Structural Performance of GFRP Deck Strengthened with Light Weight Ultra-High Strength Concrete

This paper presents the numerical investigations carried out on pultruded prototype glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite bridge deck panels under static loading. To carry out the analysis decks with four different core shapes having almost same cross sectional area and weight were taken. The loading was applied with a patch of size 580 mm × 230 mm by displacement controlled method until failure. To understand the behavior of the deck, loading was applied at the center of the deck. Based on these observations trapezoidal section is to be found more beneficial in terms of load carrying capacity and secant stiffness. Strengthening of the GFRP deck with trapezoidal core shape were done by filling alternate cores with light weight ultra-high strength concrete with steel reinforcement on the top portion at a spacing of 100 mm and 150 mm respectively. Based on the load carrying capacity and the deflection limit the optimum configuration is taken and their load carrying capacity is compared with the same model without strengthening.