Strengthening of Damaged PSC Bridge Girders With Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer "CFRP" System
Strengthening of Damaged PSC Bridge Girders With Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer "CFRP" System
Strengthening of Damaged PSC Bridge Girders With Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer "CFRP" System
S. N Agarwal, GM/SER
K. C Swami, CBE/WR
Avinash Kumar, Dy. CE/D/WR
BRIDGE No. 114 (4X18.3m) on Khan River
Salient Features of Bridge No. 114
Span Configuration:- 4X18.3m
Superstructure:-Twin PSC girders with RCC deck Slab
Section –Godhra-Ratlam (Ratlam Division of WR)
Year of Construction -1958-60
Wt of one Span – 145 MT
Depth of Girder – 2130 mm
Loading Standard – BGML
Height of bridge (bottom of girder – Bed Level) -14.0m
Defects identified and Action Taken
Multiple vertical structural cracks found in girders
(mainly originating from bottom)
Other deteriorations in slab and girders also noticed.
Cracks were active (opening & closing)under traffic
Speed reduced to 20 kmph in March-2014
Tell tales were provided
Defect:-
Vertical Flexural Cracks
5
Visible Cracks in Web of PSC girder
Tests carried out before strengthening
(i) Rebound hammer test –
Compressive strength of concrete
Ultrasonic pulse velocity test –
homogeneity and quality of concrete, presence of voids, cracks etc.
(ii) Core test – Comp strength of concrete
(iii) Tension test – Tensile Strength of Prestressing wire
(iv) Concrete Scanning System – used for locating prestressing cables and
finding their size.
(v) Load tests for measurement of deflection using LVDT– to compare
pre and post strengthening results-
(vi) Test for measurement of natural frequency using accelerometer– to
compare pre and post strengthening results
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Results of NDT tests
Span No. Average of UPV Average comp
readings (km/sec) strength
Rebound Hammer
test (Mpa)
Span -2 3.42 54.3
Span-4 3.40 51.6
Pulse Velocity Value Concrete Quality
(Km/sec)
Above 4.5 Excellent
3.5-4.5 Good
3.0-3.5 Medium
Below 3.0 Doubtful
Deflection Test Test For Natural Frequency
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Repair of Corrosion related deterioration
-Application of anticorrosive paint
Application of Polymer modified mortar
Injection in Cracks (Epoxy grouting)
Surface Preparation
Application of Putty ( Removing surface undulation)
Application of Primer (Bonding Coat)
Installation of CFRP System
Application of CFRP laminates
CFRP Laminate
Clamping Device
100x2.4 mm
80
KN
PSC GIRDER
CFRP Laminate
CFRP Sheet 500 mm
wide
Cross Section RCC SLAB
PSC GIRDER
CFRP Laminate 800 mm c/c
100x2.4 mm
Elevation of PSC girder
Fixing of Hydraulic Jack and application of prestressing force
Pre stressing of laminate
Pre stressed carbon laminates in bottom of girder
Carbon Fiber Wrapping
Carbon Fiber Wrapping
(duly saturated with saturating resin)
Strengthened PSC Girder
25
Acceptance criteria
Cracks: - No further progression of cracks after rehabilitation.
Deflection:- Fifty to seventy percent of the excess deflection
as compared to uncracked girder will be reduced
Natural frequency: - the excessive natural frequency will
come within 25% of the value of uncracked girder.
2nd,
Cracked Girder 8.64 9.29 7.52
4th,
Cracked Girder 8.44 8.70 3.08
(i) Natural frequency of Cracked girders are already within 25% of the natural
frequency of uncrackd girder.
(ii) However natural frequencies of repaired girders are more, which indicate
that flexural stiffness has increased after repair.
Health Monitoring of Repaired Girders
Deflection of repaired girders in mm with time
Date of recordings
Span
07.07.15 10.08.15 26.10.15 29.01.16 23.08.16 22.10.16
2nd
-- 3.07* 3.13 3.11 3.10 3.07
4th
3.16* 3.11 3.17 3.12 3.14 3.12
Items Details
Grade of concrete, girder M35 (verified from NDT tests and
core sample)
Grade of concrete, deck slab M20 (verified by NDT tests)
No of cables in each girder 6
No of strands in a cable 12
Diameter of one strand 8 mm
Ultimate strength of cable 1600 N/mm² (from testing)
Material properties of CFRP system
CFRP Laminate CFRP Dry sheet
Width 100 mm Width 500 mm
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Probable Failure mode
Crushing of concrete in compression before yielding of
prestressing steel and rupture of laminates
The use of CFRP laminates increases the flexural stiffness and natural
frequency of the cracked prestressed girders.
Proper CFRP repair scheme can be designed by following provisions of ACI-
440-2R for capacity enhancement and desired mode of failure of repaired
PSC girders.
Results of load tests after strengthening are in good agreement with the results
obtained from FE analysis.
The deflection of repaired girders are almost constant after passing more than
one year – thus proved an effective method of strengthening of cracked PSC
girders
First time implemented in Indian Railway and proved very promising,
effective and economical for organization like Railway where work has to be
done under traffic or a traffic block of 2-3 hours –traffic can’t be stopped or
diverted
THANK YOU