LAUSR

Abstract In France, the vertical deflection measurements of Chevire free end cantilever bridge have shown unexpected excessive creep deformations. To understand this phenomenon, a large experimental database coming from different laboratories and research centers is used to compare the creep experimental deformation results to the long-term deformation predicted by the design codes of practice. These codes include BPEL code that was used in designing Chevire bridge and Eurocode 2 that is applied nowadays in structures designs. Then, a coupling between the reliability software PHIMECA and the finite element tool ST1 was performed to analyze the sensitivity measures of creep parameters of Chevire bridge. The results showed that creep deformation is relatively underestimated in the codes considered. Moreover, the sensitivity study applied to Chevire bridge showed that the parameters used in creep calculation are equally distributed in Eurocode 2 contrary to BPEL code. Thus, in this reliability assessment performed, Eurocode 2 gave better results regarding Chevire bridge concrete creep strains predictions.