Use of UHPC Stay-In-Place Shells in Bridge Column Construction for Accelerated Bridge Construction

Authors

Nerma CalukFollow

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Major/Program

Civil Engineering

First Advisor's Name

Atorod Azizinamini

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Ton-Lo Wang

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Third Advisor's Name

Wallied Orabi

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Arindam Chowdhury

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Keywords

structures, bridges, ABC, UHPC, seismic, construction

Date of Defense

3-16-2020

Abstract

This research utilizes Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC), durable material that can be used to construct unique structural elements, to construct prefabricated shells that act as stay-in-place forms for circular bridge columns. These innovative structural elements are intended to (1) eliminate conventional formworks, (2) reduce the on-site construction time, (3) reduce life cycle costs by providing maintenance-free columns, and (4) improve the structural performance of bridge columns. The UHPC shell is placed around the column reinforcement that has been assembled using conventional methods, after which a UHPC step portion is cast at the column-to-footing interface to connect the UHPC shell with footing. Once the UHPC step portion has hardened, the conventional concrete is cast inside the shell, forming a permanent concrete filled UHPC shell. The final stage of construction involves placing and connecting a prefabricated cap-beam, using similar UHPC step connection. Two specimens were tested under constant axial load and incremental lateral load. The first specimen utilized column reinforcement inside the UHPC cavity, however, the second column has longitudinal reinforcement shared between UHPC shell and column concrete with spiral located inside the shell. Both experimental tests were completed until specimen failure. The first specimen has reached the maximum value of 7.5% drift ratio when rebar rupture was first heard, and the test was complete. The first specimen has reached a maximum lateral load capacity of 42 kips at 3% drift ratio when the UHPC shell cracked and the lateral capacity dropped 10%. The second specimen had different behavior if compared to the first specimen. No rebar rupture was recorded for the second specimen, but the test was completed at a drift ratio of 6% due to the significant drop in lateral load capacity by 50%. This final report presents the new concept, constructability and experimental testing of UHPC shells for bridge column.

Identifier

FIDC008912

ORCID

0000-0002-7134-0593

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Caluk, Nerma, "Use of UHPC Stay-In-Place Shells in Bridge Column Construction for Accelerated Bridge Construction" (2020). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4427.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4427