Executive Summary : | Corrugated steel webs are gaining more attention in bridge engineering applications for their better strength-to-weight ratio and enhanced resistances in limit states of patch, shear, torsional and lateral buckling. Recently bridges in Europe, China, Japan, etc. have seen rapid corrugated web girders (CWG) applications. The standard bridge design specifications including Eurocode, AAsHTO LRFD, etc. lack guidelines for the optimal design of CWGs. This project intends to perform a detailed investigation for developing a novel high strength-to-weight steel girder bridge configuration for potential applications in curved and skew alignments. Multiple corrugation profiles, such as sinusoidal, triangular, and trapezoidal web geometries shall be examined first at the element level and then incorporated into the first-ever system-level performance evaluation. Detailed nonlinear finite element modeling methodology framework shall be developed and validated against documented test results on CWGs from multiple studies in the literature. A hybrid girder concept consisting of both flat and corrugated-web portions for their optimal resistance in flexure, shear, torsion and other constructability limit states shall be examined for potential applications in road and railway bridges. The project outcomes shall demonstrate applications of the proposed novel bridge to skew and curved alignments, showcasing reduced financial implications versus traditional flat-web girders with stiffened webs. Further, this project can bridge the gap between current element-level design practice and the actual three-dimensional (3D) behavior of bridges, thus highlighting the potential benefits of the system-level bridge evaluation for repair and retrofitting of existing bridge inventory in the country. This study is intended as a pilot study to demonstrate and develop a novel bridge concept. The future study shall be extended further in scope by including actual prototype testing in line with the current state of the art and research in bridge engineering with the support of collaborators and potential funding agencies. |