Verificação à fadiga estrutural de ponte em concreto armado.

Abstract

Reinforced concrete highway bridges are subjected to dynamic actions of variable magnitude due to vehicles crossing on the deck pavement. In general, these dynamic actions are not properly considered by the designers. The proper consideration of these aspects has shown to be of fundamental importance to assess the actions from the vehicles traffic on the bridge deck. According to this context the investigated bridge consists of two longitudinal beams (girders), three transverse beams, one central and two on the supports, and a reinforced concrete deck. The computational model, developed for the bridge dynamic analysis, adopted the usual mesh refinement techniques present in finite element method simulations. The vehicles were simulated by spring-mass-damper models. The vehicles traffic is considered based on semi infinity convoys moving with constant speed on the bridge deck. The stress cycles counting techniques and the cumulative damage rules were applied through S-N curves related to international codes. The conclusions of this research were related to the dynamic response as well the service life of the investigated highway reinforced concrete bridge, when subjected to dynamic actions from the heavy vehicles traffic on the deck pavement surface.