CIVI 6061-Strengthening of bridges using FRP

Case Study 1 : Main causes of deterioration of bridges

War Memorial Bridge in Macon County, Alabama
-Built in 1945 -Increase of traffic load
-Nature of damage : Flexural Cracking
-Environmental Effect
-Strengthening area :Positive moment regions
-Strengthening technique : Externally bonding FRP strips.
-Low quality materials
-Design code : ACI 440 2002
-Back ground and Design procedure : - Limited maintenance program
Section 1 :
Laboratory test :
-Eight RC beams half scale each reinforced with epoxy-bonded FRP was built and
exposed to load cycles during the curing of epoxy .

- One beam was unstrengthened and used as a control specimen .

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 CIVI 6061-Strengthening of bridges using FRP

Testing procedure :
1-Loading the member to induce flexural cracking.
2. Applying pre-repair service load cycles to the member.
3. Preparing the concrete surface of the member where the
FRP would be applied.
4. Applying epoxy and bonding FRP to the member
5. Allowing epoxy to cure for 48 hours while undergoing load
cycles (if applicable).
6. Stopping load cycles and attaching strain gauges to FRP
surfaces.
7. Applying post-repair service load cycles to the member.
8. Loading member to failure.
Instrumentation :
Steel bar strain gauges
The gauges were placed at locations where a flexural crack was expected
Seven locations were instrumented steel bars
FRP Instrumentation
14 gauges were used for frps

-Strengthening plates system :

Flexural plates : FRP thickness = 0.055 in. (1.4 mm)
Epoxy thickness = 0.0625 in. [1.6 mm])

Application of FRP to Beam

 CIVI 6061-Strengthening of bridges using FRP
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS :
Failure mode of test specimens:
localized debonding at a flexural crack

The unstrengthened capacity (584 kip-ft [792 kN-m]). Total debonding of FRP

ACI 440.2R-02 :
Unsafe limiting strains to prevent FRP debonding for the FRP
Failure mode :
There are four potential flexural failure modes for externally
bonded strengthening
1-Concrete crushing before yielding of the steel
2-Steel yielding followed by concrete crushing
3-steel yielding followed by FRP rupture
4-Debonding of FRP at the concrete-FRP interface
Further research needs to be performed on the limiting FRP
strain to prevent debonding failure .
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Flexural crack after debonding
 CIVI 6061-Strengthening of bridges using FRP
CONCLUSIONS:
-There was an increase in flexural strength of 19 – 28 percent =effective strain level in FRP

-The effects of load cycles during epoxy cure time were found to be minimal.

- For all strengthened members, failure was caused by localized debonding at

a flexural crack under one of the load points

-The ductility of the strengthened members was reduced to approximately

10% of that of the unstrengthened specimen.
 CIVI 6061-Strengthening of bridges using FRP

Field strengthening

Steel Strain Comparison for Span 9 Girder 3

-Instrumentation :
14 strain gauges were installed on the steel reinforcement at each critical location.
Strain gauges were bonded to the positive moment reinforcing bars as well as the FRP surfaces .

Load test : Four trucks(AASHTO M-18 Truck) were used for both Before and after strengthening .
The structure was load tested on several occasions:
-prior to strengthening: Load test 1 (Existing Load Test )
-Right after installation of the CFRP :Repair 1
-Six months after strengthening :Repair 2

Summary of result :
There was a decrease in steel bar stresses ranged from 4 to 12% for
 CIVI 6061-Strengthening of bridges using FRP

Case Study 2 :
Strengthening of Church Street Bridge

-Built in 1954 in New York

-Nature of damage : flexural and shear cracking at the cap
beams
-Strengthening technique : Bonded-FRP laminates
-Strengthening plates system :
Flexural plates : 13-mm thick, 254mm wide, and 5.18-m long
Shear plates : 7-mm thick, 1.1-m wide, and 1.7-m long

-Instrumentation :
A total number of 26 strain gauges were installed
-Load test : Four trucks(AASHTO M-18 Truck) were used for both
Before and after strengthening .
 CIVI 6061-Strengthening of bridges using FRP

Data Collection :

-Before installation collected data

-Flexural strains in the steel reinforcement bars

and concrete in both positive and negative moment
-Concrete strains

-After installation load test:

in addition to the strains measured in the before
installation test, flexural strains in
the FRP plates in both positive and negative moment
regions were measured .

Data analysis :

-Reduced live load stresses in the steel reinforcement bars

in the negative and positive moment regions by
about 10 ( 24.5 to 27 for 325 KN.m)and 6 percent, respectively.
-Analysis of shear strain data showed that concrete shear strain at
the critical section near the center pier was reduced by 10 percent.
 CIVI 6061-Strengthening of bridges using FRP

Thank you 