Introduction - Finite Element Analysis and Design of Steel and Steel-Concrete Composite Bridges - page 20

carried out by the composite action between the steel plate girders and the
RC concrete floor transmitting the loads to the hinged and roller bearings
attached to the steel plate girders. Wind loads acting on the bridge can be
transmitted by lower bracing systems and cross bracings. However, systems
without upper bracing are used since the RC concrete floor carries out all
lateral and longitudinal loads associated with moving traffic. It should be
noted that for this continuous-span steel-concrete composite plate girder
bridge, there are sagging and hogging bending moments. The composite
action relies on that the concrete slab must be in the compression zone.
Therefore, parts of the composite plate girder where the concrete slab is
in the tension zone are designed without considering the composite action
between the steel plate girder and the concrete slab.
1.3 LITERATURE REVIEW OF STEEL AND STEEL-CONCRETE
COMPOSITE BRIDGES
1.3.1 General Remarks
Steel and steel-concrete composite bridges have been the subject of exten-
sive investigations, reported in the literature, highlighting the design and
structural behavior of the bridges. The investigations were mainly research
papers presenting small-scale laboratory tests on the bridges and their com-
ponents, limited full-scale tests on the bridge components, and numerous
numerical and analytic investigations of the bridges and their components.
The investigations covered different types of bridges subjected to different
loads and designed according to rules specified in current codes of practice.
The main objective of the investigations was to satisfy safety and serviceabil-
ity requirements imposed by current design codes of practice as well as to
fulfill other requirements set by the public such as cost, self-weight, and aes-
thetic appearance. However, the investigations were hindered by the high-
cost and time-consuming full-scale tests on this form of construction.
Numerous topics were found in the literature, with examples given in
[ 1.1-1.11 ] , addressing different parameters related to the design, construc-
tion, inspection, and maintenance of the bridges. The aforementioned
topics contained literature reviews and historical developments of steel
and steel-concrete composite girders. These reviews will not be repeated
in this study since the main objective of this topic is to present the latest
and current investigations related to the design and finite element modeling
of the bridges investigated. This section presents recent experimental and
numerical investigations on the bridges and their components. The author