Full-scale test of concrete-steel hybrid bridge girders

A full-scale laboratory test was conducted on a unique hybrid bridge girder with a reinforced concrete web and steel flanges. Half-width precast concrete deck panels were compositely attached to the top steel flange of a 17.1 m long hybrid girder to construct a "half-bridge" that was tested to study the service load behaviour and the behaviour under increasing load until failure. It was observed that the concrete web of the hybrid girder cracked because of the combination of dead weight and restrained shrinkage. Under the service loads, the concrete web had numerous closely spaced cracks that were reasonably well controlled - the maximum crack width was 0.20 mm. Although there was significant diagonal cracking in the web of the girder, the ultimate behaviour was dominated by flexure. This paper presents the methods used to construct and test half-bridge and a summary of the important results. A companion paper presents a detailed analysis and discussion of the test results.(A)