A Verification of Simplified Analysis Method for Thermal Prestressing in Continuous Composite Bridge

The use of thermal-prestressing method (TPSM) prevents the occurrence of tensile transverse crack in concrete decks located in negative bending moment regions of continuous composite bridges. An accurate representation of the structural response can be obtained by means of refined analyses using three-dimensional finite element models to carry out both heat transfer and thermo-elastic calculations. So, a simplified approach was proposed for easily using the TPSM effect in design to reduce the amount of computational work of the refined analysis, but its application to real structure was not confirmed. Therefore, in this study, the verification of a simplified analysis approach has been performed to explain TPSM effects in the analysis of continuous composite bridges. For this purpose, experimental results on 2-span thermal prestressed continuous composite bridge specimens were compared with simplified analysis and refined analysis results as well as analytical approach on 2-span and 3-span continuous composite bridges. From the verification results, the proposed simplified TPSM analysis methodology shows the good predictions of the thermal prestressing effect to apply design of TPSM applied continuous composite bridges.