Effect of temperature distribution and thermal gradient on the thermal response of steel-concrete composite girders

Thermal loads significantly influence bridge performance, particularly in extreme climates. This study identified a significant scope for investigating how changes in constituent material strength influence the overall temperature field and affect stress distribution in composite bridges. Also, this study focuses on investigating the thermal effects on steel-concrete composite bridges, an area that hasn't been extensively explored compared to concrete or steel bridges. The objective is to develop an efficient Finite Element (FE) model to simulate temperature variations and their impact on composite bridge girders considering varying concrete strengths. It involves developing an experimentally validated FE model of a dimensionally reduced steel-concrete composite bridge girder to assess the structural effects of a 24-hour simulated temperature field through a sequentially coupled thermo-mechanical analysis technique in Abaqus. The findings indicate that under similar thermal boundary conditions, composite bridge girder specimens with varying concrete strengths exhibit differences in stress values.