Abstract
This paper aims to determine the effects of uncertainties in the mechanical properties of FRP composites on the dynamic responses of a full-scale all-FRP bridge. The novelty of the study is in determining the effects that the uncertainties have on the global structural scale properties rather than component properties often studied in literature. To achieve this aim, both uncertainty quantification and global sensitivity analysis are performed using a computationally cost-effective approach based on the polynomial chaos expansion. The results reveal that a coefficient of variation (COV) of 10% for four mechanical parameters can lead to COVs of 3.37%, 2.92% and 3.07% for natural frequencies, COVs of 2.98%, 0.04% and 0.61% for modal masses (corresponding to unity-scaled mode shapes) of the first lateral, first vertical and second vertical modes, and COV of 0.93% for the absolute peak acceleration. The effect of uncertainties, therefore, is very small for the considered excitation case and it could be neglected in the design. In addition, it was found that the longitudinal elastic modulus and shear modulus of the panel are the most influential mechanical parameters in dynamic analysis.
Highlights
Glass fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs) have increasingly been utilised for the construction of bridges due to their high strength- and stiffness-to-weight ratios, low maintenance costs and quick installation
This study focuses on uncertainty quantification (UQ) and global sensitivity analysis (GSA) of dynamic responses of a fullscale 16.90 m long all-FRP footbridge whereby the uncertainty of input parameters is modelled at the component level
This paper aims to determine the effects of the uncertainties in mechanical properties of FRP components on the dynamic properties and vibration response of an actual all-FRP footbridge
Summary
Glass fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs) have increasingly been utilised for the construction of bridges due to their high strength- and stiffness-to-weight ratios, low maintenance costs and quick installation. Composite Structures 223 (2019) 110964 of composite I-beams and box beams with variations in fibre orientation angles in the laminate and elastic properties of a ply (i.e. longitudinal and transverse elastic modulus, shear modulus and Poison ratio) They employed the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method to obtain the statistics of dynamic properties (i.e. natural frequencies and frequency response functions) and showed that the sensitivity of the dynamic responses to uncertainty sources depends upon stacking sequence. Dey et al [8] performed the UQ of natural frequencies, frequency response functions and mode shapes of a laminated cantilever plate with fuzzy variation in ply orientation and in material properties at the ply scale They used polynomial chaos expansions (PCE)-based method and found it to be computationally efficient compared with the global optimisation approach for uncertainty propagation of fuzzy variables.
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