Bridge and Culvert for Hydraulics

Contents
3. Bridge Loading .................................................................................................................... 3
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3
3.2 Permanent Loads ........................................................................................................... 3
3.2.1. Dead load of structural components and non-structural attachments: DC ........... 3
3.2.2. Dead load from wearing surface: DW .................................................................. 3
3.2.3. Other loads ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4
3.3 Transient Loads .......................................................................................................... 4
3.3.1 Gravity Loads........................................................................................................ 4
3.3.2 Lateral Loads .........................................................................................................9
3.3.3 Force due to superimposed deformation .............................................................. 9
3.3 Load combination ....................................................................................................... 9

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Bridge Loading Abbreviations

BR vehicular braking force
CE vehicular centrifugal force
CR creep
CT vehicular collision force
DC dead load of structural components
DD downdrag
DW dead load of wearing surfaces and utilities
EH horizontal earth pressure load
EL accumulated locked-in effects resulting from the construction
process
EQ earthquake load
ES earth surcharge load
EV vertical pressure from dead load of earth fill
FR friction
IM vehicular dynamic load allowance
LL vehicular live load
LS live load surcharge
PL pedestrian live load
SE settlement
SH shrinkage
TG temperature gradient
TU uniform temperature
WA water load and stream pressure
WL wind on live load

WS wind load on structure

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3. Bridge Loading

3.1 Introduction

What type of loads does the bridge is expected to carry? How do we quantify? As an engineer
you have to consider all loads that are expected to be applied to the bridge during
construction stage and in its service life. Loads are quantified by characteristic value, value
with a certain probability of not being exceeded, say 5%.

Loads, some codes prefer to say actions, on a bridge emanate from self-weight of material,
traffic, environment and construction method. Bridge loads can be classified based on:

 Duration (permanent and transient)

 Direction (vertical, longitudinal, transversal)
 Deformation (creep, thermal expansion, settlement, etc.)
 Effect (shear, bending, torsion, etc.)

Although it is hard to classify loads exclusively, the broad and common classification is
based on duration: permanent loads and transient loads. Permanent loads, as the name imply,
are those loads which act on a bridge for an extended time, or preferable to say most of its
service life. Transient loads, on other hand, the magnitude, location and/or direction of the
load change with time. ERA Bridge Design Manual and AASHTO LRFD classify them as
follows, with little modification for consistency.

3.2 Permanent Loads

Permanent load includes the self-weight of the girder and deck, wearing surface, curbs,
parapet and railings, utilities and pressure from earth retainment. But while determining the
weight, dead load of wearing surface and utilities have large uncertainty than dead load of
structural components. To provide different safety factor for different uncertainty we prefer
to divide permanent loads in to three categories.

3.2.1 Dead load of structural components and non-structural attachments: DC

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Dead load shall include, but not limited to, the weight of deck, sidewalk, primary &
secondary structural members, railings, parapets, stiffeners and sign-posts. In composite
construction, it is important to separate loads resisted by composite action and by non-
composite action.

3.2.2 Dead load of wearing surface and utilities: DW

Service life of wearing surface and structural components is different. Especially for asphalt
concrete, wearing surface will be overlayed at least three times during the service life of the
bridge. Therefore, safety factor for wearing surface and utilities are higher as compared to the
safety factor of components.

3.2.3 Other loads

Pressure due to earth (EV, EH, ES), force effect due to shrinkage (SH), force effect due to
creep (CR), secondary force from post-tensioning (PS), downdrag force (DD) and
miscellaneous locked-in force effects resulting from construction process (EL) are also
considered as permanent loads.

In summary, some permanent loads are easily estimated while other loads are more difficult
due to greater variability involved. Though permanent loads must always be considered in
structural analysis, they may not be existed all together. In absence of more precise
information, unit weight of materials, specified in the table below, shall be used in computing
dead load.

Table 3.1 Density and unit weight of materials

Materials Density (kg/m3) Unit weight (kN/m3)
Bituminous Wearing Surfaces 2250 22.5
Cast Iron 7200 72
Cinder (volcanic stone) Filling 960 9.6
Compacted Sand, silt, or Clay 1925 19.3
2400 24
Concrete Normal
Loose Sand, Silt, or Gravel 1800 18
Soft Clay 1700 17
Rolled Gravel or Ballast 2250 22.5

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Steel 7850 79
Stone Masonry 2725 27.3
Wood Hard 960 9.6
Soft 800 8
Water Fresh 1000 10

3.3 Transient Loads

3.3.1 Gravity Loads

i. Vehicle live load

Which vehicle do you thick create maximum effect for the bridge? The term live load means
a load that moves along the length of the span. A person walking along the bridge, therefore,
can be considered as live load. But highway bridge, obviously, has to be withstand more than
pedestrian load. Despite the fact that automobiles are the most common vehicular live load
on the bridge, their load effect is negligible as compared to the load effect of trucks.

Many vehicle types would be required for bridge analysis, but it is formidable task, even if
automated. A simpler model which represent the extreme effect of “exclusion vehicles” was
developed called HL-93 (Highway load, developed in 1993). Highway vehicle live load
includes the load due to traffic, giving raise to static vertical and horizontal forces, including
its dynamic effect. ERA national vehicle load model (called “national” because it is not
intended to represent any particular truck) consists of three distinctly different live loads:

✓ Design truck or
✓ Design tandem and

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✓ Design lane load

The design truck is shown in the fig. 1 has a variable axle spacing between 145kN loads. An
engineer has to adjust the spacing of those axles so as to create critical load effect on the
bridge. In fact, the long spacing only control where the front and rare portion of the truck
may be positioned in adjacent structurally continuous span such as in continuous short span
bridge. In transverse direction this vehicle is 3m wide and placed anywhere in standard 3.6m
wide lane. One thing you have to bear in your mind is that this truck is representative not an
actual vehicle.

Fig. 1 Design truck

Design tandem, on another hand, is developed to represent heavy military vehicles. This
loading consists of two axles spaced by 1.2m and each weighing 110kN with transverse
spacing of wheels shall be taken as 1.8m.

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Fig. 2 Design tandem

The third load is design lane load which consists 9.3kN/m uniformly distributed load in
longitudinal direction and assumed to occupy 3m transversally in a design lane. It is
equivalent to 3.1kPa uniform pressure applied on 3m design lane. This load is used in
conjunction with design truck or design tandem.

Multiple presence factor

Multiple presence factor is used to account for the probability of simultaneous lane
occupation by full HL-93 design live load in lieu of the site-specific data. Did you know why
single loaded lane has multiple presence factor greater than one? Note that some approximate
analysis procedures already included multiple presence factor.

Table 3. 2 Multiple presence factor

Dynamic load allowance

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Perfectly smooth roadway surface is less achievable; thus, vehicle suspension must react to
roadway roughness by compression and extension of the suspension system. This oscillation
creates axle forces that exceed the static weight, this phenomenon is called dynamic loading
(sometimes called impact). Dynamic effect due to moving vehicle may be attributed to two
sources: dynamic response of wheel assembly (hammering effect) and dynamic response of
the bridge as a whole.

Dynamic load allowance is determined from:

𝐷𝑑𝑦𝑛
𝐼𝑀 =
𝐷𝑠𝑡𝑎

Where 𝐷𝑠𝑡𝑎 is maximum static deflection and 𝐷𝑑𝑦𝑛 is additional deflection due to dynamic

effect. The factor to be applied to the static load shall be taken as: (1 + 𝐼𝑀⁄100).

Table 3.3 Dynamic load allowance

ii. Breaking and Centrifugal Forces

It is quite probable that all truck operators on a bridge observe an event that cause the
operators to apply the break at the same time and create longitudinal force on the bridge. As a
truck moves along a curved path, the change in direction of velocity causes centrifugal
acceleration in radial direction. Both centrifugal force (radial force) and breaking forces
(longitudinal force) are applied at 1.8m above the top of deck surface in their respective
direction. The effect those forces is consequential on substructure.

Design lane

Another important criterion in bridge live loading is design lane. Two terms used in lane
design of a bridge are:

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✓ Traffic lane and

✓ Design lane

Traffic lane is the number of lanes that traffic engineer plan to rout across the bridge and it is
3.6m wide. Whereas design lane is lane designation used by bridge engineers for live load
placement. The number of design lane is taken as the integer part of the ratio of clear road
way width (distance between the curbs and/or barriers) divided by traffic lane width (3.6m).
But if the traffic lane width is less than 3.6m, the number of design lane shall be equal to the
number of traffic lanes.

iii. Pedestrian load

For sidewalk that are integral with the roadway bridge and wider than 0.6m, a pedestrian load
of 3.6 𝑘𝑁/𝑚2 shall be applied. If a bridge is restricted to pedestrian and/or bicycle traffic, 4
𝑘𝑁/𝑚2 pedestrian load is used, this load will allow for small cars to pass over the bridge.
For pedestrian bridge wider than 2.4m, additional axle load provision shall be made to avoid
accident due to maintenance and/or incidental vehicles.

3.3.2 Lateral Loads

Force from wind (wind load on structure-WS and wind load on live load-WL), water and
earthquake are considered as common bridge lateral loads. Water flowing against and around
the bridge primarily affect substructure element. The condition of the flood is an important
issue both during site investigation and load analysis. Wind and earthquake forces are
product of natural forces dependent on the terrain type and geographic location of the bridge.
Depending on the structural behavior of the bridge and location of bridge site anticipated
force from wind and earthquake effect can be inconsequential or they can govern the design
of lateral load resistance system.

3.3.3 Force due to superimposed deformation

Temperature, creep and shrinkage are grouped under this category. Two types of temperature
changes, uniform and gradient temperature changes, are included in the analysis. Creep and
shrinkage can have an effect on the structural strength, fatigue, and serviceability. The action

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due to superimposed deformations in statically indeterminate structure are proportional to the

stiffness (i.e. stiff structure develops large action).

3.4 Load combination

Unlike an action movie where villains attack an actor one at a time, loads do not act
individually but rather in various form. So, the bridge engineer must design a bridge such that
it can handle plausible grouping of loads which are placed on a bridge, by considering
probability under consideration.

The total factored force effect:

Q =   Q
Ix Ix

Where  is load modifier (a factor relating to ductility, redundancy and operational

i

importance), Qi is force effects from loads specified herein and  is load factors. Ductility,
i
redundancy, and operational importance are significant aspects affecting the margin of safety
of bridges. Whereas the first two directly relate to physical strength, the last concerns the
consequences of the bridge being out of service, best if all bridges are important but it is
difficult to afford it.
Load factors in modern bridge design verification is based on semi-probabilistic approach
yielding at limit state design format. For the safety of bridge components and connections
ERA 2013 consider three limit states: strength limit state, extreme event limit state, service
limit state and fatigue limit state.

Table 3.4 Limit states and their condition of application

STRENGTH I Basic load combination relating to the normal vehicular use of the bridge
without wind.

STRENGTH II Load combination relating to the use of the bridge by ERA-specified special
design or permit vehicles, without wind.

STRENGTH III Load combination relating to the bridge exposed to wind velocity exceeding
90 km/h.
STRENGTH IV Load combination relating to very high dead load to live load force effect
ratios.

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STRENGTH V Load combination relating to normal vehicular use of the bridge with wind of
90 km/h (25 m/s) velocity
EXTREME-EVENT Load combination including earthquake
SERVICE I Load combination relating to the normal operational use of the bridge with a
90 km/h (25 m/s) wind and all loads taken at their nominal values. Also
related to deflection control in buried metal structures, tunnel liner plate, and
thermoplastic pipe and to control crack width in reinforced concrete
structures. This load combination should also be used for the investigation of
slope stability.

SERVICE II Load combination intended to control yielding of steel structures and slip of
slip critical connections due to vehicular live load.

SERVICE III Load combination relating only to tension in prestressed concrete structures
with the objective of crack control.

FATIGUE Fatigue and fracture load combination relating to repetitive gravitational

vehicular live load and dynamic responses under a single design truck having
a constant axle spacing of 9.0 m between 145 kN axles.

Table 3.5 load combination and load factors

LL IM

Load Combination DC CE

& DD BR WA WS FR TU TG SE Use one of

WL
PL these at a
Limit State DW CR time
EH LS SH
EV EL

ES EQ CT

STRENGTH 1 p 1.75 1.00 - - 1.00 0.50/1.20 TG SE - -

(Unless noted)

STRENGTH II p 1.35 1.00 - - 1.00 0.50/1.20 TG SE - -

STRENGTH III p - 1.00 1.40 - 1.00 0.50/1.20 TG SE - -

STRENGTH IV - - -
- - - -
EH, EV, ES, DW 1.00 1.00 0.50/1.20
p
DC ONLY
1.5
STRENGTH V p 1.35 1.00 0.50 1.0 1.00 0.50/1.20 TG SE - -

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EXTREME p EQ 1.00 - - 1.00 - - - 1.00 -

EVENT

SERVICE I 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.30 1.0 1.00 1.00/1.20 TG SE - -

SERVICE II 1.00 1.30 1.00 - - 1.00 1.00/1.20 - - - -

SERVICE III 1.00 0.80 1.00 - - 1.00 1.00/1.20 TG SE - -

FATIGUE -
- - - - - - - - -
LL, IM and CE 0.75
ONLY

Table 3.6 Load factors for permanent loads, 

I
Load Factor ( )
I
Type of Load
Maximum Minimum
DC: Component and Attachments 1.25 0.90
DD: Downdrag 1.80 0.45
DW: Wearing Surfaces and Utilities 1.50 0.65
EH: Horizontal Earth Pressure
• Active 1.50 0.90
• At-Rest 1.35 0.90
EL: Locked-in Erection Stresses 1.0 1.0
EV: Vertical Earth Pressure
• Overall Stability 1.35 1.35 N/A
• Retaining Structure 1.30 1.35 1.00 0.90
• Rigid Buried Structure 1.95 0.90 0.90
• Rigid Frames 1.50 0.90
• Flexible Buried Structures other than Metal Box
Culvert • Flexible Metal Box Culverts
ES: Earth Surcharge 1.50 0.75

For each force effect, both extreme combinations may need to be investigated by applying
either the high or the low load factor as appropriate. The algebraic sums of these products are
the total force effects for which the bridge and its components should be designed. If both
reactions were negative, the load combination for Strength I Limit state would be:

1.25DC + 1.50DW + 1.75(LL+IM)

Consider the investigation of uplift where a permanent load produces uplift, that load would
be multiplied by the maximum load factor, regardless of the span in which it is located.
Whereas if another permanent load reduces the uplift, it would be multiplied by the minimum

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load factor. For example, at Strength I Limit State where the permanent load reaction is
positive and live load can cause a negative reaction, the load combination would be:

0.9DC + 0.65DW + 1.75(LL+IM)

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