Residual shear strength of a severely ASR-damaged flat slab bridge

Abstract

Although the residual shear strength of ASR-damaged slab bridges without shear reinforcement has been discussed for several decades, the amount of published research on this topic is very limited. This paper presents the results of a test series on 18 reinforced beams sawn from a severely ASR-damaged flat slab bridge. Flexural failure as well as shear failure were observed. The test results indicate that the ASR cracks in the beams strongly influenced the propagation of load-induced cracks. Generally, the calculated moment capacity of beams tested in three-point bending was lower than the maximum moment carried by the beams. For the beams tested in asymmetric four-point bending, an increase in the shear span-to-effective depth ratio resulted in a decrease in the measured shear strength. The measured shear strengths were compared with calculated shear strengths using the Eurocode 2. Calculations based on the compressive strength of drilled cores were rather conservative at low shear span-to-effective depth ratios. However, the conservatism of the Eurocode 2 decreased with increasing shear span-to-effective depth ratios. With the inclusion of ASR-induced pre-stress effect, the calculated shear strengths correlated better with the measured shear strengths. The test results indicated that the ASR-induced pre-stress effect can, to some extent, compensate for the significant loss in material properties.