Bridge Pier Retrofit Using Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Composites

Abstract

The application of carbon fiber composite jackets for the three columns and cap beam of an existing concrete bridge pier was performed in September 1996. The evaluation of the pier in the as-is condition, the rehabilitation objectives, and the composite wrap design are presented. A bilinear stress-strain curve for the confinement model of circular and rectangular concrete sections with fiber-reinforced plastic composite jackets is used for performing pushover analyses. In addition, a comparison is made between analytical results and full-scale experiments. It was found that the shear capacity of the cap beam and columns and the ductility of the pier were improved significantly.