Conception and Justification of a New Test Setup for Assessment of the Fatigue Strength of Connections Between Precast Railway Bridge Girders

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Frutuoso Sousa
Carlos Sousa
Pedro Delgado
António Arêde
Nelson Vila Pouca

Abstract

Important investments have been made worldwide in the modernization and construction of railway lines. Plans for new constructions have also been laid out. Recently, precast concrete has been widely employed in the construction of railway bridges and viaducts. Several precast solutions have been applied, namely: I-shaped or U-shaped precast girders and uni-cellular or bi-cellular precast box girders.  Regarding the structural scheme in the longitudinal direction, either simple span or continuous decks have been used.  In this context, this work aims to contribute to the knowledge about the real performance of these structures through the development of a laboratory tests setup, for the study of this type of structure, focusing on the connection between the precast beams. The setup will be implemented at the Laboratory of Earthquake and Structural Engineering (LESE), several experimental campaigns on the cyclic behaviour of reinforced concrete elements have been carried out.

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Article Details

Author Biographies

Frutuoso Sousa, Universidade do Porto

Departamento de Engenharia Civil

Faculdade de Engenharia

Universidade do Porto

Rua Dr. Roberto Frias

4200-465 PORTO

Portugal

Carlos Sousa, CONSTRUCT-LABEST, Universidade do Porto

CONSTRUCT-LABEST (Laboratório da Tecnologia do Betão e do Comportamento Estrutural)

Faculdade de Engenharia

Universidade do Porto

Rua Dr. Roberto Frias

4200-465 PORTO

Portugal

Pedro Delgado, PROMETHEUS, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo; CONTRUCT-LESE, Universidade do Porto

PROMETHEUS - Unidade de Investigação em Materiais, Energia e Ambiente para a Sustentabilidade

Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo

Rua Escola Industrial e Comercial de Nun’Álvares

4900-347 VIANA DO CASTELO

Portugal

 

CONSTRUCT-LESE (Laboratório de Engenharia Sísmica e Estrutural)

Faculdade de Engenharia

Universidade do Porto

Rua Dr. Roberto Frias

4200-465 PORTO

Portugal

António Arêde, CONSTRUCT-LESE, Universidade do Porto

CONSTRUCT-LESE (Laboratório de Engenharia Sísmica e Estrutural)

Faculdade de Engenharia

Universidade do Porto

Rua Dr. Roberto Frias

4200-465 PORTO

Portugal

Nelson Vila Pouca, CONSTRUCT-LESE, Universidade do Porto

CONSTRUCT-LESE (Laboratório de Engenharia Sísmica e Estrutural)

Faculdade de Engenharia

Universidade do Porto

Rua Dr. Roberto Frias

4200-465 PORTO

Portugal