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1044 007 PDF
1044 007 PDF
ABSTRACT
Large cracks and ruptured tendons encountered in the coupling joint vicinity of
post-tensioned, continuous concrete bridge structures in the Federal Republic
of Germany have, in recent years, led to an intensified bridge inspection pro-
gram and extensive investigations. The results of the inspection program and
the investigations into the probable causes for the encountered cracks are sum-
marized and discussed in this paper to provide a basic understanding of the
complex behavior of these coupling joints. Low fatigue stress limits for tendon
coupler assemblies and stress crack corrosion are shown to be the main reasons
why cracks in the coupling joint vicinity are so detrimental to the structural
integrity. To avoid these cracks in the seemingly insensitive vicinity of the
point of inflection for sustained loads, special design considerations have to
be made in determining possible moment variations at that point. The highly
nonlinear behavior in the construction and coupling joint vicinity due to tendon
anchorages, coupler forces, and temperature differences has to be understood
and accounted for. Special detailing has to be provided for the increase in
loss of pres tress force in the coupler, which is shown to cause substantial
concentrated forces. With the understanding of the complex coupling joint be-
havior, possible rehabilitation measures for damaged bridge structures are pre-
sented and important design considerations for new bridge structures are sum-
marized.
The serviceability and safety of existing concrete occurrence of cracks in the vicinity of coupling
structures can often only be judged by visual in- joints of pres tressing tendons in continuous, post-
spection of the concrete surface for cracks. tensioned concrete bridges (1). However, it was not
Although virtually every concrete structure features until 1976 when a bridge st"iucture near Dilsseldor f
fine surface cracks or hairline cracks that originate showed an increase in the width of these cracks of
early in the life of the structure as a result of up to .1 in. (approximately .2 mm) that subsequent
differences in heat of hydration and shrinkage, it radiographic scans revealed ruptured tendons in the
is the larger cracks with crack widths of approxi- bottom soffit at the construction joint where the
mately .01 in. or more that generally point to some post-tensioned threadbars had been coupled during
structural deficiency or potential problem. The for- the span-by-span construction of the superstructure
mation of cracks and their penetration to the pre- <1J.
stressing reinforcement is of particular importance These findings started an intensified inspection
in prestressed concrete structures because of the of all the prestressed concrete bridges in the Fed-
increased susceptibility of high-strength steel to eral Republic of Germany and other European coun-
stress crack corrosion and the significant reduction tries. In December 1980, the Ministry of Transporta-
in structural capacity with the loss of one or more tion released results of that investigation (~). At
of the prestressing tendons. this time, a total of 2,431 prestressed concrete
Prestressed concrete members have been extensively bridge structures with 11,458 spans had been in-
and economically used in bridge construction during spected. Classification criteria for the inspection
the last 30 years, simply supported for short- and were: (a) no cracks, (b) cracks that are smaller
medium-span bridges and continuous for large-span than .01 in. (< .2 mm) in width, and (c) crack
bridges. Routine inspections of these bridge widths at or beyond that limit. The seemingly arbi-
structures have revealed a variety of problems trary .01 in. (approximately .2 mm) crack width cri-
ranging from bearings to transition joints and from terion (3) is based on the fact that smaller cracks
support settlements to cracks in the superstructure. remain generally unnoticed with simple visual in-
A repetitive occurrence of deficiencies in similar spection and that cracks below that criterion have
types of structures generally points to a common. generally only limited penetration and thus can be
design problem. The purpose of this paper is to de- considered harmless. Cracks at or above this width
scribe, summarize, and evaluate one of these prob- criterion are not proven to be detrimental to the
lems--cracks in the vicinity of coupling joints of structural integrity; however, with increased use of
prestressing tendons in post-tensioned, continuous deicing salts on bridge structures and increasing
concrete bridges. levels of acid pollutants in the environment, cracks
at or above that limit can have enough penetration
EXPERIENCE WITH COUPLING JOINTS IN EXISTING to cause potential problems for the reinforcement.
BRIDGE STRUCTURES The results of the investigation (~) are given in
Table 1, where the total bridge population is sub-
Routine bridge inspections in the Federal Republic divided into bridges with and without coupling
of Germany almost 20 years ago showed an increased joints. Table 1 gives bridge structures with and
44 Transportation Research Record 1044
TABLE 1 Results of Bridge Inspection, Status 12-31-80 pling joint design were introduced into the West
Ministry of Transportation, Federal Republic of Germany (2) German Standards for prestressed concrete.
~u::=.~! Uli!!!
Prestressed Concrete Coupling Coupling CRACK DEVELOPMENT I N COUPLING JOINT VICINITY
Bridge Structures Joints Joints Total
No cracks 1,477 (88%) 196 (12%) 1,673 (100%) The coupling of prestressing tendons as shown sche-
(80%) (34%) (69%) matically in Figure 1 is primarily used for medium-
Cracks< 0.2 mm 187 (54%) 160 (46%) 347 (100%) span, continuous, post-tensioned bridge structures
(10%) (27%) (14%) with a large number of repetitive spans. Two con-
Cracks;;. 0.2 mm 184 (45%) 227 (55%) 411(100%)
(10%) (39%) (17%) struction methods that proved to be economical in
these cases were the span-by-span construction with
Total 1,848 583 2,431 traveling self-supporting falsework ana the incre-
(100%) (100%) (I 00%)
mental launching method (see Figure 2). Bridge
cross-sections most frequently used for these methods
are shown in Figure 3. While expensive scaffolding
is no longer needed, both methods rely on the early
without cracks not only by number, but also in post-tensioning of each new section to the already-
parentheses, the individual percentage distributions built bridge structure. This is accomplished by cou-
with respect to corresponding top or left-column pling the prestressing tendons in the construction
.r.,ference values. It can be seen that the bridges joints (:;.,., Figur" 4). In the span-by-span construc-
with coupling joints show not only a tendency toward tion method, the construction and coupling joints
having more cracks than bridges without coupling are generally located at the theoretical point of
joints, but also a tendency toward wider cracks. inflection for sustained loads (combined dead load
While the statistics in Table 1 are for all cracks and prestressing) and it is at these locations that
encountered in a bridge structure, it also is in- severe cracking parallel to the construction joints
teresting to note that 104 br idges--almost one-half was encountered in the bottom soffi t and lower web
of the 227 bridges (cracks > • 2 mm) with coupling portions of the bridge structure.
joi nts--showed these cracks in the direct vicinity Substantial investigations of these phenomena
of the coupling joints. It shou l d be noted thar. r.he (l_-2l have led to the following possible causes
survey (2) includes only bridge structures with pointing to inadequate design for:
coupling -joints built before 1977, at which time
substantial changes in the code provisions for cou-
• variations of sustained loads,
' Secondary moments and nonlinear stress dis-
tributions resulting from temperature differences,
COMPLETED SECTION NEXT SECTION
Time-dependent moment redistributions,
• Support settlements,
I~~~~--------~---------~
~ --------- - - - - - -1 • Nonlinear (local) stress state in coupling
--..._,1,.----r-- TEN DON COUPLERS I joint,
I • Increased loss of prestress in coupling joint,
• Inaccuracies in prestressing force due to
TENDONS
friction, and
• Heat of hydration and creep and shrinkage
differences in adjacent members with different di-
mensions.
Coupling
Joint
(onctntrlc
Prestressing
Launching
Nose --
INCREMENTAL LAUNCHING METHOD
\ \ 7/LJ r
\oor ~
FIGURE 3 Typical cross sections for sectional construction methods.
TREADBAR ( OUPLER
Secti on b-b
1
Coupler
j~b
FIXED TENDON COUPLER
l~b
700 700
M2~
Coupler
Variations in Point of Inflection and Design Moments for by the applied load and safety factors, whereas
areas of small design moments do not have this
Construction joints are placed at the point of in- built-in safety feature and have to be much more
flection for sustained loads to minimize the amount carefully evaluated for these moment variations (see
of reinforcement required at that section. Generally, Figure 5). Although this is the case in all con·-
only minimum reinforcement or a minimum amount of t inuous bridge structures in the vicinity of the
pres tress will be provided in the design. However, point of inflection for sustained loads, problems
the location of the point of inflection can change may arise if this area is weakened by a construction
because of variations in the sustained loads (e.g., joint and, in addition, by tendon anchorages and
variations in dead load and pres tressing forces), couplers.
thus introducing moments at the design point of in-
flection (~). If these moments are superimposed with
possible variations in the determination of secondary Nonlinear Stress Distribution
temperature effects, support settlements, and over-
estimated moment redistributions in the structure The temperature distribution over the depth of a
due to the span-by-span erection process and creep bridge structure is generally parabolic with extreme
and shrinkage, the design moment at this location values at the top and bottom fibers (6). Most analy-
can change significantly, not only in magnitude but ses account for the linear portion of the resulting
also in sign. Small moment changes in areas of large stress distribution by assuming a certain tempera-
design moments are generally sufficiently provided ture difference, [IT, over the structural depth and
46 Transportation Research Record 1044
I /1\ '
-'~--
loss due to creep and shrinkage in a single tendon
adopted in the CEB-FIP Model Code for Concrete
I
,I Q..,.---";-_- •6M
- AH Structures (8) and originally developed by Ruesch
(~) takes the interaction between the prestress force
\~ and the amount of creep into account
I
/ Factored Design Moment
(alculatod Moment
r \
\ fps,C+S
\
0 \
+ [l - n (£<6,plfgs> 1 + (~/2)) (1)
' ' :,..
where
fps,C+S = prestress
loss due to creep and
- 0.2L shrinkage,
£ s = shrinkage coefficients (0. 00032) ,
llM = Homen I Olanges ~ = creep coefficient (2.0),
f . ,,_,,,~_-;;,-
TENDON FORCES
under regular traffic conditions that could then
~/::.~rt-----=j=t I
lead to a premature stress crack corrosion fatigue
failure at the tendon coupler.
P0 - t:.P,
CONCRETE FORCES
~~-NA-Prototype
- - _i~ - - - -NA-Design
MOMENT
M
Deg ree of Prestress
I
v crocked
: Ts
I
I
I
I
'
, I
....;..- . -
!
·
-t uncrocked
A ,,1:
I
::
..
::
"
BOTTOM TENDON
STRESS fps
FIGURE 7 Forces in coupling joint vicinity.
-0.2 L
Coupling Joint
/pres tressing
composito structural
concreto additions
areas (see Figure 9). The added stiffness (see dotted loss of prestress force in the coupler should be
line in Figure 8), reduces the cyclic stress range in considered and accounted for.
the tendons and thus increases the service life of 6. The cyclic stress levels in the tendon coupler
the structure (12) • Both objectives can be achieved assemblies should be checked under traffic loads in
simultaneously by adding more post-tensioning to be the cracked and uncracked stages.
structured (see Figure 9) , which closes the cracks
and prevents them from reopening. This is equivalent With these design considerations in mind, new
__ .: .&..k
8~
- - _,_ - - ....,--- L.-- ----
to a highe r deg r ee o f pre8treBs in Figure However, br id~e cons tr uct. i on 1oetb0Us bU{.;11 db b.Pd.U-uy-~l-'d.11 W.LL.U
special attention has to be given to the anchor traveling, self-supporting falsework or incremental
points of the additional prestressing tendons. launching, which both rely on the coupling of pre-
stressing tendons, can be saf ely and economically
implemented.
CONCLUSIONS AND DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
REFERENCES
The cracks found in the vicinity of coupling joints
of prestressing tendons in a large number of post- 1. Der Bundesminister fuer Verkehr, Abteilung
tensioned continuous concrete bridges (1,2) have Strassenbau. Schaeden an Bruecken und anderen
exposed deficiencies of these coupling joii;'°t;. These Ingenieurbauwerken. verkehrsblattverlag Borg-
deficiencies, however, can be minimized or eliminated mann GmbH u. Co. KG, Dortmund, Wcot Germany,
by a proper understanding of the complex behavior of 1982, 462 pp.
a coupling joint and by appropriate design measures. 2. Risse in Spannbetonbruecken, insbesondere in
The low-fatigue stress levels of tendon-coupler Koppelfugenbereichen, Ergebnisse der Risser-
assemblies combined with their sensitivity to stress fassung. B 3.2- 3590. Stand von 31.12.80, Bun-
crack corrosion require that acid environments are desanstalt fuer Strassenwesen, West Germany,
prevented from reaching the tendons and that the June 1981.
structural integrity is preserved by minimizing the 3. F. Leonhardt. Risseschaeden an Betonbruecken--
stiffness deterioration and, with it, the cyclic Ursachen und Abhilfe. Beton u. Stahlbetonbau,
stress levels in the coupling elements. The design Heft, Feb. 1979, pp. 36-44.
objective is therefore to eliminate cracks in the 4. F. Leonhardt. Vorlesungen ueber Massivbau,
coupling joint vicinity completely, or at least, to Fuenfter Teil, Spannbeton. Springer Verlag, New
prevent possible cracks from opening and penetrating. York, 1980, 296 pp.
The increased loss of prestress in the coupl<>rs 5. F. Leonhardt. Vorlesungen ueber Massivbau,
and, with it, the highly nonlinear stress distribu- Sechster Teil, Grundlagen des Massivbruecken-
tion in the coupling joint vicinity have to be ac- baues. Springer Verlag, New York, 1980, 296 pp.
counted for in the design. 6. G. Koenig and T. Zichner. Beruecksichtigung der
The following specific design considerations Temperaturdifferenz 6T, der Steuung des Eigen-
should be made: gewichts und der erhoehten Spannkraffverluste
an Spanngliedkopplungen bei der Bemessung Mas-
siver Bruecken. Proc., 8th International FIP
1. A balance between coupled and uncoupled Conference, London, England, 1978.
tendons in each construct i on joint should be 7. G. Ivanyi and K. Kardina. Schaeden an Spannbe-
provided. tonbruecken im Bereich von Koppelfugen. Proc.,
2. The tendons to be coupled should be distrib- 8th International FIP Conference, London, Eng-
uted as much as possible over the cross-section of land, 1978.
the bridge structure to minimize the local non- 8. CEB-FIP, Model Code for Concrete Structures
--
linearities. International Recommendations. 3rd ed., Federa-
3. A sufficient level of prestress should be tion Internationale d~ la Precontrainte, T.
provided to cover inaccuracies in the determination Telford, London, England, 1978, 347 pp.
of the bending moments. 9. H. Ruesch, D. Jungwirth, and H. Hilsdorf. Creep
4. Sufficient and closely spaced minimum rein- and Shrinkage, Their Effect on the Behavior of
forcement should be provided to prevent possible Concrete Structures. Springer Verlag, New York,
cracks from opening. 1983, 284 pp.
5. Additional local forces due to the increased 10. A. Naaman. Prestressed Concrete Analysis and
Transportation Research Record 1044 49
Design Fundamentals. McGraw-Hill Book Company, ten Betonlasten. Be ton u. Stahlbetonbau, Heft
New York, 19B2, 670 pp. 10, Oct. 19BO, pp. 229-235.
11. Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges.
13th ed., AASHTO, Washington, D.C., 19B3.
12. G. Koenig, H. Weigler, H. Quitmann, and J.
Stuelb. Nachtraegliche Verstaerkung von Spann- Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on
betonbruecken im Koppelfugenbereich mi t bewehr- Concrete Bridges.
ABSTRACT
On March 25, 19Bl, three wires were found to be broken on one of the suspender
cables of the 7BO-ft, tied arch bridge over the Ohio River at Wheeling, West
Virginia. The bridge had not yet been opened to traffic. Subsequent inspections
showed that other cables also had broken wires and several had wires that were
suspected of being broken. Wind-excited vibrations of the cables were found to
be the cause of fretting fatigue that had led to the fractured wires--exper i-
mental studies confirmed analytical evaluations of the cable vibrations. An
estimate was made of remaining fatigue life, which led to a decision to replace
only those cables that were obviously affected. Plans were developed to replace
cables by stretching them. This was accomplished through the use of a compres-
sion frame that surrounded an individual cable and gripped the cable so as to
stretch it within the length of the frame, and free it from attachment brackets.
New cables were installed that were equipped with a threaded stud extension so
that a stud tightener could be utilized to tighten the cables in the confined
space between the attachment bracket and the tie girder.
The Interstate 470 (I-470) Bridge (No. 2494) which posed of a wire core, approximately 0.75 in. in di-
crosses the Ohio River at Wheeling, west Virginia, ameter and containing 19 wires, covered with succes-
is a 7BO-ft-long, tied arch designed for the West sive alternate layers of 15, 21, 27, and 33 wires (a
Virginia Department of Highways by a firm of con- total of 115 wires), of which 91 are O.lBB in. in
sulting engineers. An elevation view of the arch diameter and 24 are smaller core or filler wires.
span is shown in Figure 1 and a general view of the Suspender vibrations had been observed during the
bridge is shown in Figure 2. Steel e rection began on construction period, but vibrations of some extent
July 27, 1977, the arch ribs and girders were com- are common to cable use and installations, and were
pleted on November 7, all hangers and cables were in not officially reported.
place by December 1, the structure was swung free of On March 25, 19Bl, three wires of the southeast
falsework on December 31, and all steelwork was com- strand at Panel Point TB downstream (DS) were ob-
pleted by May B of the following year. Steelwork served by inspectors of the West Virginia Department
painting was completed in July 1978, and the con- of Highways to have been broken and unwound upward
crete deck was placed from July to September 19BO. along the strand. Figure 3 shows the conditions at
Placement of the latex road and concrete roadway Panel Point TB OS observed on March 31, 19Bl. (This
wearing surface began in March 19Bl when work was photograph also shows some of the strand attachment
stopped for this investigation. At that time, the details that are shown in Figure 4,) Note that there
eastern half of the eastbound lanes had the latex are no collars or other restrainers detailed on the
wearing surface in place. bridge.
The suspenders are sets of four, 2.25-in. bridge Wooden wedges, which are evident in Figure 3,
strands with a minimum breaking strength of 310 t were driven between the strands and the lower at-
each and a Class A zinc coating. Data provided by tachment assemblies, and an investigation of the
the u.s. Steel Corporation, the original supplier of extent and cause of the broken wires was ordered by
the strands, indicated that the strands were com- the West Virginia Department of Highways. The wooden