FATIGUE OF WEB-CORE COMPOSITE BRIDGE DECKS: AN EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL STUDY

Glass fibre-polymer composite (a.k.a GFRP) bridge decks are gaining popularity as a renovation option for highway bridges due to their fatigue resistance, corrosion resistance, and favorable strength-to-weight ratio. However, current design codes tend to result in overly conservative designs. To achieve reliable and optimized bridge concepts with composite decks, understanding the failure behaviour of these decks is crucial. Web-core deck panels utilize UD-dominated multi-directional, connected by equidistant webs are dominantly used. This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation of composite web-core deck panel failure under static and fatigue loading, comparing failure modes and strength predictions.