Category: Graduate Student Seminar Service Life Design Guidance for UHPC Link Slabs

October 29, 2021 1:00 pm

In this quarterly Research Seminar, Royce W. Floyd, P.E., S.E., Ph.D., Principal Investigator; Clay Reed, M.S.C.E. Student; and Jeffery S. Volz, S.E., P.E., Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator, present work under the ABC-UTC research project entitled Service Life Design Guidance for UHPC Link Slabs [ABC-UTC-2016-C3-OU01] conducted at the University of Oklahoma will be presented.


Documents:
Service Life Design Guidance for UHPC Link Slabs - pdf of presentation
Q&A Session - pdf

Description: One aspect of design with potential for a large impact on bridge service life is minimizing the number of transverse deck joints. Link slabs placed over the bridge piers allow for eliminating some interior deck joints while still maintaining typical bridge behavior, and ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) can simplify details and substantially improve link slab durability. A detailed literature review and review of standard practice for link slab design were conducted and synthesized with structural and durability properties of UHPC to develop service life design guidance for UHPC link slabs. A limited experimental investigation was conducted on freeze-thaw and corrosion performance of UHPC link slab specimens subjected to repeated loading to supplement the data from the literature. Results and discussion of this work are presented.

Presenters:

 

Royce W. Floyd, P.E., S.E., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science
University of Oklahoma

 

Clay Reed, Graduate Student
(M.S.C.E., May 2022, OU)
School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science
University of Oklahoma

 

Jeffery S. Volz, S.E., P.E., Ph.D.
Lloyd G. and Joyce Austin Presidential Professor
School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science
University of Oklahoma

Presentation Graphics:

Figure 1. UHPC link slab detail used as basis for test specimen design (NYDOT standard drawings)

Figure 2. Completed UHPC link slab specimen placed in cyclic loading apparatus

Figure 3. UHPC to conventional concrete interface after 350 cycles of freeze-thaw exposure

Figure 4. Comparison of average pullout testing results for proprietary and non-proprietary UHPC