Question

In the designing of a simply supported skew bridge, which direction of reinforcement must be provided?

Answer

In conventional design of steel reinforcement for simply supported skew bridge, a set of reinforcement is regularly placed parallel to free edge though other set is designed equivalent to the fixed edge. However, this type of arrangement is not most able way of placing reinforcement.

The reason is so as to in some parts of bridge, moment of resistance is provided by an obtuse angle formed by reinforcement bars which is ineffective in resisting flexure. In fact, most efficient means of an arrangement of reinforcement under most loading conditions is to place one set of bars perpendicular to fixed edge even as placing the other set parallel to fixed end as recommended by L. A. Clark in 1970. Like this, considerable savings will be obtained from orthogonal understanding of reinforcement.