Maître de Conférences en Génie Civil, Département du Génie Civil, Ecole Nationale Supérieure Polytechnique de Yaoundé 1, Université de Yaoundé I, Cameroon
The present work proposes an economic-structural study of a bridge girder with two variants: the metallic Vierendeel girder and the Warren type steel truss girder formed of top and bottom chords and diagonals in order to propose the girder that fulfills the conditions of Ultimate Limit State (ULS), Serviceability Limit State (SLS) and economically profitable for the bridge over the Kahira River in Sake, Goma in the Capital of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In order to analyze structural elements, the French method of loads on bridges was used, the Naylor method derived from the Cross moment distribution method was used for the analysis of the Vierendeel girder, the method of joints and method of sections for the Warren truss girder; the French code «Béton Armé aux Etats Limites 91 modified 99» was used for the design of the reinforced concrete parts; the Eurocode 3 and the «Construction Métallique 66 (CM66) » were used to determine the cross-sectional area of different elements of the steel girder. An economic study was carried out passing the bill of quantities and cost estimate for each type of beam giving a total of $2485.1 for the Vierendeel beam, a total of $5866.95 for the Warren truss beam, the total cost of the Vierendeel beam representing 42.36% of the total cost of the Warren truss beam. The Vierendeel girder meeting the structural and economic conditions is proposed for the bridge over the Kahira River in Sake.