Zulkefli, Muhammad Umar; Ferreira, Pedro; (2024) Effectiveness of displacement compensation units for integral abutment bridges. European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering 10.1080/19648189.2024.2352480. (In press).

Text Ferreira_Effectiveness of DCU for IABs_EJECE_V2_rev3.pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 11 May 2025. Download (2MB)

Abstract

Integral abutment bridges (IAB) have become increasingly popular in the past few decades due to their design simplicity. UK design rules limit the length of IABs to 60 m, due to the issues associated with thermal strains, settlement, and pressure build-up behind the abutment. A cyclic loading test, representing seasonal thermal fluctuations, was conducted on a 1/12 scaled-down retaining wall of a conventional full-height IAB. The test was then repeated with the inclusion of displacement compensation units (DCU) in the form of conical disc springs (CDS) and hollow rubber cylinders (HRC), which operate in a pre-deformed shape. The results show some remarkable improvements in the IAB performance with DCUs. The soil backfill pressure was reduced to 30% and 47% with CDSs and HRCs, respectively. Furthermore, no settlement was observed, as compared to the conventional IAB test which recorded a 20 mm settlement after 100 cycles. Non-linearity in the force-deflection behaviour of DCUs enables expansion and contraction of the deck to be accommodated with minimal fluctuation of backfill pressure. Finally, a finite element (FE) model of an HRC applied with two temperatures has been analysed and compared with the IAB wall test, which suggests that both analyses showed some correlation.

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