Analytical Modeling of the Repair Impact-Damaged Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders

Highway bridges in the United States are frequently damaged by overheight vehicle collisions. The increasing number of prestressed concrete bridges indicates that the probability of such bridges being impacted by overheight vehicles has increased. This thesis, sponsored by the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research (VCTIR), investigated three repair techniques for impact damaged prestressed bridge girders: strand splices, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) overlays, and fabric reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) overlays. The flexural strength of four AASHTO Type III girders, three of which were intentionally damaged and repaired, was evaluated. Six experimental tests were performed on these girders: one undamaged girder test and five repair method tests. Nonlinear beam models and three-dimensional finite element (FE) models were created to predict the behavior of the beams under flexural testing, and subsequently validated and calibrated to experimental test data. The very good accuracy of the beam models indicated that they can be used alone for the performance assessment of damaged and repaired girders. Of course, the analyst must always be aware of the fact that a beam model cannot explicitly account for potentially crucial effects such as diagonal cracking. A direct comparison between repair methods was made by creating analytical models of a prototype girder setup. FRP overlays were seen to restore the most strength, while strand splices were seen to restore the most ductility. From observation, combining repair methods resulted in an additive effect on strength, but the deformation at onset of failure will be governed by the less ductile method.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Gangi, Michael Joseph

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Koutromanos, Ioannis

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Roberts-Wollmann, Carin L.
• Cousins, Thomas E.

• Prestressed concrete repair
• analytical modeling
• FRP
• FRCM
• Splices

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:5950

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/56488