The Latest Research on Shear Connector Placement in Bridge Design [B22]

The industry demands full-depth precast deck panels to accommodate the time demands of accelerated bridge construction (ABC)--which introduces new design challenges. Pre-cast panels make it more difficult to achieve the uniform distribution that's possible with cast-in-place construction. Clustering the studs together into a discrete void, or pocket, in the deck panel is one solution, but legacy design rules (such as the AASHTO limits on pitch, minimum longitudinal spacing, and minimum transverse spacing) make squeezing an equal number of uniformly distributed shear connectors into a limited number of discrete pockets a challenge. Some designers also question the applicability of first principle shear flow calculations to discrete clusters of studs, noting that fatigue was typically the controlling limit-state. This session will review what researchers have found to address these concerns over the last eight years.

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