Low Cost Thermolplastic Wrap to Enhance Bridge Safety Final rept. 1 Jan 04-1 Jan 06

摘要

The risk of damage to bridge piers from accidental loads remains a concern as roadways and waterways become more congested. Fiber reinforced composite materials are finding a wide array of civil infrastructure applications. Most of these applications utilize pre-preg thermosetting composites, the most common of which is carbon fiber reinforced polymer. Presently, there are no existing studies on thermoplaslic materials for civil infrastructure. The ability to readily form thermoplastics and their inherent high impact resistance make them desirable in civil infrastructure applications. This research was an essential step towards developing thermoplastic confining jackets for bridge pier vulnerability reduction. This research focused on the development of thermoplastic composite material produced in continuous pultruded form thermoplastic polymer jackets for confining concrete columns. The effects of compression and impact loading of high strength concrete confined by a prefabricated polypropylene jacket were investigated. For comparison purposes similar specimens confined by carbon fiber/epoxy were also considered. The results from both loading cases demonstrated the superior performance of thermoplastic polymer jackets to displace in-elastically without significant degradation of strength or stiffness.