Temperature-Induced Characteristics of Fiber-Reinforced-Plastic Bridge Decks: A Study on the Combined Effects of Thermal and Vehicle Loads

The present paper deals with the temperature-induced static and dynamic analysis of a hollow-core fiber-reinforced-plastic (FRP) bridge deck model supported by steel girders, extended further to study the behavior of an FRP deck under the combined effects of a moving vehicle load and gradient temperature. Fiber-reinforced-plastic bridge decks require highly complex materials and geometric models, and hence need special attention in terms of analysis and design. The variation in temperature between the top and bottom layers of such decks occurs due to the low thermal conductivity of FRP materials as well as the hollow-core configuration. Consequently, significant thermal stress develops, which influences the characteristics of the deck considerably. The degradation of the material properties due to the temperature gradient was considered in order to identify the change in behavior of the FRP material resulting from the temperature increments. Thermal static and vibrational analyses were conducted using Ansys Mechanical 2023 R2 (23.2) software. An experimental free vibration analysis of a prototype deck model at ambient temperature was carried out to validate the numerical simulation. A numerical simulation, based on the thermomechanical behavior of a hollow-core FRP bridge deck with a steel girder, was performed under the combined effects of the thermal and vehicle load on the deck resulting from the difference in temperature between the top and bottom surfaces of the deck.