Experimental and Numerical Assessment of Historical Steel-Concrete Composite Bridge Decks Without Mechanical Connectors

Abstract

In old Dutch inner cities like Amsterdam a large number of steel-concrete bridge decks built between 1880 and 1960 remain in service nowadays and currently need assessment of their bearing capacity. A significant number of these decks were designed without any mechanical connectors like shear studs in the interface between concrete and steel. Moreover, the concrete decks were designed with only shrinkage reinforcement in both directions on the top layer of concrete. No additional transverse reinforcement was placed that can ensure proper (re)distribution of loads after cracking. In order to study the bearing capacity of this deck typology, two specimens of an existing bridge were taken to the Stevin Lab of TU Delft and tested until failure. In this work, the experimental results of both tests are presented. Then, finite element models including nonlinear behaviour of the materials and the interface are presented and compared with the experimental observations. Experimental results show that the bearing capacity is achieved after yielding of the steel beams. Nevertheless, the ductility and transverse load distribution of the elements is affected by the interface behaviour and the poor detailing. The finite element simulation strategy used shows good agreement with the experiment and can be used for future assessments.