Auscultation d'une culée du pont de Portneuf à l'aide d'une inclusion de béton instrumentée (CIUS)
The Portneuf Bridge, built in 1992, is the first air-entrained high-performance concrete bridge in North America. To understand its short and long term behaviour, an auscultation program has been set. Hence, a cylindrical concrete inclusion of the Université de Sherbrooke was installed in one of the abutments of the bridge. The aim of this study is to present the first results thus acquired. The analysis of the results allowed to calculate the coefficient of thermal expansion of the concrete and to assess deformation variations due to shrinkage and creep and the effects of rebar–concrete interaction in the upper abutment region. Moreover, the presence of thermal gradients, which creates nonisotropic deformations, has been established. Key words: high-performance concrete, deformations, thermal gradients, instrumentation, bridge, monitoring. [Journal translation]