Operating regime investigational study of steel-reinforced concrete superstructure flexible pin stops of the existing road bridge

In the article, the author published the full-scale experiment results on an existing steel-reinforced concrete road bridge, carried out to determine the actual parameters of the operation regime of the interconnection elements — flexible pin stops. This work was carried out as part of the author's dissertation research in the field of improving methods for testing the elements' endurance of the steel-reinforced concrete superstructures interconnection and is a development of the previously conducted comprehensive comparative analysis of existing models for testing endurance. The article gives a detailed description of the conditions for conducting and methods of a two-stage experiment, which includes short-term and long-term parts, as well as a detailed description used for processing experimental data for each of the stages. Based on the results of the experiment's short-term part, when compared with the results of finite element modeling of the operation of the stops, the possibility of using existing computational models to describe the actual model operation was confirmed. Also, within the framework of the short-term part, according to the conducted dynamic tests results with the moving load passage through the threshold, the presence of a significant dynamic component of the resulting forces in the interconnection stops was revealed. During the second long-term part of the experiment, a continuous recording of stresses in the interconnection elements from the passage of an unregulated traffic flow over the bridge was made. The article presents both direct survey data (tensograms) and the results of their further processing in terms of damage accumulation analysis; also, the accumulated damages values from actual traffic loads are compared with the expected values in the calculation according to some design standards. Intermediate conclusions based on the experiment results are formed and directions for future work within the scope of this study are indicated.