Structural Behavior of a Laterally Restrained Precast Reinforced Concrete Arch Deck Under Punching Shear Loading

In the construction of concrete bridges, the lighter dead load of decks can significantly reduce the number or size of substructure members, such as girders, piers and foundations. Although, the arch decks (ADs) ensure superior load carrying capacity and can have longer span length than flat decks (FDs), relatively minute number of studies was performed on longer span decks manufactured as arch shape to maximize the performance. In the previous study, a precast reinforced concrete (RC) AD with enhanced width of 2.5 m was developed. In this study, the behavior of precast RC AD under punching shear load was studied. Three real-scale AD specimens were tested and analyzed to understand its performance under punching shear loading. Different sizes of the ADs were manufactured to evaluate the punching shear capacity. The punching shear capacity and failure mode were obtained from the test, and the results were then compared to various design provisions. Finite Element Analyses (FEAs) were conducted to validate the experiment results and to verify the arching action of the AD with various thicknesses. The study results clearly verified that the AD had a higher or similar load-carrying capacity than the FD due to the arching action caused by the lateral restraint and arch shape, despite of thinner thickness of AD than FD. An analytical and prediction model for the punching shear behavior of ADs was developed and calibrated. The resulting models are described in a code-friendly formulation.