217. DEVELOPMENT OF COMPOSITE REHABILITATION SYSTEMS FOR RAPID REPAIR AND CONSTRUCTION OF BRIDGE DECKS

Department: Structural Engineering
Faculty Advisor(s): Gilbert A. Hegemier

Primary Student
Name: Anna Pridmore
Email: abgoodma@ucsd.edu
Phone: 858-245-3436
Grad Year: 2009

Abstract
Development, structural testing and analytical investigations of rehabilitation systems for bridge decks using fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) are presented. One investigation explores the change in structural response due to the addition of near-surface-mounted (NSM) carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) reinforcement for increasing the capacity of the edge region of a reinforced concrete bridge deck. The motivation for rehabilitating bridge deck overhangs using NSM reinforcement is to increase the load carrying capacity of the region so that the overhang can accommodate the larger than designed for loads caused by the installation of sound barrier walls onto the edges of the bridge deck.

Another investigation involves the development of a hybrid FRP-concrete bridge system, where prefabricated composite panels act as both the formwork and reinforcement for the bridge deck. The design of this test system allows for a direct performance and reliability comparison between the prefabricated FRP structural formwork bridge deck system and a traditional steel reinforced concrete system. Two large scale, two cell box girder specimens have been fabricated and tested. The first test specimen was loaded monotonically until failure, which occurred at a level in excess of nine times AASHTO factored service load. The specimen was then repaired and retested using a ?field friendly? epoxy injection technique in order to reinstate proper load transfer between the concrete and the composite panels. The repaired specimen was retested and exhibited excellent performance characteristics, with a similar ultimate capacity to the original test. The second test specimen contained connection detailing that more closely modeled field construction conditions. The second test specimen was tested using monotonic as well as extensive cyclic loading. The experimental results from the two large scale specimens are detailed and comparisons are drawn regarding their relative performance.

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