Live Load Deflection Criteria for Glued-laminated Timber Bridges
Author: Travis Kent Hosteng
Publisher:
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 600
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn order to promote and increase the use of timber bridges in our nations transportation systems, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Forest Products Laboratory funded research to develop design criteria to improve the design of glued-laminated timber bridges. This project is part of this research and is directed towards developing, and/or making recommendations for, acceptable live load deflection criteria, which are based on the actual structural performance of these types of bridges. Specifically, the relationship between live load deflection and the condition of the asphalt wearing surface is of particular interest. To accomplish this, eight glued-laminated timber girder bridges and four longitudinal glued-laminated timber deck bridges were selected for testing. The performance of the bridges was investigated under live loading and analyzed in conjunction with the condition of the wearing surfaces gathered from field inspections. Testing involved loading the structures with fully loaded tandem axle dump trucks and gathering global and differential deflection data. Field tests revealed that the majority of the asphalt wearing surface deterioration was primarily the result of differential deflections.