n this week’s forum, please critically discuss the structural characteristics of steel and steel-concrete composite bridges. Include in your discussion the advantages steel offers to the construction of large structures and why it is preferred as a structural material in bridges.

 

Figure Q5(a) shows a continuous reinforced concrete beam of three equal spans 8 m
each. The beam carries uniformly distributed load over its entire span which consists of
characteristic dead load (including self-weight) of 25.0 kN/m and characteristic imposed
load of 10.0 kN/m. The beam cross section with the designed reinforcement is shown in
Figure Q5(b). The construction materials used in the design are Grade C35 concrete and
Grade 500 steel reinforcement. The nominal concrete cover to links is 30 mm, while the
elastic modulus of concrete and steel are 33 kN/mm2
and 200 kN/mm2
respectively. The
estimated creep coefficient is 2.3 and the final shrinkage strain is 280 x10-6
.
Calculate the long term deflection of the beam at mid span A-B at serviceability limit
states.
 

Structural engineer career info

What are statically indeterminate structures? Explain with examples.