Großversuche an Spannbetonbrückenträgern zur Beurteilung des Schubtragverhaltens

Full scale tests on prestressed concrete bridges concerning the shear load bearing capacity

The current bridge stock of road and railway bridges consists of many bridges, which were built between the 1950s and the end of 1970s. Many of these structures must carry the increasing life loads within the next years at a high level of reliability. Therefore, the question arises whether sufficient load-carrying-capacity (according to the state of the art) can still be ensured or not. Especially the structural analysis of the shear-load-capacity of concrete structures has been changed over the last 50 years. In many cases the verification of shear load bearing capacity according to Eurocode 2 cannot be done.
In the course of the destruction of an underground railway station the ÖBB Bridge Department and the Institute for Structural Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology were given the opportunity to carry out full scale tests concerning the shear load carrying capacity on three bridge girders. The load tests showed big deflections, significant crack widths and a ductile behavior of the T-beams with a high factor of global safety.
The paper includes a description of the bridge structure, the results of the tests, and a comparison of the experimental results with the shear carrying capacity according to Eurocode.