Moment redistribution in continuous prestressed concrete box girder with corrugated steel webs

Abstract

A fibre-finite-element model of continuous prestressed concrete (PC) composite box girder with corrugated steel webs is established with force-based elements using OpenSees. After the model is validated with existing experimental data, the effects of reinforcement index in upper and lower flanges, effective prestress and concrete strength on the moment redistribution behaviour is analysed. It is shown that increasing the reinforcement index in lower flange or effective prestress can increase the amount of bending moment redistribution, whereas increasing the concrete strength or reinforcement index in upper flange can decrease the amount of bending moment redistribution. By inspecting the sensitivity of parameters, it is found that the reinforcement index in lower flange has the most significant influence on the moment redistribution, followed by the concrete strength and then by the effective prestress, while the reinforcement index in upper flange has only little impact on the moment redistribution. The calculation results are compared with the existing formulas. Finally, a moment redistribution formula is proposed for continuous PC box girder with corrugated steel webs.