Effect of Curvature on the Shear Distribution Factor for Horizontally Curved Concrete Box Girder

The main objective of this research is to study the effect of curvature on the shear distribution factor under the effect of AASHTO LRFD HL-93 live load for horizontally curved concrete box girder through an experimental program. the main variables considered in this study were the degree of curvature, the location of live load application and the number of the loaded lanes, under these variables the girder support reaction was measured by load cells connect to weigh indicator, the shear distribution factor (SDF) was calculated based on equilibrium method. A comparison study was carried out between the experimental result and ASSHTO formals to check the applicability of this method for curved for cast in place concrete box girder. The comparison study s showed that the AASHTO equation underestimate the SDF for exterior girder (G1) when the external lane loaded, while overestimate the SDF when both lane loaded. The AASHTO formula overestimates the SDF for interior girder (G2) by 35 % for straight model and overestimate by 10 % for model with (10) angle of curvature while the ASHHTO present conservative estimation for models with angle of curvature (13, 18) degree