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Field Performance of the Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Deck of a Truss Bridge |
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| Authors: | Chung C. Fu Hamed AlAyed Amde M. Amde Jeff Robert |
| Affiliation: | 1Director and Affiliate Associate Professor, The Bridge Engineering Software and Technology (BEST) Center, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. 2Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Applied Science Univ., Amman–Jordan; formerly, Research Assistant, The Bridge Engineering Software and Technology (BEST) Center, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. 3Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. 4Project Engineer, Maryland State Highway Administration,Baltimore, MD 21203. |
| Abstract: | The MD 24 Bridge over Deer Creek in Harford County, Md., was one of the projects chosen by the Federal Highway Administration’s Innovative Bridge Research and Construction Program for bridge deck replacement by fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. A thorough discussion is presented on Maryland State Highway Administration’s first bridge rehabilitation project utilizing a FRP deck. The discussion includes design details, installation procedure, construction methods and in situ load testing with a wireless monitoring system. The research team installed a monitoring system to record the effects of live loads on the bridge system, including truss members, steel stringers, and plate action of the FRP deck. Finite-element models were also used in this phase. Dynamic effects of the FRP system, composite action between steel stringers and the FRP deck as well as the effective width and distribution factors of stringers were obtained and compared with the AASHTO specifications. Recommendations are also offered on improving the design details based on this experience. |
| Keywords: | Fiber reinforced polymers Bridges, truss Bridge decks Performance characteristics |