Failure mechanism investigation of bottom plate in concrete box girder bridges

In the proposed study, the Linguo continuous rigid frame bridge was studied to determine the failure mechanisms combining both field investigation and a 3D finite element (FE) method. The characteristics of the failure on the bottom plate were analysed and three typical failure models are identified. The failure mechanism was investigated and verified using a proposed 3D nonlinear FE model. Retrofit methods are proposed and implemented for the damaged bridges. The measured stress response and calculated stress response from the proposed 3D finite element model are compared. Satisfactory results are observed between field measurements and numerical simulations. Parametric studies are performed using the developed model to investigate several important parameters for the bridge design and construction. Finally, conclusions and recommendations for future bridge analysis and design were provided on the basis of the proposed study.