Load Testing to Collapse Limit State of Barr Creek Bridge

VicRoads, the road authority for the state of Victoria, Australia, has been undertaking extensive research into the load capacity and performance of cast-in-place reinforced concrete flat slab bridges. One of the key objectives of this research is the development of analytical tools that can be used to better determine the performance of these bridges under loadings to the elastic limit and subsequently to failure. The 59-year-old Barr Creek Bridge, a flat slab bridge of four short continuous spans over column piers, was made available to VicRoads in aid of this research. The static testing program executed on this bridge was therefore aimed at providing a comprehensive set of measurements of its response to serviceability level loadings and beyond. This test program was preceded by the performance of a dynamic test (a simplified experimental modal analysis using vehicular excitation) to establish basic structural properties of the bridge (effective flexural rigidity, EI) and the influence of the abutment supports from identification of its dynamic modal characteristics. The dynamic test results enabled a reliably tuned finite element model of the bridge in its in-service condition to be produced for use in conjunction with the static testing program. The results of the static testing program compared well with finite element modeling predictions in both the elastic range (serviceability loadings) and the nonlinear range (load levels taken to incipient collapse). Observed collapse failure modes and corresponding collapse load levels were also found to be predicted well using yield line theory.