Fast Construction and Repair of Bridge Elements Using Low Carbon Foot Print SCC and UHPC Prefabricated Panels Reinforced with FRP

Two graduate students

This project aims at developing pre-fabricated panel system made with UHPC reinforced with FRP fibers or mesh system that can serve as permanent formwork system that can provide an excellent durability and cracking resistance of infrastructure concrete elements. The UHPC panels will be reinforced with glass fiber or glass fiber composite meshing and fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) rebars. Environmentally friendly SCC will be used for the casting of the concrete bridge elements on-site, including girders and bridge piers to be cast inside the UHPC, FRP reinforced panels. The expected result from this study will be guidelines for evaluating, selecting, and specifying UHPC concrete. These guidelines will provide both DOT and design engineers with a resource to design, test, and implement this type of stay-in durable and crack resistant formwork system in transportation-related infrastructure.

The service life of concrete infrastructure elements depends on the quality of the cover-crete; outer 50 mm of the concrete. The use of high-performance concrete can indeed prolong service life of the material. However, this material is still prone to cracking.  Recently, ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC) has been introduced which has much higher mechanical properties and toughness than HPC. UHPC is typically a micro-mortar reinforced with micro fibers (typically steel fibers) resulting in extremely impermeable and crack-resistant material. Such material can be used to produce precast panels that can be assembled on-site for the construction of bridge vertical elements, such as the construction of girder and bridge pier elements.

This project aims at developing UHPC that can be used as a formwork system for cast in-place bridge construction. The proposed units are targeted for bridge construction and use low carbon foot print self-consolidating concrete (SCC) and UHPC prefabricated panels reinforced with fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) bars. The use of the proposed approach can result in several advantages for the United States transportation infrastructure system, including: (1) design of fast construction and rehabilitation system for transportation infrastructure that can exhibit extended service life; (2) use of environmentally friendly SCC to cast the structural element can provide a rapid construction procedure; (3) notable savings in labor and time by designing a permanent formwork system.

Relationship to other Research/Projects

This is a standalone project under the advanced materials theme of the Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety (CTIS) National University Transportation Center (NUTC) at Missouri S&T.

Transportation-Related Keywords

Technology Transfer Activities

The technology transfer activities will include a final research report and dissemination of the findings through a national conference via technical presentation(s) and publication(s).

Project Deliverables

Anticipated Benefits

Extension of service life of concrete infrastructure and fast construction of cast-in-place concrete elements.

Milestones