1 DURABILITY OF CONCRETE-FILLED TUBULAR FRP PILES

Traditional pile materials for bridge foundations include steel, concrete, and timber. These pile materials have limited service life and high maintenance costs when used in harsh marine environments due to corrosion, degradation, and marine borer attack. Problems associated with traditional pile materials used in harsh environments include concrete durability, steel corrosion, and marine borer attack or degradation of timber piles. High repair and replacement costs have led several North American highway agencies and researchers to investigate the feasibility of using FRP composite piles, such as concrete-filled tubular FRP piles. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite piles are a possible foundation alternative for projects located in harsh marine environments. These piles, if found viable, could offer such advantages as improved durability in harsh environments and cost savings in terms of life cycle analysis. However, one of the main drawbacks of composite piles is their relatively short track record of performance and absence of long-term durability data. Long-term service of typical bridge piles requires them to sustain combined axial and bending loading under severe environmental conditions such as exposure to moist chemistry environment. On-going research at Virginia Tech has found that moisture is the dominant damage mechanism, influencing the long-term durability of concrete-filled tubular FRP piles. This paper describes a durability methodology proposed to assess the long-term structural capacity of concrete-filled tubular FRP piles, and presents the durability experimental results to date