Durability Assessment of 15- to 20-Year-Old GFRP Bars Extracted from Bridges in the US. I: Selected Bridges, Bar Extraction, and Concrete Assessment
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VIEW THE ORIGINAL ARTICLEPublication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 25, Issue 2
Abstract
Glass fiber–reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars have been used in concrete structures as an alternative to steel bars due to their noncorrosive behavior. However, due to the lack of full understanding of long-term performance, their use as internal reinforcement is still limited. To evaluate the durability of in-service GFRP bars under natural exposure, a collaborative project including four organizations investigated the conditions of GFRP bars and their surrounding concrete from bridges with 15–20 years of service. The aim of Part I of a two-paper series is to describe the bridge structures, methods of extraction, and the results of concrete testing, wheras Part II focuses on GFRP bar performance. The extracted bars were tested for physical, mechanical, and chemical properties, and the surrounding concrete was evaluated for chloride penetration, pH, and carbonation depth at the level of reinforcement. Results showed that carbonation and chloride may have reached the depth of the GFRP bars. This paper discusses the process of extraction of the bars, including the location and type of the selected bridge, and the concrete tests performed in terms of procedure, results, and observations.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Strategic Development Council (SDC) of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and NSF Industry/University Center for the Integration of Composites into Infrastructure (CICI) at the University of Miami under Grant No. NSF-1916342 for providing the funding that allowed the extraction of the cores and the distribution of specimens to four laboratories for the performance of the tests and the Tier 1 ReCAST University Transportation Center for supporting a portion of the laboratory testing and evaluation. Similarly, the authors acknowledge the collaboration and help provided by the state and local authorities that have jurisdiction on the selected bridges for allowing this research to take place. Several other individuals provided technical support to this endeavor. In particular, the authors thank Jason Cox of Missouri S&T, and Ryan Koch, Bryan Barragan, Doug Gremel, Mala Nagarajan, and Nelson Yee of Owens Corning Infrastructure Solutions. The opinions and findings expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsor.
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Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 25 • Issue 2 • April 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 16, 2020
Accepted: Oct 30, 2020
Published online: Jan 23, 2021
Published in print: Apr 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jun 23, 2021
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