| The West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) uses approximately 50,000 wood and 200,000 steel guardrail posts on an annual basis. The need to develop guardrail posts made of a different material is motivated by the high cost of steel, along with the greater difficulty associated with driving large diameter wood posts.; The primary objective of this study was to develop a Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) wood post that is more cost effective than a steel post and has smaller diameter than a conventional wood post. Another objective was to develop a portable fabric-wrapping machine for field applications.; Unwrapped and GFRP wrapped posts were tested for flexural properties. The experimental data were compared with published values. Unwrapped and GFRP wrapped posts were tested under dynamic loads to determine their natural frequencies. Free vibration tests of unwrapped, GFRP wrapped, and damaged posts were performed to establish amplitude decay for damping characteristics. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
