An experimental composite bridge deck system assembled from glass/polyester pultruded components has been developed. This system utilizes square tubes running transverse to the traffic direction and flat cover plates bonded together with an epoxy transverse to the traffic direction and flat cover plates bonded together with an epoxy adhesive. A 14' x 4' section of the deck system integrally connected to the superstructure was tested to failure under a single patch loading. The deck was connected to steel girder supports spaced 4' apart using standard steel bolts. The results indicate a factor of safety of 3 on strength and a deflection to span ratio of L / 270 (without impact factor). Another section of the deck was fatigued to 3 million cycles under service loading, a load ratio of R = 0.1, and a nominal frequency of 3 Hz. Stiffness changes were monitored by periodically interrupting the run to perform a quasi-static test to service load. Results from these tests indicate no loss in modulus up to 3 million cycles. Following the fatigue testing, this section was also tested to failure; no loss in strength was observed. In both failure tests, a shearing "punch-through" failure mechanism was observed.
展开▼
