In recent years minimum cost of the bridge as a whole, rather than minimum weight of the steel, is considered more significant in Japan. Saving the labor cost in the construction site, cutting construction times and making the quality of the bridge better, lead to minimum cost of the bridge. Considering these conditions, precast prestressed concrete deck slabs are desirable for this type of plate girder bridge with fewer girders. One of the problems of these slabs is how to join precast deck panels with each other. In these circumstances a new type deck, in which precast concrete panels are joined by compressing the ribs arranged in both ends of the panels by means of prestressing-steel bars, was conceived. The authors have confirmed the sufficient ultimate strength of this type of slab by static loading test using 3/4-scaled specimens. In addition fatigue tests were carried out under running load using wheel trucking machine to confirm durability of the slabs. This paper describes the results of both the static and fatigue tests. The results of FEM analyses, which were carried out to realize better the behavior of the test specimens, are also presented.
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