Localised failure mechanism of concrete pedestals under bridge bearing

ABSTRACT

Concrete pedestals under bridge bearing are sources of high stress zones that exhibit complex damage mechanisms under serviceability limit states. These damages are hard to detect and repair; however, if not treated early, they can lead to twisted or slant bridge girders with potential safety risks to the vehicles. With a view to understand the structural responses of these pedestals, a three-dimensional nonlinear explicit finite element modelling method has been developed and reported in this paper. The nonlinearity of the materials and the contact interaction between the bearing and the pedestal has been accounted for the model. It is shown that the model is capable of predicting the localised damages to the concrete pedestals comparable to those occur in the field. It is also shown that the sharp edges of the concrete pedestal are vulnerable to severe damages due to tensile stress singularities; modifying the shape of the edges appears prudent.

KEYWORDS:

• Bridge pedestals
• localised damages
• explicit finite element model
• contact interface
• concrete damage plasticity
• stress concentration

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia through BESTARI PERDANA research Grant 600-IRMI/Dana5/3/BESTARI (P) (060/2018) is greatly acknowledged. The authors also gratefully acknowledge support provided by Queensland University of Technology High Performance Computing (QUT-HPC).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Universiti Teknologi MARA [600-IRMI/Dana5/3/BESTARI(P) (060/2018)].

Notes on contributors

N. A. Yahya

N. A. Yahya is currently a research coordinator at the Centre of Postgraduate Studies at Faculty of Civil Engineering at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Selangor, Malaysia.

M. Dhanasekar

M. Dhanasekar is a professor of infrastructure engineering at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He is a chief investigator in the ARC Industrial Research Hub on road infrastructure and the ARC Industrial Training Centre on rail infrastructure. He is also an invited investigator in Project ‘Dynamics of Railway Engineering’ funded by the Government of China. Professor Dhanasekar has successfully supervised 16 PhD students in infrastructure engineering and 14 PhD students in general structural engineering. The chair of Professor Dhanasekar is partly funded by the Concrete Masonry Association of Australia. Professor Dhanasekar has published well over 200 peer-reviewed papers of which 60% of them are in high impact journals and secured approximately $4M research funds.

H. Abd Hamid

H. Abd Hamid is a professor of civil engineering at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Selangor, Malaysia. Professor Abd Hamid has successfully supervised 10 PhD students in civil structural engineering. Professor Abd Hamid has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers.