Fiber reinforced polymer culvert bridges—a feasibility study from structural and lcc points of view
Journal article, 2021

Soil–steel composite bridges (SSCB) have become increasingly popular for short-span bridges as an alternative to concrete slab bridges mainly due to their low initial cost, rapid manufac-ture, simplified construction, and geometrical adaptability. SSCBs have a variety of applications and can be used over waterways or roadways. While conventional bridges tend to lose their load-carrying capacity due to degradation, SSCBs gain strength because of backfill soil consolidation. However, the load carrying capacity and integrity of such structures highly depends on the condition and load-carrying capacity of the steel arch element. A major drawback of SSCBs, especially those located on waterways or with poor drainage, is corrosion and subsequent loss of cross-sectional capacity. Unfortunately, the inspection of such bridges is not straightforward and any damage/collapse will be very costly to repair/replace. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites offer an attractive alternative to replace the steel in these types of bridges. FRP composites have significantly improved durability characteristics compared to steel, which will reduce maintenance costs and improve life-cycle costs (LLCs). This paper presents a new concept to use glass FRP as a construction material to construct soil–FRP composite bridges (SFCB). Various aspects of design and manufacturing are presented along with results and conclusions from a case study involving alternative bridge designs in steel and FRP composites.

Bridge

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP)

Culvert

Design

LCC analysis

Author

Reza Haghani Dogaheh

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering

Jincheng Yang

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering

Marte Gutierrez

Colorado School of Mines

Christopher D. Eamon

Wayne State University

Jeffery Volz

University of Oklahoma

Infrastructures

24123811 (eISSN)

Vol. 6 9 128

Subject Categories

Infrastructure Engineering

Building Technologies

Composite Science and Engineering

DOI

10.3390/infrastructures6090128

More information

Latest update

9/27/2021