Mechanical Behavior of Concrete Bridge-Deck Slabs Reinforced with Hybrid Reinforcement

Recently, hybrid reinforcement by combining steel with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars has emerged as a new system in reinforced concrete structures to overcome the ductility and serviceability problems of purely FRP-reinforced structures. This paper presents an experimental study aimed at understanding the structural behavior and serviceability performance of concrete bridge-deck slabs reinforced with hybrid bars. Nine full-scale bridge-deck slabs were constructed and tested under four-point loading up to failure. The parameters investigated were reinforcement type, ratio, arrangement, and slab thickness. The test results showed that hybrid-reinforced slabs exhibited ductility leading to an ample warning before failure and avoided catastrophic failure rather than brittle shear failure exhibited by FRP-reinforced slab. In addition, hybrid reinforcement managed to control the crack width and deformations of slab specimens.