Strengthening of Steel Structures with High Modulus Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Materials

Abstract

Transportation departments and the telecommunications industry are currently demanding cost-effective rehabilitation and/or strengthening techniques for steel structures, including bridges and monopole towers. Rehabilitation is often required due to cross-section losses resulting from corrosion damage and strengthening may be required due to changes in the use of a structure. Current strengthening techniques, have several disadvantages including their cost, need to match the surface configuration of the existing structure, poor fatigue performance and the need for ongoing maintenance due to continued corrosion attack. The current research program makes use of new high modulus types of carbon fiber for strengthening steel structures. The experimental program was developed in four phases. These phases included the selection of suitable resins and adhesives for bonding the CFRP sheets and strips to the steel, characterization the bond to the steel through testing of the development length, performing large-scale tests on strengthened steel monopole towers and also determining the behavior of strengthened steel-concrete composite beams that are typical of bridge structures. The result of the experimental program was the demonstration of sizeable strength and stiffness increases for the steel structures, strengthened with the developed system. Analytical work has also been completed to predict these strength and stiffness increases as well as to determine the bond stresses to ensure the avoidance of a debonding failure, which is detrimental to the effective use of the high modulus CFRP material.