Durability of glass fiber-reinforced polymer bridge panel based on differential thermal analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry analysis

Abstract

Modern bridge structures need light decks with long durability and promising technical parameters. Glass fiber-reinforced polymer orthotropic bridge deck creates unconventional possibilities in bridge designing. Parallel identification of glass fiber-reinforced polymer deck panel by differential thermal analysis, spectroscopy analysis, scanning and optical microscope monitoring, dynamic mechanical analysis and differential scanning calorimetry analysis, tensile and flexural tests will be presented in the paper. Differential thermal analysis was carried out for estimation of the physical and chemical transformation of glass fiber. The differential scanning calorimetry experiments were performed in the glass fiber-reinforced polymer–bridge deck material for determining the mass variation and the energy changes suffered by the materials, as a function of temperature and time. Dynamic mechanical analysis was allowed to detect thermal effects based on the changes in the modulus or damping behavior. Tensile and flexural tests allowed the observation of the decomposition process and information about the basic stress parameters of glass fiber-reinforced polymer material used in bridge applications was taken. Aforementioned analyses are necessary to examine the durability description of the composite element.