Evaluating Concrete Bridge Deck Performance

Abstract

Since the service life of concrete bridge decks designed by traditional procedures is often shorter than desired, their ability to withstand constant and heavy use in a variety of operating environments is of major concern. In this project, the relative performance of three bridge decks constructed with different concretes and reinforcing steel configurations was studied to help determine which deck offers the best performance over time. To achieve this objective, an array of strain and temperature instrumentation was embedded in each of the bridge decks prior to placing the deck concrete. The decks were tested under controlled live loads to characterize their structural behavior. The first set of such tests was performed immediately after the bridge decks were completed, and the second was conducted two years later. The long term performance of the three decks under environmental loads (notably, changes in temperature) was studied by continuously monitoring selected strain gages in each bridge, and by conducting periodic visual distress surveys and corrosion tests. In the data collected and analyzed from the live load tests and environmental response monitoring of the three decks, only subtle behavioral differences have been observed. While some aspects of the response have been found to statistically differ between bridges and over time, the significance of these differences remains uncertain, as the bridges are relatively young, and they only exhibit nominal signs of distress. The significance of these differences may become clear in the future, if substantial differences in deck durability and performance emerge over time. The visual distress surveys have found that the majority of the cracking that has occurred in the decks is near the integral abutments and that the Empirical deck had the most extensive cracking in this regard. The analysis presented herein generally serves as a baseline for the relative condition of the three bridges before prolonged demands from traffic and the environment. Should a follow-on project be initiated, data obtained from continued long-term monitoring and live load testing will likely provide a more complete body of evidence from which to ascertain which deck design offers superior performance. Relative to cost, initial expense for each deck was similar, thus the relative cost-to-benefit for the decks will be dependent on the service life that they offer.