The Behaviour of a Prefabricated Composite Bridge with Dry Deck Joints

Abstract This paper describes the monitoring of a one-span composite bridge in northern Sweden. The bridge was built in 2000, with prefabricated deck elements connected to steel girders, and the back walls as well as the piers were also prefabricated. The monitoring was required to clarify the doubts regarding whether a bridge with dry deck joints can be expected to perform as a conventional composite bridge, with in situ cast deck and sections with sagging moments. To get a better understanding of the long-term structural behaviour, the bridge was monitored both during 2001 and 2011, instrumented with equipment measuring the deflections and strains in the steel cross section. The bridge was loaded with a truck in midspan having a total weight of 25 t. When the truck was centred between the girders, the results showed a symmetric behaviour, with respect to deflections and stresses. For the case with the truck stationed right above one of the steel girders, anti-symmetric behaviour was observed and studied by means of finite element calculations, taking into account the stiffness of the composite section as well as the end screens and the earth pressure below them.