Filament-Wound Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Bridge Deck Modules
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 7, Issue 3
Abstract
The demand for the development of efficient and durable bridge decks is a priority for most of the highway authorities worldwide. This paper summarizes the results of an experimental program designed to study the behavior of an innovative glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bridge deck recently patented in Canada. The deck consisted of a number of triangular filament wound tubes bonded with epoxy resin. GFRP plates were adhered to the top and bottom of the tubes to create one modular unit. The experimental program, described in this paper, discusses the evolution of two generations of the bridge deck. In the first generation, three prototype specimens were tested to failure, and their performance was analyzed. Based on the behavior observed, a second generation of bridge decks was fabricated and tested. The performance was evaluated based on load capacity, mode of failure, deflection at service load level, and strain behavior. All decks tested exceeded the requirements to support HS30 design truck loads specified by AASHTO with a margin of safety. This paper also presents an analytical model, based on Classical Laminate Theory to predict the load-deflection behavior of the FRP decks up to service load level. In all cases the model predicted the deck behavior very well.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
AASHTO. (1996). Standard specifications for highway bridges, 16th Ed., American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Washington DC.
Aref, A. J., Parsons, I. D., and White, S. (1999). “Manufacture, design and performance of a modular fiber reinforced plastic bridge.” Proc., 31st Int. SAMPE Technical Conf., J. E. Green and D. D. Howell, eds., Chicago, 581–591.
Bernetich, K., Briggs, D., and Viskocil, S. (1996). “SCRIMP fabrication of bridge decks.” 28th Int. SAMPE Technical Conf., Seattle, 1240–1248.
“Bridges.” (1999). 〈http://www.owenscorning.com/composites/applications/infra/bridge.html〉 (June 17, 1999).
“Composite Technology.” (1999). 〈http://www.martinmarietta.com/corpsite/about_mmm/technologies/t1_comp_technology.asp〉 (June 24, 1999).
Crocker, H., Mufti, A., Shehata, E., and Haldane-Wilsone, R. (2002). “Innovative fiber reinforced polymer bridge deck modules.” Presented at the 6th Int. Conf. on Short and Medium Span Bridges, Vancouver, Canada, August.
GangaRao, H., Thippeswamy, H., Shekar, V., and Craigo, C., (1999). “Development of glass fiber reinforced polymer composite bridge deck.” SAMPE J., 35(4), (July/August), 12–24.
Karbhari, V. M. (1996). “Fiber reinforced composite decks for infrastructure renewal.” Proc., 2nd Int. Advanced Composite Materials in Bridges and Structures Conf., M. M. El-Badry, ed., Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Montréal, 759–766.
Mallick, P.K. (1993). Fiber reinforced composites: Materials, manufacturing and design, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York.
Salim, Hani A., Davalos, Julio F., Qiao, Pizhong, and Kiger, Sam A.(1997). “Analysis and design of fiber reinforced plastic composite deck-and-stringer bridges.” Comput. Struct., 38(1–4), 295–307.
Zureick, A. H., Shih, B., and Munley, E.(1995). “Fiber-reinforced polymeric bridge decks.” Struct. Eng. Rev., 7(3), 257–266.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 7 • Issue 3 • August 2003
Pages: 266 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 17, 2001
Accepted: Sep 3, 2002
Published online: Jul 15, 2003
Published in print: Aug 2003
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.