An experimental investigation of thermal prestressing method for continuous composite steel girder bridges

This paper describes an experimental investigation conducted to verify and substantiate the preceding analytical study, which was focused on the development of the thermal prestressing method (TPSM) including the basic concepts of the method and the methodology for numerical analysis of the thermal prestressing effect. The experimental results from this research, especially the initial stress measurement from a prototype bridge, prove that the method can be successfully used for prestressing continuous composite girder structures. Also, the experimental and analytical results exhibit good agreement, which implies that the thermal prestressing effect can be predicted with reasonable accuracy with the previous proposed methodology. It is concluded that the TPSM can be successfully applied to both the design and construction of continuous composite girder structures, and the authors are optimistic about the TPSM becoming an innovative solution for prestressing continuous composite girder bridges.