Precast/Prestressed Girder Help

Geometry Tab

This is the second tab in the series

Note: This tab appears differently depending on the span type and design code selected on the Project tab.

In the Geometry tab follow these steps:

  1. Input the bridge layout information to include overall width, beginning and ending skew angle, left/right curb widths, supplemental thickness, deck thickness, and haunch dimensions.Precast/Prestressed Girder automatically fills in the Haunch Width field with the minimum top flange width of all beams used in the project if the Auto Compute Haunch Width option is checked. Check the option Ignore Haunch for Composite Section Properties if you would like to ignore the contribution of the haunch to section properties computation, but only consider the self-weight due to additional haunch concrete. A 2-D cross section view of the bridge is created once sufficient information has been provided. You can right mouse click on this graphic to change the view to either plan or elevation view. You can also zoom in, zoom out, pan or switch to the full screen viewer.

    With this information, Precast/Prestressed Girder will automatically calculate the number of lanes using the default lane width; however, you can manually modify this value.

    Geometry Tab (Simple Span)

  2. Input the span data. Notice that this section appears differently depending on the span type selected. For simple spans input the span’s precast length, bearing to bearing length, and release span before specifying the beam type/location and skew angle.

    On the other hand, if you selected the bridge type as multi-span the screen will resemble Figure 2. Data entry is similar as the simple span, starting with the bridge layout, span data, and beam type/location. To input the span data, you will need to click Add/Edit Multi-Span. This activates the Multi-span screen, as shown in Figure 3.

    Geometry Tab (Multi-Span)

    Add Edit Multi-Span

  3. Input all data related to the beam types and their cross-sectional placement under Beam Type/Location. Within a given span, you cannot have different beam types, but you are allowed to specify a different beam type for each span, provided there is no conflict with the topping data.

    To input the beam type and location, select a span from the Span list and a beam from the Beam Type list. Next, select a beam ID from the Beam ID list and input a value in the Dist. From Last Beam field. To add another beam, simply click in the Beam ID column in the next row in the table and pick the specific Beam ID you wish to add. You can also use the Add Row and Copy Row buttons to add more beams to the cross section. Notice Generate and Copy To All at the bottom of the screen. These two buttons are valuable timesaving features. Generate allows the program to automatically generate equally spaced beams for you. Click Generate to display the Generate Beams, as shown in Figure 4.

    Generate Beams