Shear resistance of bridge decks without shear reinforcement

This paper presents experimental and numerical investigations of a research project, carried out to examine whether bridge deck slabs under concentrated wheel loads exhibit reserves of shear capacity, which have been neglected in the current Eurocode design provisions so far. Tests conducted on large-scale cantilever slabs under concentrated loads demonstrated significant load redistributions after the formation of bending and diagonal shear cracks. The evaluation of the test results showed, that the current design formula leads to rather conservative values of shear capacity for bridge deck slabs when combined with a shear force distribution according to linear elastic slab analysis. A beneficial effect of a tapered slab bottom on the shear capacity, as implied by most codes, could not be verified with these tests.