Design, manufacturing and structural testing of all-composite FRP bridge girder

Nowadays FRP composites have been used in many bridge applications due to their excellent strength and durability characteristics. Footbridges seem to be the most often application of the FRP composites in bridge engineering. After the comprehensive survey of existing FRP footbridges the innovative idea of FRP composite structural system for typical footbridges with the span length of 15-25 m has been proposed in the paper. The basic structural element of the footbridge is a main box girder with the U-shape cross-section covered with the sandwich deck, and made of hybrid glass - carbon composites by the VARTM infusion. The comprehensive static tests have been carried out in the laboratory to evaluate the actual stiffness, ultimate strength and failure modes of the large scale prototype girder. The prototype FRP girder exhibited satisfying structural behaviour during the test and reasonable agreement with the predictions from the FE design analysis.