1

AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF AN FRP DECK ON A TRUSS BRIDGE

Methee Chiewanichakorn
1
, Member ASCE
Amjad Aref
2
, Member ASCE
Sreenivas Alampalli
3
, Member ASCE
ABSTRACT
Many of the old truss bridges in the New York State are posted due to superstructure deterioration and
an increase in live load. By replacing the heavy decks of these bridges with lighter ones, the load-carrying
capacities of these bridges can be improved, avoiding the need for replacement or costly repairs. Two years
ago, a lighter FRP deck was used on an experimental basis to replace a concrete bridge deck on a deteriorated
truss bridge in New York to improve its service life. Load-tests, conducted to evaluate the deck performance
under service loads, indicated that the methods used for the design of the new fiber reinforced polymer (FRP)
decks were very conservative. Thus validated finite-element models were developed to improve on these
designs and predict the failure modes of this bridge when subjected to overload and thermal effects. This
presentation summarizes the results of load tests and analytical studies.
Keywords: Fiber-Reinforced Polymer, Bridge, Thermal-Stress.
INTRODUCTION
Many reinforced concrete bridges throughout the United States on county and state highway sys-
tems are deteriorated and/or distressed to such a degree that structural strengthening of the bridge
or reducing the allowable truck loading on the bridge by load posting is necessary to extend the ser-
vice life of the bridge. The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) had identified
7585 (or 38.9%) bridges as structurally or functionally deficient. Almost 2000 of these 7585 bridges
were classified deficient due to poor deck conditions or weight restrictions (Alampalli and Kunin
2001). As a result, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite systems appear to be the best option
that satisfied the issues of cost-effective and load-rating improvement criteria.
The highway bridge carrying State Route 367 over Bentley Creek in Chemung County, New
York had been rehabilitated for the purpose of not only to prolong the structures service life, but
also to remove the load restrictions.
1
Dept. of Civil Eng., SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260. E-mail: mc42@eng.buffalo.edu
2
Dept. of Civil Eng., SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260. E-mail: aaref@eng.buffalo.edu
3
Transp. Research & Development Bureau, NYSDOT, Albany, NY 12232. E-Mail: salampalli@gw.dot.state.ny.us
2
BRIDGE DESCRIPTIONS
Bentley Creek Bridge is a simply supported, single span truss bridge with a new fiber reinforced
polymer (FRP) deck. The bridge is 42.7 m long, 7.3 m wide from curb-to-curb and had a skew of
27 degrees. The FRP deck is a cell core structure made of E-glass stitched fiber fabric wrapped
around 150 mm x 300 mm x 350 mm isocycrinate foam blocks used as stay-in-place forms. The deck
panels were designed to span between the floor beams. The steel stringers were left in place to pro-
vide lateral stiffness to the structure. Composite action was not assumed in the design and load rating
of Bentley Creek bridge. Field splices were used as the means to connect different panels. The gap
was filled with two-part epoxy adhesive. These field splices were constructed in both longitudinal
and transverse directions (see Figure 1).
10@4.267m = 42.67 m
3
.
8
1

m
3
.
8
1

m
Joint Stringers Floor Beam
FRP Core
North
27
o
Skew
Angle
FIGURE 1. Plan View of Bentley Creek Bridge
FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
Geometry and Boundary Condition Modeling
Bentley Creek bridge structural system was composed of a FRP deck on floor beams, stringers
and two main steel trusses which were simply-supported across the two abutments. Only one portion
of the bridge was modeled in MSC PATRAN (1999) to simplify the finite-element analysis proce-
dure. The selected modeling area was a region between the first and the sixth floor beam as shown
in Figure 1, which were adjacent to the south abutment. Webs of the floor beams were modeled using
the four-node shell elements. Flanges, beam-to-shim interface and deck-to-shim interface were mod-
eled by the eight-node continuum elements.
FRP deck panels were composed of two main parts, i.e. core material inserted between the two
faceskin layers as a sandwich type construction. Therefore, both faceskins were modeled using the
solid composite elements. Similarly, the core material was composed of web-type FRP layers,
QM6408, and was modeled using the shell elements.
Longitudinal and transverse panel joints were constructed using composite plates as field-splice
connections. Acrylic adhesive that joined the splice plates to the top faceskins was modeled by solid
elements.
Because the floor beams were simply-supported on the main trusses, the appropriate boundary
3
conditions were chosen. At one support (East direction), all movements in translation degree of free-
dom (x-, y- and z-axes) and two rotation degree of freedom (about y- and z-axes) were restrained
along the edge of the bottom flanges. At the other end, the supports were restrained in two translation
directions (x- and z-axes) and about two rotation axis (y- and z-axes).
Material Modeling
A typical stress-strain relationship of structural steel Grade 36 (AASHTO M270) was used for
the floor beams. Materials named QM6408 and Q9100 were used for the modeling of the FRP
deck. The mechanical properties of these two FRP materials are shown in Table 1. The interface ele-
ments were modeled with the orthotropic material properties by introducing a very low in-plane stiff-
ness and high transverse stiffness to take into account the noncomposite action.
TABLE 1. FRP Material Properties
Material Elastic Modulus
MPa (ksi)
Shear Modulus
MPa (ksi)
Thermal Expansion
Coefficient (
o
C
1
)
QM6408 18,479 (2,680) 5,860 (850) 14.4 x 10
6
Q9100 29,724 (4,311) 6,206 (900) 14.4 x 10
6
STATIC OVERLOAD AND THERMAL-STRESS ANALYSES
Static Analysis
The live loads of the test trucks were imposed on the FRP deck at the specified test locations.
Concentrated loads were used instead of tire-pressure loads. Nonlinear geometric properties were
neglected in the static analyses. The results were used to verify the finite element model prior to any
further analyses.
For the overload static analysis, all truck axle loads were applied on the FRP deck with an incre-
ment of one Wheel Load Index. Wheel load index is defined as the ratio of an applied wheel load-
ing to the initial wheel loading. Configurations of the applied load were chosen based on the maxi-
mum induced-stress results from the model verification stage. Additionally, a linear buckling
analysis was performed to evaluate other possible failure modes, i.e. local buckling failure.
Thermal-Stress Analysis
In thermal-stress analysis, the linear, steady state temperature gradient between top and bottom
surfaces of the FRP top faceskin was assumed. The appropriate values for thermal conductivity of
all materials were chosen (Hyer 1997). The analyses were processed in two stages (ABAQUS 2000),
i.e. steady state heat transfer analysis and static stress analysis.
Two scenarios were considered in the thermal-stress analysis, (a) uniformly distributed high am-
bient temperature gradient (60
o
C) and (b) concentrated extremely high temperature gradient in an
event of fire (500
o
C), which represents a burning truck. It must be noted that the total temperature
of the burning truck and the ambient temperature was less than the glass transition temperature of
vinylester resins, i.e. 504
o
C (939
o
F).
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Comparison of Analytical and Experimental Results (Alampalli & Kunin 2001)
Strains of the floor beams and FRP deck, which were obtained from finite element analysis, were
closely matched with the measured strains from the experiment (see Figure 2). Strain distributions
obtained from the finite element analysis showed that the location of neutral axis coincided with the
geometric centroid of steel beam. This implies that the bridge behaved noncompositely when sub-
jected to the truck loads. Because of the unknown interface properties, the analytical strain values
appeared to be greater than the measured strains in the floor beam.
150
100
50
0
50
100
150
200
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 17
Gage Number
S
t
r
a
i
n

(

)
FEM
Load Test
FIGURE 2. Comparison of Analytical and Experimental Results
Failure Mode Predictions
In order to predict the failure modes of the bridge, overload static, and buckling analyses were
conducted independently. The results showed that by having two trucks on the bridge side-by-side
would maximize the longitudinal strains. As the result, the same truck configurations were used in
the overload static and buckling analyses.
FRP Deck Failure
In the overload static analysis, all truck axle loads were applied on the FRP deck with an incre-
ment of one wheel load index. At each increment, Tsai-Hill failure criterion (Jones 1999) was applied
to the composite deck at different ply levels. It was assumed that initial failure of a layer indicates
laminate failure. This definition leads to a conservative assessment of capacity. The results showed
that as the applied axle loads increased, Tsai-Hill failure index approached unity, where the first-ply
failure was expected to occur.
In Figure 3, Tsai-Hill failure index for FRP deck core increased as the applied load increased.
This indicates that the FRP deck would reach its failure in the core material (transverse direction)
at the wheel load index of 7. The results also show that there would be no ply failure taken place in
both faceskins at this load level. This type of failure is entirely based on the FRP deck only.
Longitudinal and Transverse Panel Joints
Joint failure was another mechanism that must be considered for this type of deck system.
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Theoretically, the joints were designed to transfer forces across from one panel to the others. The
results show that the combined stresses induced in the composite splice-plate at the deck failure load,
i.e. wheel load index = 7, would not result in the joint failure. The maximum interlaminar shear
stresses along the adhesive material at the wheel load index of 7.0 was approximately 13 MPa (see
Figure 4).
Wheel Load Index
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0
FRP Core (Tran.)
FRP Core (Long.)
FRP Top Skin
FRP Bottom Skin
Tsai-Hill Failure
Buckling Failure T
s
a
i
-
H
i
l
l

F
a
i
l
u
r
e

I
n
d
e
x
(Wheel Loading / Initial Wheel Loading)
FIGURE 3. Tsai-Hill Failure Index of FRP Deck in Static Overload Analysis
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Interlaminar Shear Stress,
13
(MPa)
D
e
p
t
h

(
m
m
)

13
(over epoxy)
Epoxy
Splice-Glue Interface
Glue-Epoxy Interface
Splice-Plate
Glue
FIGURE 4. Interlaminar Shear Stress on the Joint at Wheel Load Index = 7
Steel Floor Beams
There are two different types of failures which are possible in the floor beams. They are local
buckling failure, and member failure due to flexure and shear stresses. The latter type of failure will
be addressed first as the result of the applied static load. Considering the state of stresses in the iso-
tropic material, Von Mises failure criterion was employed. At the wheel load index of 7.0, Von Mises
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stresses in the floor beam lies in the elastic range. Therefore, the floor beams were not expected to
reach the failure.
Finally, local buckling failure can be predicted by performing a linear buckling analysis (ABA-
QUS 2000). The same truck axle configurations were imposed on the FRP deck. Five buckling
modes of the bridge are depicted in Table 2. The first buckling mode would occur when the bridge
is subjected to the wheel load index of 1.46, which is much smaller than the FRP deck failure load.
Local buckling failure was expected to occur in the top flange of the second floor beam near the south
abutment. In addition, the interlaminar shear stress at the wheel load index of 1.46 (buckling failure)
would only reach the maximum value of 2.5 MPa (Aref & Chiewanichakorn 2001).
TABLE 2. Buckling Analysis Results
Mode 1 2 3 4 5
Eigenvalue 1.46 1.54 2.27 2.46 2.53
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
0 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Burning Truck Transient Temperature Gradient (
o
C)
T
s
a
i
-
H
i
l
l

F
a
i
l
u
r
e

I
n
d
e
x
FRP Core (Tran.)
FRP Core (Long.)
FRP Top Skins
Tsai-Hill Failure
50
FRP Bottom Skins
FIGURE 5. Tsai-Hill Failure Index of FRP Deck at Different Temperature Gradient
Thermal-Stress analysis
At a high ambient temperature gradient (60
o
C), Tsai-Hill failure indices for the top and bottom
skinfaces were relative small. However, the maximum Tsai-Hill failure index occurred in the FRP
core (transverse direction) was approximately 0.113, which implied a large reserved capacity. From
engineering point of view, the bridge will hardly fail under the ambient thermal-induced stress condi-
tion.
As the temperature gradient increased at a certain location in the event of a fire, Tsai-Hill failure
index for the top faceskin rises more dramatically than the FRP cores and bottom faceskin. At the
stage near the glass transition temperature of vinylester resins, i.e. 504
o
C (939
o
F), Tsai-Hill failure
index for the FRP top skinface approached 0.619. The rapid rise in the failure index was resulted
by an extremely high transient temperature gradient, which was constrained to a confined area, i.e.
a burning truck. The results of the different applied transient temperature gradients can be shown
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in Figure 5. The Tsai-Hill failure index of 0.619 combined with a truck at high temperature may lead
to a failure of the FRP deck in that specific location.
CONCLUSION
Failure mechanism in the FRP deck was verified by the concept of First-ply failure, which is
defined as a point where Tsai-Hill failure index of any single ply layer reaches unity. The analysis
showed that the initiation of failure would occur in the FRP web-core in the transverse direction. A
wheel load index associated with this failure mode was approximately 7.
According to a linear buckling analysis, the local buckling at the top flange of the second floor
beam was found to govern the overall failure mechanism of the bridge superstructure. Local buckling
failure would be triggered at the wheel load index of 1.46, while the FRP deck would be able to resist
the live-load up to the wheel load index of 7. However, this prediction was based on the assumption
that the actual shear strength of the adhesive at the field-splice was adequate.
Thermal-stress analysis indicated that the FRP deck would have a sufficient reserve capacity to
carry the live-load during a high ambient temperature at 60
o
C. In an event of fire, the top skinface
would be subjected to the higher thermal-induced stresses, which resulted in the Tsai-Hill failure
index to increase rapidly compared to any other FRP deck components. The combination of the truck
live-load with the most severe thermal effect could lead the FRP deck to reach its failure.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work in this paper was conducted in collaboration with New York State Department of Trans-
portation (NYSDOT). The authors would like to thanks Dr.Sreenivas Alampalli for his guidance and
supporting throughout the project.
REFERENCES
Alampalli, S. and J.Kunin (2001), Load Testing of an FRP Bridge Deck on a Truss Bridge, Special
Report 137, Transportation Research and Development Bureau, NYSDOT, Albany, New York.
Aref, A.J. and Chiewanichakorn, M. (2001), The Analytical Study of Fiber Reinforced Polymer
Deck on an Old Truss Bridge, Report submitted to New York State Department of Transporta-
tion, Transportation Research an Development Bureau and Transportation Infrastructure Re-
search Consortium.
Hibbitt, Karlsson and Sorensen (2000), ABAQUS/Standard Users Manual (Version 6.1), Hab-
bitt, Karlsson & Sorensen, Inc.
Hyer, M.W. (1997), Stress Analysis of FiberReinforced Composite Materials, McGraw-Hill,
627p.
Jones, R.M. (1999), Mechanics of Composite Materials, 2nd Edition, Taylor & Francis, 519p.
MSC. Software Corp. (1999), MSC. Patran Version 9 Users Guide.