MinSuk Lee

Graduate Student

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Pennsylvania State University

ABSTRACT

This study presents the comparison between experimental and numerical evaluation of a braced chain eyebar bridge for examining analytical grillage models. The tested bridge have span lengths of 91.4m (300ft) and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 as a rare survivor of the sport-span suspension bridge. Bridge response was measured at the 9 different places for the passage of normal truck traffic and tandem-axle test trucks of known weight and configuration. This Bridge was designed by dual structural system. One is a suspension system using eye bar chains and the other is a truss system considering of single diagonals and fabricated verticals. A numerical grillage model was developed for comparing the influence lines between numerical and experimental results of dual system. A 1994 rating report containing computed PennDOT ratings used to develop the rating factors for H20, HS20 and ML80.