FEA of Complex Bridge System with FRP Composite Deck

Innovative fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite highway bridge deck systems are gradually gaining acceptance in replacing damaged/deteriorated concrete and timber decks. FRP bridge decks can be designed to meet the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) HS-25 load requirements. Because a rather complex sub- and superstructure system is used to support the FRP deck, it is important to include the entire system in analyzing the deck behavior and performance. In this paper, we will present a finite-element analysis (FEA) that is able to consider the structural complexity of the entire bridge system and the material complexity of an FRP sandwich deck. The FEA is constructed using a two-step analysis approach. The first step is to analyze the global behavior of the entire bridge under the AASHTO HS-25 loading. The next step is to analyze the local behavior of the FRP deck with appropriate load and boundary conditions determined from the first step. For the latter, a layered FEA module is proposed to compute the internal stresses and deformations of the FRP sandwich deck. This approach produces predictions that are in good agreement with experimental measurements.

[1]  Abdul-Hamid Zureick,et al.  Fiber-reinforced polymeric bridge decks , 1995 .

[2]  Shahram Sarkani,et al.  Stochastic Fatigue Damage Accumulation of FRP Laminates and Joints , 1999 .

[3]  K. M. Mao,et al.  A global-local finite element method suitable for parallel computations , 1988 .

[4]  C. Sun,et al.  Characteristics of three-dimensional stress fields in plates with a through-the-thickness crack , 2000 .

[5]  K R White,et al.  Condition surveys of concrete bridge components: User's manual , 1988 .

[6]  Jose P Gomez,et al.  LABORATORY AND FIELD TESTING OF COMPOSITE BRIDGE SUPERSTRUCTURE , 2000 .

[7]  M. Baucus.  Transportation Research Board , 1982 .

[8]  D. Foster,et al.  DESIGN AND INSTALLATION OF FIBER-REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITE BRIDGE , 2000 .

[9]  R. Gibson.  Principles of Composite Material Mechanics , 1994 .

[10]  Robert C. Creese,et al.  A conference on polymer composites: Infrastructure renewal and economic development , 1999 .

[11]  Hwai Chung Wu,et al.  Failure analysis of FRP sandwich bus panels by finite element method , 2003 .

[12]  Harry W. Shenton,et al.  ADVANCED COMPOSITE BRIDGES IN DELAWARE , 1998 .

[13]  Sreenivas Alampalli,et al.  REHABILITATION AND FIELD TESTING OF AN FRP BRIDGE DECK ON A TRUSS BRIDGE , 2002 .

[14]  John J. Lesko,et al.  PERFORMANCE OF TUBE AND PLATE FIBERGLASS COMPOSITE BRIDGE DECK , 2000 .

[15]  Lawrence C. Bank,et al.  Accelerated Test Methods to Determine the Long-Term Behavior of FRP Composite Structures: Environmental Effects , 1995 .

[16]  S. Emerson,et al.  AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials). 2001. A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets. Fourth Edition. Washington, D.C. , 2007 .