Material-structure integrated design optimization of GFRP bridge deck on steel girder

Design optimization of fiber-reinforced polymeric (FRP) composite products is essential to facilitate their applications in engineering structures. For bridge structures, the main design optimization goals are the reduction of FRP material consumption and the structure weight, which aim to reduce the initial construction cost and achieve a...

Mechanical characterization of a unidirectional pultruded composite lamina using micromechanics and numerical homogenization

In this paper, analytical and numerical homogenization methods are proposed to effectively simulate the macroscopic characteristics of a pultruded composite lamina. A continuum damage model was implemented via user material subroutine to model fiber failure, while the Mohr-Coulomb plastic criterion is employed to model matrix damage. In order...

Assessment of Flexural Behavior of Pultruded GFRP Laminates for Bridge Deck Applications

In this study, flexural behaviors of the pultruded composite laminate were evaluated through experiments and theoretical analysis. Three-point flexural tests were performed for pultruded specimens. The typical failure mode for the longitudinal flexural specimens was local crush on the top surface accompanied with local cracks on the bottom...