Civil Engineering
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Glassfiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) are used for pedestrian bridges and vehicular bridge system components. Our collaboration partner Strongwell is actively involved in the advancement of FRP technology for civil infrastructure applications. These efforts include the research and development of new FRP products as well as involvement with performance standards.
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Emerging applications for Strongwell's pultruded FRP products include pedestrian bridges, bridge superstructures, decks and guard rails. The bridge industry's interest in FRP as a replacement for traditional steel and concrete materials is due to:
• Inability of traditional materials to resist corrosion
• Rising costs of traditional materials (steel, wood, concrete) and associated increasing installation labor costs
• Less public inconvenience and improved construction worker safety due to shorter installation periods
• Significantly lower long term maintenance and replacement costs
• The useful life extension of existing bridge superstructures with lightweight FRP bridge decks
Bridge girders are the FRP hybrid 8" x 6" and 36" x 18" double-web EXTREN DWB® beams that have carbon fiber in the flanges to increase the beam's stiffness. The unique double-web design featuring internal flange stiffeners also provided a beam with less than 1/2% rotation under three-point loading in laboratory tests.
GRIDFORM™ is a prefabricated FRP double-layer grating, concrete-reinforcing system with integral stay-in-place (SIP) form for vehicular bridge decks.
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