An Investigation of GFRP Bar Reinforced Light Weight Concrete (LWC) Bridge Deck

To avoid the creep rupture of GFRP bar in RC members, not exceeding 20% design tensile strength (ffu)) is recommended as design limit for sustained stress level in GFRP bar in current ACI 440.1R-06 guideline. In this paper, the effects of using light weight concrete (LWC) is studied to investigate the sustained stress level in GFRP bar RC bridge decks by a parametric study. Results show that the sustained stress in GFRP bar in LWC bridge decks is in between 2.8-5.7% of ffu, while it is about 3.44-7.52% for normal weight concrete (NWC) deck.