Test method to assess bonding characteristics of membrane layers in wearing course on orthotropic steel bridge decks

The French five-point bending (5PB) test provides a laboratory-scale test that allows studying the fatigue resistance of surfacing systems on orthotropic steel deck (OSD) bridges. The surfacing structure for OSD bridges in the Netherlands is mostly a multilayer system: top porous asphalt (PA) layer, guss asphalt (GA) layer, steel deck, and two membrane layers. In this paper, an analytical solution for the 5PB test setup is presented first. To understand better the influence of geometrical, mechanical, and structural parameters on the performance of the typical multilayer surfacing system of OSD bridges in the Netherlands, the 5PB test specimens with five structural layers have been investigated. The parametric study was performed at the numerical platform CAPA-3D, which was developed at the Section of Structural Mechanics of the Delft University of Technology. The thicknesses of the top PA layer, middle GA layer, and the steel plate were varied. The influences of the mechanical properties of both top and bottom membrane layers were studied. The sensitivities of those influence factors were evaluated by examination of the maximum tensile stress at the top surface of the PA layers and the strain distributions through the entire thickness of the specimen at two cross sections.