Mechanical properties of orthotropic steel deck with epoxy adhesively bonded rigid pavement

Abstract:

To study the workability of epoxy adhesive used as bonding layer in steel-concrete composite deck, a steel deck with pavement casted by unreinforced ultra-high performance concrete was chosen as research object, and an epoxy layer was introduced to connect the two materials. In the process of adhesive applying, the situation of poor pretreatment of steel surface was considered. A static test was conducted to evaluate the cohesive shear strength of the steel-concrete composite joint, and a full-scale deck specimen adopting the same adhesive bonding method was designed and tested under bending loads. The mechanical behaviors of the specimen were investigated, which include deflection of specimen, strain at different positions, and ultimate bearing capacity. The failure modes of the bonding layer were recoded, and the strain of the bonding layer before failure was analyzed by finite element method. Results show that epoxy adhesive was convenient for construction as a bonding layer between unreinforced rigid pavement and steel deck, and surface pretreatment of steel had influence on the bonding strength. The epoxy bonding ensured a reliable connection between the steel deck and the rigid pavement even with a poor pretreatment of the steel surface. Steel yielding occurred prior to the cohesive failure between the steel and the concrete. In addition, the bonding layer had a non-uniform shear stress distribution that the stress at the rib-to-deck joint was higher than other positions. The steel deck with adhesively bonded rigid pavement exhibited good ductility and high bearing capacity.