Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Committee Chair

Karl E. Barth

Committee Co-Chair

Julio F. Davalos

Abstract

The transportation infrastructure of the United States is in urgent need of rehabilitation. The effects of ageing and deterioration, along with increased traffic demands have raised the concern that the deteriorated conditions of highway bridges need to be addressed to insure the safety of the public. Several rehabilitation methods are available to engineers including: bridge replacement, bridge repair, and retrofitting with mechanisms designed to increase the structural capacity of a bridge.;The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation -- District 3 (PennDOT-D3) has sponsored a multi-phase project to investigate externally bonded Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) technology on their deteriorated concrete T-Beam bridges. The bridge inventory maintained by PennDOT-D3 includes 128 concrete T-Beam bridges built between 1920 and 1960. Ageing and deterioration effects have caused these bridges to become structurally deficient and/or obsolete. PennDOT-D3 has teamed with researchers from West Virginia University to develop a system to transfer FRP bridge rehabilitation technology to PennDOT's district forces.;The work presented in this thesis focuses on the structural condition assessment and strengthening with externally bonded FRP of bridge #49-4012-0250-1032 built in 1934 near Sunbury, Pennsylvania. During several field visits, WVU researchers performed destructive and non-destructive testing to investigate the deteriorated condition of the bridge. Load testing was performed using a proof load to attain critical structural behavior characteristic data that could be used to calibrate a computer model of the bridge as well as to determine a bridge performance baseline to compare with the FRP strengthened structural behavior.;During the course of work in this study, a structural analysis program was developed to accurately assess the structural capacity of a simply supported concrete T-Beam bridge. The program was designed to be more flexible and easier to use than PennDOT's Bridge Analysis and Rating program (BAR7). The program developed at WVU includes a section for FRP strengthening design. Load rating analysis based on the strengthening design is included in the program.

Download

Share

COinS