LONG-TERM STATIC TESTING OF AN FRP PROTOTYPE HIGHWAY STRUCTURE

In recent years it has become apparent that the labour and maintenance costs of highway structures fabricated from conventional construction al materials (i.e. steel and concrete) arc rising, and therefore the w hole life cost of these structures is being significantly affected. Hi ghway structures manufactured from advanced composite materials provid e a viable solution to reduce substantially both the labour and the ma intenance costs, whilst providing structures that behave in accordance with the present British code of practice for highway structures. The principle objectives of the investigations were to undertake experime ntally and to verify, where applicable, numerically the suitability of advanced fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials manufactu red in the form of box beams for use as highway structures. It was als o important to research into any unique behavior exhibited by the FRP structures while under test and to develop relevant theoretical models and formulae to characterize completely this behavior. The composite box beam showed no signs of global deterioration and generally behaved as predicted, the short term stiffness of the beam measured at specif ic times during the test did not decrease to any extent. There was som e local flexural cracking in the connectors at the position of the app lied loads, but this can be eliminated by design. The creep and deflec tions of the beam at the end of the test were well within acceptable l imits.