Advanced Cyclic Assessment of an Existing Steel-Concrete Composite Road Bridge

Steel-concrete composite bridges are expected to endure significant fluctuating actions during their service life due to the combined action of wind, earthquake and traffic loads. Therefore, performing a proper cyclic assessment for this kind of structures is a crucial task in order to avoid sudden failures resulting in severe human and economic losses. In the present work, the advanced assessment of an existing steel-concrete composite road bridge located in Italy is presented. On-site surveys carried out by the Authors enabled to accurately describe the actual geometry of critical bolted details. For this purpose, both i) normative provisions reported in Eurocodes and ii) advanced cyclic analysis techniques are adopted, with resulting outcomes being hence extensively compared. Finally, the potential influence of relevant mechanical parameters on the expected service life of some critical structural details is parametrically investigated.