Characterisation of surfacing materials for orthotropic steel deck bridges. Part 1: Experimental work

The life span of surfacing materials like mastic asphalt on orthotropic steel deck bridges is quite short when compared with those of ordinary road pavements. Several problems including cracking and rutting of the surfacing materials have been reported in many countries. In order to get an insight into these problems, it is deemed necessary to represent the behaviour of the different materials and the geometry of the bridge structure in a realistic way. For this purpose, an extensive experimental programme was carried out and a nonlinear finite element constitutive model was developed. This is the first part of two papers on characterisation of the behaviour of two typical surfacing materials for orthotropic steel deck bridges. Results of monotonic uniaxial compression and tension performed at different temperatures and strain rates will be presented. Furthermore, the response of the materials will be described using a Desai-type material model.