Performance of prestressed concrete box bridge girders under hydrocarbon fire exposure

This article presents an approach for investigating performance of prestressed concrete box bridge girders under hydrocarbon fire exposure. A three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model, developed in computer program ANSYS, is utilized to analyze the response of prestressed concrete box bridge girders under combined effects of fire exposure duration and simultaneous structural loading. The model validation is performed using a scaled prestressed concrete box girder exposed to ISO834 fire in furnace. Subsequently, the validated model is used to investigate fire performance of prestressed concrete box bridge girders through taking into consideration some variables, namely concrete cover thickness to prestressing strands, prestress degree, load level, fire exposure length, and position. Through a case study, results from numerical analysis show that concrete cover thickness to prestressing strands and load level has significant effect on fire resistance of prestressed concrete box bridge girders. Increasing prestress degree in prestressing strands can speed up the progression of deflection (sudden collapse) in prestressed concrete box bridge girder toward the final fire exposure stage. Reducing fire exposure length or preventing fire exposure on mid-span zone can highly enhance the fire resistance of simply supported prestressed concrete box bridge girders. Failure of prestressed concrete box bridge girder, under hydrocarbon fire exposure conditions, is governed by rate of deflection failure criterion in particular cases.