Flexural behaviour of a half-decked bulb tee pre-stressed concrete girder: full-scale test and nonlinear finite element analysis

A half-deck bulb tee (HBT) girder, which is an unusual concept for pre-stressed concrete girders, was developed and tested for a long span application. The purpose of the test was to simplify the construction process and increase structural performance by optimising the cross sections and improving the efficiency of the tendon profile. In this study, a full-scale HBT girder, with a length of 60 m and depth of 2.3 m, which includes the.1 m depth of the half-deck, was fabricated and tested to analyse its structural performance. The data observed from the flexural loading tests were evaluated by comparing with the results of finite element analysis (FEA). The tested HBT girder specimen was expected to be sufficiently safe for actual bridge design because it satisfied construction code requirements. The initial cracking load observed during the experiment (1400 kN) was accurately predicted by FEA (1420 kN) and theory (1301 kN). Therefore, the developed HBT girder has sufficient and predictable flexural strength.