Fatigue assessment of a lightweight steel-concrete bridge deck concept

This paper presents results of a constant amplitude fatigue test on a lightweight steel-concrete deck concept, in which a network of longitudinal and transverse concrete ribs transmit shear forces between thin top and bottom steel plates. In order to achieve a lightweight composite structure, the concrete volume is only 32% of the volume between the plates. In previous research the deck was tested statically, indicating that the lightweight steel-concrete sandwich bridge deck concept possesses the necessary static resistance to bridge loads. This paper describes a constant amplitude fatigue test on a full-scale bridge deck test panel (3.60mx1.50 m) up to 6 million cycles. During this dynamic test, the deflection of the bridge deck, and steel and concrete strains are recorded on predetermined intervals in order to evaluate the fatigue behavior of the sandwich deck as a function of the number of cycles. The results indicate that the lightweight steel-concrete sandwich bridge deck concept possesses the necessary fatigue resistance to traffic loads.