Flexural Test for a Monolithic Holed Web Prestressed Concrete (HWPC) Girder

Prestressed concrete (PSC) I-type girders have been used for span length around up to 40 m in domestic region. PSC girders are very cost effective girder type and extending their lengths more than 50 m will bring large benefit in cost. A new design method was proposed by combining two notable design concept in order to extend the applicable span length in this study. First of all, several numbers of openings was introduced in the girder web, and half of the anchorage devices were moved into the openings. In this way, large compressive stress developed at end zone was reduced, and the portion of design load coming from self-weight was reduced as well. Secondly, prestressing force was introduced in the girder not once at the initial stage, but through multiple loading stages. A full scale girder with the length of 50 m with the girder depth of 2 m was fabricated, and a flexural test was conducted in order to verify the performance of newly developed girder. Test results showed that the new holed web design concept can provide a way to design girders longer than 50 meters with the girder height of 2 m.