Experimental and numerical study on pre-cambered deep deck-plate system

A pre-cambered deep deck-plate system has been developed that can realize a long span by offsetting the deflection caused by a construction load. In this study, finite element (FE) analysis is performed to examine the preload-camber relationship introduced into a deck and calculate the deflection reflecting the ponding effect that arises during concrete pouring. The FE analysis results showed that the stress of the bottom plate was half of the yield stress when the pre-camber of approximately 30 mm was introduced. Based on the FE results, a full-scale deep deck-plate is fabricated, a pre-camber is introduced, and concrete is poured to measure deflection. A deflection calculation formula that reflects the ponding effect is proposed, and the deflections yielded by the proposed model, experimental results, and FE results are compared. Results show that the proposed model can accurately estimate the deflection of non-supported deep deck-plate systems after concrete is poured.