Shear design of high strength concrete prestressed girders

Abstract

Normal strength prestressed concrete I-girders are commonly used as the primary superstructure components in highway bridges. However, shear design guidelines for high strength PC girders are not available in the current structural codes. Recently, ten 7.62 m (25 feet) long girders made with high strength concrete were designed, cast, and tested at the University of Houston (UH) to study the ultimate shear strength and the shear concrete contribution (V_c) as a function of concrete strength ({f^{\prime }}_{\mathrm{c}}). A simple semi-empirical set of equations was developed based on the test results to predict the ultimate shear strength of prestressed concrete I-girders. The UH-developed set of equations is a function of concrete strength (\sqrt{{f^{\prime }}_{\mathrm{c}}}), web area (b_wd), shear span to effective depth ratio (a/d), and percentage of transverse steel (ρ_t). The proposed UH-Method was found to accurately predict the ultimate shear strength of PC girders with concrete strength up to 117 MPa (17000 psi) ensuring satisfactory ductility. The UH-Method was found to be not as overly conservative as the ACI-318 (2011) code provisions, and also not to overestimate the ultimate shear strength of high strength PC girders as the AASHTO LRFD (2010) code provisions. Moreover, the proposed UH-Method was found fairly accurate and not exceedingly conservative in predicting the concrete contribution to shear for concrete strength up to 117 MPa (17000 psi).

Graphical abstract

Keywords

shear design / high strength concrete / prestressed girders / full-scale tests

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