Flexural behaviors of full-scale prestressed high-performance concrete box girders

In this study, the flexural behaviors of full-scale prestressed concrete box girders are experimentally investigated. Four girders were fabricated using two types of concrete (compressive strengths: 50 MPa and 70 MPa) and tested under four-point bending until failure. The measured parameters included the deflection, the stress and strain in concrete and steel bars, and cracks in concrete. The measurement results were used to analyze the failure mode, load-bearing capacity, and deformability of each girder. A finite element model is established to simulate the flexural behaviors of the girders. The results show that the use of high-performance concrete and reasonable combination of prestressed tendons could improve the mechanical performance of the box girders, in terms of the crack resistance, load-carrying capacity, stress distribution, and ductility.