TY - JOUR TI - Incorporating shrinkage effects in FE modeling of prestressed concrete bridge DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T34J0CQT PY - 2013 AB - Right from the inception of the implementation of prestressed concrete in the bridge construction field, it has been very popular. Even though this type of bridges has big advantages, cracking is a major problem. The cracking event, due to its detrimental effects on the structure is the most objectionable problem. In cracking shrinkage plays a very significant role. This implies that the study of shrinkage is essential to study the phenomenon of cracking. Due to many variables responsible for deck cracking, it is very difficult to study the overall effect of these variegated factors taken in the consideration at a time. This thesis aims to confluence as many such aspects as possible in a single plane of consideration with the help of Finite Element software namely ABAQUS. The goal of this research is to study shrinkage, shrinkage effects, and factors affecting the shrinkage and ultimately to incorporate the shrinkage effects in Finite Element Modeling. Here the study is constrained to Prestressed Concrete Bridge. Thus, the research is carried to incorporate the shrinkage effects in FE Modeling of Prestressed Concrete Bridge. This is a difficult task as many finite element programs do not have pre-programmed methods for simulating the time dependent properties of concrete. Therefore, it is necessary to develop these methods. This study concentrates on trying to simulate the behavior of a simple span bridge as a means of developing the basic analytical method. In the research Abaqus has been selected and the selection has been justified for the purpose of analyzing time dependent effects in bridges. A parametric study has been carried out with a view to identifying the effects of various parameters of shrinkage in a structure. The effects of the parameters such as length of the span, girder spacing, deck thickness and modulus of elasticity of girder have been analyzed with the help of bridges modeled in Abaqus. The parametric study concludes that shrinkage strain increases with increase in length and spacing of girder. The shrinkage strain decreases with increase in compressive strength of girder and deck thickness. KW - Civil and Environmental Engineering KW - Prestressed concrete bridges--Cracking KW - Prestressed concrete bridges--Expansion and contraction LA - eng ER -