Performance of self-consolidating concrete in prestressed girders.

715302638Technical report.PDFTech ReportFHWA/ALDOT 930-602Self compacting concretePrestressed concretePrestressed concrete bridgesLengthFlexural strengthAlabamaAuburn University. Highway Research CenterBhoem, Kurtis M.Barnes, Robert W.Schindler, Anton K.Auburn University. Highway Research CenterAlabama. Dept. of TransportationNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Bridges and StructuresNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-MaterialsNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Construction and MaintenanceNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-DesignNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Pavement Management and PerformanceUS Transportation CollectionA structural investigation of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) in AASHTO Type I precast,prestressed girders was performed. Six test girders were subjected to transfer length andflexural testing. Three separate concrete mixtures, two girders per mixture, were used toconstruct these specimens. A moderate-strength, conventional-slump concrete mixture, similarto the concrete used in typical ALDOT girders was evaluated versus moderate-strength SCCand high-strength SCC. No significant difference in transfer bond behavior was found betweenthe full-scale SCC girders and the conventional concrete girders. High-strength SCC girdershad shorter transfer lengths than moderate-strength (SCC and conventional) girders. Afternormalization to account for the difference in prestress magnitude and concrete strength, therewas no discernible difference in the magnitude of the transfer lengths between the concretetypes. After a composite, cast-in-place concrete deck was added to each girder, flexuraltesting was performed near each girder end, resulting in two flexural tests per girder.Embedment lengths were varied for each test in order to bracket the AASHTO stranddevelopment length. Results indicated that the use of SCC had no adverse effects on theoverall flexural performance, and the flexural bond lengths were conservatively predicted bythe relevant ACI and AASHTO expressions. Similarly, the SCC girders exhibited comparableservice-level performance to the conventional girders. Based on the work performed in thisstudy SCC should perform well in prestressed concrete girder applications