Theory And Application Of Concrete Bridge Widening

With the development of economics and bridge engineering in China, bridge widening project is becoming more and more important. How to accomplish our work of widening old bridge is a heave problem facing all of the bridge engineers.The difficulties of transverse linking, shrinkage & creep difference of concrete in different ages and settlement difference are three main problems in bridge widening. This paper accomplishes the following work aiming at solving the difficulties mentioned above.(1) Summarize the linking method of bridge widening project and different widen ways of different bridges which could be referenced by bridge engineers.(2) Analyze the shrinkage and creep of widened bridges by ANSYS. Use the CREEP material to simulate"creep", and temperature load can be used to simulate the"prestress"and"shrinkage strain". Results indicate that the shrinkage & creep difference because of different ages of concrete will lead to deflection and force difference, partial stress on the bonded face between new and old bridges. Relevant engineering methods have been provided which are proved effectiveness by finite-element analysis.(3) Introduce a computation method of superstructure which allows settlement difference and give an example of this method by analyzing a simple supported T beam.(4) Simulate the soil-pile interaction using face-to-face contact element of ANSYS, compute the settlement value of the pile, estimate the pile's settlement process based on uni-dimensional consolidation theory, and then give a method to control the settlement difference on widened bridges.The above research findings have been adopted in the widening project of DongSha Interchange Bridge.