Strengthening Design by External Pre-tensioning and Post-tensioning Methods for Steel-concrete Composite Girders using Rating Factor

A method to determine the initial force of external tendon is proposed to improve the load carrying capacity in existing steel-concrete composite bridges. This method is applied to tensioning external tendons prior to and after concrete replacement for strengthening composite girders. A procedure to determine the number of tendon and initial tendon force is described with the proposed rating factor, which considers the increment of tendon force due to live loads. The method is applied to the improvement of rating factor in an existing composite bridge and its validity is confirmed.