A Study on the Flexural Performance of UHPC Precast Deck-Joint Interface by the Exposure of Steel Fiber

As a solution against the serviceability problem caused by the cracks occurring at the UHPC precast deck-joint interface, this study proposes a method exposing the steel fiber at the interface and evaluates the corresponding flexural performance of the lap spliced construction joint. After having slowed down the strength development of the concrete placed in the joint of the precast deck by means of a curing retardant, the concrete at the interface is crushed so as to expose the steel fibers and the change in the flexural performance is observed experimentally according to the exposure of the steel fibers. The results show that, even if the ultimate strength and stiffness of the UHPC precast deck including the joint are mostly determined by the arrangement details of the rebar lap splice, the exposure of the steel fibers can secure stable ductile behavior and reduce the width of the cracks generated at the precast deck-joint interface under service load.

Deformation Characteristics of Mono Strand Anchor Head

This paper investigates experimentally the deformation characteristics of the mono strand anchor head used in prestressed concrete bridge. Since the strains measurable in the anchor head are the axial and hoop strains, the deformation characteristics of the anchor head are examined by measuring these strains at various positions and according to the jacking force exerted on the pre-stressing strand. Moreover, the possibility to estimate the jacking force acting in the tendon based upon the measured strains and the corresponding error are evaluated.

Computation of the Strand Resistance Using the Core Wire Strain Measurement

This paper proposes a method enabling to compute the prestressing strand resistance using the strain measured on only one core wire. Numerical analysis is conducted considering the pitch length of the strand and the diameters of the core wire and helical wires as parameters. The results verify that the relation between the stresses of the core wire and helical wires can be expressed in terms of the helical angle. Based on this observation, a formula computing directly the prestress force in the strand from the strain measured in the core wire is suggested. Owing to the recently developed measurement method for the core wire strain, the proposed formula can be exploited to determine the prestress of the strand.

Freeze-Thaw Effect on Coarse Sand Coated Interface between FRP and Concrete

This paper examines the effect of freezing and thawing on the coarse sand coating chosen to achieve the composition of FRP and concrete in FRP-concrete composite deck. Push-out test specimens with dimensions of 100 × 100 × 450 mm were subjected to repeated freeze-thaw cycles under wet conditions ranging from -18℃± 2℃ to 4℃ ± 2℃. The failure strength of the interface and the deformation of FRP at failure exhibited by the specimens that experienced 300 freezing-thawing cycles showed a difference of merely 5% compared to those of the specimens that were not subjected to freeze-thaw. This indicates that coarse sand coating is not affected by freezing-thawing cycles and the FRP-concrete composite deck owns sufficient applicability in terms of durability against freezing-thawing.

Fatigue Performance of Precast FRP-Concrete Composite Deck with Long Span

The fatigue performance of precast FRP-concrete composite (PFC) deck is evaluated. This type of deck enables a reduction of the weight by 30% compared to conventional reinforced concrete decks owing to the composition of a hollow FRP panel with concrete. Therefore, the application of such deck in cable-stayed bridge will reduce effectively the weight of the superstructure leading also to substantial savings in the materials required for the superstructure and substructure and, therefore, achieve significant improvement of the economic efficiency. Static, pulsating fatigue and rolling fatigue tests were carried out on 4 m × 4 m precast FRP-concrete composite decks. All the specimens did not fail even after 2 million fatigue cycles, and the subsequent static tests conducted on these specimens verified that all the design criteria were satisfied. These experimental results demonstrated that the PFC deck developed in this research secures sufficient performances for future applications for cable-stayed bridges.