Dynamic Impact Factors for Shear and Bending Moment of Simply Supported and Continuous Concrete Girder Bridges

Abstract

The girder bridge is one of the most popular bridge types throughout the world. Although much effort has been made to study the impact factor (IF) of simply supported bridges due to vehicle loading, fewer works have been reported on continuous bridges. In addition, most of the previous research on IFs has focused on the bending moment effect, whereas very few studies have focused on the shear effect. In this study, numerical simulations were performed to study the dynamic IFs of both simply supported and continuous bridges due to vehicle loading. IFs for both shear and bending moment were investigated. Some interesting findings were obtained regarding the relationships between the IFs of simply supported and continuous bridges, for both shear and bending moment. These findings can be used as additional references for bridge codes by practicing engineers.