FRP Strengthening of Full-Scale PC Girders
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 14, Issue 5
Abstract
Every year, several prestressed concrete (PC) bridge girders are accidentally damaged by overheight vehicles or construction equipment impact. Although complete replacement is sometimes deemed necessary, repair and rehabilitation can be far more economical, especially when the time and the installation cost of the repair system are drastically reduced. The use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites to restore the original capacity of impacted PC girders are being increasingly considered for bridge applications due to their high strength-to-weight ratios, corrosion and fatigue resistance, their ease of transport and handling and their potential for tailorability. Experimental data on full-scale PC girders strengthened by using FRP laminates are very limited; the present paper is intended as an extension of a previous experimental work conducted by writers [as reported by M. Di Ludovico et al. ACI Struct. J. 102(5), 97–109 (2005)] on three full-scale PC specimens. In particular, tests on five full-scale (1,300 mm long, 1,050 mm high) PC I-shaped girders with RC slabs, designed according to ANAS (Italian Transportation Institute) standard specifications, are presented. One beam was used as control and the other four were intentionally damaged in order to simulate a vehicle impact by removing the concrete cover and by cutting a different percentage of tendons (17% on two specimens and 33% on the remaining two). The repair, by using externally bonded carbon FRP (CFRP) laminates installed by wet manual layup, was aimed at restoring the ultimate flexural capacity of the member, taking particular attention to the laminate’s anchoring system. Main experimental phases along with the comparison of tests results in terms of flexural capacity, deflections, strains, and failure modes are herein presented and discussed with reference to control, damaged, and CFRP strengthened specimens. The effectiveness of the adopted anchorage systems is also evaluated.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The experimental work was developed in the frame of the MiTRAS project. The theoretical work was supported by the consortium “Laboratories University Network of Seismic Engineering”—ReLUIS (Research Line 8) funded by the Italian Department of Civil Protection—Executive Project 2005–2008. The FRP strengthening of the PC girders was supported by MAPEI Spa., Milan, Italy.
References
American Concrete Institute (ACI). (2008). “Guide for the design and construction of externally bonded FRP systems for strengthening concrete structures.” ACI 440.2R-08, Farmington Hills, MI.
Casadei, P., Galati, N., Boschetto, G., Tan, K. Y., and Nanni, A. (2006). “Strengthening of impacted prestressed concrete bridge I-girder using near surface mounted C-FRP bars.” Proc., 2nd Int. fib Congress, CRC Press/Balkema, Leiden, The Netherlands.
China Association for Engineering Construction Standardization. (2003). “Technical specification for strengthening concrete structures with carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates (code of federal regulation).” CECS-146, Beijing.
Comite Euro-International du Beton-Federation International de la Precontrainte (CEB-FIP). (1990). “Model code.” Bulletin d’Information n. 203, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). (2004). “Guide for the design and construction of externally bonded FRP systems for strengthening existing structures.” CNR-DT 200/2004, Rome.
Di Ludovico, M., Lignola, G. P., Prota, A., and Consenza, E., (2010). “Nonlinear analysis of cross sections under axial load and biaxial bending.” ACI Struct. J., 107(4), in press.
Di Ludovico, M., Nanni, A., Prota, A., and Cosenza, E. (2005). “Repair of bridge girders with composites: Experimental and analytical validation.” ACI Struct. J., 102(5), 639–648.
Klaiber, F. W., Wipf, F. M., Russo, T. J., Paradis, R. R., and Mateega, R. E. (1999). “Field/laboratory testing of damaged prestressed concrete girder bridges.” Iowa DOT Rep. No. HR-397, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA.
Nanni, A. (1997). “Carbon FRP strengthening: New technology becomes mainstream.” Concr. Int., 19(6), 19–23.
Nanni, A., Di Ludovico, M., and Parretti, R. (2004). “Shear strengthening of a PC bridge girder with NSM CFRP rectangular bars.” Adv. Struct. Eng., 7(4), 297–309.
Nanni, A., Huang, P. C., and Tumialan, J. G. (2001). “Strengthening of impact damaged bridge girder using FRP laminates.” Proc., 9th Int. Conf. on Structural Faults and Repair, Engineering Technics, Edinburgh, U.K.
Parretti, R., Nanni, A., Cox, J., Jones, C., and Mayo, R. (2003). “Flexural strengthening of impacted PC girder with FRP composites.” Field applications of FRP reinforcement: Case studies, SP-215, S. Rizkalla and A. Nanni, eds., American Concrete Institute, Detroit, 249–262.
Reed, C. E., and Peterman, R. J. (2004). “Evaluation of prestressed concrete girders strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced sheets.” J. Bridge Eng., 9(2), 185–192.
Wipf, F. M., Klaiber, F. W., Rhodes, J. D., and Kempers, B. J. (2004). “Repair of impacted damaged prestressed concrete beams with CFRP.” Iowa DOT Project TR-428 Final Rep., Iowa Department of Transportation Highway Division and the Iowa Highway Research Board, Ames, IA.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 14 • Issue 5 • October 2010
Pages: 510 - 520
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: May 6, 2009
Accepted: Feb 2, 2010
Published online: Feb 8, 2010
Published in print: Oct 2010
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.