Damage repair of bridge superstructures using bonded composite patching

Abstract

Many of the steel and concrete bridges built in the 20th century are reaching the end of their planned service life in the early part of the new century. Corrosion and fatigue fracture of steel, and cracking, spalling, or delamination of concrete are common deteriorations due to harsh environments. The structural deficiency of these bridges is further aggravated by heavier and faster traffic loads than what they were originally designed. Effective life management of the large number of deficient and/or obsolete bridges with limited budgets requires post-strengthening, retrofitting, or repair, with minimum interference of traffic and cost. In some cases, localized repair can extend the life for a period of time using a repair method based on bonded fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) patches for both steel and concrete bridges. This repair solution may prove effective for excessive flexural and shear cracks in concrete beams, and section loss of steel beams.This thesis is concerned with predicting the performance of such patch repaired beams using mechanistic modeling and experimental testing. Steel, reinforced concrete, and prestressed concrete beams test beams are utilized and the predicted response values are compared and validated.