Computer simulation study on destructive test of an expressway bridge

To research the mechanical behaviors of prestressed concrete hollow slab beam bridge at limited state, a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) simulation study on the destructive test of an expressway bridge is carried out considering material nonlinearity. In this paper, the field failure test scheme of the bridge under heaped load is introduced, and the modeling techniques for non-linear FE simulation of in-situ bridge, including modeling strategy, selection of element type and adoption of material constitutive model, are presented. The simulation results are compared with full-scale failure test results at different load levels and excellent coincidence is obtained, which shows that the FE model developed in this research can be effectively applied to the failure analysis of the bridge. Then, using the validated FE model, the mechanical properties and structural response during the failure test are systematically discussed. The work of this paper will contribute to the further study on the failure mechanism, safety evaluation and ultimate bearing capacity of similar bridges.