Performance Evaluation of New Corrugated-Type Embossments for Composite Deck

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the performance of new corrugated-type embossments developed by Vulcraft Research and Development for their 2VLI and 3VLI composite deck. Performance of deck with the proposed embossment types is compared with that of deck with the existing embossment type, resulting in the recommendation of which type to further investigate for production. The evaluation consists of uniformly loaded full-scale slab tests whose flexural strengths are compared with those given by different strength prediction methods that are alternatives to full-scale testing. The methods used in this study are the First Yield Method (Heagler 1992), the ASCE Appendix D Alternate Method (Standard 1992), and Widjaja's (1997) Iterative Method. Shear bond tests are also performed for deck with each embossment type to evaluate shear resistance specifically, and to provide shear bond data needed to perform the Iterative Method.