Assessment Of Bearing Capacity Of Exiting Reinforced Concrete Arch Bridge And Study On Its Strengthening

Since20th century, the reinforced concrete arch bridge develops so rapidly that it has become the main bridge type in our country. Nowadays, there are so many reinforced concrete arch bridges in China. As the infrastructure in China still need to be improved and completed, the reinforced concrete arch bridge has a broad development prospect. However, some damage has occurred in existing reinforced concrete arch bridges due to long-term use and increasing traffic pressure. Unfortunately, such damage tends to be more and more serious in recent years. It will not only affect the structural capacity and durability directly but also have great impact on the safe use of bridge. As a result, it is highly essential to take an overall assessment of the bearing capacity of bridge and greatly necessary to make some strengthening in time.Based on the DONGXING bridge, this paper will discuss on the basic detection, load test, assessment of bearing capacity and the way of strengthening of existing reinforced concrete arch bridges. All those above can be divided into6parts as follows:1. Summarize characteristics of reinforced concrete arch bridge and its typical defect, including the assessment of its bearing capacity and the current strengthening situation.2. Introduce finite element analysis theory and modeling method of reinforced concrete arch bridge, explore for the solution of structural damage in finite element model.3. Take an initial evaluation of bridge by detecting the material properties, essential structural defect and the arch axis coordinates with proper detecting methods. Propose a appropriate loading test scheme through finite element calculation. Assess the static and dynamic behavior of bridge by comparing the test and calculation result.4. Explore the impacts of the upper arch structure association effect, material properties changes of the main arch ring, different boundary condition and structural damage on the structural behavior of the main arch ring.5. Modify finite element model according to the result of loading test and detection. Assess the bearing capacity in situation of overweight vehicles passing by the bridge. 6. Conclusion of the main strengthening methods of reinforced concrete arch bridge and the general principles for strengthening method selection.