Braces in straight bridge systems improve the lateral-torsional buckling resistance of the girders by reducing the unbraced length, while in horizontally curved and skew bridges, the braces are primary structural elements for controlling deformations by engaging adjacent girders to act as a system to resist the potentially large forces and torques caused by the curved or skewed geometry of the bridge. The cross-frames are usually designed as torsional braces, which increase the overall strength and stiffness of the individual girders by creating a girder system that translates and rotates as a unit along the bracing lines. However, when they transmit the truck’s live load forces, they can produce fatigue cracks at their connection

Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) beams have gained attention due to their promising mechanical properties and potential for structural applications. Combining GFRP core and encasing materials creates a composite beam with superior mechanical properties. This paper describes the testing encased GFRP beams as composite Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams under low-velocity impact load. Theoretical analysis was used with practical results to simulate the tested beams' behavior and predict the generated energies during the impact loading. The impact response was investigated using repeated drops of 42.5 kg falling mass from various heights. An analysis was performed using accelerometer readings to calculate the generalized inertial load. The in

Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) beams have gained attention due to their promising mechanical properties and potential for structural applications. Combining GFRP core and encasing materials creates a composite beam with superior mechanical properties. This paper describes the testing encased GFRP beams as composite Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams under low-velocity impact load. Theoretical analysis was used with practical results to simulate the tested beams' behavior and predict the generated energies during the impact loading. The impact response was investigated using repeated drops of 42.5 kg falling mass from various heights. An analysis was performed using accelerometer readings to calculate the generalized inertial load

The aim of this study is to investigate the behavior of composite castellated beam in which the concrete slab and steel beam connected together with headed studs shear connectors. Four simply supported composite beams with various degree of castellation were tested under two point static loads. One of these beams was built up using standard steel beam, i.e. without web openings, to be a reference beam. The other three beams were fabricated from the same steel I-section with various three castellation ratios, (25, 35, and 45) %. In all beams the concrete slab has the same section and properties. Deflection at mid span of all beams was measured at each 10 kN load increment. The test results show that the castellation process leads to

The Dynamic Load Factor (DLF) is defined as the ratio between the maximum dynamic and static responses in terms of stress, strain, deflection, reaction, etc. DLF adopted by different design codes is based on parameters such as bridge span length, traffic load models, and bridge natural frequency. During the last decades, a lot of researches have been made to study the DLF of simply supported bridges due to vehicle loading. On the other hand, fewer works have been reported on continuous bridges especially with skew supports. This paper focuses on the investigation of the DLF for a highly skewed steel I-girder bridge, namely the US13 Bridge in Delaware State, USA. Field testing under various load passes of a weighed load vehicle was u

This research is presented experimental and numerical investigations of composite concrete-steel plate shear walls under axial loads to predicate the effect of both concrete compressive strength and aspect ratio of the wall on the axial capacity, lateral displacement and axial shortening of the walls. The experimental program includes casting and testing two groups of walls with various aspect ratios. The first group with aspect ratio H/L=1.667 and the second group with aspect ratio H/L=2. Each group consists of three composite concrete -steel plate wall with three targets of cube compressive strength of values 39, 54.75 and 63.3 MPa. The tests result obtained that the increase in concrete compressive strength results in increasing