Abstract
Lightweight orthotropic steel decks are widely used in the bridges of an urban expressway in Japan. However, it is observed in the existing bridges that fatigue cracks occur in the orthotropic steel deck. As a countermeasure of this problem, we have developed a light weight highway-bridge deck with high durability using ultra-high strength fiber-reinforced concrete (UFC). Developed UFC deck slab consists slab of 40 mm thickness and ribs of 83 mm in height. This deck slab has an extremely thin thickness as compared to that in the concrete deck slabs. Since UFC deck developed has very thin components as compared with conventional concrete decks, we validated the safety of this thin deck structure using finite element analysis. The bending stiffness of the UFC deck is smaller than that of the conventional deck. We also verified serviceability using the vibration test and the load test. The characteristic frequency and impact factor of the deck were calculated by these tests.
