STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE OF REAR BEARING-PLATE CONNECTION WITH CELLS IN STEEL-CONCRETE HYBRID GIRDER

The rear bearing-plate connection with cells is widely used in hybrid girder bridges. As for the hybrid girder cable-stayed bridge, the structural performance and the effects of main parameters of the rear bearing-plate connection with cells were investigated by the finite element method in this paper. The analysis results show that the rear bearing-plate and the shear connectors on the top/bottom plates of the strengthened segment are the primary load-transferring components while the shear connectors in the cells have minor contribution. Within the selected range of parameters, the rear bearing-plate thickness (20mm―70mm), the cell length (0.6m―2.0m) and the strengthened length larger than 1.5m have negligible effects on the load transferring mechanism. And the stiffness of shear connectors and the cell height play vital roles and must be carefully considered in the design. This study provides helpful references for the design and research on the connection in steel-concrete hybrid girder.