Sanabría Benítez, Rafael A.

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    Development of effective width equations of RC slabs and RC box culvert bridges for military load rating
    (2015) Sanabría Benítez, Rafael A.; Portela Gauthier, Genock; College of Engineering; Suárez, Luis E.; Molina Bas, Omar; Department of Civil Engineering; Vidot, Aidcer
    This study aims to develop a rapid evaluation method for slab and box culvert bridges subjected to military vehicles; by adopting some of the metrics that already exist in the literature provided by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). For this purpose, it was necessary to formulate effective width equations for 32 types of military vehicles contained in the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) inventory for slab and box culvert bridges. As final result, a computer software was developed, coded in Visual Basic (VBA), in which implements the database and the equations developed in this study for military vehicles to evaluate slab and box culvert bridges using the Load Rating process. The considered parameters to determine the effective widths in this study are the following: i) type of live load, ii) live load transverse position, iii) structure stiffness, and iv) geometric bridge configuration (width, span-length and height). The effects of the type of live load and structure stiffness were studied and compared with previous studies. The analytical results corroborate that effective widths are function of the live load magnitude and location of truck wheel loads and are inversely proportional to the structure stiffness. The characteristic effective width equations were defined by linear and quadratic functions for all vehicles on both types of simply supported bridges (slabs and box culverts). Effective width equations developed using single span superstructures were validated for continuous bridges. The results showed that the equations developed in single span structure were accurate in the order of 90% of continuous span superstructures. The program provides calculations for the Load Rating (Allowable Stress Rating, Load Factor Rating and Load and Resistance Factor Rating) of slab and box culvert bridges with single and multiple spans subjected to military vehicles.