Experimental Research on Prestressed Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Reinforced Concrete Decks

A new type of bridge deck structure with prestressed Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Reinforced (CFRP) tendons was designed. Flexural performance tests on the prestressed concrete bridge deck with CFRP tendons were conducted. The cracking and ultimate loads of such bridge deck and the stress states and failure modes of the CFRP tendons were systematically analyzed. Results showed that the bending force process of unbonded prestressed CFRP tendon bridge deck with ordinary steel bars in the tension zone can be divided into three stages, namely, initial elastic loading state, elastic-plastic stage from the appearance of cracks to ordinary steel yielding in the tensile area, and rapid deformation development and destruction stage during tension bearing of the CFRP tendons. The failure modes of unbonded prestressed CFRP tendon bridge deck were caused by the rapid deformation development due to the low modulus of CFRP tendons, and the extension of cracks and crushing failure of concrete were due to the decreased area of effective compressive concrete. The fractures were mostly equidistant parallel cracks. The cracks slowly developed in the early stage, whereas they rapidly developed after ordinary steel yielding.