AUSCULTATION OF AN ABUTMENT OF THE PORTNE UF BRIDGE USING A CYLINDRICAL CONCRETE CELL

The Portneuf Bridge, built in 1992, is the first air-entrained high-pe rformance concrete bridge in North America. To understand its short an d long term behaviour, an auscultation program has been set. Hence, a cylindrical concrete inclusion of the University de Sherbrooke was ins talled in one of the abutments of the bridge. The aim of this study is to present the first results thus acquired. The analysis of the resul ts allowed to calculate the coefficient of thermal expansion of the co ncrete and to assess deformation variations due to shrinkage and creep and the effects of rebar-concrete interaction in the upper abutment r egion. Moreover, the presence of thermal gradients, which creates noni sotropic deformations, has been established.