Thermal movements of bridges is becoming an important design and construction consideration because some bridge expansion joints have been locked into place thus causing unknown internal stresses in the structure. This project will investigate the overall thermal movement of a bridge structure taking into account such factors as; placement, stiffness, restraint, and frictional resistance of the bearing and expansion joint systems, in addition to the continuity and geometry of the bridge system. The results will be very useful to the bridge engineering community.
