Full-scale experimental study on continuous UHPC slabs of steel-UHPC composite deck system

Abstract

The heavy self-weight and the cracking of normal strength concrete (NSC) deck slabs hindered the application of steel-concrete composite girders in long-span bridges. These problems can be solved by using ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) deck slabs instead of the NSC deck slabs. Based on Yellow River Bridge of Zhanhua-Linzi Highway, a steel-UHPC composite cable-stayed bridge with span length of 442 m, full-scale tests on seven continuous UHPC (NSC) deck slabs were conducted. The studied parameters were sagging-to-hogging reinforcement ratio, concrete type, yield strength of steel bars and wet joints. The static properties of continuous UHPC (NSC) deck slabs were investigated in detail, including failure modes, load-deflection response, cracking behavior, strain development and moment redistribution. Discussions were made on the effect of different parameters according to the experimental data. Results showed that the use of UHPC can avoid shear failure, which was the case for the continuous NSC slab. Reducing the sagging-to-hogging reinforcement ratio from 1.00 to 0.63, the failure mode changed due to the altered formation order of plastic hinges. The ultimate capacity was decreased while the ductility and moment redistribution were improved by decreasing the yield strength of steel bars. The existence of wet joints significantly weakened the deck slabs. Strengthening the wet joints with steel plates can effectively compensate for this effect and even achieve better mechanical properties compared with integrally cast slabs. Furthermore, placing a comb-shaped wet joint at the intermediate support of continuous slab will result in a certain decrease of ultimate capacity and stiffness, which is acceptable for the transverse direction with relatively small internal forces. It is suggested that wet joints should be avoided at the supports of continuous deck slabs along the longitudinal direction.