Static and Fatigue Behaviour of Hybrid FRP-Concrete Two-Panel Truss Girders Reinforced with Double-Headed Glass Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Bars

Abstract

An innovative hybrid FRP-concrete slab-on-girder bridge system has been developed at University of Calgary. The slab-on-girder system is composed of a deck slab on top of precast prestressed concrete truss girders. The truss girders consist of pre-tensioned top and bottom concrete chords connected by vertical and diagonal truss members made of FRP tubes filled with concrete. The girders are fully reinforced with glass FRP bars. The use of the new system is expected to reduce self-weight and maintenance cost, and extend the useful life of bridge structures. Main objective of this research is to experimentally investigate performance of the hybrid system under static and fatigue loading to examine efficiency of the FRP reinforcement. The experimental program includes fabrication and testing of seven full scale two panel truss girders. Two of the girders are connected to a deck slab. The tests showed excellent performance of the system in terms of strength, stiffness and connection performance.