Composite bridges with cracked concrete deck spanning between transverse beams under fatigue shear loading

Abstract

For concrete deck of large steel-concrete composite road bridges cracking occurs due to tension because of negative bending moments at the support area, at the same time traffic load with high wheel loads passes the deck spanning between transverse beams. They induce cyclic shear loading in the cracked concrete deck. In composite bridges the application of prefabricated concrete elements has led to economical designs with a benefit in construction time. In this case, the prefabricated concrete elements are supported by the transverse beams when the on-site concrete is poured. For this construction, the concrete is subjected to tension forces resulting from the global load-carrying effect, which needs to be superimposed with local effects as wheel loads acting as shear fatigue loading. In this paper, the fatigue strength of cracked concrete deck under tension and shear fatigue loading is discussed.