Topology optimization of horizontally curved box girder diaphragms

•Topology optimization produces highly efficient diaphragms for less material.•The distortional warping response is largely affected by girder central angle, aspect ratio and diaphragm spacing.•Box girder aspect ratio has the largest effect on optimized diaphragms.•The refined optimized diaphragms give reasonable results regardless of the number of internal diaphragms. Curved girders are widely used in bridge construction to overcome geographical obstacles. In such cases, girders with a box cross-section are preferred due to their large flexural and torsional rigidity. Internal diaphragms are used to limit cross-section distortion and the distortional warping stress induced in the box girders. However, the use of such diaphragms hinders girder maintenance. To facilitate the maintenance process, typical cross frames such as X- or V-shape truss members are used. Alternatively, access holes are provided in the solid plate diaphragms. In this paper, finite element models for horizontally curved box girders were constructed and topology optimization method was used to obtain the optimal shapes for the internal and external diaphragms. In this analysis the optimization objective was set to reduce the diaphragm mass while maximizing its rigidity. The mass retained percentage was assigned to various values from 20% to 40%. The deformations and distortional stresses induced in the girders were compared between girders having solid plate diaphragms and girders with optimized cross-frame diaphragms. The parametric study included the cross-section aspect ratio and curved girder central angle as they have large effect on distortional warping stresses. The results showed that the increase in distortional warping normal stress was less than 4% and the increase in the cross-section distortion angle was less than 37% between optimized diaphragms and solid plate diaphragms. The optimized diaphragms were then simplified into more practical configurations that differed depending on the girder aspect ratio. The simplified diaphragms were then tested against the optimized diaphragms for girders with different numbers of internal diaphragms to check its practicality.