The paper deals with a concept of a practical computation method to simulate the temperature distribution in an extradosed bridge deck. The main goal of the study is to develop a feasible model of hardening of concrete consistent with in-situ measurement capabilities. The presented investigations include laboratory tests of high performance concrete, measurements of temperature evolution in the bridge deck and above all, numerical simulations of temperature field in a concrete box bridge girder. A thermal conductivity equation in the author's program, using finite difference method has been solved. New approach for identification of the model parameters and boundary conditions (heat transfer coefficients) has been proposed. The numerical results are verified by means of a wide set of experimental tests carried out on three stages of the extradosed bridge studies. A high agreement between the concrete temperature distribution in the time and space domain was obtained. The temperature history of concrete hardening, supplemented with maturity method equations, made it possible to estimate an early-age compressive strength of the cast-in-place concrete. The proposed solution could be applied in a Structural Health Monitoring system for concrete objects.
Keywords: SHM system; boundary conditions; cast-in-place concrete; extradosed bridge; numerical simulations; on-line monitoring; strength; temperature.