Widening of The Nockeby Bridge : Methods for strengthening the torsional resistance

Abstract: i Abstract The Nockeby Bridge, in the western part of Stockholm, is a prestressed concrete bridge with an openable swing span of steel. The bridge was built during 1970 and should now be widened with 0.5 meters on each side. The concrete bridge deck is supported by two main-beams and cross-beams are located at the position of all supports. Previous studies of the bridge show that the torsional resistance is too low and the bridge needs strengthening while widened. The aim of this master  thesis  was  to  study  and  compare  different  strengthening  methods  for  The  Nockeby Bridge.  Eight  different  bridges  in  Sweden  and  China  were  reviewed  to  find  possible  strengthening  methods  for  The  Nockeby  Bridge.  External  prestressing  tendons  and  additional  cross-beams between  the  two  main-beams  were  seen  to  have  good  influence  on  the  resistance.  The  effect from strengthening with carbon-fiber reinforced polymer was questioned during small loads and was not seen as a suitable strengthening method for The Nockeby Bridge.  Four different FE-models were generated to be able to compare two strengthening methods. The compared strengthening methods were a method with additional cross-beams between the main-beams and a method with external prestressing tendons. All FE-models were built up by solid- and  truss  elements  where  the  concrete  was  modelled  with  solid  elements  and  the  prestressed reinforcement was modelled with truss elements.  Only a few load-cases were included to limit the scope of the study. The included load-cases were deadweight,  prestressing  forces  and  vehicle  load  from  standard  vehicle  F,  G,  H  and  I.  Two influence lines were created to be able to place the vehicle loads in an unfavorable way. From the FE-models, shear  stresses were  extracted  along two  lines, one  on  each  side  of the main-beam. The torsional part of the shear stresses was calculated from these two results and compared with the torsional resistance of the bridge. While calculating the torsional resistance, the normal force in the cross-section from prestress was extracted with the function “free body cut”. The results showed that none of the tested strengthening methods were enough to  strengthen The  Nockeby  Bridge.  However, the  method  with additional  cross-beams  was  seen  as  a  better method than external prestressing tendons. A combination of the two methods might be suitable but  was  not  tested.  Adding  four  cross-beams  in  each  span  might  also  increase  the  resistance enough, but this was neither tested. It was also seen that a reduction of the torsional stiffness had a large influence on the result. Such a reduction is allowed in some cases and should be utilized if possible. Furthermore,  it  was  seen  that  solid-models  were  extremely  time  consuming  and  there  is  not  a  good alternative to design a bridge with only a solid model.