Saving Weight by Using Steel Sandwich Bridge Decks

Research Project, 2015 – 2019

The concept of light-weight steel sandwich elements has been used for example in marine applications. This type of innovative plate structure has a high stiffness to weight ratio and demands modern joining methods.
Todays practice with regards to the deck of all-steel bridges rests to steel-plates with longitudinal trapezoidal stiffeners. These orthotropic decks suffer severely from fatigue damage and high production costs. The steel-sandwich element is a promising replacer of this conventional steel-deck.
Using this type of element in bridge applications will enable a lighter steel structure with a higher utilization of the material. This reduces the CO2 foot-print and eases the on-sight assembly with reduced production cost as a result.
This kind of element has in previous research shown great potential. The aim for this project is investigate that potential and state its structural performance – in order to be an approved structural member of a bridge. That includes displaying its structural behavior when utilized in a bridge application, developing strength design formulations, optimization recommendations, investigations of life-time environmental performance, fatigue evaluations and developing element to element joints