Comparison of long-term behavior between prestressed concrete and corrugated steel web bridges

Prestressed concrete (PC) bridges using corrugated steel webbing have emerged as one of the most promising forms of steel-concrete composite bridge. However, their long-term behavior is not well understood, especially in the case of large-span bridges. In order to study the time-dependent performance, a large three-span PC bridge with corrugated steel webbing was compared to a similar conventional PC bridge to examine their respective time-dependent characteristics. In addition, a three-dimensional finite element method with step-by-step time integration that takes into account cantilever construction procedures was used to predict long-term behaviors such as deflection, stress distribution and prestressing loss. These predictions were based upon four well-established empirical creep prediction models. PC bridges with a corrugated steel web were observed to have a better long-term performance relative to conventional PC bridges. In particular, it is noted that the pre-cambering for PC bridges with a corrugated steel web could be smaller than that of conventional PC bridges. The ratio of side-to-mid span has great influence on the long-term deformation of PC bridges with a corrugated steel web, and it is suggested that the design value should be between 0.4 and 0.6. However, the different creep prediction models still showed a weak homogeneity, thus, the further experimental research and the development of health monitoring systems are required to further progress our understanding of the long-term behavior of PC bridges with corrugated steel webbing.