Fiber Orientation in Ultra-High-Performance Concrete Shear Keys of Adjacent-Box-Beam Bridges

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth K. Walsh ◽  
Nathan J. Hicks ◽  
Eric P. Steinberg ◽  
Husam H. Hussein ◽  
Ali A. Semendary
Fibers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manish Roy ◽  
Corey Hollmann ◽  
Kay Wille

This paper studied the influence of fiber volume fraction ( V f ), fiber orientation, and type of reinforcement bar (rebar) on the uniaxial tensile behavior of rebar-reinforced strain-hardening ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC). It was observed that the tensile strength increased with the increase in V f . When V f was kept constant at 1%, rebar-reinforced UHPC with fibers aligned with the load direction registered the highest strength and that with fibers oriented perpendicular to the load direction recorded the lowest strength. The strength of the composite with random fibers laid in between. Moreover, the strength, as well as the ductility, increased when the normal strength grade 60 rebars embedded in UHPC were replaced with high strength grade 100 rebars with all other conditions remaining unchanged. In addition, this paper discusses the potential of sudden failure of rebar-reinforced strain hardening UHPC and it is suggested that the composite attains a minimum strain of 1% at the peak stress to enable the members to have sufficient ductility.


Author(s):  
Elsy Y. Flores ◽  
Jordan Varbel ◽  
William K. Toledo ◽  
Craig M. Newtson ◽  
Brad D. Weldon

This research investigated the use of locally produced, non-proprietary ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) as a grouting material to repair deteriorated shear keys. Shear keys are used in adjacent girder superstructures to produce monolithic behavior and load transfer across the structure. Shear key degradation can jeopardize the integrity of the structure. Transportation agencies have reported that 75% of distress in adjacent girder bridges is because of cracking and de-bonding along shear keys. Previous research has shown that locally produced UHPC has excellent mechanical and durability properties. UHPC has also been shown to have good bonding characteristics that are desirable in a potential grouting material. Bond strength between UHPC grout and substrate concrete was evaluated using slant-shear and direct tension tests. Results showed that adequate bond was achieved at 7 days. Low strengths at 28 days were observed because of low strength of the substrate concrete. Shrinkage of UHPC grout was also investigated. Shrinkage at 28 days was less than 600 µstrain which is acceptable for repair practices. Full-scale testing was used to evaluate load-deflection behavior of channel girder assemblages with grouted shear keys. Results showed that UHPC grout and non-shrink grout had similar mechanical performance. Excellent bond was achieved with all grouts, even with minimal surface preparation. The similar performances of the non-shrink grout and the UHPC grout indicates that UHPC grout does not provide a mechanical benefit over the non-shrink grout.


2021 ◽  
Vol 143 ◽  
pp. 106384
Author(s):  
Arun R. Arunothayan ◽  
Behzad Nematollahi ◽  
Ravi Ranade ◽  
Shin Hau Bong ◽  
Jay G. Sanjayan ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 271 ◽  
pp. 07006
Author(s):  
Elsy Y. Flores ◽  
Jordan Varbel ◽  
Craig M. Newtson ◽  
Brad D. Weldon

Many existing bridges have adjacent girders that utilize grouted shear keys to transfer loads laterally across the superstructure. Cracking and leaking often cause degradation of the shear key and the girder. This work investigates the potential for using non-proprietary ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) as a grouting material for repair of deteriorated shear keys by testing bond strength between UHPC and substrate concrete surfaces that were either formed or scarified by chipping. Bond strengths were adequate for both surface textures even though texture depth was substantially less than recommended by ACI 546. Scanning electron microscopy has also been used to investigate the bonded area. This microscopic scanning has shown fly ash residue remaining on the substrate after bond failure, indicating that the supplementary cementitious materials produce much of the bond. Ongoing work for this project also includes full-scale testing of UHPC shear keys between pre-stressed channel girders.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136943322110561
Author(s):  
Zhengyu Liu ◽  
Ali A Semendary ◽  
Brent M Phares

Adjacent precast prestressed concrete box beam bridges have been widely utilized for decades and have shown satisfactory performance. However, significant issues regarding to the longitudinal shear key cracking have been noted by bridge maintenance personnel. The cracks are typically initiated at beam-shear key interfaces due to shrinkage and temperature and propagate due to applied load. Recently, ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) was employed in the shear keys with the anticipation to prevent joint cracking. Although the field-collected data at early age from bridge utilizing UHPC shear keys indicated promising performance, the results only reflected the early age joint behavior at locations which were instrumented during the field test. In the current study, a 3D finite element (FE) model was developed to calculate the early age stresses due to shrinkage and temperature. The results indicated that the UHPC material associated with a specific shear key configuration created a “self-locked” phenomenon that generated compression on the upper level shear key. The early age tensile stress during the first couple of days near the end of the joint was relatively small compared to the tensile strength of UHPC material. Although the interface had sufficient capacity to resist the early age stresses, it is still a critical component and needs to be designed with sufficient capacity.


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