Analysis of Rigid

10

The

grace and lightness of this rigid frame concrete bridge are impressive.
for a cattle pass in Rockingham County, N. H. Rigid frame
structures of equal beauty and lightness are exceptionally well suited for foot
bridges. The clear span is 55 feet, and the crown thickness is 11 inches.

Generated on 2015-11-26 09:27 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924003881277

Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google

It was built in 1932

The forces of group (1) (characteristic of continuous structures) are

those caused by displacement of foundations and volume changes due to
temperature variations and shrinkage of the concrete. For example, a
drop in temperature will cause a shortening of the deck BC in Fig. 5. It
is evident that a decrease in length from BC to B' C is accompanied by
a horizontal reaction, H, which the foundation exerts upon the footing.
Shrinkage has an effect similar to that of a temperature drop; the effect
of a temperature rise is similar but opposite in direction.
A differential vertical settlement in a frame with two hinged supports
results in a rotation of the entire frame around a support. The stresses
in the frame produced by a small vertical settlement are negligible and
will be disregarded in the following problems. If the supports are con
sidered fixed, a differential vertical settlement creates considerable stresses
and should be included in the analysis.
The supports of a rigid frame may be displaced outward by the hori
zontal thrust due to the dead load and the imposed live load; or inward
due to the pressure of the backfill and the shortening of the deck. The
combined dead and live load thrust is predominant for average frame
dimensions, and its predominance increases with growing ratio of span
length to wall height. Consequently, it is reasonable to assume that the
horizontal displacement is a spreading of the footings and that it increases
with increasing span length. It is convenient to assume that the spread
ing is proportional to the span length and to introduce horizontal dis
placement in the analysis as an equivalent coefficient of contraction simi
lar to a shrinkage coefficient. However, some designers assume that the
horizontal displacement is independent of the span length.
Moments at the crown section are sensitive to horizontal displace
ments of the footings; and the soil modulus, characterizing the compressi