Unequal Tension Forces of Support Anchor Bolts in Simple Curved Steel-Box Girder Bridges

Abstract

Due to the geometric plane of the curved bridges, torsional moment is easily developed and then, at the inner side of thesupports, the negative support reactions are occurred. In some cases, the pot bearing system is used to resist negative supportreactions. These reactions cause the unequal tension forces at the anchor bolts of the pot bearing system. However, currentpractical design process may underestimate the amount of tension forces occurring at the anchor bolts. Accordingly, in orderrynonlinear finite element analysis and linear finite element analysis are conducted. Based on the two numerical results, the safetyfactor is estimated for the efective use of the numerical result obtained by the linear finite element analysis.