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NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF FRP PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE IN TAIJIANG NATIONAL

PARK

Conference Paper · December 2013

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 Fourth Asia-Pacific Conference on FRP in Structures (APFIS 2013)
11-13 December 2013, Melbourne, Australia
© 2013 International Institute for FRP in Construction

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF FRP PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE IN TAIJIANG NATIONAL

PARK

Y. F. Li1, Y.C. Chiu2 and S. Badjie3

1
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
Email: [email protected]
2
Senior Researcher, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Material and Chemical Research Laboratory,
Hsinchu, Taiwan.
3
Graduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the numerical analysis of the pedestrian bridge made of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP)
components in Taijiang National Park, Tainan, Taiwan was introduced. The bridge’s superstructure used 4 GFRP
I-girders which are connected to each other with GFRP plate decks and GFRP stiffeners were used to resist shear
while also helping transmit forces to adjacent girders. This study aims to analyze the bridge superstructure by
modeling it using ANSYS in the finite-element analysis. Also, small scale analysis of a 6-m long and an 8-m
long girder were performed. The finite-element results were compared with the Euler and Timoshenko beam
theoretical values.

KEYWORDS

FRP, GFRP, Girder-deck system, finite-element analysis, pedestrian bridge, stiffener.

INTRODUCTION

The biggest problem facing infrastructure structures built in Taijiang National Park is corrosion. A visit to the site
revealed that most of the exposed steel members such as girders and railings have been partly or greatly corroded.
The high presence of chloride ions from the surrounding seawater has worsened the deterioration phenomenon of
existing structures in the park. This makes the lifecycle cost of those structures due to maintenance far higher
than the initial construction cost. Therefore, this makes high-strength and corrosion-resistant fiber reinforced
plastic (FRP) composite materials more than viable for a pedestrian bridge built in the park. This 8-m long
pedestrian bridge is the first of its kind in Taiwan to be composed exclusively of FRP components only. In this
paper, the bridge and its main structural components are modeled and analyzed using ANSYS finite-element
program. Similar works and related literatures on the numerical analysis of FRP pedestrian bridges and bridge
components are presented in the following review.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Since Taiwan isn’t the first in the world to use FRP bridges, a few literatures from abroad are presented here.
Salim et al. (1997) introduced a design concept for a short-span FRP bridge composed of cellular FRP deck and
an optimized FRP winged-box beam as the stringers. Based on the present first-order SDMF orthotropic plate
solution, a simplified design analysis procedure is proposed, and it can be used for the analysis and design
optimization of various case studies of FRP deck-and-stringer bridges. Qiao et al. (2000) proposed a systematic
approach for design analysis of FRP deck/stringer bridge systems. The design approach includes the analyses of
ply (micro-mechanics), panel (macro-mechanics), beam or stringer (mechanics of laminated beam), deck (elastic
equivalence model), and combined deck/stringer system (series approximation technique). Schniepp et al. (2002)
tested double-wed FRP beams of different spans and depth in three-point bending and adopted the Timoshenko
Beam Theory to calculate the shear stiffness for a span-to-depth ratio (L/d) of 6~10 as this is significant in
predicting the failure mode of the beam. Hejll et al. (2005) use large scale hybrid FRP composite girders in a
bridge structure. The manufacturing process, theory and field application of the girders was also carried out.
Finite-element results were compared with theoretical and experimental results. Mendes et al. (2011) designed a
single 12-m span I-section footbridge affixed a layer of carbon fiber patch at the top flange and analyzed the
mechanical behavior of the structure by the finite element method. From the numerical and experimental
research, it was concluded that the connection between the deck and the profile can be made exclusively of
epoxy resin. It was also concluded that the bridge design is conditioned by service limit state due to the
deflection.

STRUCTURAL DESIGN OF THE FRP PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

FRP composites is one of the materials being researched and tested in an attempt to make a new structural
material that is superior to reinforced concrete and steel for specific applications. The former two traditional
building materials prove to be incapable to providing the corrosion resistance, better fatigue, low density and
high strength-to-weight ratio enjoyed by FRP components. The superstructure of the FRP pedestrian bridge uses
GFRP components bonded to each other either adhesively using epoxy resin or by using GFRP bolts in addition
to the adhesive bonding. No metallic material at all was used for the pedestrian bridge. The following describes
the structural design of each item employed in the superstructure of the bridge:

Girder: The main girder is designed using four 20 cm wide, 41 cm high, and 800 cm long (with span length of
750 cm) single-web I-girders. In the configuration of the main girder of the bridge, stiffeners (made of FRP end
plates) are placed in-between the four I-girders at L/4, L/2 and L/4 of the I-girder with the intention of resisting
the shear force and transmitting the applied force to the adjacent girders. In addition, FRP rods bolted at
midpoint of the partitioned stiffeners would help resist against torsion at the ends and midpoint of the pultruded
girders. This thus enhances the performance of the girders and the mechanical behavior of the whole girder-deck
system and prevents failure of a single girder of the system caused by irresistible external force by reversing the
failure. The design of girder and stiffeners of the FRP Pedestrian Bridge at Taijiang National Park are shown in
Figure 1.

(a) GFRP stiffeners resisting shear (b) GFRP bar resisting torsion

(c) Scheme of main girder of the bridge

Figure 1. Design of girder and stiffeners of the FRP pedestrian bridge at Taijiang National Park

Bridge deck: 16 GFRP composite plates, each measuring 150 cm long, 50 cm wide and 1.2 cm thick, were used
as the bridge deck. These are bonded physically and chemically to the girders of the stiffeners by GFRP pins and
adhesive resin respectively. After completion of assembly of the FRP girder-deck system, a light crane was used
to hoist the superstructure of the bridge into position on the abutments.

Deflection Design Requirement

For FRP composite bridges, the specified deflection values are more liberal due to the high strength, but low
stiffness (modulus of elasticity) characteristics of the material. Because of the low modulus, GFRP composite
bridges tend to be at very low levels of stress (in comparison to other materials) at a certain deflection limit. To
allow better use of the FRP materials while maintaining a high factor of safety, Table 1 gives famous design
specifications considered in this paper.

Mended et al. (2011) mentioned that the design of an FRP bridge is conditioned by service limit state due to the
deflection. With such little stiffness of the GFRP profiles, deflection control design was employed for the
Taijiang National Park FRP Pedestrian Bridge. In this study, therefore, the maximum allowable deflection of
L/300 of the DMFRB Vol. 1, Sec. 3, Part 17 is chosen.
 Table 1. FRP bridge deflection requirement
Scope of
Nation Specification Name Design Method Deflection Limit
Application
FRP highway Ultimate Limit
U.K. DMFRB Vol. 1, Sec. 3, Part 17 L/300
bridges State
A Guide to Fiber-Reinforced FRP Trail Working Stress
L/400
Polymer Trail Bridge bridges Method
U.S.A.
Guide Specifications for Design FRP Pedestrian
LRFD L/500
of FRP Pedestrian Bridges Bridges

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

The Euler-Bernoulli Beam Theory (EBT) and Timoshenko Beam Theory (TBT) were employed to verify the
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the pultruded GFRP girders. After the verification, the finite element model of
the whole superstructure of the bridge was made. The following gives details of both the theoretical and
numerical analysis.

Timoshenko Beam Theory

The choice of beam theory depends on a lot of factors, one of which is the degree of anisotropy of the composite
material (Neto and Rovere 2007). Composite materials display in general a longitudinal-to-shear modulus ratio
considerably higher than those found in isotropic materials and this ratio tends to increase as the anisotropy
degree of the material increases. For this reason shear deformation in the beam will increase as the anisotropy
degree of the material increases. To account for shear deformation, TBT gives a better approximation of the
actual beam as compared to the traditional EBT. In the TBT, the plane sections of the girder are assumed to
remain plane, but no longer normal to the beam’s neutral axis (Neto and Rovere 2007). In the present paper, with
a relatively small aspect ratio (aspect ratio corresponds to length-to-height ratio) of the GFRP profiles, shear
deformations needs to be taken into consideration. The popular Timoshenko beam formula for the maximum
deflection of a simply supported beam under uniformly distributed load is given as follows:

5wL4 wL2
δ max . = + (1)
384 EI 8κGA
Where w is the intensity of the distributed load; L is the span or the distance between supports; A is the section
area and I is the section moment of inertia with respect to the x-axis; E is the flexural elastic modulus or Young’s
modulus for isotropic materials; G is the shear modulus and κ is the shear coefficient to account for the fact that
shear stress distribution is non-uniform across the section. For an I-section girder, the shear coefficient is given
by the following relation in which ν is the Poisson’s ratio:
⎛ 10(1 + ν )(1 + 3m) 2 ⎞
κ = ⎜⎜ 2 ⎟
⎟ = 0.682
⎝ (12 + 72 m 2
+ 90 m 3
) + (11 + 66 m + 135m 2
+ 90 m 3
) + 30 n 2
( m + m 2
) + 5ν n 2
(8m + 9 m ) ⎠
On the other hand, Ghugal and Sharma (2011) found for a simply supported beam with a uniformly distributed
load, the maximum deflection is given as by:
5wL4 ⎡ h2 ⎤
⎢1 + 1.92(1 + ν ) 2 ⎥
δ max . = (2)
384 EI ⎣ L ⎦
Here, w is the intensity of the transverse load; L is the span or the distance between supports; I is the section
moment of inertia with respect to the x-axis; E is the flexural elastic modulus or Young’s modulus for isotropic
materials; ν as the Poisson’s ratio of the girder; h is the height of the girder section. These two equations will be
used for the TBT.

Euler-Bernoulli Beam Theory

The Euler-Bernoulli Beam Theory can be considered as a special case of the Timoshenko Beam theory in which
the shear effect is ignored for long beams. It is a simplification of the linear theory of elasticity which provides a
means of calculating the load-carry capacity and deflection of beams. For our case of a simply supported girder
with a uniformly distributed load on the top longitudinal span of the GFRP girders, the Euler-Bernoulli equation
is given for the maximum deflection as:

5wL4
δ max . = (3)
384 EI
where w is the intensity of the transverse load; L is the span or the distance between supports; I is the section
moment of inertia with respect to the x-axis; E is the flexural elastic modulus for isotropic materials.

Finite Element Analysis

For the finite element analysis (FEA) of the bridge girder, the general purpose commercial finite element
analysis software, ANSYS, was used for the static linear analysis. The bridge girders use an 8-node Solid 45
element with three degrees of freedom for each element in the Finite element mesh (Figure 2). Table 2 shows the
mesh details. Boundary conditions or constraints were applied as structural displacement loads within ANSYS. A
simply support beam condition was used to simulate the girder with a vertical displacement (in the y direction)
and transverse displacement (x direction) restrain on the nodes of both ends of the profile bottom flange. An
extra constraint in the z direction was made at one of the ends of the girder. The constraints as applied in the
above simply supported beam are also extended to all the girders in the bridge girder-deck system.

Table 2. Mesh details of the pedestrian bridge

Bridge Deck Stiffeners Whole Bridge
No. of volumes meshed 480 30 1410
Max. node number 40588 8316 122536
Max. element number 19944 3744 74656

The effects of self-weight of all the structural elements are considered by assigning a density of 1800 kg/m3 to all
the material models. An acceleration of 9.81 m/s2 due to gravity is then applied as a global inertia load. The
girder-deck system had a surface load of 40 MPa applied on the whole area of the bridge deck in agreement with
the load design requirements. Consequently, the bridge’s superstructure was modeled with the four GFRP
I-girders as the diaphragm using SOLID45 element. The stiffeners and deck were also modeled but not the FRP
rod shown in Fig. 2(b) and Fig. 2(a), respectively. Constraints were applied at both ends in a simply supported
condition before applying a vertical surface load of 40 MPa. Material properties of GFRP components listed in
Table 3 below were used in the Finite element analysis. Special attention was given to the use of consistent sign
convention throughout the whole analysis to ensure that the correct Young’s Modulus, shear modulus and
Poisson’s ratio values are assigned. The analysis results converged well and Table 2 shows the material
properties of the GFRP profiles used in this study.

1 1 1
ELEMENTS ELEMENTS ELEMENTS
OCT 4 2013 OCT 4 2013 OCT 4 2013
12:19:16 11:58:47 12:15:41

Y Y

Z 12
X Z 12
X Y
X12
Z

GIRDER-DECK SYSTEM GIRDER-DECK SYSTEM GIRDER-DECK SYSTEM

(a) Whole bridge superstructure (b) Deck (c) Stiffeners

Figure 2. Finite element mesh of bridge superstructure

Table 3. Material Properties of GFRP Components

a
Property Ex (MPa) Ey Ez Gxy (MPa) Gyz (MPa) Gxz (MPa) νxy νyz νxz
(MPa) (MPa)
All girders 6621 6621 20690 3724 3724 3724 0.33 0.11 0.11
Deck plate 6621 20690 6621 3724 3724 3724 0.11 0.11 0.33
Stiffeners 20690 6621 6621 3724 3724 3724 0.11 0.33 0.11
a
X = transverse (perpendicular to traffic), Y = vertical direction and Z = longitudinal (traffic) direction

Constitutive Equation of FRP Girder

In the constitutive model, the GFRP material was considered orthotropic and linearly elastic. The constitutive
relations for orthotropic FRP materials used in the finite-element analysis are:
 ⎡ ⎛ 1 − ν yzν zy ⎞ ⎛ ν − ν zxν yz ⎞ ⎛ ν − ν yxν zy ⎞ ⎤
⎢ E x ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ E x ⎜⎜ yx ⎟⎟ E x ⎜⎜ zx ⎟⎟ 0 0 0 ⎥
⎝ Δ ⎠ ⎝ Δ ⎠ ⎝ Δ ⎠
⎧σ x ⎫ ⎢ ⎥⎧ ε x ⎫
⎪σ ⎪ ⎢ ⎛ ν xy − ν zyν xz ⎞ ⎛ 1 − ν xzν zx ⎞ ⎛ ν zy − ν xyν zx ⎞ ⎥⎪ ⎪
⎪ y ⎪ ⎢ E y ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ E y ⎜ ⎟ E y ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ 0 0 0 ⎥⎪ε y ⎪ (4a)
⎝ Δ ⎠ ⎝ Δ ⎠ ⎝ Δ ⎠
⎪⎪σ z ⎪⎪ ⎢⎢ ⎥ ⎪⎪ ε ⎪⎪
⎥⎨ z ⎬
⎨ ⎬= ⎛ ν xz − ν xyν yz ⎞ ⎛ ν yz − ν yxν xz ⎞ ⎛ 1 − ν xyν yx ⎞
⎪γ yz ⎪ ⎢ E z ⎜⎜ Δ
⎟⎟ E z ⎜⎜
Δ
⎟⎟ E z ⎜⎜
Δ
⎟⎟ 0 0 0 ⎥ ⎪τ yz ⎪
⎪γ xz ⎪ ⎢ ⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠ ⎥ ⎪τ ⎪
⎪ ⎪ ⎢ 0 0 0 G yz 0 0 ⎥ ⎪ xz ⎪
⎩⎪γ xy ⎭⎪ ⎢ 0 0 0 0 G zx
⎥ ⎪τ ⎪
0 ⎥ ⎩ xy ⎭
⎢
⎢ 0 0 0 0 0 G xy ⎥⎦
⎣

where,
Δ = 1 −ν xyν yx −ν yzν zy −ν zxν xz − 2ν yxν zyν xz (4b)
ν yx ν xy ν zx ν xz ν zy ν yz
= , = , = (4c)
Ey Ex Ez Ex Ez Ey
In the above equations, σrepresents the normal stresses and γis the shear stresses in the directions specified in
the note below Table 2. In the same way, E, G and ν follow the directions noted in Table 2.

COMPARISON OF THE ANALYTICAL RESULTS

The theoretical analysis uses an equivalent Young’s modulus (E = 1,7161 MPa) given by the manufacturer of the
GFRP profiles and a Poisson’s ratio, ν of 0.33. The value of the uniformly distributed load, w is obtained by
multiplying the design load of 40 MPa by the width (0.53 m) of load to be taken by an interior girder. This
produced a uniformly distributed line load of 2.185 kN/m after adding a dead load (a density of 1,800 kg/m3) due
to the self-weight of the girder.

Table 4. Results comparison

6-m girder 8-m girder Girder-deck system
Analytical methods
Deflection (cm) Deflection (cm) Deflection (cm)
FEA 0.52 1.38 1.06

EBT 0.493 1.379 Meets

L/300 = 2.5 deflection
Ghugal and Sharma 0.499 1.389
TBT requirements
Equation (1) 0.518 1.419
Safety Factor 36 41

It is clearly seen in Table 4 that the results are closely the same. The 6-m girder has more close deflection values
in the TBT than in the EBT when compared to the FEA for verification. This could be due to the effect of shear
deformation considered for the girder. On the other hand, there is more correlation in the deflection values of the
8-m girder with that of the FEA as the effects of shearing seems to be less as the length increases for the same
section. The FEA output results for the 6-m, 8-m and the girder-deck system are shown in Figure 3 below.
1 1 1
NODAL SOLUTION NODAL SOLUTION NODAL SOLUTION
OCT 15 2013 OCT 15 2013 OCT 14 2013
STEP=1 STEP=1 17:12:46 STEP=1 18:11:49
17:11:20
SUB =1 SUB =1 SUB =1
TIME=1 TIME=1 TIME=1
UY (AVG) UY (AVG) UY (AVG)
RSYS=0 RSYS=0 Y RSYS=0
Y MX DMX =.010697
DMX =.005219 DMX =.013807
SMN =-.005191 SMN =-.013757 Z X SMN =-.010661
Z MX
X SMX =.001321 SMX =.803E-03
SMX =.268E-03

MN

Z 12
X
MN
MN

MX

-.005191 -.003977 -.002764 -.001551 -.338E-03 -.013757 -.010406 -.007055 -.003705 -.354E-03 -.010661 -.008114 -.005566 -.003019 -.471E-03
-.004584 -.003371 -.002158 -.945E-03 .268E-03 -.012081 -.008731 -.00538 -.002029 .001321 -.009387 -.00684 -.004292 -.001745 .803E-03
6-m GIRDER 8-m GIRDER GIRDER-DECK SYSTEM

Figure 3. Finite element results of 6-m and 8-m bridge girder and girder-deck system.

CONCLUSION

A pedestrian bridge was built for the first time in Taiwan using FRP composite materials only. The superstructure
of the bridge was designed using the four FRP stringers and also included stiffeners and an FRP rod. A numerical
model of the bridge is obtained using ANSYS. First, a shorter girder was analyzed using the finite element
software and compared with the theoretical results. Next, a girder with the same length as the bridge was
analyzed numerically and results were compared with those of the theoretical results. Both results of the TBT
and that of the EBT closely agree with the FEM results. Furthermore, the girder-deck system with a maximum
deflection value of only 1.06 cm meets the design requirement of a limit deflection of L/300 with reasonable
safety factors. Therefore, it can be concluded that the design of the bridge pedestrian bridge at Taijiang National
Park is accurate and that it will provide reasonable safety for its users.

ACKNOLEDGEMENT

This work has been financially supported by the National Science Council of the Taiwan government, under
contract No. NSC 100-2221-E-027-086 with National Taipei University of Technology.

REFERENCE

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Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Washington, DC.
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inhomogeneity”, Construction and Building Materials, 9(6):325-31.
Department of Transportation, U.K. (2005). Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, 1(3), Part 17, BD 90/05.
Ghugal, Y.M. and Sharma, R. (2011). “A refined shear deformation theory for flexure of thick beams”, Latin
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Hejll, A., Täljsten, B. and Motavalli, M. (2005). “Large scale hybrid FRP composite girders for use in bridge
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shear stiffness in FRP composite beams”, MS Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic and State University, USA.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%E2%80%93Bernoulli_beam_theory.

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