EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON REPARING AND REINFORCEMENT BY SPRAYED RUBBER-LATEX MORTAL FOR DETERIORATED STEEL PLATE GIRDERS

Abstract

 One of corrosion forms in beam ends of steel bridges is loss of the web thickness. Re-corrosion in a few years has been detected occasionally on the cover steel plate to recover the web cross section which is a conventional repair/reinforcement method. In this research, spraying rubber-latex mortar on the both sides of the corroded web of a steel I beam is proposed and the reinforcement effect is confirmed by vertical loading tests. Furthermore, FEM analyses are conducted to evaluate increment of stiffness, yielding load and load carrying capacity of reinforced beam with the rubber mortar. Finally, a design method for the necessary thickness of rubber latex mortar is discussed.