Scaled model test for collision between over-height truck and bridge superstructure

The frequent occurrence of accidental collisions between over-height trucks and bridge superstructures in recent years has seriously affected the safety of bridge infrastructure and traffic systems in metropolitan areas. Such collisions highlight the importance of scientific research in this field and therefore the performance of three typical bridge superstructures subjected to collision by an over-height truck is studied in this paper through scaled model tests. A steel box girder, a steel plate girder and a reinforced concrete (RC) T-beam girder are adopted to represent different types of bridge girders while a cylindrical tank with counterweight is adopted to represent a typical over-height truck. Finite element simulation is also conducted and the results are compared with the experimental findings. The results obtained by test and simulation are consistent and both of them indicate that under collision conditions local failure is found to be the main failure mode for the steel plate and RC T-beam girders, whilst global failure is found to be the main failure mode for the steel box girder bridge model.