ABSTRACT
In the decades following the Second World War, the Dutch road network was repaired and expanded. These actions included the construction of a large number of bridges. Many of these bridges are now reaching the end of their originally devised service life. When these existing bridges are assessed with the current codes, often cross-sections that do not fulfill the code criteria for shear can be found. A subset of bridges that is under discussion are the reinforced concrete solid slab bridges. Therefore, research was carried out to better understand the shear capacity of reinforced concrete solid slab bridges.
The shear capacity of slabs was studied extensively in the laboratory (Lantsoght et al., 2013, Lantsoght et al., 2014, Lantsoght et al., 2015). The specimens that were used were half scale models of slab bridges and did not contain all the detailing and support conditions of a bridge that has been in service for several decades. Therefore, a test of a full scale bridge was advised. This bridge was the Ruytenschildt Bridge: a reinforced concrete solid slab bridge with 5 spans built in 1962. The bridge was an integral bridge. It was tested to failure in spans 1 and 2. The material parameters were defined based on tests of concrete cores and samples of reinforcement steel.
To prepare for the experiment, the bending moment capacity was determined based on the assumption of a beam section and the shear capacity was determined based on the knowledge from previous slab shear experiments. According to the analytical predictions, the first span fails in flexure and the second could fail in either shear or flexure.
The Ruytenschildt bridge was loaded with the load configuration of NEN-EN 1991-2:2003 (CEN, 2003) at a distance 2.5dl from the face of the support. A system with a load spreader, see Figure 1, was used to apply the load in a controlled manner. For testing of span 1, not enough load was available to achieve failure. In span 2, flexural failure was achieved as well as a large settlement of the pier. System with load spreader to apply loading. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315207681/cd556cd4-4dcf-4efe-8e29-56fc67b8bfbd/content/fig305_1.jpg"/>
Because the Ruytenschildt Bridge is an integral bridge, the span moment in the experiment was lower than found in the calculations assuming a hinged support. The stiffness and support moment are however not known and cannot be taken into account in the analysis. The failure in span 2, a flexural failure, corresponded well with the calculations: yielding of the steel was achieved in the cross-section but crushing of the concrete had not occurred yet.
