Experimental study on transverse behavior of concrete box girder bridges with strutted wing slabs

Abstract

In 2023, the first box girder bridge with strutted wing slabs in Vietnam was put into use in the Ring Road II Viaduct Project in Hanoi. As this is an innovative type of traditional box girder bridges and completely new in Vietnam, prior to the commencement of the project, an experimental program was conducted to check the construction technology and obtain valuable experimental data for design and further numerical analyses. A full-scale girder segment with a width of 18.7 m, a length of 6 m and height of 2.5 m, incorporating steel pipe struts, was fabricated. Three distinct load cases were conducted to investigate the transverse behavior of strutted wing slabs, steel pipe struts and connections under the most unfavorable load conditions at Service Limit State. This paper presents a detailed experimental program with test results. It is shown that with applied loads varying from 1.2 to 1.5 times the service load, both the deck slab and steel pipe struts still exhibited linear manner, maintaining sufficient load-bearing capacity. However, with increased applied load in Load Case 2, cracks occurred along the construction joint region, indicating that attention to construction joint quality in real projects is needed to pay great attention to ensure the integrity of structures. Based on the conducted experiment, some recommendations are proposed for future implementation of such bridge typologies.

Keywords

• box girder bridge
• strutted wing slabs
• steel pipe struts
• transverse behavior