DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSVERSE JOINTS FOR FULL-DEPTH PRECAST DECK PANELS INCORPORATING RIBBED-SURFACE GFRP BARS, HPC AND UHPFRC

摘要

Corrosion of reinforcing steel in bridge decks decreases life expectancy of bridge superstructures, leading to costly and frequent maintenance or replacement. The use of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars as internal reinforcement is a viable option for the replacement of deteriorated concrete bridge deck slabs due to steel bar corrosion. The proposed research investigates the use of ribbed-surface GFRP bars in cast-in-place bridge deck slabs as well as precast bridge deck slab of prefabricated full-depth deck panels to accelerate bridge construction. In this research, three joints between precast panels were developed using straight GFRP bars embedded in a closure strip filled with ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC). High-performance concrete of 70-MPa compressive strength was used to cast the prefabricated panels. Two control cast-in-place slabs reinforced with steel bars and GFRP bars, respectively, were cast to form the baseline of the structural performance of the developed jointed panels. Concentric and eccentric wheel loading were applied at the joint to expose it to pure bending and combined bending and shear, respectively. The results show that precast slab with zigzag-shaped closure strip performed similarly to the steel-reinforced and GFRP-reinforced cast-in-place slabs with respect to ultimate flexural strength. The jointed slab with eccentric loading showed a slight increase in ultimate wheel load resistance compared to identical precast slab with concentric loading case. In addition, the failure mode was flexural in case of precast slabs with concentric loading over the joint, compared to combined flexural and shear failure mode in case of precast slabs with eccentric loading at the joint.