Experimental studies of the reusable steel deck forms for concrete slabs

Recently, many flyover steel bridges have been built due to high demand of transportation development mega cities in Vietnam, especially in Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi City. The steel bridges are selected as effective solutions in urban area because of their advantages such as rapid construction, aesthetic design, high performance. For the construction method of concrete deck slab, wood panels, plastic panels, and precast concrete panels are often used to reduce construction costs. From actual construction projects, these form solutions may not be suitable for large span over 2.0 meters and take more time to install and to dismantle. This study aims to develop an improved solution with reusable steel deck forms for bridge slabs which has been used as permanent deck forms in buildings. Experimental studies are conducted to investigate the frequency of reusability and to verify the bending capacity of the steel deck after many times of reuse. The experiments are separated into two phases including concrete casting stage and strength tests in laboratory. Bending strengths of reused forms are compared with that of new one. Results shows that steel deck forms are still in good condition and provide sufficient bending capacity after 10 times of concrete casting comparing. Therefore, reusable steel deck forms can be effectively applied in the construction of bridge slabs to optimize the construction time and cost.