Introduction - Finite Element Analysis and Design of Steel and Steel-Concrete Composite Bridges - page 40

geometry analyses. Experimental investigations are also costly and time-
consuming, which require specialized laboratories and expensive equip-
ments as well as highly trained and skilled technicians. Without the afore-
mentioned requirements, the test data and results will not be accurate and
will be misleading to finite element development. Therefore, accurate finite
element models should be validated and calibrated against accurate test
results. Although extensive experimental investigations were presented in
the literature on small-scale bridges, as well as small- and full-scale bridge
components, the number of tests on some research topics related to steel
and steel-concrete composite bridges is still limited. This is attributed to
many factors comprising time, costs, labor, capacity of testing frame, capacity
of loading jack, measurement equipment, and testing devices. Therefore,
numerical investigations using finite element analysis are currently main
research areas in the literature to compensate the lack of test data in the field
of steel and steel-concrete composite bridges. However, detailed explana-
tion on how successful finite element analysis can provide a good insight into
the structural performance of the bridges was not fully addressed as a com-
plete piece of work, which is credited to this topic.
Following experimental investigations on steel and steel-concrete com-
posite bridges and their components, finite element analyses can be per-
formed and verified against available test results. Successful finite element
models are those validated against sufficient number of tests, preferably from
different sources. Finite element modeling can be extended, once validated,
to conduct parametric studies investigating the effects of the different param-
eters affecting the behavior of steel and steel-concrete composite bridges.
The analyses performed in the parametric studies must be well planned to
predict the performance of the investigated bridges outside the ranges cov-
ered in the experimental program. The parametric studies will generate more
data that fill in the gaps of the test results and will help designers to understand
the performance of the bridges under different loading and boundary con-
ditions and different geometries. Hence, one of the advantages of the finite
element modeling is to extrapolate the test data. However, the more signif-
icant advantage of finite element modeling is to clarify and explain the test
data, which is credited to successful finite element models only. Successful
finite element models can critically analyze test results and explain reasons
behind failure of steel and steel-concrete composite bridges and their com-
ponents. The successful finite element models can go deeply in the test results
to provide deformations, stresses, and strains at different locations in the test
specimens, which is very difficult to determine by instrumentation.