Enhancing the Resilience of Prestressed Girder Bridges against Over-Height Vehicle Collisions

Accidental collisions between over-height vehicles and bridge superstructures pose significant risks, often resulting in damaged girders and, in severe cases, structural failure. Beyond lives lost and the costs of replacement, the failure of a single bridge can disrupt the mobility of people and goods for extended periods, highlighting the need for improved resilience in bridge design. This study employs high-fidelity finite element simulations using LS-DYNA to assess the dynamic response of prestressed girder bridges subjected to various impact scenarios. The validated model provides a comprehensive understanding of bridge behavior under high-speed impacts, capturing critical damage patterns such as longitudinal cracking, shear push-out, and strand severing. The increase in impact speed significantly amplifies the severity of damage. At lower speeds, the damage is more distributed and characterized by deflection and cracking, whereas at higher speeds, the damage becomes more localized and intense, with greater structural failures concentrated near the impact zone.