Behavior of Concrete Bridge Decks Reinforced with High-Performance Steel

This paper describes the behavior of concrete bridge decks reinforced with newly developed high-performance (HP) steel that is characterized by its high strength and enhanced corrosion-resistance in comparison with conventional ASTM A615-06 Grade 60 steel. The study presented herein included testing of three full-scale bridge decks with a span-depth ratio of 12.5. The first and second decks were constructed with the same reinforcement ratio using HP and Grade 60 steel, respectively. The third deck was reinforced with HP steel using 33% less reinforcement in an attempt to use its high strength. A nonlinear finite element model was used to predict the mode of failure and failure loads. Test results demonstrate that the use of HP steel at a reduced reinforcement ratio is viable as flexural reinforcement in concrete bridge decks. The paper also presents the test results of specially-designed specimens to study the effect of bending of HP steel bars on their tensile strength. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]