Shenton,III A team of researchers at the University of Delaware, in collaboration with the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will complete a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) project focused on design and performance of a Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) bridge. The study includes consideration of design methods, establishment of a material property database for accelerated aging tests, and full-scale lab testing of subcomponents. The result will be the design and installation of a long-term structural health monitoring system for the bridge that will allow for the long-term assessment of its performance under actual service conditions. The research will produce a stand-alone, automatic system for continuous monitoring and evaluation of a novel bridge.
The long-term monitoring system will utilize traditional and novel nondestructive sensors (i.e., fiber optics) and will automatically record and store data at specified time intervals and also when heavy vehicles cross the bridge. Using this information, the effects of sustained load, temperature, and environmental conditions, as well as the bridge's performance under live loads, can be assessed. The system will be fully automatic, require little operator intervention, and be remotely accessible via modem or other wireless communication link. A controlled load test will be performed at the start of the project to verify that the system is working properly and to investigate the way in which long-term data can be best used to predict the long-term performance of composite structures. ***
