Entwicklung einer neuartigen Verbundfahrbahnplatte für Eisenbahnbrücken

Development of an innovative composite deck slab for railway bridges.

In the past railway bridges were often built without a ballast bed. More and more of these bridges are reaching their calculated end of life. Modern deck slabs of railway bridges usually have to contain a ballast bed, for example for noise protection. This results in an increase of the required construction height for the superstructure. By the replacement of old railway bridges it is often a decisive constraint that the height between rail level and the lowest line of the structure remains equal. In order to fulfil this criterion an innovative and extremely slender composite deck slab was developed.
In the course of research four composite plate specimens were tested experimentally in order to derive analytical and numerical models for the description of the load-bearing behaviour. The principles of construction and fabrication as well as the basic load-bearing mechanism will be presented in the following. Furthermore, the derived models will be described and the calculated results will be compared with the measurement data. Additionally to strains and deflections, crack patterns are evaluated.