Shear Capacity of Clamped Deck Slabs Subjected to a Concentrated Load

Abstract

Reinforced concrete (RC) deck slabs without transverse reinforcement are commonly used in bridge structures. The ability of RC slabs to distribute concentrated loads due to the pressure of wheels in a transverse direction is an important property for their verification. The main goal of this paper is to investigate the effect of the redistribution of shear forces on the load-carrying capacity of RC slabs subjected to a concentrated load. Several methods and design models for the assessment of one-way shear capacity were tested and statistically evaluated according to the results of 43 experiments carried out in the last two decades. The analyses showed that the effective shear width method provides unsafe results for higher values of the clear shear span to effective depth ratio unless the same limits are not imposed. Limiting the distance of the critical section from the inner edge of the loaded area significantly improved the accuracy of the method. The best results were obtained for the ACI 318-14 and AASHTO LRFD models in combination with a French approach when the CoV reached values of 0.091 and 0.097, respectively. A comparable degree of accuracy was provided also by a method that is based on a combination of a linear FEM analysis and Critical Shear Crack Theory with a CoV equal to 0.102.