Early age temperature rise and thermal stresses induced in concrete bridge pier

Abstract

Heat generation of concrete during hardening causes early age temperature rise, and if the associated tendency of volume change is restrained, thermal stresses would be induced and early thermal cracking would result. This issue should be duly considered in concrete bridge construction as the bridge piers as well as other structural members are typically mass concrete members. In this paper, a real-life bridge pier is selected for study. The pier was instrumented to measure its early age temperature rise on site. Finite element analysis was conducted to evaluate the time variations of temperature distributions and thermal stresses induced in the bridge pier. The measurement and analysis results threw light on the evaluation of risk of thermal cracking and planning of temperature control measures in similar projects. © (2011) Trans Tech Publications.