EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON ENVIRONMENTAL DURABILITY OF EPOXY ADHESIVES FOR BONDING OF SFRC OVERLAY IN ORTHOTROPIC STEEL DECK

Abstract

As an effective countermeasure to prevent fatigue cracks at existing orthotropic steel deck (OSD) bridges, steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) overlays have been increasingly used for damaged OSDs. SFRC has been adhesively bonded to deck plate by epoxy adhesives. A series of tensile shear and compressive tests of specimens using several epoxy adhesives immersed in water with high temperatures were conducted in order to examine the environmental degradation of the adhesive joints. Based on the experiments, this paper describes degradation tendency of the strength of the adhesively bonded joints and the material properties.