Steel–concrete composite bridge deck slab with profiled sheeting

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of a steel–concrete composite bridge deck slab with profiled sheeting and perfobond shear connectors. Two full-scale deck slab specimens cast onto three concrete blocks were fabricated and tested under static loading to examine the ultimate load-carrying capacity of the proposed deck slab system under sagging and hogging bending actions. The ultimate behaviour of the full-scale deck slab specimens is also compared with that of simply supported deck specimens under hogging bending only. In addition, the load–deflection behaviour of the proposed deck system is compared with that of a reinforced concrete (RC) deck slab. The test results indicate that the ultimate load-carrying capacity of the proposed deck system is at least 220% greater than that of the RC deck system and that the deck weighs about 23% less than the RC deck system. The paper summarizes the test results, findings, and recommendations for future study.