ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Apart from durability, the most important factor in the whole life design of prestressed concrete bridges is the Service Limit State. Various factors affecting increase of deflections (creep, shrinkage, shear effects and arrangement of layout of prestressing tendons) are assessed. It is recommended that bridge design should be performed on two different levels, including two equivalent parts – not only common stress analysis, but also optimisation of prestressing tendon layout should be compulsorily performed to reach acceptable deflection variations.
