Deck Construction [PIG]

Deck Casting

Pouring Stage [Weight Only]: At this stage, the deck load and haunch load are calculated and applied on the top of non-composite girder. It is crucial to differentiate between the deck hardening stage (composite) and the non-composite state load applications.

During finite element analysis, the self-weight of shell elements is computed and distributed to the nearest girders. Consequently, it is not possible to visualize the applied loads graphically due to the self-weight of deck shell elements since this occurs during the load vector generation process of finite element analysis. Nonetheless, the haunch load is calculated in the library object and can be observed graphically in the FEA loading view.

Hardening Stage [Gains Stiffness]: During this stage, the deck(shell elements of deck) gains stiffness, and no load is applied. If no further loads are added during this stage, the results of the finite element analysis will remain unchanged because the sole modification is in the stiffness matrix.

Deck: Choose the deck to define the pouring sequence of the deck.

Start Skew: It specifies the boundary of the deck pouring area, in addition to the start station under longitudinal tab. A skew value of 0 implies that the line defined is perpendicular to the alignment. A positive value rotates the perpendicular line clockwise, while a negative value rotates the perpendicular line counterclockwise.

End Skew: It specifies the boundary of the deck pouring area, in addition to the end station under longitudinal tab. A skew value of 0 implies that the line defined is perpendicular to the alignment. A positive value rotates the perpendicular line clockwise, while a negative value rotates the perpendicular line counterclockwise.

Haunch Load[Include/ignore]: If the "include" option is selected, the haunch load is automatically computed and applied to the girder in the selected pouring stage. The calculation of the haunch load is based on the unit weight of the deck material, the selected taper parameter for the overhang region, and the haunch thickness.

Self Weight Factor: It's possible to define a self-weight factor that accounts for the cases where loading needs to be increased according to sacrificial thickness. To illustrate, if the deck thickness needs to be 8” for composite section properties and 8.5” for the calculation of the weight (0.5” sacrificial thickness), the user would input the Self-Weight Factor as 1.0625 (8.5”/8).

Longitudinal

Start Station: It defines the boundary of the deck pouring area along the PGL with a specified start station.

End Station: It defines the boundary of the deck pouring area along the PGL with a specified end station.

Transverse

Transverse Const. Type[Complete/Partial]: Typically, the deck pouring sequence does not require separating the pour in the transverse direction, and users can achieve this by selecting the "complete" option. However, in some cases, such as rehabilitation projects, it may be necessary to separate the pour in this direction. In such cases, the "partial" option can be selected.

Left Offset Start [PGL]: When looking up station along the alignment, the left transverse offset value from PGL is utilized to define the region at the start station.

Right Offset Start [PGL]: When looking up station along the alignment, the right transverse offset value from PGL is utilized to define the region at the start station.

Left Offset End [PGL]: When looking up station along the alignment, the left transverse offset value from PGL is utilized to define the region at the end station.

Right Offset End [PGL]: When looking up station along the alignment, the right transverse offset value from PGL is utilized to define the region at the end station.