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Girder Bridge

A girder bridge uses large horizontal beams called girders to support the bridge deck and transfer loads to the foundation. There are two main types of modern steel girder bridges: plate girder bridges and box girder bridges. Plate girder bridges use steel plates welded together to form customized girders, while box girder bridges form the girders into a box-like shape for increased strength. Girder bridges have existed for thousands of years and modern designs continue to use materials like steel and concrete for the girders and foundations.

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179 views

Girder Bridge

A girder bridge uses large horizontal beams called girders to support the bridge deck and transfer loads to the foundation. There are two main types of modern steel girder bridges: plate girder bridges and box girder bridges. Plate girder bridges use steel plates welded together to form customized girders, while box girder bridges form the girders into a box-like shape for increased strength. Girder bridges have existed for thousands of years and modern designs continue to use materials like steel and concrete for the girders and foundations.

Uploaded by

Swamy Mani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Girder bridge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Girder bridge

Two different girder bridges. The top is a plate girder bridge, while the

bottom is a concrete girder bridge.

Ancestor Beam bridge

Related Trestle, truss bridge, moon bridge

Descendant Box girder bridge, Plate girder bridge

Carries Pedestrians, automobiles, trucks, light
rail, heavy rail

Span range Short, Medium

Material Iron, wood, concrete

Movable No

Design effort low

Falsework required No

A girder bridge is a bridge that uses girders as the means of supporting its deck.


[1]
 The two most common types of modern steel girder bridges are plate and box. [citation
needed]
The term "girder" is often used interchangeably with "beam" in reference to bridge
design.[2][3][4][5] However, some authors define beam bridges slightly differently from
girder bridges.[6]
A girder may be made of concrete or steel. Many shorter bridges, especially in rural
areas where they may be exposed to water overtopping and corrosion, utilize
concrete box girder . The term "girder" is typically used to refer to a steel beam. In a
beam or girder bridge, the beams themselves are the primary support for the deck,
and are responsible for transferring the load down to the foundation. Material type,
shape, and weight all affect how much weight a beam can hold. Due to the
properties of the second moment of area, the height of a girder is the most significant
factor to affect its load capacity. Longer spans, more traffic, or wider spacing of the
beams will all directly result in a deeper beam. In truss and arch-style bridges, the
girders are still the main support for the deck, but the load is transferred through the
truss or arch to the foundation. These designs allow bridges to span larger distances
without requiring the depth of the beam to increase beyond what is practical.
However, with the inclusion of a truss or arch the bridge is no longer a true girder
bridge.

Contents

 1History
 2Design
 3Types of girders
 4See also
 5References
 6External links

History[edit]
Girder bridges have existed for millennia in a variety of forms depending on
resources available. The oldest types of bridges are
the beam, arch and swing bridges, and they are still built today. These types of
bridges have been built by human beings since ancient times, with the initial design
being much simpler than what we enjoy today. As technology advanced the methods
were improved and were based on the utilization and manipulation of rock, stone,
mortar and other materials that would serve to be stronger and longer.
In ancient Rome, the techniques for building bridges included the driving of wooden
poles to serve as the bridge columns and then filling the column space with various
construction materials. The bridges constructed by Romans were at the time basic
but very dependable and strong while serving a very important purpose in social life.
As the Industrial Revolution came and went, new materials with improved physical
properties were utilized; and wrought iron was replaced with steel due to steel's
greater strength and larger application potential.

Design[edit]
All bridges consist of two main parts: the substructure, and the superstructure. The
superstructure is everything from the bearing pads, up - it is what supports the loads
and is the most visible part of the bridge. The substructure is the foundation,
transfers loads from the superstructure to the ground. Both must work together to
create a strong, long-lasting bridge.
The superstructure consists of several parts:

 The deck is the roadway or walkway surface. In roadway applications it is usually a


poured reinforced concrete slab, but can also be steel grid or wood plank. The deck
includes any road lanes, medians, sidewalks, parapets or railings, and miscellaneous
items like drainage and lighting.
 The supporting structure consists of the steel or concrete system supporting the
deck. This includes the girders themselves, diaphragms or cross-braces, and (if
applicable) the truss or arch system. In a girder bridge this would include only the girders
and the bracing system. The girders are the primary load support, while the bracing
system both allows the girders to act together as a unit, and prevents the beams from
toppling.
 The job of the bearing pads is to allow the superstructure to move somewhat
independently of the substructure. All materials naturally expand and contract with
temperature - if a bridge were completely rigid, this would cause unnecessary stress on
the structure and could lead to failure or damage. By fixing the superstructure at one
end, while allowing the other end of a span to move freely in the longitudinal direction,
thermal stresses are alleviated and the lifespan of the bridge increased.

A concrete girder bridge pier during construction prior to installation of the bridge deck and parapets,
consisting of multiple angled pylons for support (bottom), a horizontal concrete cap (center), and girders
(top) with temporary wood bracing

The substructure is made of multiple parts as well:

 An abutment is the foundation that transfers the bridge structure to the roadway or
walkway on solid ground. A pier is an intermediate support.
 The cap is the part that supports the bearing pads. Depending on the type of support
structure, there may or may not be a cap. Wall piers and stub abutments do not require
a cap, while a multi-column, hammerhead, or pile-bent pier will have a cap.
 The stem or stub is the main body of the foundation. It transfers the load from the
superstructure, through the cap, down to the footer.
 The footer is the structure that transfers the loads into the ground. There are two
primary types of systems: a spread footer, which is a simple concrete slab resting on
bedrock; or a piling cap, which utilizes steel piles to reach sound bedrock that may be
deep underground. Another system utilizes caissons or steel-reinforced concrete "pillars"
below the stem.
Types of girders[edit]

The stubs at the eastern end of the Dunn Memorial Bridge give a good cross section of girder bridge
construction

 A rolled steel girder is a girder that has been fabricated by rolling a blank cylinder of
steel through a series of dies to create the desired shape. These create standardized I-
beam and wide flange beam[7] shapes up to 100 feet in length.
 A plate girder is a girder that has been fabricated by welding plates together to
create the desired shape. The fabricator receives large plates of steel in the desired
thickness, then cuts the flanges and web from the plate in the desired length and shape.
Plate girders can have a greater height than rolled steel girders and are not limited to
standardized shapes. The ability to customize a girder to the exact load conditions
allows the bridge design to be more efficient. Plate girder can be used for spans
between 10 metres and more than 100 metres (33 feet to more than 330 feet). Stiffeners
are occasionally welded between the compression flange and the web to increase the
strength of the girder.
 A box girder or "tub girder" is, as the name suggests, a box shape. They consist of
two vertical webs, short top flanges on top of each web, and a wide bottom flange
connecting the webs together. A box girder is particularly resistant to torsion and, while
expensive, are utilized in situations where a standard girder might succumb to torsion or
toppling effects.

See also[edit]

 Beam bridge — the ancestor of the plate girder bridge


 Plate girder bridge
 Box girder bridge — an evolution of the plate girder bridge

References

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