Cracking and global load effects are as important as behavior under a single, fixed load in the strength and serviceability of bridge decks. shrinkage and flexural cracking dramatically affect load response of bridge slabs. the strength enhancement due to "arching-action" is a "post-yield" phenomena which does not aid service load performance. evidence from field observation indicates that the flexural response of lightly reinforced isotropic decks may not provide adequate long term serviceability. maximum negative flexural moments over the girders under service loads are significantly less than the service load positive moments. confining the reinforcing bars to the bottom layer only offers the greatest structural efficiency and promises dramatically improved deck performance. a better design criterion for satisfactory deck performance is based on yield strength in the positive moment region. this paper appears in transportation research record no. 1290, third bridge engineering conference, march 10-13, 1991, denver, colorado, volume 1.
Abstract