Analysis and Design of Skew Bridges

Bridges are very special type of structures. They are characterized by their simplicity in geometry and loading conditions. The reinforced concrete bridges usually carried uniformly distributed dead load, vehicular live load to its surface and transfers same to the support by flexure, shear and torsion. Newly designed bridges are often skew. This is due to space constraints in congested urban areas. . It can be also needed due to geographical constraints such as mountainous terrains. However force flow in skew bridges is much more complicated than straight bridges. Therefore careful investigation and numerical analysis needs to be performed, in which a skew bridges can be modeled in several ways. Skewed slab bridges were modeled using finite-element methods using CsiBridge computer software to study their behavior under uniform and moving loads with to determine the most appropriate force response for design.