State-of-art of Asphalt surfacings on long-spanned orthotropic steel deck in China

Reliable and durable asphalt surfacing systems still remain to be desired for the long-spanned orthotropic steel bridges as the nationally and internationally reports on distresses in deck pavement. Based on ten-year research works, this paper has presented a brief review and discussion of the Chinese practices and experiences of deck pavement on long-spanned steel bridges, including issues of typical surfacing materials and their properties, main distresses in asphalt surfacing, and the basic characteristics of asphalt surfacing on orthotropic steel bridge decks. It is concluded that the behaviours of deck pavement on oithotropic steel bridge deck under truck load are coinplex contributed by geometric and material-dependent nonlinearity, coupling the global dynamic effects of the whole bridge systems. More efficient computational techniques are still desirable to couple global effects into local responses, to count the interfacial effects and interaction, and to evaluate the effect of predominant distress of fatigue cracking and de-bonding on the service life of this type of structure. Keyword: long-spanned steel bridge, orthotropic steel decks; asphalt surfacing system, local deflection behaviour; composite action; fatigue cracking