Although orthotropic steel decks (OSDs) have been widely used in the construction of long-span bridges, there are frequently reported fatigue cracks after years of operation, and the bridge deck overlay also presents severe damage due to OSD crack-induced stiffness reduction. Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), recognized as the most innovative cementitious composites and the next generation of high-performance materials, shows high strength, ductility, toughness, and good performance on durability. After its first application to the OSD bridge in the early 2000s, the orthotropic steel–UHPC composite deck has been comprehensively studied worldwide.
1. Introduction
For bridge engineering applications, the fundamental function of the bridge deck is to directly bear, distribute, and transfer the wheel loads. The bridge deck may also react as part of the main girder to bear force acting on the bridge superstructure. Highway bridges normally adopt three types of bridge decks, namely the concrete deck, steel deck, and steel–concrete composite deck
[1]. It is well known that under the action of wheel loads, the concrete decks produce small deformation due to the high stiffness of the deck system. However, its heavy dead load and low tensile strength of concrete limit its application in bridge engineering. The steel bridge deck is usually made of an orthotropic steel deck (OSD), which has light weight, high bearing capacity, and significant overloading capacity. However, this type of deck system can produce large deformation under wheel load due to its low structural stiffness. As a result, fatigue cracking and pavement damage are frequently reported after years of operation. The steel–concrete composite deck includes several types of structures, such as the orthotropic steel–concrete composite deck, the orthotropic steel–steel fiber reinforced concrete composite deck, and the orthotropic steel ultra-high performance concrete (steel–UHPC) composite deck. The first two can only be applicable to medium and small-span bridges because of the large thickness overlay and its significantly increased dead loads. They may also be prone to cracks under concentrated wheel loading due to the low tensile strength of concrete. With the development of the UHPC, the orthotropic steel–UHPC composite deck is widely used in various types of bridge structures with different span lengths, especially in long-span bridges.
The OSD, consisting of the deck plate, respectively, stiffened by the floorbeam and the ribs in bridge transverse and longitudinal directions, presents different structural properties in two orthogonal directions. The OSD was first used in Germany as the bridge deck to build the steel bridge. After the Second World War, the growing demand for post-war traffic recovery made OSDs widely used in bridge engineering
[2]. Since the Severn Bridge in the UK adopted the OSD steel box girder for the first time, the OSD has become the most popular deck system for long-span bridges.
Figure 1 shows two structural forms consisting of open ribs or closed ribs, with the traditional pavement on the deck plate.
Figure 1. Typical structural layout of OSD.
The OSD has been widely used in long-span suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges due to its remarkable advantages, but the OSD is not a perfect structure since there are many welds in the orthotropic steel bridge deck, which have small defects. Under the cyclic loading of the vehicle, the defects lead to the emergence of fatigue cracks. With the extent of the fatigue cracks, the cross-section weakens significantly and the stress concentration is severe
[3,4,5][3][4][5]. Fatigue cracking is frequently reported on bridges, particularly for those with large traffic volumes and serious overloading trucks, the typical locations of fatigue cracking are shown in
Figure 2 [6]. The fatigue cracking may also lead to frequent maintenance and replacement of bridge deck pavement, which presents a great impact on local traffic. Therefore, avoiding fatigue cracking and pavement damage is one of the major long-term considerations in the bridge engineering community.
Figure 2. The typical locations of fatigue cracking: (a) Rib-to-deck crack; (b) Rib-to-floorbeam crack; (c) Cutout crack; (d) Rib splice crack.
With the growing increase in bridge main span and the rapid increase in traffic volume, fatigue cracking of the OSD becomes a severe challenge in bridge engineering. Hence, many scholars have conducted extensive research on this topic, including laboratory model tests, FEM analyses, and field tests. Wang
[7] conducted full-scale fatigue tests on the OSD of a cable-stayed bridge, and found that the impact of welding residual stress on the fatigue life of structural details in the compressive stress zone cannot be ignored. Zhang’s
[8] research shows that there are significant differences in the fatigue of vulnerable parts of OSDs, and the stress distribution in the vicinity of fatigue cracks constantly changes as the cracks propagate. Zweraeman
[9] believes that the small stress amplitude generated by high-order vibration of steel bridges under random traffic flow, which is lower than the fatigue cutoff limit, can also cause fatigue damage to the steel bridge. Connor
[10,11][10][11] conducted controlled loading tests and random vehicle flow tests on two different bridges, and studied the effect of out-of-plane deformation on the fatigue life of the diaphragm based on on-site test data.
The deck of a steel bridge faces the challenges of orthotropic deck cracking and easy damage to the pavement layer, which conventional techniques cannot fundamentally solve
[12]. Only by relying on breakthroughs in materials and developing corresponding new structural systems can
wresearche
rs find effective solutions to the difficult problems in traditional steel bridges and steel–concrete composite bridges. Compared with traditional orthotropic bridge decks, the steel–UPHC composite bridge structure has the following two characteristics: Firstly, it can significantly improve the stiffness of the bridge deck. Secondly, the synergistic effect of the UHPC layer and orthotropic steel plate can significantly reduce the fatigue stress amplitude in the orthotropic plate under local wheel loads. The steel–UHPC composite bridge structure is in its initial stage of practical application, and its superior performance needs to be known and accepted through a process. Therefore, summarizing existing literature and analyzing the characteristics of static, shear, and fatigue performance of composite structures under different conditions have important guiding significance for subsequent theoretical research, experimental development, and engineering applications of this structure.
Mechanical properties and fatigue problems have always been difficult and hot issues that must be faced in the development of orthotropic bridge deck structures and even the entire steel structure field.
2. The Orthotropic Steel–UHPC Composite Deck
The UHPC is an innovative cement-based composite material, which was first developed by French scholars in 1993. The material consists of cement, silica fume, fine aggregate, fiber, water reducer and other materials, as shown in
Figure 3 and is constructed according to the principle of maximum compactness
[13,14][13][14]. The goal is to minimize the internal pores and micro-cracks of the material, so as to obtain excellent mechanical properties and durability.
Figure 3.
Material used to form UHPC: (
a
) Cement; (
b
) Silica fume; (
c
) Quartz sand; (
d
) Fly ash; (
e
) Water reducer; (
f
) Fiber.
Due to the use of fiber inside the UHPC, the tensile and deformation properties of concrete have greatly improved, and the compressive and flexural strength of UHPC can reach 3 times and 10 times that of normal concrete (NC), respectively, with its creep coefficient only about 5% of the NC. It is reported that its durability performance is significantly better than the NC. The mechanical properties and durability index of UHPC are greatly enhanced compared to NC, as shown in
Table 1.
The emergence of UHPC materials has led to the development of structures towards economy and environmental protection. Firstly, the superior mechanical properties of UHPC have greatly reduced the weight of the structure while meeting the usage conditions. Secondly, UHPC can be prepared by replacing part of cement with Industrial waste fly ash and mineral powder. Thirdly, UHPC can be used for combining structures and repairing and strengthening existing structures. Zhao
[15] compared and analyzed the steel UHPC composite beam and conventional steel plate composite beam schemes based on a certain overpass bridge project. The results showed that they had significant advantages in construction and durability, and the unit price of the main materials decreased by about 4.3% compared to conventional steel–concrete composite beams.
With the use of UHPC, it is expected to develop a more economical, environmentally friendly, stronger, and more durable high-performance structure. Based on the above advantages, UHPC became more and more popular worldwide, and its preparation, production, construction, and prefabrication technology have become mature in bridge engineering.
Table 1. UHPC and NC main mechanics and durability index.
Material Type |
UHPC |
NC |
References |
Compressive strength/MPa |
120~230 |
30~60 |
[16,17,18,19,20][16][17][18][19][20] |
Flexural Strength/MPa |
15~60 |
2~5 |
[16,17,18,19,20][16][17][18][19][20] |
Elasticity modulus/GPa |
40~60 |
30~40 |
① |
④ |