Accelerated bridge construction has quickly become the preferred method for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) as well as many other DOT’s across the United States. This type of construction requires the use of full depth precast panels for the construction of the bridge deck. The segmented deck panels produce transverse joints between panels and have come to be known as the weakest portion of the deck. Cracking often occurs at these joints and is reflected through the deck overlay where water accesses and begins corrosion of the reinforcement and superstructure below. For this reason post-tensioning of the deck panels is becoming a regular practice to ensure that the deck behaves more monolithically, limiting cracking. The current post-tensioning used by UDOT inhibits future replacement of single deck panels and requires that all panels be replaced once one panel is deemed defective. The new curved bolt connection provides the necessary compressive stresses across the transverse joints but makes future replacement of a single deck panel possible without replacing the entire bridge deck. To better understand the behavior of the new curved bolt connection under loadings, laboratory testing was undertaken on both the curved bolt and the current post-tensioning used by UDOT. The testing specimens included full-scale, full-depth, precast panels that were connected using both system. The testing induced typical stresses on the panels and connections, subjecting them to negative bending and shear. The overall performance of the curved bolt proved satisfactory. The moment capacity of both connections surpassed all theoretical calculations. The yield and plastic moments were 17% and 16% lower, respectively, than the UDOT post-tension system while at those moments deflection was relatively the same. Due to the anchorage location of the curved bolts, the reinforcement around the transverse joint received up to 5 times the strain of that of the post-tension connections. Although both systems performed well when subjected to shear forces and as compared to the theoretical capacities, the post-tension connection greatly surpassed the curved bolt in shear capacity.

The Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) techniques are gaining popularity among the departments of transportation (DOTs) due to their reductions of on-site construction time and traffic delays. One ABC technique that utilizes precast deck panels has demonstrated some advantages over normal cast-in-place construction, but has also demonstrated some serviceability issues such as cracks and water leakage to the transverse joints. Some of these problems are addressed by applying longitudinal prestressing. This thesis evaluates the service and ultimate capacities in both flexure and shear, of the finite element models of the post-tensioned system currently used by Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and a proposed curved-bolt system to confirm the experimental results. The panels were built and tested under negative moment in order to investigate a known problem, namely, tension in the deck concrete. Shear tests were performed on specimens with geometry designed to investigate the effects of high shear across the joint. The curved-bolt connection not only provides the necessary compressive stress across the transverse joint but also makes future replacement of a single deck panel possible without replacing the entire deck. Load-deflection, shear-deflection curves were obtained using the experimental tests and were used to compare with the values obtained from finite element analysis. In flexure, the ultimate load predicted by the finite element model was lower than the experimental ultimate load by 1% for the post-tensioned connection and 3% for the curved-bolt connection. The shear models predicted the ultimate shear reached, within 5% of the experimental values. The cracking pattern also matched closely. The yield and cracking moment of the curved-bolt connection predicted by the finite element model were lower by 13% and 2%, respectively, compared to the post-tensioned connection in flexure.