Abstract
Many bridges are subject to lateral damage for their girders due to impact by over-height vehicles collision. In this study, the optimum configurations of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) laminates were investigated to repair the laterally damaged prestressed concrete (PS) bridge girders. Experimental and analytical investigations were conducted to study the flexural behavior of 13 half-scale AASHTO type II PS girders under both static and fatigue loading. Lateral impact damage due to vehicle collision was simulated by sawing through the concrete of the bottom flange and slicing through one of the prestressing strands. The damaged concrete was repaired and CFRP systems (longitudinal soffit laminates and evenly spaced transverse U-wraps) were applied to restore the original flexural capacity and mitigate debonding of soffit CFRP longitudinal laminates. In addition to the static load tests for ten girders, three more girders were tested under fatigue loading cycles to investigate the behavior under simulated traffic conditions. Measurements of the applied load, the deflection at five different locations, strains along the cross-section height at mid-span, and multiple strains longitudinally along the bottom soffit were recorded. The study investigated and recommended the proper CFRP repair design in terms of the CFRP longitudinal layers and U-wrapping spacing to obtain flexural capacity improvement and desired failure modes for the repaired girders. Test results showed that with proper detailing, CFRP systems can be designed to restore the lost flexural capacity, sustain the fatigue load cycles, and maintain the desired failure mode.
Highlights
Many bridges have been struck by overheight vehicle collisions that may result in bridge failure
It is shown that a comparison between the failure load of control girder prestressed concrete (PS)-2 and repaired girders with 2 layers of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) shows that CFRP repair enhanced the flexural capacity by a range of 27.53–45.66 % compared to control girder with one less strand
The results show that the damage of cutting one of the prestressing strands resulted in 18.44 % loss in flexural capacity compared to that of the undamaged control girder (PS-1)
Summary
Many bridges have been struck by overheight vehicle collisions that may result in bridge failure. In the United States, between 25 and 35 bridges are damaged by colliding overheight vehicles every year, in each state (Fu et al 2003). Classifications for degrees of damage and applicable repair methods are presented in some literature (Kasan 2009). That reference was updated from NCHRP Project 12-21 (Shanafelt and Horn 1980, 1985). Previous research addressed flexural and shear strengthening of reinforced and prestressed concrete (PS) beams using FRP (Choi et al 2011; Ibrahim Ary and Kang 2012; Kang and Ibrahim Ary 2012). Several field studies indicated that FRP materials can be used to repair impacted PS bridge girders, after large losses of concrete cross-section and rupture of a small
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