ISIS Durability Study

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After eight years of service in five bridge decks from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, GFRPs (glass fibre reinforced polymers) have provided excellent performance in concrete structures.

Contrary to common belief by the engineering community, core sample test results taken in these five structures reveal that the alkaline in concrete bridge decks does not have any detrimental effect on the GFRP material.

Laboratory test results reveal:

•  EXCELLENT BONDING
•  NO DEBONDING
•  NO MICROCRACKING
•  NO VOIDS
•  NO RESIN MICROCRACKING
•  NO GLASS FIBRE DEGRADATION
•  NO SIGNIFICANT DELAMINATION/DEBONDING
•  NO GLASS TRANSITION
•  NO SIGN OF CHEMICAL DEGRADATION OF THE RESIN
•  NO CHEMICAL DEGRADATION (HYDROLYSIS)

The project team has extensive expertise in materials science and was led by Dr. Aftab Mufti and coordinated by Dr. Maria Onofrei. Dr. Nemkumar Banthia, Dr. Brahim Benmokrane, Dr. John Newhook, Dr. Gamil Tadros, Dr. Baidar Bakht and Mr. Peter Brett round out the GFRP durability committee. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), Optical Microscopy (OM), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), and Infrared Spectroscopy (IS) test analyses undertaken at the Universities of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Sherbrooke assessed the effect on GFRP reinforcement of alkali present in concrete structures, and revealed that the performance of GFRP reinforcement is excellent and not affected over the long term in any manner.

The findings have been presented at three conferences to date, with another presentation to be made in November.

• International Workshop for Innovative Bridge Deck Technologies, April 14-15, 2005, Winnipeg
• ISIS Annual Conference, May 4-6, 2005, Ottawa
• Third International Conference on Composites in Construction (CCC 2005), July 11-13, 2005, Lyon, France
• Seventh International Symposium on Fiber Reinforced Polymer Reinforcement for Reinforced Concrete Structures (FRPRCS-7), November 7-10, 2005, New Orleans

Plans are underway to publish the results in several international scientific journals, including the Indian Concrete Journal, the Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering and ACI International. The reports have been widely distributed throughout the international community and the feedback so far has been very positive, particularly from Europe, USA and Japan. Following is a listing of some of the recipients of the report.

The reports can be downloaded in PDF format from the links below.

Durability Report - Université de Sherbrooke

Durability Report - University of Manitoba

Durability Report - Universities of Saskatchewan and British Columbia

Paper from International Workshop for Innovative Bridge Deck Technologies

Paper from CCC 2005

Paper from FRPRCS-7