Optimized alternative structural forms for standard highway bridge beams with higher strength concretes

Abstract

With the latest developments of concrete technology, it is possible to rely on concretes of higher strengths for normal construction activities with confidence. One of the features of stronger concretes is the ability to withstand higher compressive stresses. This advantage has been fully utilized to propose alternative structural forms for bridge decks using the standard T-beams where the possibility of using lesser number of beams and the lesser quantity of in-situ cast concrete is investigated. It is shown that there is a possibility to form robust bridge decks with half the number of beams when composite beam slab bridge decks are formed instead of pseudo-slab type bridges for the same span range.