Parametric Study on Behaviour of Box-Girder Bridges Using Finite Element Method

A detailed study of box girder bridge cross-sections namely Rectangular, Trapezoidal andCircular has been carried out in the present investigation. Commercially available softwareSAP-2000 has been used to carryout linear Analysis of these box girders. Three dimensional 4-noded shell elements have been employed for discretization of domain and to analyze the complex behavior of different box-girders. The linear analysis has been carried out for the Dead Load (Self Weight) and Live Load of Indian Road Congress Class 70R loading, for zero eccentricity as well as maximum eccentricity at mid-span. The paper presents a parametric study for deflections, longitudinal and transverse bending stresses and shear lag for these cross-sections. The Finite element computational model has been validated by comparing few obtained results with the published literature. Effectiveness of four noded shell elements for analysis of box girder bridges is also presented. It is found that the rectangular section is superior to other two sections. It can be stated that the obtained results will provide guidance to the bridge designers.