What if you substitute the web panels of a steel bridge with
concrete of same thickness？
It will crush under truck load? Right?
Well, there is essentially the same
substitution in a HCB, considering the 3100 ksi elastic modulus of
FRP--------concrete is normally 3000-5000 ksi. And the thickness of HCB web
panel is less than 0.15 inch. But, a single HCB girder can handle more than 130
kips of load.
What makes the flexible FRP web capable to
carry the weight of 2 trucks? We are digging into that and preparing a journal
paper. Basically, post-buckling strength is the answer to the question.
Our discovery of this FRP post-buckling
mechanism may not only be beneficial for our HCB design, but also helpful for
other FRP applications -------i.e. aerospace engineering----------potentially.
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