Development of a high-performance concrete deck for Louisiana’s movable bridges: numerical study

Abstract

Louisiana has approximately 160 movable bridges, mostly in the southern part of the state. This places Louisiana among the states with the highest inventory of movable bridges in the nation. The typical deck systems in these movable bridges are steel grids. Records show that steel grids have had maintenance issues. An alternative ultra-high/high performance concrete (UHPC/HPC) bridge deck system is proposed for Louisiana’s movable bridges. This system consists of precast waffle slab deck panels, which are reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars as positive moment reinforcement, and a two-way carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) mesh as top reinforcement. Several validated nonlinear finite element analyses were performed to simulate the behavior of the precast panels from the onset of loading to failure. It is concluded that the precast concrete waffle slabs provide a viable alternative to steel grids by supplying load capacities that surpass service level and ultimate level load demands and deflection capacities that are within code specified limits.