Abstract
In the Florida State highway system there are 11,100 bridges (6,300 State bridges and 4,800 local bridges). The highway system includes 98 movable bridges, which are located within seven geographic districts. These bridge decks are constructed with steel open metal grate decking to reduce the weight of the superstructure and load carried by the substructure. When traffic traverses on the bridge deck systems, a significant level of noise is generated. This noise has caused some discomfort and has become a nuisance to the public, especially in regard to those bridges located near populated areas. Because of the problem, it has been suggested that filling the open grate with epoxy and fine aggregate broadcasted on it will increase the friction resistance and reduce the noise from bridge deck systems. For new bridges, concrete filling (exodermic deck) has been used, taking the extra weight from the concrete into consideration during the design stage. For the older bridges, however, the extra concrete weight was not considered in the design stage. Thus, the use of epoxy materials, which are lighter than concrete, is necessary in existing decks in order to remain within the load-carrying capacity of the other components of the bridge.
The primary objective of this study was to address the performance of the filled steel deck systems, the behavior and effect of repetitive thermal loads (temperatures below and above normal ambient temperature) to the open steel grid deck systems that were filled with epoxy resin. The deck systems filled with epoxy materials were subjected to accelerated climate chamber to simulate similar or extreme field conditions. Experimental results found that the performance of the open filled decks depends on the weather conditions. Under temperatures above normal ambient temperature, the interfacial region showed severe delamination compared to temperatures below normal ambient temperature. Also the study found that the performances at the interfacial region were affected by the number of cycles for both low and high temperatures.
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