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Analytical Modeling of the Repair Impact-Damaged Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders

Highway bridges in the United States are frequently damaged by overheight vehicle collisions. The increasing number of prestressed concrete bridges indicates that the probability of such bridges being impacted by overheight vehicles has increased. This thesis, sponsored by the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research (VCTIR), investigated three repair techniques for impact damaged prestressed bridge girders: strand splices, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) overlays, and fabric reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) overlays. The flexural strength of four AASHTO Type III girders, three of which were intentionally damaged and repaired, was evaluated. Six experimental tests were performed on these girders: one undamaged girder test and five repair method tests. Nonlinear beam models and three-dimensional finite element (FE) models were created to predict the behavior of the beams under flexural testing, and subsequently validated and calibrated to experimental test data. The very good accuracy of the beam models indicated that they can be used alone for the performance assessment of damaged and repaired girders. Of course, the analyst must always be aware of the fact that a beam model cannot explicitly account for potentially crucial effects such as diagonal cracking. A direct comparison between repair methods was made by creating analytical models of a prototype girder setup. FRP overlays were seen to restore the most strength, while strand splices were seen to restore the most ductility. From observation, combining repair methods resulted in an additive effect on strength, but the deformation at onset of failure will be governed by the less ductile method. / Master of Science

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/56488
Date19 August 2015
CreatorsGangi, Michael Joseph
ContributorsCivil and Environmental Engineering, Koutromanos, Ioannis, Roberts-Wollmann, Carin L., Cousins, Thomas E.
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
FormatETD, application/pdf, application/pdf
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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