Dr. Mijia Yang (North Dakota State University)

"Composite Sandwich Panels as Bridge Decks" (30 minutes)

Recent applications have demonstrated that FRP honeycomb sandwich panels can be effectively and economically applied for both new construction and rehabilitation and replacement of existing structures. This presentation will talk about the manufacturing of FRP honeycomb sandwich panels, including: (1) constituent materials and ply properties, (2) face laminates and core wall engineering properties, and equivalent core material properties, (3) different manufacturing processes. Based on the characterized properties of FRP sandwich panels, the theory of adopting them as the bridge deck is suggested. First, the static and dynamic responses of the sandwich deck are analysed under design truck load and moving dynamic loads respectively, using the first order shear sandwich theory. A dynamic vehicle-bridge simulation model was then used to calculate the dynamic load factors of the sandwich bridge deck under different traveling velocities. The results suggest that the dynamic load factors vary with the traveling speed and increase significantly with decreasing deck stiffness. Considering multiple degrees of freedom for the vehicle further amplifies the dynamic loading factor and increases the vibration generated by vehicles. Based on the static and dynamic analysis of the sandwich panel under load, the qualifying indexes to adopt them as bridge decks are summarized.