The concept and initial research on all-FRP footbridge

The main goal of the research project, carried out by the Polish science-business consortium led by Mostostal Warszawa SA, was to develop and demonstrate FRP composite members for footbridges, including their concept design, material research, manufacturing technique selection and structural testing. The objective of the paper is the research on a new FRP footbridge girder fabricated by VARTM manufacturing technique to be likely implemented on-site soon. After the comprehensive FEM analysis, the reduced scale prototype girder with the total length of 13.5 m was tested to evaluate its carrying capacity, modes of failure, basic dynamic parameters as well as overall behaviour under ultimate static load. The girder met the prescribed serviceability and safety criteria. The FEM model of the girder was validated against testing results and was further used for a prototype FRP footbridge design. The output of the research project gives a very promising future for the FRP girder application in bridge engineering.