The purpose of this work is the design, fabrication and load testing of a pre-fabricated bridge deck slab made of fibre reinforced polymer composite materials. The intended application and design parameters concern the replacement of timber/steel bridges. A prototype deck covering two lateral spans has been designed and fabricated. The materials used were glass fibber fabric reinforced polypropylene (GFRPP) and polyurethane foam. The deck structural profile was developed using the software SAP2000® and has a double wave geometry in the web section enclosed by two flat panels. This prototype is 3.1 m long, 1.2 m wide and 0.215 m thick. The prototype deck was static load tested in a laboratory using hydraulic jacks. The deck supported a total of 515kN without failing (2X257. 5kN load patches). Deflections recorded where slightly higher than predicted and may be due to imperfection in the fabrication or lower achieved modulus of elasticity for the GFRP material. |
