Principles of designing asphalt pavement for orthotropic steel bridge decks

The existing studies on distresses in deck pavement indicate further research into the structural behaviours of orthotropic steel bridge decks is necessary to better understand this important issue. In this regard, this paper first presented a brief review of principles for the design of pavement on orthotropic steel plate decks. Second, critical issues including local displacement and negative bending behaviour under truck loading, main distresses in asphalt deck surfacing and their mechanism, and basic requirements for the asphalt surfacing were discussed in detail. Finally, a fatigue based mechanical-experimental design procedure was proposed for the designing of deck pavement. In addition, it is recommended that based on this study, a new theory to accurately describe the composite interaction between asphalt layer and steel deck plates, interaction between asphalt layer's fatigue and bonding membrane damage and their influences, and a more precise performance based design method can be established.