Load carrying capacity test and evaluation for airport taxiway bridge sustaining airbus-380

To evaluate the feasibility of operating Airbus-380 airplane in CKS Airport of Taiwan, load carrying capacities of three airport taxiway bridges had been evaluated. Two B-747 airplanes of different total load were used for the loading test of each bridge. The deformation of bridge at various loading case was measured by some methods. The curvature of a cross section of a pre-stressed RC girder is measured by optical fiber deformation sensors arranged at the cross section of interest with a distance along the girder depth. The current bending rigidity of the girder can be calculated as the ration of the carrying moment and measured curvature. The deflection curve of the girder can be estimated by the integration of the curvature distribution curve and satisfying associated boundary conditions. Ambient vibration measurement was also conducted to characterize the natural frequencies and associated mode shapes of the bridge. All the data obtained from the loading test were used to calibrate the 3D finite element model constructed by SAP-2000 code. This calibrated structure model represents the current state of the evaluated bridge and will be used to investigate its capacity of carrying the heavy load from Airbus-380. States of maximum stress of the bridge components as A380 crossing it were calculated from the FE code and compared by safety criteria to evaluate the feasibility of operating this jumbo aircraft in CKS Airport without any strengthening work.