Synthesis of concrete bridge piles prestressed with CFRP systems.

PDFTech ReportFHWA/TX-17/0-6917-1PS 16-350United StatesTexasTexas. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Technology Implementation OfficeBelarbi, AbdeldjelilDawood, MinaBowman, MatthiasMirmiran, AmirUniversity of Houston. Dept. of Civil and Environmental EngineeringUniversity of Texas at TylerTexas. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Technology Implementation OfficeUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionThe Texas Department of Transportation frequently constructs prestressed concrete piles for use in bridgefoundations. Such prestressed concrete piles are typically built with steel strands that are highly susceptible toenvironmental degradation and corrosion in harsh marine environments. The department currently employs manytechniques to combat these structural degradation, but these measures address only the symptom- not the root cause.It would therefore be advantageous to the Agency to adopt a corrosion-resistant reinforcing material. It was then theaim of this research to assess the feasibility of employing carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP\ue2\u20ac\u2122s) into TxDOTinfrastructure through comprehensive literature synthesis, investigations in the field and interviews with designprofessionals, and a comparative analysis of mechanics and economics. The findings of these studies illustrated thefeasibility of CFRP adoption when considered over the entire lifespan of a bridge structure, relying on CFRP\ue2\u20ac\u2122sexcellent environmental durability to mitigate the more expensive upfront costs. Incorporating CFRP prestressingstrands into bridge piles, especially in aggressive, corrosive environments, has the potential to not only increase theoverall lifespan of the structure, but requires far less departmental maintenance, saving a large sum of repair costsand design time. It is therefore the opinion of the Research Team that some important issues must be betterunderstood and quantified, such as additional drivability concerns and splicing information, before the large-scaleimplementation of CFRP-prestressed piles is undertaken by the Department