Numerical modelling for temperature distribution in steel bridges

Steel bridges may undergo significant temperature changes under the combined influence of solar radiation, daily air temperature variation and wind speed. In some circumstances, these temperature changes can induce thermal stresses that are comparable to the stresses induced by dead and live loads. As steel has a high conductivity, the bridges usually respond to the change of environmental conditions more readily. Therefore, an investigation of the thermal behaviour of steel bridges is important. This paper describes a numerical model developed for the analysis of temperature distribution in steel bridges and the computed results are compared with those obtained from scaled models. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out to study the effects of various parameters on the temperature distribution. In addition, a least square method is also suggested for backfiguring best values for the input parameters, if they are not available.