Structural Performance of Acute Corners on Skewed Bridge Decks Using Non-Linear Modeling of the Deck Parapet

In modern transportation projects, the demand for skewed bridges is increasing. Restrictive site constraints, particularly in urban infrastructure projects, yield severely skewed bridges that demand specific design and construction considerations. In particular, the acute corners have reinforcement details that are challenging to construct and often perform poorly. Although the Federal Highway Administration has recognized this problem, to date a simplified detail has not been suggested and evaluated. To tackle this challenge, the Connecticut Department of Transportation partnered with the University of Connecticut to propose a simplified reinforcement detail for acute corners that replaces the normal transverse reinforcement with reinforcement placed along the skew with specific detailing to avoid congestion. An analytical study was conducted using CSiBridge to evaluate the performance of the detail with different skew angles. A series of pushover analyses were performed to capture the flexural yielding of the parapet and measure the stresses in the reinforcing bars in the slab. Based on these findings, a simplified detail for the acute corner of skewed bridge decks is provided.

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