Strengthening of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks Using Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composite Materials

This paper presents the results of an investigation of the monotonic and fatigue behavior of one-way and two-way reinforced concrete slabs strengthened with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) materials. The five one-way slab specimens were removed from a decommissioned bridge in South Carolina. Three of the slabs were retrofitted with CFRP strips bonded to their soffits and the other two served as unretrofit, control specimens. Of the five one-way slab specimens, one unretrofit and two retrofit slabs were tested monotonically until failure. The remaining two specimens, one unretrofit and one retrofit, were tested under cyclic (fatigue) loading until failure. In addition, six half-scale, two-way slab specimens were constructed to represent a full-scale prototype of a highway bridge deck designed using the empirical requirements of the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Manual. Of the six square slabs, two were unretrofitted and served as the control specimens, two were retrofitted using CFRP strips bonded to their soffits making a grid pattern, and two were retrofitted with a preformed CFRP grid material bonded to their soffit. Three slabs, one unretrofit, one CFRP strip, and one CFRP grid retrofitted, were tested monotonically until failure and the remaining three slabs were tested under cyclic (fatigue) loading until failure.