Experimental Evaluation of Full-Scale Corroded Steel Plate Girders Repaired with UHPC

Abstract

Deterioration of girder ends has emerged as a major issue for steel bridges with deck joints. The goal of this study was to evaluate the full-scale performance of a newly proposed repair method for steel girder ends with local corrosion damage and section loss over the bearings. The repair consists of welding shear studs to the undamaged portion of the web and encasing the corrosion damage in ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC). The composite action between the studs and the UHPC allows the force to bypass the corroded region of the web and stiffener plates, restoring the end bearing capacity of the girder. Four full-scale experiments were conducted on unrepaired and repaired girders with severe section loss. The objectives of the study were to (1) assess the structural performance of the repair, (2) identify the best design practices, and (3) confirm the feasibility of implementing the repair under service loads. The experimental results showed that the proposed repair design successfully restored the original design capacity of a girder.