INELASTIC ANALYSIS OF CONTINUOUS COMPOSITE HIGHWAY BRIDGES. ULTIMATE LOAD CAPACITY OF HIGHWAY BRIDGES

The purpose of this study is to determine the plastic distribution factor of continuous, composite bridges for use with the Load Factor Design Method. An analytical method was developed for the elastic and inelastic behavior of such systems. The resulting equations were solved by a computer program. Using the computer program, 48 two-span and three-span composite bridges were analyzed. The plastic distribution factors were then obtained. Existing data for simple span composite bridges was also analyzed. The following equation for the plastic distribution factor, (DF sub p), was found to give excellent correlation with the numberical results. (DF sub p) = 2.0 (Number of traffic lanes)/(number of girders).