Steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete for lightweight and durable pedestrian bridges : creep behaviour

Abstract

In recent years, pedestrian bridges built from composites materials have notably increased. This growth is related to the durability problems of traditional materials, as well as the need for fastest construction times. In this context, fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) becomes an important material in this type of structures, since the ductility, high post-cracking tensile strength, high compressive stiffness and strength of FRC can be combined with the benefits derived from the use of FRP profiles to obtain high performance structural systems. In addition, FRC exhibits a durable behaviour since, in general, does not have corrosion problems. In this paper a 12 m length single span pedestrian bridge composed by a Steel Fiber Reinforced Self-Compacting Concrete (SFRSCC) deck and two Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) pultruded I shape profiles was designed. The SFRSCC deck has a constant thickness of 40 mm and 2000 mm wide and a content of hooked ends steel fibers in its mixture, which ensures the necessary strength and ductility for the acting loads. The high post-cracking tensile strength of the SFRSCC allowed the use of pre-stressed solutions in the bridge structural system, which caused an upward deflection and, consequently, tensile stresses in the SFRSCC deck. Two prototypes of this structural system were built and monitored in order to assess their long-term deformational behavior when subjected to a loading configuration correspondent to the load combination for the deflection serviceability limit states. The main results are presented and discussed.