Ribbed slabs 357 ‘The diaphragms must af course be designed to carry whee! loads that are applied to them directly, or that are carried to them by longirudinal spanning of the slab. The top slab must also be designed for longitudinal hogging moments where it frames into the ephe. hinder the Launching of mechanised falsework, which is important in the comaructon of lng viaduct Where draphragans are necosary it sometimes possible, but not very convenient to leave them out in a first phase of construction, casting them once the falsework rig has moved on. This was the solution adopted for the Viaduc d'Incarville shown in Figure 12.10. 12.3.3 Abutment diapbragons Aburment diaphragms are required for the reasons described in 9.2.6, The presence of the diaphragm then attracts other loads, as described above. It is important to keep the end diaphragm as flexible as possible compatible with its tasks as this will minimise the torque in the ribs. 12.4 Proportioning of twin rib decks 12.4.1 Height and width of ribs Generally, twin rib-decks are up to 2 m deep, with 2.5 m being exceptional. Span/depth ratios generally are a minimum of 1/20, with 1/18 being more typical. Consequently suitable spans range from 20 m where this type of deck tales over from solid or voided slabs, to about 45 m. Figure 12.9 shows diagrammatically how the proportions of a ‘win rib deck of 35 m span evolve towards a voided slab as the depth decreases. ‘As the design intent for ribbed slab bridges is to keep the dimensions of the ris constant over the full span, economy requires that the width be minimised. The ribs are often slightly tapered cowards the soffi. A taper of about 1/12 allows the muanel shutter berween the ribs to be struck without being collapsed or folded. The outside face does not need to be tapered for that reason, asthe shutter is nor trapped. However, it is often tapered to the same degree to improve the appearance of the bridge. Parallel sided ribs may be designed, as long as the runnel shutter may be collapsed or struck in stages, Figure 12.10, ‘The width of the ribs may be defined by one of five criteria: SLS compressive bending stresses in the decks f k 1 For very shallow cwin rib decks, the width of the bottom flange may be controlled by the need to provide an adequate battom fibre modulus to reduce the variation of stress under live loads. However, this is unusual, the width generally being controlled by one of the other criteria listed, Generally, the critical criterion is Ultimate Limit State bending at the piers. There is alwaysa trade-off berween section depth and rib width, As the section is made shallower,358 Ribbed slabs (1000 afins } tt g00 Te FE tao bot 1250 TLE tase Foot O00C00/ Jnr 3780 1/30 Rigi 12.9 Evolution of twin eb deck with decreasing depth the rib needs to be made wider in order to provide adequate ultimate strength. For the reasons given in 12.6 below, itis often necessary to reinforce the bottom fibre at sections close to the pier with substantial reinforcing bars. These should always be taken into account inthe exinaion of ulimate strength, and thas must be restrained bby adequate links. “The ultimate shear stresses in the ribs due to vertical loads generally do not define te width ofthe, However, in decks with rib tha ar resained against oration, the combined torsional and shear stresses may define the rib width. ‘When the deck is deep, the rib width necessary to ensure ultimate bending strength may be inadequate to accommodate bridge bearings. If the rib is widened for thisFigure 12.10 Viadae d'Incarville: parallel-sided ribs with mechanically operated formwork \Phoro: Robert Bensimn) reason, it may be economical to reduce its depth until the ULS bending criterion again becomes critical. ‘When a deck is wider than about 15 m, it may be economical to wides the ribs to reduce the span and hence the thickness ofthe slab and ofthe side cantilevers. Although ning the ribs in this way would appear to be wasteful of materials, this may not be i the depth is unchanged the concrete quantity will clearly be increased, and this will increase the weight and hence the cost of the foundations. However, as explained in 6.19, the high neutral axis rypical of ewin rib bridge decks leads to an inefficient use of prestress. Thickening the rib lowers the neutral axis, and allows savings to be made in prestressing steel. In general, the reinforcement for the ribs is nor increased, while the reinforcement for the slabs and cantilevers is reduced. tt may also be possible to reduce the depth of the deck until the ULS bending criterion governs. To the author's knowledge, a careful comparison of the relative costs of widening the ribs compared with thickening the slab hasmot been carried aut. In order ta reduce the weight of the deck and to further increase its efficiency (5.4), voids may be introduced into the concrete, see 12.10.2 and Figure 11.15 and Figure 12.17. Although the voids allow savings in the prestressing stecl and foundations, they eost atleast as much as the concrete they replace, they make casting. the concrete more difficult and they increase the amount of reinforcing stec! in. the deck, The designer must make up his own mind whether to use them or not,360. Ribbed slabs 12.4.2 Thickness and span of the slab and side cantilevers ‘The ratio of the span of side cantilevers tw the span of che slab must be chosen so that, under permanent loads, the cantilever bending moment at che rity centre-line approximately equals the fixed end bending. moment of the slab. This ensures that ‘under permanent loads the rib will not rotate. If the side cantilevers and centre slabs were of constant thickness and loaded only by their self weight, this would give a slab span thae is 2.45 x cantilever length (all spans measured to the rib centreline). However, in reality the cantilever is usually thinner than the slab, but is loaded at its end by a foorpath or parapet. The correct ratio will be different for each bridge, ‘bur will usually lie berween 2.3 and 2.8, If this ratio is nor respected, for a deck TT isialenee Hr wm fo z Plan via sacle ent ht be Hw ©) Cross sucbiom at pier Figure 12.11 Torq in ribs due to imbalance in transverse dead load momentsRibbed slabs 361 ar I. a een oe Heriesue spon $d~ Love bead WK 2) Red Taeket Pil Viadauet ses0 TS TT IE | Uacsrnas spe Soin Live fd Fredainang dag ©) Seasatter viaduct He Spam Sm Foewek doadeng and coder Pees deaphiagins A) aduc d'tucanvilte ; Aulordule de Meme uctre Figure 12.12 ‘Typical rwin rib decks362. Ribbed slabs without pier diaphragms the ribs will rotate until the moments at the rib centre Hine fave been brought into equilibrium, This rotation will apply beading moments tthe abutment diaphragms, and, amplified by creep, will affect the design of the bearings, and in extreme cases may alfect the serviceability of the deck. For a deck with pier diaphragms, any imbalance of the transverse moments will cumulate as torque in the ribs at each pier, Figure 12.11. ‘The issues that control the design of the intermediate sab arc closely retared to the behaviour of these decks described in 12.2. The slab is subjected tw rwo superimposed ‘modes of bending; ‘field’ bending due to the relative deflections and rotations of the ribs, and ‘local’ bending under the wheel loads themselves. The logic controlling the thickness of the side cantilever and of the intermediate slab is described in 9.2 and 9.3.6 respectively. Typical forms of some twin rib decks are shown in Figure 12.12. 12.5 Ribbed slabs and skew bridges Ribbed slabs are particularly suited to skew decks. A conventional box section deck with side cantilevers carried on twe bearings on each skew pier is heavily stressed in torsion as the twin supports impose a bending axis that is not perpendicular to the bridge centre ne, Figure 12.13 fa). However, cach rib of an equivalent twin rib deck may bend about a perpendicular axis and there will be no significant torsion due to the skew geometry. In the heavily skewed deck shown in Figure 12.13 (b), the piers beneath one rib are located approximately opposite the mid-spans of the other. Live loads will deflect the ribs ‘causing transverse bending and shear in the slab, transferring load to-the pier section of the other rib, Thus a skew arrangement of piers may even reduce the live load bending ‘moments in a twin rib deck, leading to savings in prestress. ‘This skew arrangement of piers also highlights an essential difference berween prestressed and reinforced decks, In a reinforced deck, the ribs deflects downwards under both permanent loads and live loads, causing such heavy bending of the slab that the arrangement would probably not be feasible. On the other hand, in the prestressed deck described above, the ribs deflect slightly upwards under the combined effects of prestress and dead load, and downwards under live loads, leading to relatively light transverse bending of the slab. It is frequently the case that the cancelling of self-weight deflections by presteess ‘makes feasible structural arrangements that would not be viable in reinforced concrete. ‘The engineer should always consider the deflection af his structures. 12.6 Heat of hydration effects on twin rib decks ‘These effects were highlighted by the severe cracking during construction of a deck designed by the author. The deck consisted of two wide, solid prestressed concrete ribs 1.5 m deep, connected by a thin reinforced concrete top slab, with side cantilevers. ‘The design of the prestressing. was carried out in the normal way by analysing the deck at the tenth points of each span. [n common with most ribbed slab bridge decks, the boetom fibre was very lightly compressed under self weight plus prestress. In fact, at the first tenth point of the main span adjacent to the intermediate piers, the stress