Evaluation of GFRP Honeycomb Beams for the O’Fallon Park Bridge
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 9, Issue 6
Abstract
This paper presents a study on the evaluation of the static performance of a glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bridge deck that was installed in O’Fallon Park over Bear Creek west of the City of Denver. The bridge deck has a sandwich panel configuration, consisting of two stiff faces separated by a light-weight honeycomb core. The deck was manufactured using a hand lay-up technique. To assist the preliminary design of the deck, the stiffness and load-carrying capacities of four approximately 330 mm (13 in.) wide GFRP beam specimens were evaluated. The crushing capacity of the panel was also examined by subjecting four specimens to compression tests. The experimental data were analyzed and compared to results obtained from analytical and finite element models, which have been used to enhance the understanding of the experimental observations. The failure of all four beams was caused by the delamination of the top faces. In spite of the scatter of the tests results, the beams showed good shear strengths at the face-to-core interface as compared to similar panels evaluated in prior studies.
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Acknowledgments
This study was sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder in conjunction with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the City and County of Denver under FHWA’s Innovative Bridge Research and Construction Program. Dr. Jerry Plunkett of Kansas Structural Composites, Inc. (KSCI), which manufactured and installed the fiber-reinforced polymer deck in the bridge, was most supportive of the research work. The four beam specimens and the specimens for the crushing tests were contributed by KSCI, for which the writers are very grateful. The writers appreciate the helpful assistance of Thomas L. Bowen, manager of the Structures and Materials Testing Laboratory of the University of Colorado, and the laboratory assistants, Chris Baksa, Chris Cloutier, Steve Cole, and David Shaw, in the experimental work. The writers would like to express their gratitude to Professor Victor Saouma for providing the finite element program MERLIN.
References
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 9 • Issue 6 • December 2005
Pages: 545 - 555
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 19, 2005
Accepted: Apr 4, 2005
Published online: Dec 1, 2005
Published in print: Dec 2005
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