Enhancing the Modeling of UHPC Connections Subjected to Fatigue Loading for Modular Concrete Bridge Deck Design

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) connections used in modular bridge deck construction enhance the overall performance of bridge superstructures. Despite of numerous experimental studies on the UHPC connections, however, there is little numerical study on the performance and damage prediction of steel fiber reinforced cementitious composites under static and cyclic loading. Of particular interest in this study is the proposed mesh-free analysis method which can represent fiber-concrete bond and bond failure between the cementitious paste and steel reinforcement to ultimately allow a redesign of the UHPC connections by analysis and enhance their long-term performance. This study develops a mesh-free discrete modeling approach based on the bond-based peridynamics theory to study the response of modular bridge deck UHPC connections under static and cyclic loading. It is concluded that the proposed mesh-free analysis method adequately predicts the response of UPHC connections under static and cyclic loading and thus is promising to predict the performance of UHPC members.