CHAPTER 7

Substructure

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7. SUBSTRUCTURE
 Sub structure is part of a bridge that support the superstructure and
transmits all loads to the foundation soil.
 It consists of the following elements:-
1. Abutments:- are earth- retaining structures which support the
superstructure at the beginning and end of a bridge.
These are retaining walls with the additional function
of supporting vertical permanent and transient loads.
2. Piers:- are substructure element that support the super structure at

intermediate point between abutments for bridge with two or

more span.
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3. Back wall:- is the primary components of the abutment on which the

super structural member are supported.

4. Wing wall:- is a side wall of the abutment that assist in supporting loads

and in confining earth behind the abutment under the

approach roadway.

The minimum height of piers and abutments is governed by requirement of accessibility

for maintenance of the superstructure and bearings, of protection against spray for
bridges over water and vertical clearance requirements for floating debris for river
bridges and vertical clearance requirements for bridges over traveled ways. There is no
upper limit for piers height that imposed by economy.

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 Back wall

Wing Wall

Pier Cap

Abutment
Hammer
head pier

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7.1 Abutments

Abutments are structural element of a bridge located at the ends of

a bridges which provide the basic functions of:

 Supporting the one end of the first or last span

 retaining earth under the approach roads way

 supporting the approach road way and slab

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7.1.1 Type of Abutment
a) Gravity Abutment:- resist horizontal earth pressure with its dead
weight and dead weight of retained soil for abutment with inclined
back face. These may be constructed of Stone masonry or concrete
masonry (mass concrete). These are used for abutment of small height.

U-shaped Abutment

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 Gabion

Weep Hole

Gravity Abutment
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b) Cantilever Abutment:- derive lateral resistance trough embedment
of the stem by cantilever action. These are constructed of reinforced
concrete.

Cantilever concrete Abutment

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c) Counterfort Abutment:- this is similar to cantilever abutment with
the different that ties called counterforts are provided to ties the stem
to the footing. This is used for large heights for which cantilever
abutments will be uneconomical.

Counter fort Abutment

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7.1.1.1 Selection of Abutments

The procedure of selecting the most appropriate type of abutments

can be based on the following consideration

1. Ease and cost of Construction

2. Cut or fill earth situation

3. Magnitude of the load supported

4. Construction period

5. Safety of construction workers

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6. Availability and cost of back fill material

7. Superstructure depth

8. Size of abutment

9. Area of excavation

10. Aesthetics and similarity to adjacent structure.

11. Scour depth

12. Depth to suitable bearing soil

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7.1.1.2 Design of Abutments

a) Limit States
 when the abutments fail to satisfy their intended design function,
they are considered to reach “Limit States". Limit states can be
categorized in to two types
1. Ultimate Limit state: they include bearing capacity failure, sliding,
Overturning and Overall stability.
2. Serviceability Limit State: includes excessive total or differential
settlement, fatigue, vibration and cracking.

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b) Loads on abutments
 Vertical Loads from Super Structures
 Dead load of Structural and Nonstructural Components (DC)
 Dead load of the wearing surface(DW)
 Live Load (LL) and Impact (IM)
 Pedestrian Live Loads (PL)

Horizontal Loads from superstructure

 Wind loads on structures(WS) and Live Loads(WL)
 Earthquake loads(EQ)
 Vehicular breaking force(BR), Centrifugal force(CE), Collision force(CT)
 Creep (CR), Shrinkage (SH), Friction (FR) and Temperature(TG/TU)
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Vertical Loads acting on substructure
 Dead load of Structural and Nonstructural Components (DC)
 Vertical pressure from dead load of earth fill

Horizontal Loads acting on sub structure

 Water loads and stream pressure(WA)
 Ice Load(IC)
 Earth quake loads (EQ)
 Vehicular Collision force(CT), Vessel Collision forces(CV)
 Horizontal Earth pressure loads (EH)
 Earth surcharge Loads (ES)
 Live Load surcharge Loads (LS)

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Earth pressure exerted on an abutment can be classified according to the
direction and the magnitude of abutment movement
1. At rest Earth Pressure
 When the wall is fixed rigidly and does not move, the pressure exerted by
the soil on the wall is called at- rest pressure.

2. Active Earth Pressure

 when a wall moves away from the back fill, the earth pressure decrease
(Active earth Pressure)
3. Passive Earth pressure
When the a wall moves towards the back fill, the earth pressure increase
(Passive Earth Pressure)

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.

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Methods to estimate Ka and Kp
1−𝑠𝑖𝑛∅
• 𝐾𝑎 = 𝐶𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒
1+𝑠𝑖𝑛∅
1+𝑠𝑖𝑛∅
• 𝐾𝑝 = 𝐶𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑃𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒
1−𝑠𝑖𝑛∅

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Equivalent Height of Soil For Live Load Surcharge
 In the AASHTO LRFD bridge Specification, the live load surcharge ,LS
is specified in terms of an equivalent height of soil, heq, representing
the vehicular loading. The value specified for heq with the height of
the wall and are given in table below

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Failure mode of the abutments
 Abutments are subject to various limit states or type of failure, as
illustrated In fig below. Failure can occur within soils or structural
member

i. Sliding failure

ii. Bearing failure

iii. Structural failure

iv. Deep-seated sliding failure

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7.2 Piers
o piers are structural elements which sustain superstructure dead load
and live loads, at intermediate points, carry their own weights and
transmit all loads to the foundation soil.

oThey are constructed of masonry and reinforced concrete

oThey are different types of piers.

 solid wall pier

 Hammer head pier

 Column bent pier

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.

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.

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7.2.1 Factor that affect the selection of piers
 Type of superstructure
 Steel or Concrete
 Width
 Location
 Over land
 Hydraulics
 Height (tall piers may be hallow to reduce weight)
 Space Availability
 Aesthetics
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1. Abutment Design
1.1 Subject information
o Super structure type:- Simple span RC deck girder

o Clear span : 15.00m

o span center to center of the support 15.60m

o Number of exterior girder 2

o Number of interior girder 2

o Length of the abutment in the transverse direction 8.10m

=8.9-.4-.4=8.10m
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1.2 Material properties
i) Concrete
o Grade C-30 concrete
fc' 24Mpa fc’ cylindrical
Ec=4800sqrt(fc’) 23,515Mpa
Assume angle of friction(∅) 35 degree Back fill material
Unit weight of backfill material 19 KN/m3
Unit weight of masonry 27KN/m3
Unit weight of concrete 23KN/m3
Allow. foundation bearing capacity of soil qall 520KN/m2 Assumed
1−𝑠𝑖𝑛∅ 0.27
Active Earth Press.Cef=𝑘𝑎 =
1+sin∅

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2. Load Calculation
Super structure dead load with out wearing surface

Girder Dead load reaction on the abutment (from 165.95KN

Girder)
Total Dead load (4girder) =4*165.95 663.8KN
Dead load per Linear meter of the
abutment=663.8/8.10 81.95KN/m
Wearing surface dead load from the superstructure
Girder wearing surface dead load reaction on the 18.88KN
abutment (From Girder)
Total Girder Dead Load 75.52KN
Wearing surface dead load per linear meter of the
abutment=75.52/8.10 9.32KN/m

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2.2 Live Load effect
A) Design Truck

Axle Load due to design truck P= 145.00KN

Number of Lane ,N= 2
Span Length L= 15.60m
Reaction R1=(145*15.6+145*(15.6-4.3)+145*(15.6- 266.30KN
8.6)/4))/15.6=
The total live load reaction for the given number of 532.6KN
lanes is: 2*266.30
The live load reaction per linear meter width of 65.75KN/m
abutment : 532.6/8.10

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B) Design Tandem

Axle Load due to design tandem P= 110.00KN

Number of Lane ,N= 2
Span Length L= 15.60m
Reaction R1=(110*15.6+110*(15.6-1.2))/15.6= 211.54KN
The total live load reaction for the given number of 423.08KN
lanes is: 2*211.54
The live load reaction per linear meter width of 52.23KN/m
abutment : 423.08/8.10

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C) Lane Loading

Uniformly distributed lane loading w= 9.3KN/m

Number of Lane ,N= 2
Span Length L= 15.60m
Reaction R1= 9.3*15.6/2= 72.54KN
The total live load reaction for the given number of 145.08KN
lanes is: 2*72.54
The live load reaction per linear meter width of 17.91KN/m
abutment =145.08/8.10

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D) Maximum Live Load Reaction for Structural Design
o The total live load reaction per linear meter width of abutment will be taken as
the maximum of the reaction due to design truck or design tandem plus the
reaction due to lane loading
o R LL = Max (Design Truck, Design Tandem ) + Lane Load =
o comb1=65.75+17.91=83.66KN/m
83.66KN/m
o Comb2=52.23+17.91=70.14KN/m
RLL=83.66KN/m
RDC=81.95KN/m
RDW=9.32KN/m
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3. Abutment Design

NGL

NGL

About Toe

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Loads transferred from superstructure
Dead loads, RDC=81.95KN/m
Dead Loads, RDw=9.32KN/m Grade Level = 1338.79 m
LL ,RLL=83.66KN/m Foundn Level = 1330.55 m
Dimensions
A1= 1.000 m a= 0.30 m
A2= 0.450 m b= 0.40 m
Total Height of Abutment, H= 7.84 m (above top of footing) b1= 2.56 m
Height of Masonry = 6.39 m b2= 0.95 m
Footing width , B2 = 5.01 m b3= 0.80 m
Footing depth , D = 0.40 m d1= 0.30 m
Masonry abut bottom width B1= 4.31 m d2= 0.65 m
S2= 2.5
S1= 8
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Active earth pressure values
𝑞1 = 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 = 𝛾 ∗ ℎ𝑒𝑞 ∗ 𝐾𝑎 = 19 ∗ 0.7 ∗ .27 = 3.59𝐾𝑁/𝑚2

𝑞2 = 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 = 𝛾 ∗ 𝐻 ∗ 𝐾𝑎 = 19 ∗ 7.84 ∗ .27 = 40.22𝐾𝑁/𝑚2

Wall Height[m] Heq [m]

<=1.50 1.700
EQUIVALENT HEIGHT
OF LIVE LOAD 3 1.200
SURCHARGE
6 0.760

>=9.0 0.610

Load factors
Load type LF
Active Horizontal EP 1.50
Live load surcharge 1.75
Live load 1.75
Dead load 1.25
Wearing 1.5

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Item Un Factored Load (KN/m) Factored Load Lever Arm (m) Factored Moment
(KN/m) (KN.m/m)
W1 23*.3*(1.0+0.45)=10.01 12.51 2.00 25.02
W2 23*.65*.45=6.73 8.42 1.52 12.80
W3 25*.95*6.39=151.76 189.7 1.67 316.80
W4 .5*.8*6.39*25=63.9 79.88 0.93 74.29
W5 0.5*2.56*6.39*25=204.35 255.6 3 766.80
W6 19*2.56*(1.0+.45)=70.53 88.16 3.43 302.29
W7 0.5*2.56*6.39*19=155.40 192.26 3.85 740.21
W8 7.84*0.3*19=44.69 55.86 4.86 271.48
Total 882.39 2,509.69
WDF 23*.4*5.01=46.09 57.61 2.5 144.03
RDC 81.95 102.44 1.52 155.71
RDW 9.32 13.98 1.52 21.25
RLL 83.66 146.40 1.52 183.00
P1 q1*H=3.59*7.84=28.15 49.26 3.92 193.1
P2 0.5*q2*H=.5*40.22*7.84=157.6 236.40 2.61 617.0
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4. Computations of force effects on structural elements
4.1 Stability check
M Stabilizing  M Destabilizing
4.1.1 Check Stability Against Bearing Capacity Failure X 
Mstablizing= 2,509.69+155.71+21.25+183+144.03
V
= 3,013.68KNm/m
Mdestablizing=193.1+617
57.61
=810.1KN.m/m
Vtotal=882.39+102.44+13.98+146.40+57.61
Vtotal=1,202.82KN/m
𝟑, 𝟎𝟏𝟑. 𝟔𝟖 − 𝟖𝟏𝟎. 𝟏
𝑋= = 𝟏. 𝟖𝟑𝐦
𝟏, 𝟐𝟎𝟐. 𝟖𝟐

𝐵 𝟓. 𝟎𝟏 𝐁
𝑒 = −𝑋 = − 𝟏. 𝟖𝟑 = 𝟎. 𝟔𝟕𝟓𝐦 < = 𝟎. 𝟖𝟑𝟓𝐦 … … … … … … . . 𝐎𝐊‼!
2 𝟐 𝟔
For Masonry Abutments, the location of the resultant of the reaction forces shall be within the
middle third of the base.

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1. For foundations on soil
𝐵𝑒 = 2 ∗ 𝑋 = 2 ∗ 𝟏. 𝟖𝟑 = 𝟑. 𝟔𝟔𝐦

𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 1202.82
𝑞𝑚𝑎𝑥 = = = 328.64𝐾𝑃𝑎 < 𝑞𝑎𝑙𝑙 = 520𝐾𝑝𝑎
𝐵𝑒 3.66

2. For foundations on rock

𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 6𝑒 1202.82 6 ∗ .675

𝑞𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 1+ = 1+ = 434.55 ≤ 𝑞𝑎𝑙𝑙
𝐵 𝐵 5.01 5.01

𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 6𝑒 1202.85 6 ∗ .675

𝑞𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 1− = 1− = 46.0 ≤ 𝑞𝑎𝑙𝑙
𝐵 𝐵 5.01 5.01

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4.1.2 Check Stability Against Overturning

𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑀𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡
𝐹𝑆 = ≥2
𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑀𝑜𝑚𝑛𝑒𝑡

3013.68
𝐹𝑆 = = 3.7 ≥ 2 … … … … … … … … … … … OK‼!
810.1
4.1.3 Check Stability Against Sliding

𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒
𝐹𝑆 = ≥ 1.5
𝑆𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒
1247.65

1,202.82
𝐹𝑆 = = 4.2 ≥ 1.5------------------------------------------OK!!!
285.66

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