Mechanical Behavior and Failure Mode of Steel–Concrete Connection Joints in a Hybrid Truss Bridge: Experimental Investigation

Abstract

The core part of a hybrid truss bridge is the connection joint which combines the concrete chord and steel truss-web members. To study the mechanical behavior and failure mode of steel–concrete connection joints in a hybrid truss bridge, static model tests were carried out on two connection joints with the scale of 1:3 under the horizontal load which was provided by a loading jack mounted on the vertical reaction wall. The specimen design, experimental setup and testing procedure were introduced. In the experiment, the displacement, strain level, concrete crack and experimental phenomena were factually recorded. Compared with the previous study results, the experimental results in this study demonstrated that the connection joints had the excellent bearing capacity and deformability. The minimum ultimate load and displacement of the two connection joints were 5200 kN and 59.01 mm, respectively. Moreover, the connection joints exhibited multiple failure modes, including the fracture of gusset plates, the slippage of high-strength bolts, the local buckling of compressive splice plates, the fracture of tensile splice plates and concrete cracking. Additionally, the strain distribution of the steel–concrete connection joints followed certain rules. It is expected that the findings from this paper may provide a reference for the design and construction of steel–concrete connection joints in hybrid truss bridges.