Bridge Engineering
Lecture 3: Loads
Shouxin Wu, PhD
Southwest Jiaotong University
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Introduction
• Loads may be divided into two
broad categories:
– Permanent loads (dead loads), and
– Transient loads (live loads).
Southwest Jiaotong University
-2- Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Introduction (cont’d)
• Definition of the permanent loads:
– Remain on the bridge for an extended period,
usually for the entire service life.
• Such loads include
– The self-weight of the girders
– The self-weight of deck and wearing surface
– Curbs, parapets and railings, utilities,
luminaries,
– Pressures from earth retainments.
Southwest Jiaotong University
-3- Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Introduction (cont’d)
• Definition of Transient loads:
– Their locations and magnitudes change with
time and may be applied from several
directions
• Transient loads include:
– Gravity loads due to vehicular, railway, and
pedestrian traffic;
– Lateral loads such as
• Water and wind, ice floes, ship collisions, and
earthquakes.
Southwest Jiaotong University
-4- Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Introduction (cont’d)
• Other loads (based on bridge types)
– Effects of temperature fluctuation
– Effects of creep and shrinkage
Southwest Jiaotong University
-5- Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Design Vehicular Live Load
• China’s standard design loadings for railway
bridges:
Special Live Load Normal Live Load
Units: m
Southwest Jiaotong University
-6- Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Design Vehicular Live Load (cont’d)
• China’s standard design loadings for High-
Speed Railway bridges:
Standard Loading
Special Loading
Southwest Jiaotong University
-7- Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Design Vehicular Live Load (cont’d)
• China’s Highway Design Loads:
– Design load includes lane load and vehicular
load
Lane Load
Southwest Jiaotong University
-8- Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Design Vehicular Live Load (cont’d)
• China’s Highway Design Loads (cont’d)
For Highway-I:
For L ≤5m X 1.2 for shear
For L ≥ 50 m strength design
For Highway-II: ( Values for Highway-I ) X 0.75
Lane Load
Southwest Jiaotong University
-9- Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Design Vehicular Live Load (cont’d)
• China’s Highway Design Loads (cont’d)
Front Elevation
Side View
Plan View Units: KN, m Vehicular Load
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 10 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Design Vehicular Live Load (cont’d)
• Lane load: used for the design and analysis
of the superstructure
• Vehicular load: used for the calculation of
local parts of the bridge structures or short-
span bridges, culvert, piers, and earth
retaining walls
• The lane load and the vehicular load can
not be superposed.
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 11 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
China’s City Highway Loads: City-A
• Vehicular Load: City-A
Axle number
Axle weight
Wheel weight
Gross weight
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 12 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
China’s City Highway Loads: City-B
Axle number
Axle weight
Wheel weight
Gross weight
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 13 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
China’s City Highway Loads: Side View
Curb
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 14 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
China’s City Highway Loads: Lane Load
• 2 m ≤ L ≤ 20m
City-A
City-B
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 15 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
China’s City Highway Loads: Lane Load
• 20 m < L ≤ 150m
City-A
City-B
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 16 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
China’s City Highway Loads
• Side View of Lane Load
Curb
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 17 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
AASHTO Vehicular Loads
❑ Design truck
❑ Design tandem
❑ Design lane
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 18 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
AASHTO Vehicular Loads (cont’d)
• LRFD Design Truck
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 19 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
AASHTO Vehicular Loads (cont’d)
• Design truck plus design lane
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 20 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
AASHTO Vehicular Loads (cont’d)
• Design tandem plus design lane
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 21 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
AASHTO Vehicular Loads (cont’d)
• Dual design truck plus design lane:
– For negative moment between points of contraflexure under a uniform
load on all spans, and reaction at interior piers only, 90 percent of the
effect of two design trucks spaced a minimum of 50.0 ft between the lead
axle of one truck and the rear axle of the other truck, combined with 90
percent of the effect of the design lane load.
8 kips 32 kips 32kips
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 22 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
European Specification of Loads
• ( UDL stands for Uniformly Distributed Load )
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 23 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
European Specification of Loads (cont’d)
• General loading:
– UDL(kN/m2 ) plus a double-axle tandem per
lane.
– The tandem is dispensed with on the fourth
lane and above, on carriageways of four
lanes or more.
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 24 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
European Specification of Loads (cont’d)
• General loading model: LM1 Axle load
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 25 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
European Specification of Loads (cont’d)
• Local loads
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 26 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
European Specification of Loads (cont’d)
• Abnormal loads : LM3
– A special abnormal load (model LM3) placed in
one lane (or straddling two lanes) with a 25 m
clear space front and back and
– Normal LM1 loading placed in the other lanes.
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 27 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
European Specification of Loads (cont’d)
• Abnormal loads : LM3 (cont’d)
9 axles of 200 kN at 1.5 m centres
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 28 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
European Specification of Loads (cont’d)
• Crowd loading
– Most countries specify a nominal crowd loading
of about 5 kN/m2 (EC1 model LM4) to be
placed on the footways of highway bridges or
across pedestrian and cycle bridges.
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 29 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Design loads for railway bridges
• Primary load Self-weights of structural members and accessories;
prestressing forces; effect of shrinkage and creep of
– Dead load concrete; earth pressure; hydrostatic pressure and upward
buoyant forces; effect of displacement of foundations
Static gravity loads of trains; vehicular gravity loads (for city
– Live load roads); dynamic effect of moving trains; centrifugal forces;
Nosing force; earth pressure generated by live loads
pedestrian loads ; aerodynamic Forces
• Additional force
Braking forces or/and traction forces; friction force at
bearings; wind force; stream flow pressure; ice pressure;
effect of temperature change; frost heaving forces;
wave forces.
• Special load Derailment loads; vessel or raft collision loads; vehicular
collision loads; temporary construction loads; earthquake
loads; longitudinal force from long rails (expansion-
contraction force; deflection-induced force; broken-rail
force) Southwest Jiaotong University
- 30 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Chinese railway live loads
• The Type-ZK loading applies to high-speed railways
• The Type-ZC loading applies to inter-city railways
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 31 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
• The Type-ZKH loading applies to shared passenger-freight
railways
• The Type-ZH loading applies to heavy haul railways
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 32 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Dynamic effects
• In traditional design codes and practices, the dynamic
effects are taken into consideration by an impact factor ,
defined as the ratio of the additional load due to dynamic
effect to the equivalent static load: µ
Dynamic Load-Static Load
µ=
Static Load
Dynamic Load= (1 + µ ) Static Load
• the coefficient (1+ µ ) is termed dynamic factor
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 33 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Load combinations
• For design of railway bridges, the loads have
different frequencies of occurrence.
• The primary loads are those acting on a bridge
most frequently or even permanently, such as
vehicular loads and the self-weights of bridge
components;
• The additional loads, such as braking forces,
occurs less frequently.
• The special loads, such as earthquake loads,
appear with very low frequency.
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 34 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Load combinations (cont’d)
• However, there are possibilities that some loads
can occur simultaneously during the service life of
a bridge.
– For example, the vehicular live loads and earthquake
loads can act on a bridge at the same time.
• But, for other loads, actions cannot occur
simultaneously.
– For instance, there is little chance that a train passing
through a bridge is braked when ice pressure is loading
on the piers. Thus, the braking force or the traction
force could not occur simultaneously with ice pressure
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 35 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Load combinations (cont’d)
• Chinese design code for railway bridges specifies
that the primary loads shall be combined with one
additional load that is acting either in longitudinal
or transverse direction.
• For some structural members, if the purpose of
the member is to resist some additional loads, the
additional loads shall be treated as primary loads.
• When special loads are considered in design of a
bridge, their combinations with primary and
additional loads shall meet the following
requirements:
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 36 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Load combinations (cont’d)
• The stream flow pressure shall not be combined with ice
pressure, and the two pressure shall not be combined with
braking forces and traction forces.
• Derailment loads shall be combined only with dead loads,
and not with live loads and any other special loads.
• Among the vessel or raft collision loads and vehicular
collision loads, only one is combined with primary loads.
These special loads shall not be combined with additional
loads.
• Earthquake loads shall be combined with the loads listed
in Table 2.16.
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 37 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Load combinations (cont’d)
Type of load Load
Self-weight of structures
Earth pressure
Dead load
Hydrostatic pressure and
upward buoyant forces
Static gravity loads of trains
Live load Centrifugal forces
Earth pressure due to live
loads surcharge
• For different load combinations, the allowable stresses of
bridge components and bearing capacity of foundation soil
shall be different, and in general, shall be increased by a
factor. Southwest Jiaotong University
- 38 - Chengdu, China
Lecture 3: Loads Bridge Engineering
Movie clips
• Construction of Oresund Cable-stayed Bridge
Southwest Jiaotong University
- 39 - Chengdu, China
