ABSTRACT
With the accumulation of service time, concrete bridges all around the world gradually appear structural performance degradation, steel corrosion, structural damage, and other diseases. The use of steel plate- concrete composite method has emerged as a promising technique for the strengthening and retrofitting of concrete bridges. The prestressing technology is introduced into the steel plate- concrete composite strengthening layer to improve the structural performance and durability of concrete bridges. This study focuses on the flexural performance of steel plate- prestressed concrete composite strengthened full-scale prestressed hollow slab girders. At this aim, an experimental validation has been conducted on one full-scale prestressed hollow slab girder. The girder was strengthened with unbonded prestressing technique and tested under four-point loading until failure. The load, deflection, and ultimate failure of the test girder were recorded, and the type of failure mode was also observed. The experimental results revealed the high potential of steel plate- prestressed concrete composite system for the strengthening of prestressed hollow slab girders. In addition, an analytical model has been proposed to predict the flexural capacity of steel plate- prestressed concrete composite strengthened girders. The flexural capacity predicted by the model was in reasonable agreement with the experimental result.
