Experimental Study on Behaviour of Concrete Box Girder Prestressed with External CFRP Tendons

Abstract

A concrete thin-walled box girder prestressed with external CFRP tendons has been made, and tested in the course of CFRP tendons tensing until concrete cracking. Prestressing loss and some behaviors under uniform load such as stress and strain distribution, effective width coefficient of compressive top flange, deflection, crack patterns at mid-section, and stress variety of CFRP tendons have been studied. Experiments show that the box girder perform well against cracking and deformation, with effective width coefficient of compressive top flange increased by less than 5% due to concrete cracking. The reliable experimental basis will be helpful to the application of externally prestressed CFRP tendons in concrete box girder.