BEHAVIOR OF ADHESIVELY BONDED CONCRETE-GRAPHITE/EPOXY COMPOSITE BRIDGE GIRDERS

The focus of this paper is on the behavior of composite bridge girders constructed from carbon fiber reinforced plastic sections and concrete slabs. The study examined four-point bending of three beams, one bare, I-type, graphite/epoxy beam, and two constructed from concrete slab and graphite/epoxy sections. The concrete slab and graphite/epoxy section were adhesively bonded and no shear connectors were used. All three beams are approximately one-eighth scale models of bridge girders. The sections are geometrically symmetric and have the same symmetric lamination schemes. Theoretical and experimental studies were performed on the bare I-sections to develop basic understanding of the bending behavior. The analyses and tests were then extended to the composite girders. The theoretical and experimental results for the failure loads were in close agreement. It was found that the slip at the interface of the concrete slab and the graphite/epoxy beam had minor effects on the failure load, but it significantly reduced the stiffness of the composite sections.