Innovative composite overpasses on the Romanian A1 motorway - Economical Bridge Solutions based on Innovative Composite Dowels and Integrated Abutments - page 146

the resistance and the stability of the structure;
the superstructure's elastic behaviour;
the state of deformations and displacements in characteristic points and sections;
functional behaviour;
the overlapping of in-situ results with those obtained in the calculation design stage.
According to the national regulations it is compulsory to test all the new bridges which
present novelties from the point of view of the used material, the method of calculation and
execution technologies. The tests will be performed under static and dynamic actions.
The entire testing process contains some well-established conditions, as follows:
Several consecutive cycles of load schemas.
In the static load case, the truck convoys entered and exited the bridge with the maxi-
mum speed of 5 km/h. They stopped in the position specified in the load scheme;
In case of dynamic loads, the convoys of motor vehicles circulate on the bridge with a
constant speed.
During the test the circulation on the bridge is closed.
To increase the impact on the tested structure, it is recommended to create artificial un-
evenness of the way, by placing on the road wooden planks with the thickness of 4 cm,
width of 30 cm and length of 300 cm. The edges from the superior part of the wooden
planks were flattened at 45°. Their positions on the bridge were established by the test-
ing design.
The testing actions included following information on the vehicles: the weight on the
axle, position of the axles and of the front wheels in relation to the elements of the
resistance structure of the bridge.
For the dynamic testing of the bridge the speed of movement of the convoy must be
controlled and their dimensions, position and weight must be also known.
A visual observation of the bridge was also made.
According to the Romanian standard [5], the load test vehicles convoy must be simi-
lar to the A30 theoretical convoy, available on the market. Thus MAN TGA 41.480 trucks,
type BB - with four-axle were used. To keep a realistic situation, the trucks were loaded
to the maximum weight of 40 t, closer to the present traffic situation on this national road
(“Fig. 12”, “Fig. 13”). A number of two static load schemas and four dynamic load schemas
were provided, a total of maximum four MAN TGA trucks per schema being used.