Suniti Suparp, Panuwat Joyklad

    Thai truck weight limits rated by the Department of Highways (DOH) are different from the vehicular design loadings specified by American or European bridge design codes, which are usually referred to as international standards. For the bridge design practice in Thailand, engineers have to calibrate the design live loads obtained from these international standards with the existing Thai truck weight limits in order to achieve the same level of bridge safety. This article comparatively studied the load-carrying behavior of simple beam bridges with the span length ranging from 5 to 60 meters due to Thai truck loads against the AASHTO(STD&LRFD) and EN1991-2 design live loads defined by the American and European standards, respectively. The objective of this study was to compare the maximum shear and bending moment of the simple beam bridges due to various types of loadings. The proper ratios of the shear, also bending moment, between the AASHTO(STD&LRFD) and EN1991-2 loads against Thai truck loads were proposed. The results showed that, in each span, the maximum shear and bending moment were caused by various types of trucks. Additionally, the heaviest truck produced the maximum responses for some analysis cases. From the comparative analysis, the shear ratios and the moment ratios were proposed associated with various bridge span lengths. For bridge design practice in Thailand, these ratios could be applied as multipliers to the AASHTO(STD&LRFD) or EN1991-2 loads; therefore, the bridge responses were conformable to those of Thai truck loads.

Key words: Thai Trucks;Shear Ratios;Moment Ratios;Bridge Design

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.502

Date:2013.10