Analysis of post-tensioned concrete box-girder bridges : A comparison of Incremental launching and Movable scaffolding system

Sammanfattning: When designing a bridge it is of high importance that the geometry for the cross section is optimized for the structure. This is partly due to the influence of the amount of material needed and its impact on the budget and environment. The influence of choosing the right amount of each material lies in the unit-price of the different material, where they can differ significantly. The Swedish Transport Administration, Trafikverket, has ordered the construction of Stockholm Bypass which is one of Swedens largest infrastructure project and is valued to 27.6 billion SEK according to the price index of the year 2009. The infrastructure project is divided into multiple projects where one of them is assigned to Implenia and Veidekke through a joint venture (Joint venture Hjulsta, JVH) and is valued to nearly 800 MSEK. The reference bridge that is used in the analysis of the master’s thesis is a part of the project. The aim of this masters thesis was to analyze and compare the two construction methods, mov- able scaffolding system (MSS) and incremental launching for the reference bridge with respect to amount post-tensioning and slenderness. Furthermore, an economical comparison between the two construction methods was carried out based on the obtained results. The analysis of the MSS was carried out by modeling the reference bridge structure in the finite element software SOFiSTiK AG. The bridge was modeled with different cross section height, i.e. different slenderness where the optimal amount of post-tension tendons could be determined by iteration until stress conditions from the Eurocode were fulfilled. For the incremental launching method, a numerical analysis was performed. The optimal amount of required post-tensioning was evaluated in the construction stages and final stages with different construction heights i.e. different values of slenderness. A cost analysis was also performed where the aim was to analyze how the total cost of the construc- tion of the bridge would be influenced by the different slenderness of the bridge as a comparison for the two construction methods. This was done by dividing the costs into fixed costs and variable costs. The results showed that the structural rigidity had a large influence on the required amount of prestressing steel for both construction methods. In other words, the smaller the cross section the more prestressing steel was required. Incremental launching proved to require a much greater amount of (PT) tendons compared to the MSS although the identical cross sections and properties for both methods, except for the PT. The prestressing for incremental launching is generally by centrical prestressing during the construction stages. A intersection point was obtained in the cost analysis for the construction methods. The incremental launching was the cheaper solution for slenderness smaller than the intersection point at slenderness between 17 and 18. The MSS was cheaper than the incremental launching for slenderness larger than the intersection point.