Title: Experimental testing of older AASHTO Type II bridge girders with corrosion damage at the ends
Date Published: January - February 2019
Volume: 64
Issue: 1
Page Numbers: 49 -64
Authors: Cameron D. Murray, Brittany N. Cranor, Royce W. Floyd, and Jin-Song Pei
https://doi.org/10.15554/pcij64.1-02

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Abstract

Prestressed concrete bridges designed under previous versions of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO’s) Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges have the potential to be inadequate for shear compared with those designed under the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications due to differences in the ways that the demand side of the shear-strength equation is calculated.

Two approximately 45-year-old AASHTO Type II bridge girders taken from the Interstate 244 bridge over the Arkansas River in Tulsa, Okla., were subjected to a series of nondestructive flexural tests and final destructive tests in order to assess behavior characteristics of aged prestressed concrete members. Shear capacity was predicted based on the original design specifications, the AASHTO LRFD specifications, and methods proposed by other researchers. Of particular interest was the corrosion to the prestressing strands at the ends of the girders. Measured capacities exceeded the predicted values based on modified compression field theory or moment capacity in all cases, but deterioration near the girder ends was observed to influence the failure mechanisms. Factored demands were also exceeded by experimental capacities.