Investigation of the behaviour of SCC bridge deck slabs reinforced with BFRP bars under concentrated loads

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) with high-volume industrial wastes, such as fly-ash, reinforced with fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars is anticipated to address the concerns on the usage of traditional reinforced concrete structures, such as corrosion of internal steel reinforcement, costly repair and development to low-carbon footprint infrastructures. However, few studies deal with the combined use of these sustainable materials and this has been the key motivation of this undertaking. This paper presents an experimental study investigating the behaviour of SCC bridge deck slabs reinforced with basalt fibre reinforced polymer (BFRP) bars, which is aimed at extending previous research using the combination of BFRP reinforcement and SCC in deck slabs of a real bridge named as Thompson Bridge. A total of six half-scale deck slabs were conducted and tested up to failure over single concentrated loads acting on the centre of each slab. The observed model failure for all the test deck slabs was punching failure. The punching capacity of the test deck slabs was validated with the predicted capacity from the existing theoretical methods in the literatures. The experimental and analytical results are discussed and conclusions on the behaviour of the BFRP reinforced SCC deck slabs are presented.