads 120

For the

Fig. 1. Reduced contact area for rectangular and circular sliding surfaces
 . Nittmannov / Procedia Engineering 40 (2012) 328 332 331

For PTFE sheets with dimension a 100mm, contact areas A and Ar shall be taken as the gross area without
deducting area of the dimples. For sheets with a <100mm the area of dimples shall be deducted from the gross
area

1.3. Modeling of sliding elements

The submitted article analyses the bearing using the Final element method. The tasks were solved by use of
the software Ansys by use of symmetry. It was used a real bearing with real parameters. This bearing is
designed for maximum load 10 MN, what is real value for bridge bearings. A part of bearing-steel plate was
modeled as a circular plate with constant thickness 60 mm and diameter 741 mm. For the sake of simplicity
was this plate modeled as a straight, not curved. On the top of plate is a sheet of PTFE. Thickness is 5 mm and
diameter is 390mm. This sheet is also straight. The plate is situated on the underlying mortar 25 mm thick and
all is placed in the centre of big substructure, which is presenting like an axisymmetric halfspace from concrete.

In the model, the following element types were used:

SOLID185 3D 8-node structural solid used for steel plate, mortar, PTFE material and concrete substructure
CONTA174 3D 8-node surface-to-surface contact- used as a contact element between plate and mortar
TARGE170 3D target segment
The friction coefficient was considered with value of 0.5.

Fig. 2. Numerical model of plate

Fig. 3. Deformation distribution Fig. 4. Stress on the plate

332 . Nittmannov / Procedia Engineering 40 (2012) 328 332

The results of the calculation were stresses and the deformation of all layers. The stresses were tracked
between layers and with respect to materials. The illustrated deformation are vertical i.e. in Z axis direction.
Allowed deformations were also opened gap between plate and mortar. A penetration of materials was reduced.
Useful is w value. It is the difference between deformation in the middle of plate and at the point where PTFE
sheet end.
w1 deformation in the middle was w1= 0.70686 mm
w2 deformation at the point where PTFE sheet end was w2=0.36720 mm

than: w=w1-w2=0.706862-0.367204= 0.31416 mm

By the method according to EN 1337-2 (part 1.1), the w value is 0.38788 mm

Conclusion

A small difference may be due with more accurate analysis used in FEM program Ansys, where the
boundary conditions enter. In EN 1337-2 are used only parameters of structure and loads.

With the development of sliding bearings in the construction industry, in particular with high capacity of
deformation capacity, special atrention must be given to ensure that the building-induced deformations can
be absrobed and that the displacements are not blocked due to the lack ductility.

References
[1] EN 1337-2: Structural bearings- Part 2: Sliding elements, The European Committee for Standardization, Berlin, March 2004
[2] Petersen, Ch.: Verformung und Beanspruchung der Gleitplatte von PTFE-Gleitlagern, Forschungsbericht T2023, Deutsches Institut fr
Bautechnik, IRB Verlag, Stuttgart, 1988
[3] Petersen, Ch.: Zur Beanspruchung moderner Brckenlager Eine Parameterstudie, Festschrift J. Scheer, Braunschweig, 1987
[4] Eggert, H.; Kauschke W.: Lager im Bawesen, 2.Auflage, Ernst & Sohn, Berlin, 1995
[5] CUAP 03.01/35: Spherical and cylindrical bearing with special sliding material, Deutsches Institut fr Bautechnik, Berlin, Mai 2011
[6] MAGURA, M., Teoretick a kontrukn problmy vysokotlakovch potrub, Dizertan prca, Bratislava, 2009
[7] Braun, Ch., Butz, Ch., Das Last-Verformungsverhalten der Gleitelemente von Lagern im Bauwesen