Experimental study on the interface shear performance of elastic polyurethane concrete–steel plate

Abstract

The delamination and sliding failure of steel bridge deck pavements occur frequently due to insufficient shear resistance between their interface. Adopting an elastic polyurethane concrete (EPUC) bridge deck pavements can solve this problem. In this study, an interface shear experiment was conducted to investigate the interface shear performance of the EPUC–steel plate, in which 108 EPUC–steel plate composite specimens were divided into 36 groups. The emphasis of the research was to establish the interface failure mode, the shear stress–shear deformation curves characteristics and the constitutive model. Then, the impacts of temperature, loading rate and hygrothermal aging factors on the interface shear strength were determined. Test results showed that the interface failure mode was in the form of adhesion failure at the low-temperature section (−20 °C, −10 °C, 0 °C and 10 °C), mixed failure at 25 °C and 45 °C, and cohesive failure at 70 °C. The interface failure mode was changed from mixed failure to cohesive failure after hygrothermal aging. The shear stress–shear deformation curves at the low-temperature section, 25 °C and after hygrothermal aging exerted a two-stage development law, which could be described by an exponential function. Meanwhile, the curves at the high-temperature section (45 °C, 70 °C) exerted a three-stage development law, which can be described by the Popovics model. The interface shear strength decreased with the increase in temperature, whereas the interface shear strength remained at a high level at the high temperature. At the low-temperature section, the interface shear strength increased with the rise in shear rate, depicting a linear relationship. In the normal and high-temperature sections, the interface shear strength firstly increased and then decreased with the rise in the shear rate, depicting a quadratic parabolic relationship. The interface shear strength decreased with the increase in aging. Within the same age, the higher the temperature, the greater decrease in interface shear strength.The research results can provide experimental and theoretical support for the popularization and application of EPUC bridge deck paving materials.