COMPARATIVE A NALYSIS OF T - BEAM BRIDGE BY RATIONAL METHOD AND STAAD PR O

The bridge is a structure providing passage over an obstacle without closing the way beneath. The required passage may be for a road, a railway, pedestrians, a can al or a pipeline. T - beam bridge decks are one of the principal types of cast - in place concrete decks. T - beam bridge decks consist of a concrete slab integral with girders. The finite element method is a general method of structural analysis in which the so lution of a problem in continuum mechanics is approximated by the analysis of an assemblage of finite elements which are interconnected at a finite number of nodal points and represent the solution domain of the problem. A simple span T - beam bridge was ana lyzed by using I.R.C. loadings as a one dimensional structure using rational methods. The same T - beam bridge is analysed as a three - dimensional structure using finite element plate for the deck slab and beam elements for the main beam using software STAAD ProV8i, three different span of 16m, 20m and 24m was analysed. Both FEM and 1D models where subjected to I.R.C. Loadings to produce maximum bending moment, Shear force and similarly deflection in structure was analysed. The results obtained from the fini te element model are lesser than the results obtained from one dimensional analysis, which means that the results obtained from manual calculations subjected to IRC loadings are conservative.