Effect of Connection's Type on The Transferring of Dead and Live Loads for Prestressed Concrete Bridges

On recent fifty years, using pre-stressed concrete for construction of continuous bridges with constant or variable cross section has a large spread. One of important objects in design is the way of connecting deck to piers that is done mostly by means of bearings. In the case of using neoprene bearings, There are three kinds of deck-pier connection; Simple, semi-rigid and rigid connections. Desired performance against environmental conditions, possibility of sliding, and finite movement of deck are of important properties for neoprene bearings. Bearing lines’ number and the effect of connection construction in load transferring, stress distribution in bridge piers and the ratio of bending moment to axial force transferred, are surveying in this research. Models, contain four spans continuous pre-stressed concrete bridges with various span lengths, and are analyzed by Finite Element Method and using ABAQUS analyzer. After analysis performance, models with different kinds of connection are compared. With assuming smeared crack performance for concrete,elastic for neoprene and elastic-prefect plastic for steel, analysis is done and for each model, load transfer is surveyed. Results of analysis show the effective role of distance variation of two rows of bearings, in comparison with their thickness effect. In addition, analysis results insist on optimum design for bearings, to have a safe and controlled load transfer.