AVOIDING CATASTROPHIC FAILURE IN CONCRETE BRIDGES WITH FRP REINFORCEMENT

摘要

More than fifty concrete structures, many of them pedestrian and roadway bridges, have been built world-wide using fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) reinforcements. To date, the good performance of these bridges has given engineers confidence to continue to design concrete bridges with FRP reinforcements, and to extend the scope of their application to highway bridges. Several highway bridges have been built, and they incorporate means to ensure safety while the experience with FRP field performance is growing. Designers have a number of design techniques to choose from to avoid catastrophic failure in the unlikely event of FRP malfunction. This paper identifies and illustrates with case studies some of these design techniques. It summarizes the associated provisions given in the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code for the design of fibre reinforced structures, and discusses the uncertainties of designing FRP reinforcements, as they relate to material properties and field performance.