Distortional analysis of laminated composite box girder: A review

Abstract

With increase of maintenance and durability issues in bridge industry have motivated researchers to explore laminated composite FRP box girders in bridges. Box beams have good eccentric load distribution and better stability characteristics due to their high torsional stiffness. The combination of box-girder with FRP is perfect for light weight long span bridges. The potential for application of FRP box section has been particularly high in deployable bridges used in defense, temporary bridges, emergency replacement bridges, FOB and short span light loaded vehicular bridges etc. The objective of this paper is to provide highlights of the most important references related to the development of current guide specifications for laminated composite FRP box girder/beam and to understand distortional behavior of thin walled box girder. In this study, an attempt is made to study the significance of the laminated composite FRP box girder & type, distortion effect on thin walled box girder, methods used for distortional analysis of box girder. There are very limited studies in the field of laminated composite FRP box girder. Most of the studies are on distortional behavior of steel box girder. There is not detailed study available on distortional behavior of laminated composite FRP box girder. Thus, there appears to be a dearth of information on the distortional behavior of laminated composite FRP box girder. The present state of art has motivated the interest to contribute towards a better understanding of distortional behavior of laminated composite FRP box girders.