Skew decks in reinforced concrete bridges

This research investigates reinforced concrete plates and shells with skew reinforcement whose directions are not aligned with the principal internal forces. Two normal forces, one tangential force, two bending moments, and one twisting moment are defined in the plane of the element. The analysis includes two shear forces in the transverse direction. The membrane and flexural forces are distributed between two panels at the upper and lower faces of the element. The smeared cracking model, equilibrium considerations, and plasticity approach yield the design equations of the skew reinforcement. The slab reinforcement of flat bridges, with and without lateral beams and girder bridges are compared considering different skew angles. The minimum reinforcement criteria of skew meshes are discussed. The results show that skew reinforcement yields higher steel and concrete stresses.