Experimental and analytical investigation of the thermal behavior of a fiber reinforced polymeric bridge deck

This research investigates the thermal behavior of a fiber reinforced polymeric bridge deck. The study was limited to an FRP V-deck configuration developed at Georgia Tech. The bridge deck specimen was composed of three triangular cells with top and bottom plates. The top and bottom plates were reinforced with stitched fabric. The triangular cells were reinforced by 3D-braided fabric bundled with a roving and continuous strand matt.; An experiment on an 8-foot span V-deck specimen subjected to real environmental conditions was performed. In this experiment, the environmental conditions and thermal responses of the bridge deck were measured. A two-dimensional heat transfer finite element analysis was performed using heat boundary conditions obtained from the experiment. The heat-transfer effects considered included the solar radiation on the top surface, the material heat conduction, air convection, long-wave radiation to the sky, and heat radiation between the hollow surfaces inside the deck. The predicted temperature distribution was transferred to a three-dimensional thermal stress finite element model composed of multi-layer shell elements. The material properties used in the analyses were determined analytically using published properties for the fiber and matrix. Predicted and measured values of the deck temperature distribution, movements, and strains were compared.; A study was performed to determine the effect of varying the solar absorptivity, heat emissivity, fiber volume fraction of the top and bottom plates, and the fiber orientation in the top and bottom plates. The solar absorptivity of the top surface was determined to have the largest effect on the thermal response of the deck. Changing the fiber volume fraction of the top and bottom plates had little effect on the results.; An analytical investigation was also conducted on a 20-foot span, 10-foot wide V-deck subjected to the expected critical environmental condition for Atlanta, Georgia. Three cases of supporting conditions were investigated. The thermal stresses and the stresses due to the AASHTO HS20-44 truck load were compared and the maximum stresses in several components were found to be of the same magnitude. It is recommended that the thermal responses due to environmental condition be considered in the design process.