Introduction to the Bridge

Engineering
Dr. Muhammad Waseem
National Centre of Excellence in Geology,
University of Peshawar
 Reference Course Book

Design of Highway Bridges

An LRFD Approach, 3rd Edition,
Barker and Puckett (2013)
 Acknowledgment
Part of these Lecture notes have taken from the
Lectures of Prof. Dr. Shazad Rehman course on
Bridge Engineering
 Course Objective
The main purpose of this course from my point view
is to provide students with initial and basic
knowledge about Bridge Engineering both with
theory and hands-on exercises. This course, in my
knowledge has not been offered to the students at
CECOS.
 What is a BRIDGE?

• Bridge is a structure which covers a gap

• Generally bridges carry a road or railway across a
natural or artificial obstacle such as, a river, canal
or another railway or another road
• Bridge is a structure corresponding to the heaviest
responsibility in carrying a free flow of transport
and is the most significant component of a
transportation system in case of communication
over spacings/gaps for whatever reason such as
aquatic obstacles, valleys and gorges etc.
Bridge is the KEY ELEMENT in a
Transportation System
 It Controls the Capacity of the System

If the width of a bridge is insufficient to carry the

number of lanes required to handle the traffic volume,
the bridge will be a constriction to the flow of traffic. If
the strength of a bridge is deficient and unable to carry
heavy trucks, load limits will be posted and truck traffic
will be rerouted.
The bridge controls both the volume and weight of
the traffic carried by the transportation system.
 Highest Cost per Mile of the System

Bridges are expensive. The typical cost per mile of a bridge is many times
that of the approach roads to the bridge.`

Since, bridge is the key element in a transportation system, balance must be

achieved between handling future traffic volume and loads and the cost of
heavier and wider bridge structure.
 If the Bridge Fails, the System Fails
The importance of a Bridge can be visualized by considering the
comparison between the two main components of a highway
system i.e. a road and bridge itself.

EXAMPLE: Suppose in a road there occurs deterioration and

ultimately a crack, thus making a sort of inconvenience but it
wont result in stopping of the flow of traffic as traffic can pass or
otherwise a bypass can be provided. The traffic no doubt will
pass with a slower speed but in case of a bridge its flow is
completely stopped incase of the failure of the bridge, that is the
reason its often called “If the bridge fails the structure fails” as
the function of the structure could no longer be served at all.
 Classification of Bridges

Material Steel Concrete Wood Hybrid

Stone/Brick

Usage Pedestrian Highway Railroad

Span Short Medium Long

Structural Slab Girder Truss Arch

Suspension Cable-Stayed
Form

Structural Arrangement
 Discussion on Classification According To
STRUCTURAL FORM
Distinctive Features of Girder Bridge
Distinctive Features of Arch Bridge
Distinctive Features of Truss Bridge
Distinctive Features of Suspension Bridge
Distinctive Features of Cable-Stayed
Bridges
 Distinctive Features of Girder Bridges

•Widely constructed
•Usually used for Short and Medium spans
•Carry load in Shear and Flexural bending
•Efficient distribution of material is not possible
•Stability concerns limits the stresses and associated economy
•Economical and long lasting solution for vast majority of bridges
•Decks and girder usually act together to support the entire load in
highway bridges
 Distinctive Features of Arch Bridge

•Arch action reduces bending moments ( that is Tensile Stresses )

•Economical as compared to equivalent straight simply supported
Girder or Truss bridge
•Suitable site is a Valley with arch foundations on a DRY ROCK
SLOPES
•Conventional curved arch rib has high Fabrication and Erection
costs
•Erection easiest for Cantilever Arch and most difficult for Tied
Arch
•Arch is predominantly a Compression member. Buckling must be
worked to the detail so as to avoid reductions in allowable
stresses.
 Distinctive Features of Arch Bridge
•Classic arch form tends to favor Concrete as a construction
material
•Conventional arch has two moment resistant components :
The deck and the Arch Rib.
•Near the crown of the arch and the region where Spandrel
Columns are short, undesirable B.M. can occur. By using Pin
ended columns it can be avoided
•Space beneath the arch is less and hence danger for
collision with the Rib, specially on a highway
•Curved shaped is always very pleasing and arch is the most
successful and beautiful structure
 Distinctive Features of Truss Bridge

•The primary member forces are axial loads

•The open web system permits the use of a greater overall
depth than for an equivalent solid web girder, hence
reduced deflections and rigid structure
•Both these factors lead to Economy in material and a
reduced dead weight
•These advantages are achieved at the expense of
increased fabrication and maintenance costs
•Other bridge types have rendered the truss bridge types
less likely to be used due to its high maintenance and
fabrication costs.
•The truss is instead being used widely as the stiffening
structure for the suspension bridges due to its acceptable
aerodynamic behavior since the wind gusts can pass
through the truss as is not with the case in girder, arch
bridges.
 Distinctive Features of Truss Bridge

•It’s a light weight structure it can be assembled

member by member using lifting equipment of small
capacity.
•Rarely aesthetically pleasing complexity of member
intersections if viewed from oblique direction
•In large span structures poor aesthetic appearance of
the truss bridge is compensated with the large scale of
the structure. For moderate spans its best to provide a
simple and regular structure
 Distinctive Features of Suspension Bridge

•Major element is a flexible cable, shaped and supported in such a way that it transfers
the loads to the towers and anchorage
•This cable is commonly constructed from High Strength wires, either spun in situ or
formed from component, spirally formed wire ropes. In either case allowable stresses
are high of the order of 600 MPA
•The deck is hung from the cable by Hangers constructed of high strength ropes in
tension
•As in the long spans the Self-weight of the structures becomes significant, so the use
of high strength steel in tension, primarily in cables and secondarily in hangers leads to
an economical structure.
•The economy of the cable must be balanced against the cost of the associated
anchorage and towers. The anchorage cost may be high where foundation material is
poor
 Distinctive Features of Suspension Bridge

•The main cable is stiffened either by a pair of stiffening trusses or by a system of girders
at deck level.
•This stiffening system serves to (a) control aerodynamic movements and (b) limit local
angle changes in the deck. It may be unnecessary in cases where the dead load is great.
•The complete structure can be erected without intermediate staging from the ground
•The main structure is elegant and neatly expresses its function.
•It is the only alternative for spans over 600m, and it is generally regarded as
competitive for spans down to 300m. However, shorter spans have also been built,
including some very attractive pedestrian bridges
•The height of the main towers can be a disadvantage in some areas; for example, within
the approach road for an AIRPORT
 Distinctive Features of Cable-stayed Bridge

The use of high strength cables in tension leads to economy

n material, weight, and cost..
As compared with the stiffened suspension bridge, the cable
are straight rather than curved. As a result, the stiffness is
greater
The cables are anchored to the deck and cause compressive
orces in the deck. For economical design, the deck must
participate in carrying these forces
All individual cables are shorter than full length of the
superstructure. They are normally constructed of individual
wire ropes, supplied complete with end fittings, prestretched
and not spun.
There is a great freedom of choice in selecting the structural
arrangement
Less efficient under Dead Load but more efficient in suppor
 Distinctive Features of Cable-stayed Bridge

•Aerodynamic stability has not been found to be a problem in

structures erected to date
•When the cables are arranged in the single plane, at the
longitudinal center line of the deck, the appearance of the
structure is simplified and avoids cable intersections when the
bridge is viewed obliquely
 Discussion on Classification According To
SPAN

Small Span Bridges (up to 15m)

Medium Span Bridges (up to 50m)
Large Span Bridges (50-150m)
Extra Large ( Long ) Span Bridges (over 150m)
 Small Span Bridges (up to 15m)

Culvert Bridge
Slab Bridges
T-Beam Bridge
Wood Beam Bridge
Pre-cast Concrete Box Beam Bridge
Pre-cast Concrete I-Beam Bridge
Rolled Steel Beam Bridge
 Large Span Bridges (50 to 150m)

Composite Steel Plate Girder Bridge

Cast-in-place Post-Tensioned concrete Box Girder
Post-Tensioned Concrete Segmental Construction
Concrete Arch and Steel Arch
 Extra Large (Long) Span Bridges
(Over 150m)
Cable Stayed Bridge
Suspension Bridge
 Design Philosophies

In order to ensure safety in the engineering design:

Load < Resistance
What does the statement tells you?
When the effect of different loads reaches the material resistance, potential for
failure exist.

Importance:
In the Bridge design loads are constantly changing due to the live and other
environmental loads. The material resistance also does not remain constant due
to the structure deterioration. These uncertainties are there should be accounted
in the design.
At least you should be aware about the above statement
 DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN
PROCEDURES
Three distinct procedures employed are:

1. Allowable stress Design (ASD)

2. Load Factor Design (LFD)
3. Load & Resistance Factor Design (LRFD)
 ALLOWABLE STRESS DESIGN

In the ASD method, load and resistance have equal probability of occurrence.

Dead, Live and different Environmental loads are applied to the structures.
They have different probability of occurrences. In the ASD Uncertainties is not
considered!
 ALLOWABLE STRESS DESIGN

• Safety in the design was obtained by specifying that the effect of the load
should produce stresses that were a fraction of the yield stress fy, say one-
half. This value will be equivalent to providing a safety factor of two,i.e.,

F.O.S = Resistance, R = fy = 2
Effect of load, Q 0.5fy
• Since the specification set limits on the stresses , so this became known as
allowable stress design.
• ASD methods were developed for design of statically determinate metallic
structures.
• The stresses in the members are zero before application of the load ( Not
true for thin elements of rolled beams)
 ALLOWABLE STRESS DESIGN
• For steel bridge design, the required net area of a tension member is selected by :

required Anet = effect of the load = T

allowable stress ft

• For compression members, the required area is given by :

required Agross = effect of the load = C
allowable stress fc

• For beams in bending, a required section modulus ‘S’ is determined as :

required S = effect of the load = M
allowable stress fb
 SHORTCOMINGS OF ALLOWABLE
STRESS DESIGN
ASD is not suited for design of modern structures due to the following
shortcomings:
1. The resistance concept is based on the elastic behavior of homogeneous
materials.
2. It does not give reasonable measure of strength which is more fundamental
measure of resistance than as allowable stress.
3. The safety factor is applied only to the resistance and loads are considered
to be deterministic (i.e., without variation).
4. Selection of a safety factor is subjective and it does not provide a measure
of reliability interms of probability of failure.
 LOAD FACTOR DESIGN
LFD was introduced to refine the ASD philosophy.
Loads are multiplied by the load factors and load combination factors, which
are generally greater than unity.
The factored loads are combined to produced maximum load effect in the
member.
Uncertainty is considered for the material resistance and factors less than unity
are multiplied to the resistance to achieve it.
ϒ(ΣβDL DL+ΣβLLLL)< φRn
Where:
ϒ= Load factor applied to all the loads
βDL = Load combination coefficients for Dead Load
βLL = Load combination coefficients for Live Load
 LOAD FACTOR DESIGN
Advantages:
Load factor is applied to each load combination to account for likely hood of the
its occurrence simultaneously.
In this method consideration is given to the fact that different loads has
different levels of uncertainty. Larger load factors are used for loads with
large uncertainty.

Disadvantages:
It is not as simply as ASD.
 LOAD & RESISTANCE FACTOR DESIGN
To overcome the deficiencies of ASD, LRFD is LFD design, LRFD method was
developed which is based on:
a) The strength of material
b) Consider variability not only in resistance but also in the effect of loads.
c) Provide a measure of safety related to probability of failure.
d) LRFD achieves relatively uniform levels of safety for different limit states.
Thus the safety criteria is:

ΦRn ≥ η Σ γ Qi
Where Φ is the resistance factor, Rn is the nominal resistance, γ is the
statistically based load factor and Qi is the effect of load and η is the load
modification factor.
This equation involves both load factors and resistance factors.
Reliability theory is used to derive different load and resistance factors in LRFD.
 LOAD & RESISTANCE FACTOR DESIGN

In the general equation for LRFD method of design

ΦRn ≥ η Σ γi Qi
η is the load modification factor that takes into its account the ductility, redundancy
and operational importance of the bridge.It is given by the expression

η = ηd ηr ηi ≥ 0.95
Where ηd is the ductility factor, ηr is the redundancy factor and ηi is the operational
importance factor.
LOAD & RESISTANCE FACTOR DESIGN
LOAD & RESISTANCE FACTOR DESIGN
 PROBABILITY OF FAILURE
Failure is defined as the realization of one of a
number of pre-defined limit states.

The probability of failure can be determined if the

mean and standard deviations of the resistance and
load distribution functions are known.
 PROBABILITY OF FAILURE
Consider the probability density functions for the
random variables of load Q and Resistance density
functions for a hypothetical example limit state.
As long as the resistance R is greater than the effects
of the load Q, there is a margin of safety for the
limit state under consideration.
 Probability of Failure

Probability of Survival,

ps = P (R > Q)

Probability of Failure,

pf = 1- P (R < Q)
Probability of Failure
Normal and Lognormal
Distributions
Probability of Failure