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Abstract

The accidental collision of over-height vehicles, especially construction equipment hauled on trailers and dump trucks with unintentionally raised beds, with bridge girders is an event that often occurs multiple times a year in many states within the U.S. The evaluation of bridges subjected to over-height impacts is typically informed by visual inspection, however some damage mechanisms having significant effects on the strength and durability of pre-stressed concrete girders may not be visually apparent and therefore can be difficult to assess. Furthermore, the damages resulting from an over-height vehicle collision, and subsequent repair and replacement implications, are dependent on the nature and speed of the offending vehicle and the characteristics of the bridge subjected to the impact force. In this paper, a framework for high fidelity finite element analysis of over-height vehicle collisions with prestressed concrete girder bridges is developed to provide a physics-based approach for predicting the damages from over-height vehicle impacts and the influence of the damage on the residual capacity. When coupled with field observations, high fidelity finite element analysis can provide a means for improving post-impact damage assessments and avoiding unnecessary repair and replacement actions while mitigating potential safety risks. The paper details the modeling strategies and constitutive models adopted to create finite element models of conventional prestressed concrete girder bridges, demonstrates the automatic generation of finite element models from key parameters of bridge plans, and presents simulation results for a representative bridge to ex-amine the influence of over-height vehicle characteristics and speed on the predicted extent of damage.

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