Numerical study on double-tee girder for rural bridges

Bridges using small and medium-sized double-tee (DT) girders from 12m to 15m may be a good choice to improve accessibility in the rural area as the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam. Due to limited samples, some parameters of the DT girder such as span length, top flange depth, and amount of prestressing steel could not be examined by the experiment. The objective of this paper is to conduct a parametric study using nonlinear finite element method (FEM) analysis to investigate the effect of span lengths, top flange depths, and a number of prestressing tendons on the capacity of the DT girder. Different constitutive laws of materials are validated by the experiment results for parametric. Parametric study showed that the top flange depth of a DT girder for rural bridges could be 120mm. The DT girder with a span length of 12m or 13m could be provided 16 tendons, while the DT girder with a span length of 14m or 15m could be provided 20 tendons. The prestressed concrete DT girders based on FEM results could be suggested for rural bridges. Keywords: Double-tee girder, Prestressed concrete, Flexural Capacity, Compressive strength, Concrete damage plasticity