THE ROLE OF 3-DIMENSIONAL FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS IN PLATE BONDING USING ADVANCED COMPOSITE MATERIALS

The world's highway infrastructure is facing major problems with many of its bridges being in need of strengthening as a result of increased traffic, increased vehicle loads and general deterioration. Many bridges in Europe and the UK, if not strengthened by 1999, are in danger of facing weight restrictions as a result of the 40 tonne European directive requirements. This paper briefly introduces work undertaken under the ROBUST research project which has been looking into the uses of carbon fibre composite plates for strengthening reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges. The role of the finite element method in predicting the measured experimental results carried out in the project and its reliability in generating design data are discussed. Some of the problems associated with prediction of nonlinear behaviour of cracked reinforced and prestressed concrete beams using the finite element method are examined. The results obtained from FE analysis and experimental tests are compared with recommendations. For the covering abstract see ITRD E111699.