| The current practice of bridge construction and maintenance is to use prefabricated girders with cast-in-place concrete deck, which takes a relatively long time to open the bridge to the traffic. This thesis reports on an experimental investigation on the behavior and ultimate load carrying capacity of bridge deck slab connections between adjacent precast girders for new prefabricated bridge system. In this study, three types of moment transferring connections and two intermittent bolted connections were developed. The primary intention of these connections is to minimize traffic disruptions, improve work-zone safety, minimize environmental impact, improve constructability and quality, and lowers life-cycle costs of the bridges. A total of eight experimental tests were conducted for different connection details and simulated wheel load locations. A correlation between the theoretical ultimate load, as obtained using the Yield Line theory and the available punching shear capacity equations, and the experimental findings was achieved. |
