B3.

GRILLAGE MODELLING
Definition and Assumptions
General Guidelines for Grillage Meshing

Sources of Inaccuracy

Examples of Grillage Models

24
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

DEFINITIONS

Grillage Modelling consists of modelling the continuum as a mesh of grillage beams

x z x z
y y GRILLAGE
MODEL

BRIDGE
DECK

The longitudinal grillage beams

must resemble the longitudinal West (1972) tested many bridges
bridge behaviour and the transverse finding good agreement between
25
grillage beams must resemble the measurements and predictions by
transverse bridge behaviour grillage models
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling
ASSUMPTIONS
THIN PLATE THEORY BEAM THEORY
GRILLAGE
MODEL

BRIDGE
SLAB

longitudinal
BENDING
MOMENTS
transverse

longitudinal
TWISTING
MOMENTS
26 transverse
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

GUIDELINES FOR GRILLAGE MESHING

1. Grillage members should be provided along lines of strength in the slab
deck should they exist.
Isometric view of Solid Slab Deck
Isometric view of Beam and Slab Deck

Bearings

Isometric view of Solid Slab with Edge beams Deck

27
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

GUIDELINES FOR GRILLAGE MESHING

2. The total number of longitudinal beams and thus the longitudinal spacing
is often dictated by the location of the supports or lines of strength similar
to what is said in point 1 Isometric
There is little point in having longitudinal
Longitudinal
view direction
members too closely spaced and it is said that a
spacing of 1-3 times the slab depth is a sensible
spacing generally. Greater spacing’s, however,
(those of up to ¼ the effective span), can be
used for such members in isotropic slabs. d

Plan view
of grillage SL
model
SL
Bearings
SL
Transverse
beams SL

28 Avoid skew Longitudinal beams Transverse

Longitudinal beams
grillage members beams
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

GUIDELINES FOR GRILLAGE MESHING

3. Transverse member spacing should be small enough so that the load
distributed along the longitudinal members can be accurately represented
by a number of point loads.
As with the longitudinal members also, transverse members should be provided
along lines of strength in that direction, such as over an internal support or
diaphragm.
Tranverse beams

St

St
Longitudinal St
beams
St

SL
29 Plan view of two grillage arrangements
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

GUIDELINES FOR GRILLAGE MESHING

4. Transverse and longitudinal member spacing’s should be reasonably
similar where possible to allow the sensible static distribution of loads.
Transverse spacing of 1-3 times the longitudinal spacing can also be a reasonable
spacing for long spans.

5. Transverse members should be placed at right angles to longitudinal

members generally unless the lines of strength are in the direction of the
bridge skew e.g. if the reinforcement is placed in the direction of skew.
Plan view of
skew bridge with
skew reinforc. Grillage
skew reinforcement model

For bridges with a skew of up to 20˚ are generally modelled with

members orthogonal to each other (if orthogonal reinforcement).
> 20˚ ≤ 20˚

30
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

GUIDELINES FOR GRILLAGE MESHING

6. For the slab/grillage equivalence to be as precise as possible, the
longitudinal beams should be placed at a distance of 0.3d from the edge
of the slab, where d is the deck depth.
It should also be noted that the breadth of the slab outside this 0.3d should
be ignored when calculating the torsional constant of the longitudinal
beams

0.3d

The location at 0.3d applies to edge

longitudinal beams. Edge transverse
31
beams are typically located over the
supports/bearings.
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

GUIDELINES FOR GRILLAGE MESHING

7. Supports in the grillage model are to closely resemble those of the slab
deck. The grillage program models the supports as restraints at various nodes.

Plan view

In some scenarios, influence of soil

compressibility or bearing
deformation needs to be modelled
with springs for accurate prediction
32
of local shear
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

GUIDELINES FOR GRILLAGE MESHING

8. Decks with isolated point supports are sometimes best studied with two
independent grillages, one coarse mesh and one dense mesh.
The coarse mesh examines the moments between the spans while the denser
mesh represents a localised region around the internal supports.

33 A coarse mesh will prevent you from identifying maximums

in regions with large variations of load effects
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

SOURCES OF INACCURACY
1. Jagged Diagrams of Internal Forces Beam  Edge Beam
Edge Beam

34 Refinement of grillage model

will reduce discontinuities
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

SOURCES OF INACCURACY
2. To ignore the influence of the curvature in the perpendicular direction
when calculating bending moment
Grillage
Bridge Model
Slab

M x =E x I x k x M y =E y I y k y
 Exi 
Mx = a   k + vyk y
 1 - vx vy x  

 
 Eyi 
My = b  k + vxk x
 1 - vx vy y  

 
The influence of this simplification on
final results is limited given that:
35
(1) Poisson’s ratio  is small, and
(2) K is neglected in both directions
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

SOURCES OF INACCURACY
3. Differences in twisting curvatures in two perpendicular directions
Bridge Grillage
Slab Model


M xy = a Gk xy j  
M yx = b Gk yx j  Tx  Gx J x x Ty  G y J y y

In a coarse mesh,
Kxy  Kyx

In a fine mesh Kxy

36 approaches Kyx
 Introduction to Grillage Modelling

SOURCES OF INACCURACY
4. To neglect the influence of twisting moment when calculating shear
Bridge Grillage
Slab Model

 mx myx  dM x
 Q  b  my  mxy 
Qx  a   dM y
  Qx  Qy 
 x y  y
 y x  dx dy

Be careful with
estimations of shear
37
using grillage modelling
for high skew bridges