Underwater Fiber–Reinforced Polymers Repair of Prestressed Piles in the Allen Creek Bridge
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 9, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper presents an overview of a demonstration project in which corroding prestressed piles located in tidal waters were wrapped underwater using carbon and glass fiber-reinforced polymer material. An innovative instrumentation scheme was developed to allow assessment of the prewrap and postwrap corrosion state using linear polarization. This system is simple to install and eliminates the need for wiring or junction boxes. The underwater wrap used a unique water-activated urethane resin system that eliminated the need for cofferdam construction. Linear polarization measurements taken before and after wrapping indicate that the corrosion rate in the wrapped specimens is consistently lower than those in its unwrapped counterpart. These preliminary findings are encouraging and suggest that underwater wrapping without cofferdam construction may provide a cost-effective solution for pile repair.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This study was performed in cooperation and with funding from the State of Florida and U.S. Department of Transportation. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The assistance and guidance of Mr. Jose Garcia and Mr. Steve Womble from the Florida Department of Transportation is gratefully acknowledged. The writers are indebted to Air Logistics, Pasadena, CA, for their assistance throughout this study. They especially thank Mr. Franz Worth and Mr. Steve Bazinet, who participated in the laboratory demonstration and also in the field wrap. The writers thank graduate students Mr. Ivan Gualtero, Mr. Kevin Johnson, Mr. Mike Stokes, and Mr. Kadir Uslu for their contribution.
The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the Florida or U.S. Departments of Transportation.
References
Air Logistics Corporation. (2002). Aquawrap repair system, Pasadena, Calif.
Bazinet, S., Cercone, L., and Worth, L. (2003). “Innovative FRP piling repair without the use of cofferdams.” Proc., 48th Int. SAMPE J. Conf., Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, Corvina, Calif., 2201–2206.
Fischer, J., Mullins, G., and Sen, R. (2000). “Strength of repaired piles.” Final Rep., Florida Department of Transportation, Tallahassee, Fla.
Halstead, J., Connor, J., Luu, K., Alampalli, S., and Minser, A. (2000). “Fiber-reinforced polymer wrapping of deteriorated concrete columns.” Transportation Research Record 1696, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 124–130.
Mindess, S., Young, J., and Darwin, D. (2003). Concrete, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Neale, K. W., and Labossiere, P. (1998). “Fiber composite sheets in cold climate rehab.” Concr. Int., 20(6), 22–24.
Scheffy, C. F. (1981). “Bridge deck deterioration—a 1981 perspective.” FHWA Memorandum, Federal Highway Administration Office of Research, Washington, D.C.
Sen, R. (2003). “Advances in the application of FRP for repairing corrosion damage.” Progress in Structural Engineering and Materials, 5(2), 99–113.
Sen, R., Mullins, G., and Snyder, D. (1999). “Ultimate capacity of corrosion damaged piles.” Final Rep., Florida Dept. of Transportation, Tallahassee, Fla.
Shahawy, M., Mullins, G., and Sen, R. (2004). “CFRP repair and strengthening of structurally deficient piles.” Transp. Res. Rec., manuscript under review.
Suh, K. S. (2002). “Effectiveness of CFRP in reducing corrosion rate of prestressed members.” MS thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla.
Suh, K. S., Mullins, G., Sen, R., and Winters, D. (2004). “Use of FRP for corrosion strengthening applications in a marine environment.” Interim Rep., Contract No. BC353 RPWO#37, University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla.
Tarricone, P. (1995). “Composite sketch.” Civ. Eng. Mag., 52–55.
Vaysburd, A. M., and Emmons, P. H. (2000). “How to make today’s repairs durable for tomorrow—corrosion protection in concrete repair.” Constr. Build. Mater., 14, 189–197.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 9 • Issue 2 • April 2005
Pages: 136 - 146
Copyright
© ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 2, 2003
Accepted: Mar 23, 2004
Published online: Apr 1, 2005
Published in print: Apr 2005
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.