Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Flexural behaviors and capacity prediction on damaged reinforcement

concrete (RC) bridge deck strengthened by ultra-high performance
concrete (UHPC) layer
Yang Zhang a, Yanping Zhu a,b,⇑, Marlyn Yeseta b, Dongliang Meng c, Xudong Shao a, Qi Dang a,
Genda Chen b
a
Key Laboratory for Wind and Bridge Engineering of Hunan Province, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
b
Missouri University of Science and Technology, MO 65401, United States
c
College of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410082, China

h i g h l i g h t s

Damaged RC slabs strengthened with UHPC layer were tested in laboratory and applied in field.

Two different load patterns: negative bending moment and positive bending moment.

Two different curing conditions: normal temperature curing and high temperature steam curing.

Calculated flexure capacity by analytical models developed theoretically agreed well with experimental values.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Based on strengthening a damaged bridge deck in the field, this paper conducted flexural experiments on
Received 11 January 2019 a scaled damaged bridge deck strengthened by reinforced ultrahigh performance concrete (UHPC) layer
Received in revised form 12 April 2019 with high temperature steam and normal temperature curing; this paper investigates cracking capacity,
Accepted 25 April 2019
ultimate capacity, deformation features and failure mode of RC-UHPC composites under positive bending
Available online 3 May 2019
moment and negative bending moment, respectively. Experimental results indicate that cracking and
ultimate capacity of composites increased by about 2.5 and 2 times respectively with UHPC located at
Keywords:
tension face comparing with intact RC slab; while for UHPC at compression face, no change in cracking
Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC)
Damaged reinforcement concrete (RC)
capacity was observed and ultimate capacity was 30% higher than that of intact RC slab. Meanwhile, stiff-
bridge deck ness also obviously increased with tensile stress in steel reinforcement in RC slabs, decreasing after
Strengthening strengthening for all strengthened slabs; and propagation of cracks in RC slabs was restrained and
Flexure performance delayed due to ultrahigh ductility and behavior of strain hardening of UHPC. Based on experimental
Experiments results and failure mode, analytical equations for cracking and ultimate flexure capacity of UHPC-RC slabs
Theoretical calculation were constructed, and applicability of equations was validated by some experimental results in this paper
and other literature with good accuracy by predicted equations. Finally, the research achievements of this
paper were effectively applied on the reinforcement design of damaged deck of main girder in a cable-
stayed bridge.
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction exhibiting an exceptional ductility, low permeability and low

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), also referred to as
reactive powder concrete (RPC), is an innovative cementitious
based material with superhigh compressive and tensile strength,
⇑ Corresponding author at: Key Laboratory for Wind and Bridge Engineering of
Hunan Province, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082,
China. Tel.: +1 5732020794.
E-mail address: yz6d7@mst.edu (Y. Zhu).
shrinkage and creep after heat curing [1,2]. Encouraged by this
excellent mechanical and physical performance, it is promising
to use UHPC to repair and retrofit deteriorating reinforced
concrete (RC) structures caused by lack of maintenance and
material change in environmental conditions [3]. The damaged
RC structures can be strengthened by UHPC, which not only
obviously enhances the mechanical performance, but also
ensures durability [4,5].

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.04.229
0950-0618/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
348 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359
Currently, some experimental studies have also been conducted
and indicate feasibilities for RC structures strengthened by UHPC.
UHPC reinforced with short fibers (UHPFRC) is for example applied
in Switzerland [6] (and in one case in Slovenia following the same
concept) to existing reinforced concrete bridge deck slabs as thin
watertight overlays (in replacement of currently used waterproof-
ing membranes) as well as a reinforcement layer, providing both
protection and load bearing functions for bridge elements and
slabs in buildings. This can be achieved without significantly
increasing the dead load of the structure. K. Habel [7] experimen-
tally studied the flexure behavior of UHPC-RC composite struc-
tures, and an analytical model was proposed for predicting the
structural response of UHPC-RC. Additionally, time-dependent
behavior of UHPC-RC was also investigated. In conclusion, UHPC
can improve carrying load capacity, stiffness and cracking resis-
tance, while structural flexure ultimate capacity and stiffness are
increased with increasing of overlay height and steel reinforce-
ment ratio in UHPC; the results of time-dependent tests on com-
posite elements indicate that in the first 90 days after the casting
of the UHPC layer, the deformation caused by autogenous shrink-
age and thermal deformations are important. C. Oesterlee [8]
experimentally studied interfacial bond behavior and flexural
behavior of UHPC-RC composite structures and restrained shrink-
age in UHPC overlay; strain hardening capacity and tension
strength of UHPC were discussed. In addition, the UHPC tensile
behavior with additional reinforcement and the bond behavior
between steel and UHPC were also analyzed. Results indicate that
good intactness was shown in UHPC-RC composite without
debonding occurring in the interface. Meanwhile, with increase
of ratio of steel reinforcement in UHPC and usage of high strength
steel reinforcement, flexure resistance increased and strain hard-
ening characteristics was improved in composite structures. T.
Noshiravani and E. Brühwiler [9] studied the rotation capacity
and stress redistribution of UHPC-RC composite beam under com-
bination of flexure and shear force and results show that UHPC can
improve ultimate carrying capacity and rotation capacity with
improvement of shear resistance to some extent in composite
structures. P. Mário [10] studied sixteens RC beams strengthened
by UHPC under shear (or flexure) loading and experimental results
show that composite structures improved in terms of strength and
ductility with UHPC-RC failure in shear. Prabhat Ranjan Prem [11]
presents the details of flexural behavior of damaged RC beams (up
to 80% and 90% of failure load of control RC beam) strengthened
with UHPC overlay under different curing conditions for UHPC. It
is observed that there is significant increase in ductility and load
carrying capacity (30.8% and 25.8% for 80% and 90% damage degree
respectively). Also, early age strength of UHPC was improved more
quickly with higher temperature curing. In the study by M.A. Al-
Osta [12], the efficiency of two different techniques (by sand blast-
ing RC beams surfaces and casting UHPC in-situ and by bonding
prefabricated UHPC strips to the RC using epoxy adhesive) was
investigated and experiments for bond strength using two differ-
ent techniques between UHPC and RC were conducted. Results
show that UHPC layer can restrain the crack development in RC;
cracking and failure load as well as stiffness were obviously
improved by strengthening of UHPC. Bond strength in shear was
higher with sand blasting RC substrate while bond strength in ten-
sion was higher with epoxy adhesive, and both techniques were
demonstrated to be feasible in composite structures. Muhammad
Safdar [13] indicates that the ultimate flexural strength of RC
beams repaired with UHPC in the tension and compression zones
is increased, with the increase of UHPC thickness. He also investi-
gates the influence of tensile properties of UHPC and yield strength
of tension steel on the flexural capacity of repaired beams and
shows that higher tension strength of UHPC and higher yield
strength of steel can obviously increase the stiffness of composite
structures. Tohru Makita and Eugen Brühwiler [14] conducted flex-
ural fatigue tests on reinforced UHPC-RC composite structures and
fatigue failure mode and fatigue damage characteristics were
observed and a numerical model was established for interpreting
flexural fatigue observations in UHPC-RC structures. A. Ramachan-
dra Murthy [15] shows the tensile fatigue failure mode and accu-
mulated damage behavior of RC-UHPC combined with steel bars
in UHPC by fatigue tests, and proposed a finite element model to
predict S-N curve and load-displacement behavior with considera-
tion of damaged severity of RC and fracture behavior of concrete
and UHPC. The results show that the overlay system has a signifi-
cant potential for strengthening of bridge deck slabs without
debonding under fatigue loading. Hor Yin [16] conducted experi-
ments on RC slab strengthened by reinforced UHPC in tension
region and results show that UHPC can improve overall stiffness
and ductility, effectively reducing and delaying shear cracks occur-
ring; with increase of overlay height, ultimate flexure capacity also
increased. To sum up, UHPC, as an innovative repair material, can
be used for strengthening or repairing RC structures to form com-
posite structures; the literature review also demonstrates that
application of UHPC to strengthen not only reinforces crack resis-
tance and flexure capacity of RC structures, but also improves per-
meability and durability as well as extends service life of RC
structures.
For engineering application in the field, as negative moment
appearing in bridge deck close to web of box-girder section while
positive moment appears in bridge deck close to middle part of
box-girder section at wheel load case, mechanical performance of
wide and thin RC bridge deck in the top of box girder after
strengthening of UHPC need to be further investigated. Based on
a RC bridge deck in field, full-scale experimental models with same
normal concrete strength, depth and reinforcement ratio in RC slab
were fabricated. This paper investigated flexural performance on
damaged reinforcement concrete (RC) slab strengthened by rein-
forced UHPC layer under negative or positive moment with differ-
ent curing conditions for UHPC and an analytical model for
calculation of flexural moment capacity of UHPC-RC composite
slab was developed theoretically.
2. Strengthening of the damaged bridge in practice
This research is based on a practical reinforcement project of a
damaged bridge deck of main girder in a cable-stayed bridge. In the
next section of the experimental program, determination of speci-
mens dimensions, materials performance, steel reinforcement lay-
out and damage degree of reinforced concrete slab at preloading
were referred to this bridge which is four-tower prestressed con-
crete double cable planes with a span arrangement of 163 m
+ 3  380 m + 165 m. Twenty-three pairs of cables were arranged
as fan style symmetrically at two sides of each tower (#5  #8)
and all cables were anchored at both flange of main concrete gir-
der. A single-box four-cell box girder was constructed with box
section dimensions shown in Fig. 1. This bridge was constructed
by the cast-in-situ balanced cantilever construction technique
(23 segments of main girder total). At stage of the largest cantilever
when #23 segment of box-girder had been already cast with cables
prestressed and without closure at the midspan, fire occurred sud-
denly at anchorage zone in left side of #6 tower, resulting in firing
and fracture of nine cables at one side, and about two meters of
straightdown displacement of main girder at the end of cantilever
was measured. Moreover, many torsion cracks were observed in
reinforcement concrete box-girder segments from #7 to #20,
exactly located at the region of fracture of cables in the field.
The most severe cracking was found in the top slab of the
box-girder, having about 45 degree-angle diagonal cracks from
 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359
Diagonal cracks
Top of the damaged deck
(a)
2800
Stay cable
28
30 RC box girder
28
CFRP sheet
178.5 630
(b)
Fig. 1. Damage and reinforcement of the RC deck: (a) Cracking of deck; (b) Strengthening scheme (Unit: cm).
the longitudinal direction of the box-girder with crack length in
0.50–11.0 m, width in 0.02–0.4 mm and spacing at 15–45 cm (In
Fig. 1(a)). According to relevant results [17] of inspection and eval-
uation for the fire-damaged bridge, designers initially suggested
injecting epoxy resin into existing cracks and then pasting CFRP
(carbon fiber reinforced polymer) inside box-girder to refresh func-
tions. However, waterproof performance and reduced stiffness of
the severely damaged bridge deck were not improved with CFRP
at the bottom of the top slab of the box-girder, although flexure
performance can be enhanced to some extent, which will result
in that the durability and stiffness of the top slab of box-girder
strengthened was not satisfied by serviceability criteria of struc-
tures [18]. So, five-centimeter-depth reinforced UHPC (ultrahigh
performance concrete) designed with 60 steam curing for 72 h
was proposed and applied to upface of the top slab of the box-
girder, including CFRP pasted at the bottom as shown in Fig. 1b.
This paper conducted flexural study on RC slab strengthened by
UHPC based on the practical reinforcement project of a damaged
bridge deck of main girder in a cable-stayed bridge. Finally, the
research achievements successfully guided on strengthening of
aforementioned damaged bridge deck of main girder in the
cable-stayed bridge caused by fracture of cables. Until now (three
years), during operation no new cracks were found in strengthened
bridge without water ingression.
3. Experimental program
Experimental investigations comprising of material strength
tests, pre-loading tests and flexural strength test were conducted.
In material tests, compressive strength, Young modulus and flexu-
ral strength were obtained and these data were useful to develop
an analytical and computing model for UHPC-RC composite slabs.
In pre-loading tests, RC slabs were damaged to a certain extent.
349
Diagonal cracks
Bottom of the damaged deck
5cm Asphalt concrete
5cm UHPC overlay
28cm damaged deck
CFRP sheet
320 30
28
28
CFRP sheet
630 178.5
In the flexural strength test, RC slabs were strengthened with
UHPC overlay at tensile side as well as compressive side and then
tested to determine their strength and behavior contribution.
3.1. Material properties
The mixture ratio for normal concrete (Class C55) in experi-
ments, mixed in accordance to JTG D62-2004 [19], was the same
as the actual bridge. The materials of UHPC were composed of
cement, quartz powder, fly ash, silica fume, quartz sand, super
plasticizers and steel fibers. A mixture of two different sizes of steel
fibers, i.e. hooked and straight fibers, were used in the ratio of
2:1.5; the total ratio was 3.5%. The hooked-end steel fibers were
0.2 mm diameter, 13 mm long and with a tensile strength of
2850 MPa, while the straight steel fibers had a length of 8 mm,
0.12 mm diameter, and with a tensile strength of 2850 MPa. The
elastic modulus of two types of steel fibers were both 200 GPa.
Also, a commercially available high-range water reducer, polycar-
boxylate, was used with the volume ratio of 1.5% and a water
reducing rate of more than 30%. The mix proportions of UHPC
are shown in Table 1.
According to concrete code GB/T50081-2002 [20] and reactive
powder concrete code GB/T31387-2015 [21] (both for mechanical
performance), experiments for material properties were conducted
and material properties of NSC (Normal Strength Concrete) and
UHPC were obtained. It was noted that the curing conditions for
specimens in these tests were consistent with that for strength-
ened specimens at a later stage. The compressive strength is
obtained by three cubic specimens with dimensions of
150  150  150 mm3 for NSC and 100  100  100 mm3 for UHPC
respectively. Three specimens with dimensions of
150  150  300 mm3 for NSC and 100  100  300 mm3 for UHPC
were respectively fabricated to obtain elastic modulus. Four-point
350 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359

Table 1 A-A
Mix Proportions of UHPC. 320/2 320/2
Ingredient Amount (kg/m3) Rebar (HRB400, 20) Rebar (HRB400, 10)
UHPC
RC slab

28 5
Portland cement (42.5R) 771.2

28
Silica fume 154.2 RC slab Stud
Fly ash 77.1
Quartz sand 848.4 1/2 RC slab 1/2 UHPC-RC slab
Quartz powder 154.2
320/2 320/2
Superplasticizer (1.5%Vol.) 20.1
Steel fibers (3.5%Vol.) 274.8 10 20×15/2 84×3.75 2 2.5
Water 180.5 Rebar (HRB400, 16) Rebar (HRB400, 10)

2.5
W/P Ratio 0.18

10
Note: W/P ratio means the weight ratio of water to paste material.
A A

flexural test was conducted to obtain first cracking strength and

52×3.75
12×15

200
flexural strength of UHPC reinforced by 10 mm diameter steel
mesh, with two specimens cured under normal temperature and
the other two specimens cured under high temperature steam,
all having dimensions of 1000  200  50 mm3. Compressive
strength and modulus of elasticity for 28-day-old NSC and com-
pressive strength, first cracking strength, flexural strength and

10

modulus of elasticity for UHPC are shown in Table 2. It should be
noted that for UHPC under high temperature curing at a tempera-
ture of 60 for 72 h, the test was conducted immediately after cur-
ing; while for UHPC under normal temperature curing the test was
conducted at 28 days. From Table 2, comparing UHPC cured by
high temperature steam to normal temperature, compressive
strength, first cracking strength, flexural strength and elastic mod-
ulus are improved to some extent. Reinforcement bars used in this
paper were of HRB400 [18] grade having a yield stress of 400 MPa.
All bars had the same elastic modulus 200,000 MPa. Steel studs
used for connecting UHPC layer and RC layer had a yielding
strength of 240 MPa with a length of 150 mm and diameter of
13 mm. The elastic modulus was the same as the reinforcement
bars.
3.2. Test specimens and preparation
Fig. 2 shows the specimens with main parameters. According to
relevant parameters in practical strengthening of the top slab of
box-girder in the bridge and spreading width of wheel loading
on bridge deck, four RC slabs were prepared and one of them
was an unstrengthened slab as baseline cured by normal tempera-
ture. The other three models were composite slabs strengthened
by UHPC layer. The RC slabs had a rectangular cross section with
a height of 28 cm, width of 200 cm, and a total length of 320 cm
and were reinforced with two layers of steel reinforcement mesh
spaced at 150 mm with 16 mm and 20 mm diameter bars. The
UHPC, with a depth of 50 mm, was reinforced with one layer of
steel reinforcement mesh spaced at 37.5 mm with 10 mm diame-
ter bars. A stud with a height of 150 mm was used as connector
between UHPC layer and RC slab with 115 mm height embedded
into damaged RC slabs and was spaced at 300 mm center to center.
2.5
Rebar (HRB400, 20) Stud
Fig. 2. Reinforcement details of specimens slabs (unit:cm).
The detailed parameters for the specimens are listed in Table 3
where, to investigate flexure performance of strengthened bridge
deck with UHPC layer at tension zone and compression zone
respectively, load patterns of negative and positive moment were
conducted.
The procedures for fabrication of reinforcement slabs with dam-
aged RC strengthened by UHPC layer are shown in Fig. 3 as the
same as bridge construction in the field. (1) RC slabs were cast at
laboratory temperature and cured for 28 days with spraying water
(Fig. 3(a)) (2) In order to fully mimic damaging situations pre-
sented on an actual bridge, three RC slabs were subjected to
preloading to produce diagonal cracks with 45 degree angle rela-
tive to transverse direction, which was achieved by flexure-
torsion loading method where loading point was at the middle of
diagonal line and layout of support were shown in Fig. 3(b). For
reinforcement slabs with UHPC cured by high temperature steam
(H-UC-1, H-UC-2), 0.4 mm crack width in RC reached by loading
twice reversely was formed at the highest applied load of
266 kN, corresponding with 12.9 mm of displacement in the mid-
dle, and after unloading, the maximum width became 0.18 mm;
while for reinforcement slabs with UHPC cured by normal temper-
ature (N-UC), 0.2 mm and 0.08 mm of maximum crack width at the
highest applied load of 145 kN with maximum displacement of
5.7 mm in the middle, and after unloading were obtained respec-
tively (Fig. 3(b)). (3) After unloading, epoxy resin was injected into
cracks with width more than 0.1 mm and cement paste was used
to close cracks with width less than 0.1 mm; then specimen
slabs were placed for five days until the epoxy resin hardens

Table 2
Mechanical Properties of UHPC and NSC.

Material Curing Compressive strength First cracking strength Flexural strength (MPa) Modulus of elasticity
(MPa) (MPa) (GPa)
Mean values S.D. Mean values S.D. Mean values S.D. Mean values S.D.
UHPC HC 140.3 6.9 7.84 2.1 29.5 4.2 43.3 1.4
NC 130.3 5.0 7.12 1.3 22.4 3.7 41.6 3.2
NSC NC 60.2 3.2 / / / / 35.2 1.7

Note: HC and NC express high temperature steam curing and normal temperature curing, respectively; First cracking strength represents tensile strength corresponding with
first visible crack; S.D. denotes standard deviation of three tested specimens.
 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359 351

Table 3
Description of test specimens.
Specimen Curing conditions Composite materials Load directions
N-RC NC RC / when the slab was close to failure. Nine dial gauges were used to
N-UC NC RC + UHPC Negative moment
H-UC-1 HC RC + UHPC Negative moment
H-UC-2 HC RC + UHPC Positive moment
Note: in load directions: ‘‘negative moment” represents UHPC located at tensile side
at loading, ‘‘positive moment” represents UHPC located at compressive side at
loading.
(Fig. 3(c)). (4) Substrate processing: two different bonding proce-
dures, including roughening substrate with the macrotexture
depths of about 1.0–4.0 mm and planting studs, were combined
before strengthening of UHPC. The contacting surfaces were
cleaned of any debris before casting UHPC around it, spraying
water for more than 4 h to make concrete substrate dampened suf-
ficiently to minimize the water loss in the UHPC due to absorption
by the unsaturated normal concrete deck (Fig. 3(d)). (5) Casting
UHPC overlay: after substrate processing, reinforcement mesh
was embedded at the top of RC slab and then UHPC was cast
around it. The surface of the UHPC was covered by plastic wraps,
sprayed with water periodically for 48 h, and then demoulded.
After that, one of the three slabs continued to be cured at labora-
tory normal temperature, with water sprayed periodically for
another 28 days while the other two strengthened slabs were
cured by steam at a temperature of 60 °C for 72 h. Then, all of them
were placed at laboratory environment until loading Fig. 3(e).
3.3. Experimental setup and procedure
All slabs were simply supported with a hinge and a roller and
subjected to three-point bending. The clear span of the slabs was
300 cm and carried a concentrated load at mid-span, using a steel
spreader beam to distribute the load to the slab along transverse
direction. Fig. 4 shows slabs with instruments ready for test.
Fig. 4(a) shows load setup for positive bending moment test (N-
RC, H-UC-2) while Fig. 4(b) presents load setup for negative bend-
ing moment test in order to observe crack width (N-UC, H-UC-1).
The behaviors of slabs were monitored during the test, recording
the loads, vertical displacements, slip displacement at interface
and strain changes both in RC and UHPC. Loads were applied by
hydraulic jack with a constant loading rate of 0.1 kN/s at initial
loading stage and with an imposed deflection rate of 0.008 mm/s
monitor the displacement. The five gauges were located at the
mid-span of the slab for maximum displacement and the other
four gauges instrumented at both supports to calculate the oppo-
site direction displacements according to applied load. Many strain
gauges were attached at the surface of RC and UHPC layers and at
the surface of longitudinal reinforcement at the midspan of slabs,
and extensometers were instrumented on the top of UHPC for
monitoring strain after cracking. Before a gauge was attached to
steel rebar using glue, the surface was polished for ease of gauge
placement. Four displacement meters to measure the slip between
UHPC and RC layers were attached at interface close to support.
4. Results and discussion of experiment
4.1. Failure mode
As can be seen in Fig. 5, generally, failure mode for slabs
strengthened by UHPC (ultrahigh performance concrete) overlay
was similar to most types of flexural failure typically. During the
period of loading on RC (reinforced concrete)-UHPC composite
slabs (H-UC-1, N-UC) under negative bending moment (NBM),
the first flexural crack of the composite slabs appeared in the mid-
span of RC tension zone near UHPC overlay while no crack was
observed at UHPC overlay. As the load increased, the amount of
flexural cracks in RC layer increased with crack width and depth
also increasing. When applied load approached 20%–25% of ulti-
mate load, the first visible crack in the top of UHPC layer appeared
with 0.04 mm width. As load increased continually, the amounts of
cracks increased while crack width developed slowly in UHPC
layer. At failure of composite slabs under NBM, NSC at compression
region in midspan was crushed. The visible transverse cracks dis-
tributed densely at the top of UHPC overlay in midspan were found
and maximum crack width was up to 0.5 mm and 0.55 mm for H-
UC-1 and N-UC respectively. It can be noted that no cracks in UHPC
layer penetrated to RC slab with propagated crack depth about
2.5 cm (about 50% height of UHPC) and (Fig. 5(b)). After unloading,
cracks at the top of UHPC overlay closed to some extent and the
maximum crack width became 0.10–0.16 mm approximately

Rebar RC slab Torsional crack

Fulcrum
Preloading

(a) (b)

UHPC layer

Stud

Crack repair Cast-in-place UHPC Damaged RC slab

(c) (d) (e)

Fig. 3. Preparation of the UHPC reinforced RC slab specimens: (a) Cast-in-place RC slab; (b) Preloading of RC slab; (c) Crack repair by injection; (d) Planting stud; (e) Cast-in-
place UHPC.
352 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359

Pressure sensor UHPC layer

Hydraulic jack
UHPC layer
Steel spreader beam

Crack
Support
(a)
Crack UHPC layer
Reaction frame
Pressure sensor
Steel spreader beam Hydraulic jack
UHPC layer Strain gauge
RC slab
Support RC slab Strain gauge
Displacement meter Yielding stud
Dial gauge Pedestal
Dial gauge
Crushed concrete

(a) (b)
Crack
UHPC layer

Support
UHPC layer
RC slab
(c)
RC slab
Fig. 5. Failure modes of RC-UHPC composite slabs under negative bending
Steel spreader beam moment: (a) Cracks in UHPC layer; (b) N-UC slab; (c) H-UC-1 slab.

Pressure sensor
Hydraulic jack
Extensometer Dial gauge Reaction frame
Support
UHPC layer
Strain gauge
RC slab Strain gauge Displacement meter
Pressure sensor Steel spreader beam
Dial gauge
Hydraulic jack
(b)
Fig. 4. Loading setup and measurement layout of the test slabs: (a) Positive bending
moment test; (b) Negative bending moment test.
(as can be seen in Fig. 5(a)). Before failure, the stiffness of
strengthened slab under NBM did not weaken obviously, and the
slip between UHPC layer and RC layer was not significant while
the slip increased drastically and studs yielded at the point close
to failure (Fig. 5(b)). In addition, for H-UC-1 slab with UHPC cured
by high temperature steam, the load applied by hydraulic jack was
terminated due to the reach of maximum loading capacity
(1250 kN) of hydraulic jack. In this case, at the load of 1250 kN,
although the crack width maximum at UHPC layer reached
0.5 mm, the NSC at bottom of RC slab did not collapse. Also, the slip
observed between UHPC layer and RC layer was not outstanding
(Fig. 5(c)). In other words, H-UC-1 slab still had moment resistance
to some extent under the load of 1250 kN. Overall, during loading
on the strengthened slab under NBM, initial crack was found in
damaged RC slab, then UHPC layer started to crack with the
amount of cracks propagating slowly. At failure, wider cracks
formed in UHPC layer and NSC in compression zone in RC was
crushed.
Because of existence of preloading cracks in RC slab, NSC in ten-
sion zone in RC-UHPC composite slab (H-UC-2) under PBM (posi-
tive bending moment) traced original position of cracks at early
loading stage, thus cracking capacity was not improved. Cracks ini-
tially propagate along original diagonal cracks direction, then
transverse cracks gradually appeared with upward trend, starting
to penetrate through section of RC slab along slab width direction.
The failure mode for H-UC-2 is shown in Fig. 6. Tensile steel in the
bottom of RC layer yielded when crack width of NSC increased sig-
nificantly to about 1.4 mm. Meanwhile, the load kept constant on
the specimen with steel strain in tension and deformation in mid-
span of slab increasing continually. It is noted that no crushing of
concrete at top of UHPC was observed until failure, although the
neutral axis was located in UHPC layer with UHPC near the inter-
face cracking. Moreover, at failure, the slip appeared slightly at
the interface of UHPC-RC. In addition, the stiffness of the strength-
ened slab under PBM decreased obviously when loading at 50% of
ultimate load.
Table 4 shows the characteristic values of testing loads experi-
mentally for unstrengthened slab (N-RC) and strengthened slab (N-
UC, H-UC-1 and H-UC-2). In Table 4, cracking load was testing load
at which the first eye-visible crack appeared. Fig. 7 shows the com-
parison of loads of all slabs more clearly.
According to Table 4 and Fig. 7, compared to unstrengthened
slab (N-RC), flexure resistance of all strengthened slabs (N-UC,
H-UC-1 and H-UC-2) improved significantly, regardless of curing
 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359
Bottom of
RC slab
Crack
UHPC layer Crack
RC slab
Fig. 6. Failure mode of RC-UHPC composite slab under positive bending moment.
conditions (high temperature steam curing and normal tempera-
ture) or loading patterns (negative and positive moment). Cracking
load, load at crack width of 0.1 mm, load at crack width of 0.2 mm
and ultimate load of N-UC slab increased by 113%, 307%, 460% and
98% respectively comparing with that of unstrengthened slab (N-
RC) respectively. Similarly, 152%, 262%, 233% and 85% of improve-
ment of loads for H-UC-1 specimen were observed. From these
data analysis, UHPC at tension side can not only significantly
improves cracking strength, but also delays the development of
cracks in the later stage compared to RC slab due to behavior of
strain hardening of UHPC, resulting in that the larger the crack
width is, the higher the improvement of corresponding load is.
However, for the strengthened slab under PBM (H-UC-2), the
cracking load was less than that of unstrengthened slab (N-RC)
due to the existence of preloading cracks in tension zone of RC slab.
The rest of the loads (P 0:1 P0:1 , P 0:2 P0:2 andP u Pu ) for H-UC-2 increased
by 31%, 26% and 27% respectively. In addition, as a result of the
much more severe damage on RC slabs in H-UC-1 under high tem-
perature curing than N-UC under normal temperature curing
caused by preloading before strengthening, the characteristic load
values of H-UC-1, except cracking load, were all less than that of N-
UC. Therefore, the damage degree on RC slab plays an important
role in cracking capacity of the strengthened slab. It should be
mentioned that strengthened slab under negative bending
moment with UHPC cured by high temperature steam (H-UC-1)
did not fall at the load of 1250 kN (limited by capacity of hydraulic
jack) and can continue bearing much more load. Based on the
derived results in Table 2 relating to compression strength and
cracking strength of UHPC in different curing conditions, it is
Table 4
Characteristic values of the testing loads (unit: kN).
Specimen P cr P 0:1 P 0:2
N-RC 127 177 232
N-UC 270 720 1300
H-UC-1 320 640 772
H-UC-2 77 232 294
Noted: P cr , P 0:1 , P 0:2 and P u represent cracking load, load at crack width of 0.1 mm,
load at crack width of 0.2 mm and ultimate load respectively.
353
expected that the ultimate load of H-UC-1 would be higher than
that of N-UC.
4.2. Load-deflection behavior
Fig. 8 shows the load-deflection curves for strengthened and
unstrengthened tested specimens. Generally, the stiffness of
strengthened slabs during the elastic stage was slightly less than
that of the unstrengthened slab while the opposite trend was true
after initiation of cracks, especially for the strengthened slab under
NBM, with the stiffness improving much more significantly at a
later period of loading. For the strengthened slab under PBM (H-
UC-2), before the load reached about 200 kN (A point in the curve),
the curve of H-UC-2 was lower than N-RC. This is because cracking
had already occurred in tension zone of the RC slab before
strengthening, leading to a higher deflection compared with the
unstrengthened slab at the same load. After load at A point when
both the specimens of N-RC and H-UC-2 entered into cracks devel-
opment stage, due to increasing moment of inertia effect with the
addition of UHPC on the region of compression, as the load
increased, H-UC-2 performed a higher stiffness with development
of both deflection and cracks in NSC in tension slower than N-RC.
When load approached 677 kN, which was failure load for the
unstrengthened slab (N-RC), the deformation of H-UC-2 was only
35.6% of unstrengthened slab. In addition, change in stiffness was
not significant before load of about 400 kN at point B, and linear
behavior at this stage was observed in load deflection curve for
H-UC-2. After load reached 569 kN (point C), lateral macro-cracks
in RC tensile bottom at mid-span developed significantly and ten-
sile steel in the RC layer yielded. Also, the tangent slope of H-UC-2
started to change with stiffness of the specimen decreasing obvi-
ously. Overall, although cracking strength was not improved in
damaged RC slab strengthened by UHPC under PBM, the stiffness
of the strengthened slab improved obviously, resulting in increase
of linear range of stiffness.
For strengthened slab with UHPC cured by high temperature
steam (H-UC-1), UHPC overlay significantly improved stiffness of
RC slab. At low-load stage before A point, the deflection is slightly
higher than that of N-RC. The fact is that wider cracks, running
through entire RC section, were produced in preloading stage with
roughened surface existing in crack interface in more severely
damaged RC in H-UC-1. At initial loading stage, cracks in the com-
pression zone of RC slab closed as load increased and aggregate
loosed during preloading stage inserted to original place again,
resulting in friction resistance and some crushed particles falling
down into cracks, making crack interface transfer compression to
some extent [22]. However, before cracks closed completely, the
compression transferred could not approach the maximum. There-
fore, the stiffness of H-UC-1 was slightly smaller with larger defor-
mation at initial loading stage during the process of cracks closure.
After load increased to point D (about 250 kN), cracks were
observed at the top of UHPC layer and the specimen slab went
through into stage of development of cracking. Cracked UHPC over-
lay performed strain hardening behavior and higher flexure resis-
tance due to high tension strength and ductility of UHPC itself
after cracking. Therefore, less longitudinal deformation of UHPC
overlay effectively restrained the propagation of original preload-
ing cracks in RC slab and resulting stiffness of H-UC-1 was obvi-
ously higher than that of the unstrengthened slab at this stage.
Pu Meanwhile, there is no obvious slope change in curve, usually
677 observed in the unstrengthened slab. Two reasons may explain
1340 this: (1) Due to NSC cracking already without tensile contribution
>1250 in RC layer near interface at midspan, there is no sign of tensile
860
stress redistribution where internal force was transferred from
cracked NSC to steel in RC layer. (2) Steel fibers in UHPC layer
delayed stress redistribution with micro-cracks propagating and
354 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359

1400
1400 N-UC
N-RC D' N-RC
1200 H-UC-1
H-UC-2 D''
H-UC-1
1200 N-UC
1000
N-UC H-UC-2
Load (kN)

800 1000 H-UC-1

Load /KN
600 800
H-UC-2
C' D
400
600
C''
200 B' N-RC
400 c
0 A'' B''
pcr p0.1 p0.2 pu A' C
200
a b
Fig. 7. Comparison of the characteristic test load. A B
0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
Width of main crack /mm
1400 Fig. 9. Load-crack width of slab specimens.

1200
N-UC
under NBM with UHPC at tension side (H-UC-1 and N-UC), crack-
1000 H-UC-1 ing load was obviously higher and development of cracking was
H-UC-2 slower than the unstrengthened slab due to high tension strength
Load /kN

800
600 E N-RC
C while development of cracking was slightly delayed.
400
B
N-UC
200
A D H-UC-1
0
0 5 10 15 20
Deflection /mm
Fig. 8. Load-deflection curves.
strain hardening [10] in UHPC layer. Steel fibers were stretched out
slowly in the interface of cracks; internal forces loaded on UHPC
matrix were also transferred slowly into steel in UHPC. Although
loading at later period around 1100 kN, a slight decrease in slope
in the curve for H-UC-1 was observed.
For the strengthened slab with UHPC cured by normal temper-
ature (N-UC), because of smaller preloading crack width and closed
cracks after unloading with lower damage severity in RC, the tan-
gent slope of load-deflection curve of N-UC kept larger than that of
N-RC from initiation to end, which indicates that flexure stiffness
was higher than that for unstrengthened RC. Also, observation
about gradual decrease in tangent slope was found due to strain
hardening of UHPC at tension face with only some fluctuations in
point E. It is worth noting that although high temperature curing
can improve mechanical performance of UHPC, overall stiffness
of N-UC slab was higher than that of H-UC-1 by comparing their
load-deflection curves in Fig. 8. This is due to existing of much
smaller preloading crack width in RC for N-UC, this indicates that
the higher damage severity leads to much more effects on stiffness
of strengthened slabs than influence of curing conditions for UHPC,
giving rise to a larger reduction in stiffness of RC-UHPC composite
slab and vice versa.
4.3. Load-main crack width curves
At every load step, main crack width for NSC or UHPC in tension
zone was monitored, and load versus main crack width curves of
slabs were obtained in Fig. 9. Overall, for the strengthened slab
and ductility of UHPC layer. As preloading cracked NSC was located
at tension zone for the strengthened slab under PBM (H-UC-2), the
cracking load was lower than that of the unstrengthened slab
As can be seen from Fig. 9, cracking load for the strengthened
N-RC slab under PBM (H-UC-2) with UHPC in compression and NSC in
tension was 39.4% smaller than that of N-RC, and cracks propa-
H-UC-2
gated along with original diagonal cracks of RC slab preloaded.
25 30 Cracking strength at midspan mainly depended on bonding
strength of cement paste or epoxy resin adhesive such that crack-
ing occurs earlier for H-UC-2. Extracting the data of load with main
crack width at 0.1 mm and 0.2 mm as well as ultimate load of the
unstrengthened slab, it was noted that main crack width of H-UC-2
at aforementioned three load levels was only 90%, 50% and 27.8% of
that of N-RC respectively. Thus, during later period of propagation
and development of cracks, using UHPC strengthening at compres-
sion side obviously restrained the development of cracks of RC
slabs and effectively improved carrying load capacity at different
limited crack width in Code [18] for RC bridge deck. The reason
for that, on the one hand, was that UHPC overlay increased slab
depth and resulting flexural inertia also increased. Comparing to
the unstrengthened slab, at same positive moment, tension stress
of steel at the bottom of RC layer of the strengthened slab was
smaller and then the development of cracks was delayed. On the
other hand, compression strain in UHPC layer was smaller due to
its higher elastic modulus than NSC, leading to tension strain in
steel at the bottom of RC slab to decrease further when the
cross-section rotated, which also restricted the propagation of
cracks. Moreover, for H-UC-2, main crack width propagated slowly
in the vicinity of 0.1 mm width (BC stage); and development veloc-
ity of main cracks started to increase after 0.1 mm width (CD
stage); in the next stage with width more than 0.35 mm at point
D, diagonal cracks in the bottom of NSC changed their directions
and transverse cracks appeared, having the tendency to penetrate
through the entire cross-section of the RC slab. With the significant
increase of main crack width, the experimental slab announced
failure. Overall, as reinforced UHPC was located in compression
and damaged RC slab located in tension, cracking load was not
improved in RC-UHPC composite slab under PBM while the devel-
opment of cracks in RC slab was delayed, resulting in improvement
of carrying load capacity at different limited crack width in RC slab.
For strengthened slabs under NBM (N-UC and H-UC-1) with
reinforced UHPC in tension, improvement of cracking resistance
 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359 355

was evident. Not only cracking load was far higher than that of N-
RC, but also the development of main crack width was slower. The 1400 H-UC-1-UHPC N-UC-NSC
law of cracks propagation for two strengthened slabs under nega- H-UC-1-NSC B
tive bending moment is as following: After cracking of UHPC, the 1200
amounts of cracks increased while crack width had no significant
H-UC-1-UHPC H-UC-1-NSC
change and cracks propagated along the transverse direction only. 1000
As load increased for a long period of time, the amounts of cracks N-UC-UHPC

remained almost unchanged while crack width started to increase,
especially for several main cracks appearing in UHPC layer with
crack width significantly increasing. Comparing the load-crack
width curves for N-UC with UHPC cured by normal temperature
and H-UC-1 with UHPC cured by high temperature steam, the
cracking load of N-UC was about 15.6% smaller than that of H-
UC-1 because steam curing can improve tensile performance of
UHPC. After cracking, both of the two strengthened slabs experi-
enced three stages in curves of load versus crack width: (1) A0 B0
and A00 B00 in Fig. 9 are stages of initiation of visible cracks appearing
in the UHPC layer. (2) In B0 C0 and B00 C00 stage, crack width developed
slowly while the amounts of cracks increased rapidly, encouraging
strain energy release in tension components and consequently
increasing carrying load capacity. After curves went through into
stage (3) (C0 D0 and C00 D00 ), both development of cracks grew faster
compared to the last stage. However, because previous damage
degree in RC slab in H-UC-1 at preloading stage was larger than
that in N-UC under normal temperature curing, segment C’D’ was
located above segment C00 D00 from comparison in Fig. 9, which
means that cracks propagated more quickly in H-UC-1 than in N-
UC. This produced a contrary fact [23,24] that UHPC strength with
steam curing is higher than that with normal temperature curing,
which indicates that damage severity of RC slabs can influence
much more on development of cracks in UHPC layer of strength-
ened slab under negative bending moment than effect of curing
conditions for UHPC.
4.4. Load-strain response
Load versus longitudinal tensile steel strain in strengthened and
unstrengthened slabs are plotted in Fig. 10. The strain curves were
based on the average values of strain gauges reading obtained by
the experiments. In Fig. 10, UHPC and NSC appended in model
number represent the tensile steel bars in UHPC layer and RC slab
respectively. For example, N-UC-UHPC and N-UC-NSC represent
the tensile steel bars in UHPC layer and RC slab of N-UC specimen
respectively.
As can be seen in Fig. 10, longitudinal tensile strain of steel bars
in UHPC layer in the strengthened slab under negative bending
moment (NBM) experienced three stages as load increased: (1)
Before point A in Fig. 10, steel strain increased linearly in elastic
stage with uncracked UHPC. (2) After UHPC cracking, strain incre-
ments of steel increased with tangent slope of curves more slightly
decreasing compared to steel in NSC. This is because tensile
strength of UHPC still acted due to bridging effect of steel fiber
after cracking, which was not the same as NSC where all tensile
force was transferred into steel after NSC cracking. In this stage,
Load/kN
800 H-UC-2-NSC
600 N-RC-NSC
400 A N-UC-UHPC
N-UC-NSC
200 N-RC-NSC
H-UC-2-NSC
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Fig. 10. Load-strain of tensile reinforcement curves.
of tensile steel in the RC slab, crack resistance of RC slab was
obviously improved by strengthening of UHPC.
4.5. Load-slip curve of UHPC-RC interface
Load-slip curves of strengthened slabs are shown in Fig. 11. The
slip means the interface slip between UHPC and RC layer measured
by dial gauges which were set at four locations at interface near
slab supports approximately. Results indicate that, when load
increased to about 20%–25% (Point A) of ultimate load of strength-
ened slabs, the slip occurred initially. In the stage AB, as the load
increased, the slip in all slabs slowly and linearly increased with
relatively small slip displacement of no more than 0.5 mm. When
the load approached 1070 kN (83.3% of ultimate load), 734.3 kN
(85.4% of ultimate load) and 990 kN (73.9% of ultimate load) for
H-UC-1, H-UC-2 and N-UC at point B respectively, the velocity of
slip occurring in the slab end increased significantly while tangent
slope decreased nonlinearly. At failure, the maximum slip among
three slabs was observed in N-UC at 3.526 mm displacement. From
development of slip in load-slip curves, prior to 80% of ultimate
load on strengthened slabs, the slip in the UHPC-RC interface lin-
early and slowly developed. Thus, it is expected that the effect of
slip on integrity of strengthened slab was negligible.
5. Flexural capacity calculation of the strengthened slab
In order to analyze the flexural capacity of slabs strengthened
by reinforced UHPC, the constitutive models for UHPC, NSC and
1400
1200
1000 B
B Inflection point of slip acceleration
Load /kN

tensile steel still performed elastically. (3) After load approached

ultimate load (point B) and several wider main cracks were found 800 B
in UHPC overlay, steel in UHPC yielded due to bearing much more 600
H-UC-1
load. Likewise, tensile steel in the RC slab in strengthened slabs
performed three stages similar with longitudinal steel in UHPC. It 400 N-UC
can be noted that using UHPC strengthening, at same load level, 200 A Slip starting point H-UC-2
tensile stress of steel in the RC layer of the strengthened slab
was obviously less than that of the unstrengthened slab (N-RC), 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
especially for the strengthened slab under NBM. The reduction of Slip /mm
strain in steel in the RC slab can effectively decrease or control
the crack width of the RC slab. Therefore, from view of behavior Fig. 11. Load-slip curves.
356 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359

steel were chosen as follows: UHPC exhibiting ultrahigh tension b Asu

Au Asu
strength and ductility [25–27] and strain hardening in tension
a1
UHPC Tu Tus εut
εsu

h1
was accompanied with multi-cracking and energy dissipation,
a2 Tst εub
encouraging materials to have higher cracking strength. Cornelius εst

h3
Oesterlee et al. [8,28] conducted flexural experiments on UHPC-RC Ast
Ast
composite structures and results indicating that reinforced UHPC Neutral axis
Ac Mcr

h2
performed obvious strain hardening behavior while still having
Asb

yc
RC Cc
good load capacity after UHPC cracking. Thus, during calculation
Asb εsb
of cracking capacity and ultimate flexure capacity of RC slabs a3 εcb Csb
strengthened by reinforced UHPC, UHPC behaviors in tension were
assumed to be bilinear stress-strain curve, with the strain harden- Fig. 13. Analytical model of strengthened slab under negative cracking moment.
ing stage coming after the linear elastic stage [27] as can be seen in 8
Fig. 12, where f ut represents visible-cracking strength; eut and euu < esu ¼ ðh3 a1 Þeut est ¼ ðh3 h1ha2 Þeut
h3
represent cracking strain and ultimate strain respectively. In this
3
ð1Þ
model, visible-cracking strength (refer to Table 2) is assumed the
: eub ¼ ðh3 h1 Þeut
h3
esb ¼ ðyc ah33 Þeut ecb ¼ yche3ut
same as ultimate strength of UHPC. UHPC behaviors in compres-
Because of the difference in UHPC and NSC elastic modulus,
sion was also assumed as bilinear stress-strain curve, combining
transformed-section method can be used to calculate the neutral
elastic and plastic plateau based on France code [2]. An elasto-
axis depth yc of RC-UHPC composite section in elastic stage.
perfectly plastic model, i.e. double-folded line model, was used to
calculate the reinforcement bars in tension and compression; Eu Au ðh2 þ h1 =2Þ þ Ec Ac h2 =2
yc ¼ ð2Þ
strain hardening is negligible after yielding. NSC in compression Eu Au þ Ec Ac
was represented using constitutive modelling in accordance with
All internal forces (T u , T us , T st , C c and C sb ) in Fig. 13 can be
code for design of concrete structures (GB50010-2010) in China
expressed as the product of stress and the cross sectional area cor-
[29].
respondingly. Then, the predicted flexural cracking moment capac-
ity is calculated by taking moment of forces about the neutral axis
5.1. Cracking moment capacity of strengthened slab under negative
location as given below.
bending moment  
Ec ecb by2c Eu ðeut þ eub Þbh1 h1
Mcr ¼ þ h3 
Because of low permeability of UHPC matrix in water and gas, 3 2 2
its durability did not change with the presence of microcracks with þ Es ðesb Asb ðyc  a3 Þ þ est Ast ðh2  yc  a2 Þ þ esu Asu ðh3  a1 ÞÞ ð3Þ
width less than 0.05 mm [30]. Thus, cracking moment of strength-
where eut , eub , esu , est , esb and ecb represent strain at the top and bot-
ened slab under NBM (negative bending moment) can be defined
tom fiber of UHPC layer, tension strain of steel in UHPC layer and RC
as the moment corresponding to the first visible crack (approxi-
layer, compression strain of steel in RC layer and strain at the bot-
mately with 0.04–0.05 mm width) occurrence on the top of UHPC
tom fiber of RC respectively. Au , Ac , Asu , Ast and Asb denote cross-
layer. Fig. 13 shows the strain distribution profiles and analytical
section area of UHPC, RC, steel in UHPC, tension and compression
model for calculation of cracking moment of strengthened slab
steel in RC respectively. Es , Ec and Eu are elastic modulus of steel,
under NBM at threshold state of cracking. The slip at the interface
NSC and UHPC respectively. T u , T us and T st represent the tensile
between UHPC and NSC was neglected before cracking and plane
resultant forces of UHPC layer, steel bar in UHPC layer and in RC
sections assumption was applied for composite section. The UHPC
slab under the threshold state of cracking respectively. C c and C sb
fiber in tension at the outmost approached visible-cracking
are the compressive resultant forces of NSC and steel bar in RC slab
strength f ut and its corresponding cracking strain eut of UHPC (both
under the threshold state of cracking, respectively.
referred to Table 2). Moreover, due to existing cracks in NSC during
preloading, tensile contribution of NSC layer for calculation of
5.2. Ultimate flexural capacity of the strengthened slab
cracking moment does not count.
Cracking strain eut at top fiber of UHPC was selected and then all
5.2.1. The strengthened slab under negative bending moment
other strains, including steel strain in UHPC layer, strain at the bot-
For the strengthened slab under negative bending moment at
tom of the UHPC, steel strains in RC layer and strain at the bottom
ultimate state, NSC in compression region at RC layer approached
of RC can be expressed byeut according to geometrical relations of
designed compression strength and internal steel in compression
similar triangles.
zone also yielded (f y ). Moreover, the steel in tension at UHPC layer
and RC layer both yielded (f y ). As UHPC has higher ductility in ten-
sion and can continue bearing applied load after cracking, accord-
ing to Fig. 12, bilinear constitutive model in tension for UHPC
σ assumed that stress at the top of reinforcement UHPC still kept
its cracking strength f ut (referred to Table 2) until failure. Fig. 14
Strain-hardening stage
fut shows analytical model of strengthened slab under negative ulti-
mate moment based on simple plastic theory of composite section
for calculation. In the analytical model in Fig. 14, the tension stress
distributes evenly along the height of UHPC. The calculation
assumed that stress reached a cracking strength f ut .
The value of compression concrete depth xn at RC layer is
Eu obtained by the equilibrium of axial forces:
Elastic Multi-cracking ε T uu þ T uus þ T ust ¼ C uc þ C usb , as simplified in equation (4)
ε ut ε uu Au f ut þ f y ðAsu þ Ast - Asb Þ
xn ¼ ð4Þ
f cb
Fig. 12. Tensile constitutive model of UHPC.
 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359 357

b Asu Then, the predicted flexural moment capacity M þ u of the

Au UHPC Asu fut f
Tuu Tuus strengthened slab under positive bending moment is calculated
a1 y

h1
by taking moment of forces about the neutral axis location at UHPC
a2 Tust layer as given below.
Ast fy

h3
Ast RC Mu- f u bx20 f ut b
Mþu ¼
2
h2 þ ðh1  x0 Þ þ f y Ast ðh1 þ a2  x0 Þ þ f y Asb ðh  a3  x0 Þ
Neutral axis fc 2 2
A sb Cuc ð7Þ
Asb fy
xn

xn
a3 Cusb where f u , f ut represent cube compressive strength of UHPC and
cracking strength respectively; C u represents compressive resultant
Fig. 14. Analytical model of strengthened slab under negative ultimate moment. forces in UHPC; T ub , T ust and T usb represent tensile resultant forces in
UHPC, tensile resultant forces in steel at the top and bottom of RC
layer respectively.

Then, the predicted flexural moment capacity M  u of the 5.3. Validation

strengthened slab under negative bending moment is calculated
by taking moment of forces about the neutral axis location as given
below.
 
h1
M u ¼ f ut bh1 h3  þ f y Asu ðh3  a1 Þ þ f y Ast ðh3  h1  a2 Þ
2
f c bx2n
þ f y Asb ðxn  a3 Þ þ
2 formula for calculation of flexure capacity of strengthened slabs by
where T uu , T uus and T ust represent tensile resultant forces in UHPC,
tensile resultant forces in steel in UHPC and tensile resultant forces
in steel in RC layer under ultimate state respectively. C usb and C uc
represent compressive resultant forces in steel in RC slab, and com-
pressive resultant forces in NSC in RC respectively. f y is yield
strength of steel, and f c is cube compressive strength of NSC.
5.2.2. The strengthened slab under positive bending moment
Fig. 15 shows analytical model of the strengthened slab under
positive ultimate moment at ultimate state where entire section
of the RC slab is in tension and steel inside yielded as well as
NSC cracked without contribution for flexure capacity. As UHPC
with high ductility has double-folded line constitutive model in
tension shown in Fig. 12, when calculating flexure ultimate capac-
ity in strengthened slab under positive bending moment as can be
seen in Fig. 15, UHPC in compression was assumed to evenly reach
cube compression strength f u and UHPC in tension evenly reached
cracking strength f ut (both referred to Table 2). Because the steel
reinforcement in UHPC is located close to plastic neutral axis, the
contribution on flexure ultimate capacity does not count.
The value of compression concrete depth x0 in UHPC layer is
obtained by the equilibrium of axial forces: T usb þ T ust þ T ub ¼ C u ,
as simplified in Eq. (6)
f y Ast þ f y Asb þ f ut bh1
x0 ¼
bðf ut þ f u Þ
b Asu
Au UHPC Asu
a1
x0
h1
Formula (3), (5) and (7) were used to calculate cracking
moment and ultimate flexure capacity, and calculated results are
listed in Table 5. In addition, in Table 5, predicted results by for-
mula presented in this paper were also listed in order to compare
with experimental results in literature (Katrin Habel, etc [8],
Muhammad Safdar, etc [14]) and validate the applicability of these
ð5Þ
UHPC. The results from comparison showed good agreement
between experimental and analytical value for all slabs with ratio
of calculated value to experimental value in range of 0.985–1.011
and coefficient of variance (COV) in range of 2.35%–10.35%, which
demonstrates that the Eqs. (3), (5) and (7) can be potentially used
to predict the cracking and ultimate flexure capacity of strength-
ened slabs by reinforced UHPC. However, the authors suggest that
more test data relating to flexural experiments on UHPC-RC com-
posite slabs with different parameters are needed to verify the
prevalent applicability of the proposed theoretical equations.
It is worth to note that theoretical cracking moment M cr calcu-
lated by Eq. (3) was larger than experimental results in this paper,
especially for strengthened slab (H-UC-1) under high temperature
steam curing with 15.4% higher than experimental cracking
moment, which will result in unsafe calculated values of cracking
moment by proposed formula (3) in design. This is because in
actual loading, longitudinal stress magnitude in UHPC at a position
adjacent to concentrated wheel load point was larger than that
apart from load point. In other words, longitudinal stress distribu-
tion in UHPC was uneven along transverse direction with stress
gradually decreasing from load position to flange, which also can
be seen from the fact that the observed first short visible crack
appeared in the vicinity of the load point without cracks propagat-
ing along the transverse direction throughout and UHPC apart from
load point did not reach its cracking strength and crack. However,
ð6Þ
in the analysis model of formula (3), it is assumed that the top of
UHPC layer in strengthened slab reaches its cracking strength uni-
formly within the whole lateral width (b). The difference between
the assumption in analysis model and the actual stress distribution
makes the calculation results for cracking moment of the RC-UHPC
composite slabs larger than that of the experiments, resulting in
fu Cu calculated cracking moment resistance of the strengthened slab

a2 Tub f ut being unsafe. Thus, in order to predict cracking moment much

more accurately under local loading, the effect of longitudinal
Ast Tust fy stress distribution unevenly along transverse direction was consid-
Ast
+ ered. Authors suggest, when calculating cracking moment in bridge
h2
h

Mu
A sb RC
deck strengthened by UHPC or wide-flange structures, a reduction
Asb Tusb fy coefficient for cracking moment calculated based on the whole lat-
a3 eral width (b) needs to be included to make cracking resistance of
strengthened slab safer.
Fig. 15. Analytical model of strengthened slab under positive ultimate moment.
M0cr ¼ a  M cr ð8Þ
358 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 215 (2019) 347–359
Table 5
Comparison between experimental and calculation results.
Item Cal (kN.m) Exp (kN.m) Cal/Exp
The study
Label H-UC-1(2)* N-UC H-UC-1(2)* N-UC H-UC-1(2)*
M cr 233.6 259.2 202.5 240 1.154
Mu 979.1 999.1 1005 936 0.974
M uþ 612.4 / 645 / 0.976
Note: Cal represents calculated results by formula (3), (5) and (7); Exp represents experimental results. COV represents coefficient of variation of the Cal/Exp. In column*,
values in rows of M cr and M 
u represent cracking moment and ultimate moment of H-UC-1 under high temperature curing while value in row of M u
moment of H-UC-2 under high temperature curing.
0
where M cr represents modified cracking moment of bridge deck or
wide-flange structures strengthened by UHPC; Mcr is calculated
value by formula (3); a is reduction coefficient and can be equal
to 0.85 derived by experimental results in this paper. However,
more test data is needed to verify the reasonable range and applica-
bility of value a.
6. Conclusion
This paper presents the results of an experimental and analyti-
cal study to investigate the flexural behavior of slabs strengthened
with ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) layer. The following
conclusions may be drawn regarding the outcome of the study:
(1) Failure mode for RC slabs strengthened by UHPC overlay was
similar to most types of flexural failure typically. When fail-
ure of the strengthened slab under negative bending
moment occurred, the amounts of cracks distributed densely
at the top surface of UHPC overlay in tension were found and
wider main cracks without propagating the entire depth of
UHPC were also observed. In addition, NSC at compression
region in midspan crushed. When failure of the strength-
ened slab under positive bending moment occurred, cracks
in the RC slab running through the entire section of the RC
slab were observed and discrete cracks near the interface
in UHPC layer appeared, with the top surface of UHPC in
compression not crushing.
(2) As UHPC has high compression and tension strength and high
ductility, cracking capacity in the strengthened slab under
negative bending moment with UHPC in tension was signifi-
cantly improved with cracking load over one time higher than
that of the intact RC slab. For the strengthened slab under pos-
itive bending moment, UHPC in compression cannot improve
the cracking capacity while the development of crack width in
later period of loading stage was delayed.
(3) Flexure ultimate capacity of the damaged RC slab strength-
ened by UHPC overlay was significantly enhanced with
about 2.0–2.5 times and 30% improvement of flexure ulti-
mate capacity for the strengthened slab under negative
bending moment and under positive bending moment
respectively, compared to the intact RC slab.
(4) Stiffness of the damaged RC bridge deck increased signifi-
cantly after usage of UHPC and linear range of stiffness of
the strengthened slab was also prolonged, especially for
UHPC layer located at the tension face of bridge deck (the
strengthened slab under negative bending moment).
(5) The effect of the cracking damage degree of RC slab on stiff-
ness of the strengthened slab was higher than that of curing
conditions on UHPC overlay. The higher damage degree was,
the lower the stiffness of the strengthened slab, and vice
versa.
Katrin Habel [8] Muhammad Safdar [14] Mean COV (%)
N-UC R5 R10 /
1.054 0.903 0.901 0.915 0.985 10.35
1.067 0.949 0.967 1.100 1.011 5.85
/ / / 1.023 0.999 2.35
þ
represents ultimate
(6) Tension stress in steel reinforcement in the RC slab
decreased effectively after strengthening of UHPC overlay,
which reduced or controlled the crack width and restrained
propagation of cracks as well.
(7) Basically, the interface slip between UHPC and RC was
slightly and linearly developed before loading at 80% of ulti-
mate load while at loading close to ultimate status, slip
started to increase rapidly. It should be noted that shear fail-
ure did not occur at the interface of UHPC-RC when flexural
failure in the strengthened slab happened.
(8) Results from theoretical calculation formula of flexure
capacity of RC-UHPC composite proposed in this paper agree
well with some relevant experimental results, indicating
cracking and flexure capacity of strengthened slabs can be
predicted by proposed theoretical formula to a certain
extent.
Conflict of interest
None.
Acknowledgements
This study was made possible with the support of National Nat-
ural Science Foundation of China (Grant 51578226 and 51778221)
and the Major Program of Science and Technology of Hunan Pro-
vince (Grant No. 2017SK1010). The authors would like to express
their appreciation to facilities for casting concrete slabs and con-
ducting experiments that contributed to this paper.
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