Research on the hybrid FRP composite – concrete bridge girder

The hybrid bridges are composed of FRP composites and concrete, in which FRP girders work compositely with RC deck slab. The hybrid bridge can be characterized by, among others, high stiffness and strength, excellent durability and thus low life cycle costs. Recently several HB have been built in Spain and USA. The construction of the first Polish innovative road hybrid bridge is planned as a part of the R&D project ComBridge. It will also be one of the largest (in terms of span length) of this kind in the world. The bridge will be built of FRP box girders made by infusion process and lightweight concrete deck slab reinforced with GFRP bars. The slab will be connected with the girders with special kind of shear studs and adhesive. The Rzeszow University of Technology (RUT) as the research partner in R&D project is responsible for structural testing of girder-slab connections, GFRP reinforced concrete slab and the full hybrid FRP/RC girder in full scale in the laboratory. After the bridge is built the RUT will carry out the proof test of the completed structure. The aim of the paper is to describe static tests of the full-scale hybrid FRP/RC girder and to present testing results in terms of its general behavior, carrying capacity, failure modes and FEM model validation.

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