Design, Construction, Testing, and Behavior of Driven Precast Concrete Piles Reinforced with GFRP Bars and Spirals
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 8
Abstract
Marine, coastal structures, and bridges deteriorate prematurely due to corrosion. Numerous failures have occurred in substructure members of these structures, such as piles, leading to very high repair and replacement costs. Problems related to corrosion could be resolved through the use of noncorroding materials such as fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars. This paper presents the design, construction details, driving test procedures, and results of the field dynamic driving testing of precast glass-FRP (GFRP) reinforced concrete (RC) piles, as well as laboratory test results, to determine the piles flexural strength. Four piles were longitudinally and transversally reinforced with GFRP bars, spirals, and ties. Two of the piles were 6.0 m (approximately 20 ft) long, were fabricated, instrumented, and were laboratory tested for flexural strength. The other two piles were 18.0 m (approximately 60 ft) in length, were field installed and dynamically monitored. They were driven and monitored at the Arthur Drive Bridge project site in Lynn Haven, Panama City, Florida. Pile driving and testing were performed with a Vulcan 512 single-acting air hammer. The embedded data collectors (EDCs) were used to monitor the piles during driving operations. Field driving observations and results indicate that no pile damage occurred during installation. GFRP spirals successfully confined the concrete core of the piles and prevented cover spalling during driving. The maximum tensile and compressive stresses measured in the piles were well within the allowable design limits. Design aids and recommendations for good driving practices for GFRP-RC piles were presented. The promising results presented for the driven precast GFRP-RC piles represent a further step toward field application.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their special thanks and gratitude to the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Ministère de l’enseignement supérieur, recherche, science et technologie du Québec, Canada Research Chair Program, the Fonds de la recherche du Quebec-Nature et Technologie (FRQ-NT) for their financial support, Pultrall Inc. (Thetford Mines, Quebec) for the donation of the GFRP reinforcement, and the technical staff of the Structural laboratory in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Sherbrooke. The authors would like to thank Gate Precast Company (Jacksonville, Florida), Smart Structures (Rivera Beach, Florida), and the contractor F&W Construction Company for fabricating, monitoring, driving, and testing the piles, respectively. Lastly, the authors would like to express their special thanks to FDOT and the University of North Florida (UNF), Florida, for logistic help in testing the piles.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- Af
- area of the bars below the mid-depth of the section to consider the effect of the uniformly distributed bars;
- Ef
- longitudinal elastic modulus of the GFRP bars;
- concrete cylinder strength;
- ffd
- design tensile strength of GFRP reinforcing bars;
- ffu
- ultimate tensile strength of GFRP reinforcing bars;
- Mc
- moment at a concrete strain equal to 0.001;
- Mn
- nominal moment capacity;
- Multimate
- ultimate moment;
- Sapc
- maximum allowed pile compressive stresses;
- Sapt
- maximum allowed pile tensile stresses;
- φda
- resistance factor for drivability analysis; equal to 1.0 in the case of concrete piles reinforced with GFRP bars;
- ρf
- reinforcement ratio;
- ρfb
- balanced reinforcement ratio;
- ɛcu
- maximum usable compressive strain in the concrete;
- ψc
- curvature at a concrete strain equal to 0.001 (service condition); and
- ψultimate
- curvature at ultimate.
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Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 8 • August 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 2, 2020
Accepted: Apr 11, 2021
Published online: Jun 3, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Nov 3, 2021
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