Experimental and numerical research on the performance of cast‐in‐situ concrete wet joints in closure section in precast concrete segmental bridges under cyclic loading

Abstract

AbstractThe closure section of precast concrete segmental bridges (PCSBs) usually adopts the wet joint of cast‐in‐situ concrete, the width is generally 10–20 cm, and the regular longitudinal reinforcement is discontinuous, which makes the section the vulnerable part of the bridge. To explore the mechanical property of the wet joint in the closure section of PCSB under cyclic load, six wet joint specimens are tested to investigate the influence of loading mode, interface treatment mode, setting of regular reinforcement, and prestress level. The results show that the failure modes of wet joint specimens have similar characteristics, careful roughening of joint surfaces can improve the bonding effect of the new and old concrete and delay the cracking of the specimen, the cracking load of the specimen increases by 10.3% after careful roughening. When the prestress level increases from 6 to 8 MPa and 10 MPa, the stiffness of the specimens increases obviously, and the fracture development of the specimen in the loading process is improved. The cracking load increases by 21.9% and 32.8%, the shear strength increases by 9.9% and 6.6%, respectively, but the ultimate displacement decreases by 5.6% and 11.4%, respectively. Then, the finite element model of the wet joint was established and verified, the influence of shear key, concrete strength, and wet joint width are selected for parameter analysis. It is found that stress concentration is easy to occur after shear key is set, which has adverse effects on structural flexural resistance. The shear capacity of the model decreases by 22.4% and 21.5%, respectively after the setting of single and double‐shear keys, but the stiffness of the wet joint model before cracking is improved. Compared with C50 concrete model, the ultimate bearing capacity of C60 and C70 concrete models is increased by 11.5% and 24.8%, respectively. Wet joint width has little influence on the mechanical properties of wet joints in the closure section. The research results provide references for design and construction of PCSB wet joints in practical engineering.