Failure mode of hinged joint in assembly voided slab bridge by finite element analysis

Based on an assembly voided slab-bridge with hinged joints, a solid model of an assembly voided slab-bridge with the span of 8m is established by general program ANSYS. The failure modes of a hinged joint under different places of application to a vehicle load (middle load and bias load) are studied, such as the failure type, failure position and cracking load. The results show that: whatever the load mode is, a hinged joint is destroyed earlier than a voided slab. Under the middle load, failure position is the interface between a voided slab and a hinged joint, and the failure type is bending failure. The cracking load at the bottom of the interface between a voided slab and a hinged joint is 62kN (0.88 times of a vehicle load), and the crack extend to the top of an interface at 133kN (1.90 times of a vehicle load). Under a bias load, the failure position is inside a hinged joint, and the failure type is shearing failure. The cracking load at top of a hinged joint is 72kN (1.03 times of a vehicle load), and the crack will extend to the bottom of a hinged joint at 238kN (3.40 times of a vehicle load). According to the comparison of two different load modes, the middle load is more disadvantageous for the hinged joint of an assembly voided slab bridge.