Time-Varying Temperatures of Early Age Massive Concrete in #0 Segment of Huangsha Harbor Bridge

To accurately predict temperature rise due to the concrete hydration heat released from the #0 segment of a continuous concrete girder bridge at an early construction stage for structural design purposes, researchers proposed an approach incorporating empirical predictive formulae with a preliminary numerical analysis. However, due to the uniqueness of the structural geometry and material in each engineering case and the limited data shared by the whole engineering community, no universal predictive empirical model for temperature rise due to hydration heat has yet been identified for practical use that can be applied to a variety of different projects. Moreover, the preliminary numerical analyses are usually based on questionable assumptions and simplifications of the physical truth, the accuracy of which also requires further validation. To this end, the present research measured the time-varying temperature samples of early age massive concrete in the #0 segment of Huangsha Harbor Bridge (a twin-deck three-span continuous concrete box girder bridge located in Jiangsu Province, China) and examined the accuracy of the predictive empirical models formulated by other researchers and the usability of a numerical modal established on a commercial finite element (FE) platform by comparing the corresponding results with the data from the present field measurements. The results suggest that the empirical formulae proposed can generally effectively describe the actual temperature distribution patterns related to the thermal issue, but they are characterized by inferior usability in some cases. In addition, the present comparison also indicates that the actual maximum temperature rise can be correctly predicted by the preliminary FE analysis in most cases.