EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON FAILURE MODE OF HINGED JOINT IN ASSEMBLY VOIDED SLAB BRIDGE

Based on assembly voided slab bridges with hinged joints, a full-scale model of an assembly voided slab bridge with the span of 8m is designed and made. The failure modes of a hinged joint under vehicle loads are discussed, such as the failure type, failure position and cracking load. The results show that the bottom of the hinged joint cracks along the interface between a voided slab and a hinged joint subjected to the action of bending tensile stress under a middle load. The cracking load is 70kN (1.0 times of a vehicle load), and the crack extend to the top of an interface at 140kN (2.0 times of a vehicle load). In order to ensure the mechanical behaviors of a hinged joint to be consistent with or close to that of a voided slab, some construction measures are suggested to delay the crack of the interface between a voided slab and a hinged joint extending from the bottom to the top of a slab.