Study on the influence of guardrails on the mechanical properties of pre-stressed hollow plate beam bridges structure

In order to improve the design level of pre-stressed hollow slab bridge beams, the airport 1# bridge was taken as the research object to study on the influence of guardrails on the mechanical properties of pre-stressed hollow plate beam bridges. On the basis of conducting overall structural verification, a solid model was established to analyze the influence of bridge deck guardrails on the mechanical behavior of cast-in-place joints in hollow slab bridges. Research shows that the maximum deflection and the maximum bending moment internal force decreases by 40 % and 14.5 %, respectively when taking into account the stiffness of the guardrail. However, the maximum shear force of the hollow slab edge joint and middle joint increases by 75 % and 14.5 %, respectively. The maximum shear force increases by 35.62 % when the height of the guardrail increases from 0.5 m to 2 m. The results indicate that the influence of bridge deck guardrails on the shear performance of slab hinge joints should be considered during the preliminary design stage of such bridges. The research results can provide reference for such structures.