1st International Symposium on Shape Memory Alloys in Infrastructure
Published September 17, 2026 | Version v1
Conference paper Open

BRIDGE DECK REHABILITATION WITH A SYSTEM OF COUPLED PRESTRESSING PLATES AND SHAPE MEMORY ALLOYS

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Description

This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation of a coupled prestressing plate system incorporating NiTiNb shape memory alloy (SMA) Adaptive Prestressing System (APS) assemblies for the rehabilitation of cracked reinforced concrete (RC) bridge decks. In the experimental phase, a bridge deck specimen is subjected to two million load cycles, which create eight transverse cracks and a midspan deflection of 11.7 mm. The damaged specimen is then repaired with a coupled prestressing plates (CPP) system comprising two prefabricated RC plates coupled through six APS assemblies. The activation of the SMA fuses successfully transfers prestressing forces into the specimen, producing crack closures of up to 53% and reductions of 12% in residual midspan deflection and 21% in reinforcement strains during cyclic loading. The results demonstrate the ability of the proposed approach to restore a portion of the structural capacity of damaged bridge decks. In the numerical phase, a finite element framework is developed to simulate the initiation and propagation of cracks, as well as their closure after the CPP system is activated. The model shows good agreement with the experimental results, predicting a crack healing ratio of 24.6% compared with the 25.0% measured experimentally. A parametric analysis considering various APS configurations indicates that crack closure increases with both SMA area and active length, and healing efficiencies of up to 84% are achieved using full-length SMA configurations. Overall, this study provides evidence of the potential of CPP systems for rehabilitating bridge decks and establishes preliminary design guidance for balancing material requirements and target crack closures.

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