Composites: Part B 38 (2007) 878–886

www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

40-Year-old full-scale concrete bridge girder strengthened

with prestressed CFRP plates anchored using gradient method
a,* a,b
Christoph Czaderski , Masoud Motavalli
a
Empa, Structural Engineering Research Laboratory, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
b
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Received 6 December 2005; received in revised form 23 November 2006; accepted 29 November 2006
Available online 18 January 2007

Abstract

A 17 m long internally prestressed concrete girder taken from a bridge in southern Switzerland was strengthened flexurally using pre-
stressed CFRP plates and then tested to failure. The prestressing level in the plates was 32% of their nominal tensile strength. The load
carrying behaviour of this test girder was compared to a reference girder and a girder strengthened using non-prestressed plates. For the
anchorage of the prestressed CFRP plates, a method developed at Empa was used. In this method, the force in the CFRP plate is reduced
to zero at the plate ends and permanent anchorage system is not required.
The experiments proved the feasibility of anchoring CFRP plates using the gradient method. Repeated loading showed stable tensile
strains in the plates and shear stresses between the plates and concrete. Furthermore, prestressing resulted in decreased deflections and
strains and a 45% increase in maximum recorded load.
 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: A. Plates; D. Mechanical testing; Empa gradient method

1. Introduction effectively. With prestressed CFRP plates, better use of

Structures such as bridges and buildings sometimes
require retrofitting due to, for example, their degraded con-
dition or an increase in applied loads. The use of carbon
fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates or fabrics for the
post-strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) is a state
of the art method used worldwide. The advantages of these
materials as compared to steel are: low self-weight, resis-
tance to corrosion, high strength and excellent fatigue resis-
tance. In structural engineering, CFRP strengthening systems
have been applied for static and seismic strengthening.
The typical failure mode of a member strengthened flex-
urally with CFRP plates is debonding of the plates. The
concrete cannot carry the applied tensile stresses, which
leads to cracking and debonding, meaning that the high
tensile strength of the CFRP material cannot be exploited
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +41 44 823 55 11; fax: +41 44 823 44 55.
E-mail address: christoph.czaderski@empa.ch (C. Czaderski).
the material is made. Furthermore, a better behaviour of
the whole strengthened structure is achieved: displacements
are reduced, cracks occur at higher load levels, crack
widths are reduced and stresses in the internal steel
decrease thereby increasing the fatigue resistance.
During early nineties, Deuring [1] was one of the first to
investigate the strengthening of RC beams using pre-
stressed fibre reinforced composites. Triantafillou et al. pre-
sented in [2] the determination of the maximum FRP
prestressing force without end anchorages for plates. Fur-
thermore, several investigations can be found in the litera-
ture where RC test beams strengthened with prestressed
CFRP plates were tested and compared with unstrength-
ened reference beams and beams strengthened with non-
prestressed CFRP plates, e.g. [3–7]. El-Hacha et al. [8,9]
studied the strengthening of precracked concrete beams
using prestressed CFRP sheets under short- and long-term
loading and exposure to both room and low temperatures.
Longworth et al. [10] used prestressed CFRP plates to

1359-8368/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2006.11.003
 C. Czaderski, M. Motavalli / Composites: Part B 38 (2007) 878–886 879

strengthen RC slabs in two directions. It is worth noting

that most of these references investigated the application
of prestressed CFRP plates to conventionally reinforced
concrete structures. Relatively little work has been carried
out on the strengthening of internally prestressed concrete
structures using prestressed CFRP plates (e.g. [8,9]).
When CFRP plates are prestressed, special consider-
ation must be given to the transfer of shear stresses from
the plate end to the concrete. Therefore, anchorage systems
are used for which different products are available on the
market. Examples of anchorage systems employing steel
plates are given in [11,12], while [13] presents an anchor
head made of CFRP (see application in [14]). All of these
systems, however, must be fixed to the concrete with screws
or dowels.
In the presented investigation a different approach was
used. A force gradient was applied at the end of the CFRP
plates so that anchorages were no longer needed. The pres-
tressing force was transferred to the concrete gradually.
The gradient was produced by sector-wise heating of the Fig. 1. Bridge ‘‘Viadotto delle Cantine a Capolago’’.
adhesive and a step-wise release of the force (see [15–17]).
A 17 m long internally prestressed concrete girder taken girders originated from the north-to-south traffic direction
from a bridge was strengthened flexurally with prestressed bridge which had a total length of 340 m. The test girders
CFRP plates and tested to failure. The load carrying were taken from one of the middle spans of a continuous
behaviour of the girder was compared with a reference gir- four span member. They were 17 m long and had a flange
der and a girder strengthened using non-prestressed plates width of 0.8 m, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The girders were
(see also report in [18]). constructed using prefabricated prestressed concrete I-sec-
tions and near the support T-sections (two per span), which
1.1. Research significance were connected using two post-tensioned prestressing ten-
dons with parallel wire bundles consisting of 26 wires each.
The presented experimental investigation is unique The tendon profile in the girders corresponded to the bend-
because the anchorage method which was developed and ing moment profile, what was the reason that the tendon
patented at Empa [15–17] was never used before at pre-
stressed concrete beams with such large sizes.
Small reinforced concrete test plates with span of 2.1 m
displacement
transducer

[16] and 6.0 m [17] were strengthened using prestressed

strain gauge
mechanical

CFRP plates anchored with gradient method and tested

to failure. Furthermore, tests were performed on small size
prestressed concrete beams (span 2 m) which were also
strengthened with prestressed CFRP plates using the gradi-
ent method [19].
A similar method to prestress fabrics was presented the-
oretically in [20]. To the knowledge of the authors, no other
stressing bed wires d = 7 mm

published investigation exist which deals with gradient

anchorage.
0.8 m

2. Experimental investigation
~ 1.33 m

nominal
2.1. Test specimens, setup and measurements 0.12 m
values

The replacement of a highway bridge superstructure in 0.45 m

southern Switzerland resulted in the possibility of obtain-
ing five full-scale girders for experimental investigations.
The ‘‘Viadotto delle Cantine a Capolago’’ bridge (see
6 CFRP plates
Fig. 1), constructed in 1964–1966, comprised two separate
deformeter L=100/500mm
bridges with three, four or five continuous spans of 20 m
each. Each bridge carried one direction of traffic. The test Fig. 2. Cross-section of test girder.
880 C. Czaderski, M. Motavalli / Composites: Part B 38 (2007) 878–886

inductive displacement
F F 17.0 transducers F F nominal values

0.6 3.5 1.0 3.4 3.4 1.0 3.5 0.6

mechanical strain
gauge measurements
L=100mm L=500mm K12/13
tendons ‘high’ tendons ‘low’

K20/21
strain gauges

cut
cut

0.15 D25-36 mechanical strain K28/29

mechanical strain gauge measurements
D37-48 gauge measurement: 0.15
to control the prestressing
6 CFRP plates Sikadur S512, length 15.5 m 12 x 0.1 14 x 0.5 = 7.0 0.3
prestressed with 1000 MPa => 60 kN

0.6 15.8 0.6

Fig. 3. Test setup of girder 2, strengthened with prestressed CFRP plates.

profile in the test beams was not perfectly symmetrically,

Fig. 3. The tendons were grouted after prestressing. The
prefabricated elements included 12 pretensioned stressing
bed wires in the bottom flange as shown in Fig. 2. A con-
crete deck and cross-girders were cast-in-place on the gird-
ers and at mid-span, respectively.
The investigation presented herein is a part of a test pro-
gram on five similar test girders, as outlined in Table 1.
Test girder 1 was used to determine the material properties
of the concrete, steel reinforcement and tendons. Further-
more, the remaining tendon force was measured using a
‘‘wire cutting’’ test method [21]. Test girder 4 was strength-
ened for flexure by using non-prestressed CFRP plates and
tested statically to failure [22,23]. This was followed by test
girder 3, the reference girder, which was also tested stati-
Fig. 4. Mechanical strain gauge measurement to control prestress. CFRP
cally to failure. Test girder 2 was strengthened with pre-
plates on photo unstressed before application.
stressed CFRP plates and tested to failure. The results
from this test and comparison of these results with tests
presented in this paper are mean values of measurements
carried out on girders 3 and 4 are reported below. On test
taken from both sides of the girder.
girder 5, the feasibility and effectiveness of strengthening a
damaged girder was studied.
Fig. 3 shows the dimensions and test setup for girder 2, 2.2. Material properties
as well as the type and location of the measurements which
are presented in this paper. In addition to measurement of Sika CarboDur S512 CFRP plates with unidirec-
the deflections using inductive displacement transducers tional carbon fibers in an epoxy matrix were used for the
and strains using electrical resistance strain gauges, exten- tests. The Sika product data sheet provided technical
sive strain measurements using mechanical strain gauges properties for the CFRP plates and is presented in Table 2.
(see Fig. 4) were performed. The strains and deflections To bond the plate to girder 2, an epoxy-based two com-
were taken twice (see locations in Fig. 2) most of the results ponent adhesive mortar, Sikadur-30 LP, was used. The
Sika product data sheet for this mortar lists a compressive
Table 1
strength of 110 MPa after 1 day if cured at 55 C and
Overview of test program
Test girder Investigation Table 2
CFRP plate properties (according to Sika product data sheet)
No. 1 Material, prestressing force
No. 2 Strengthening with prestressed CFRP plates Tensile elastic modulus, mean value El= 165,000 MPa
No. 3 Reference girder Tensile strength, mean value ff = 3100 MPa
No. 4 Strengthening with non-prestressed CFRP plates Failure strain, minimum value elu> 1.7%
No. 5 Strengthening of damaged girder with CFRP plates Cross-section Af = bf · tf = 50 mm · 1.2 mm= 60 mm2
 C. Czaderski, M. Motavalli / Composites: Part B 38 (2007) 878–886 881

Table 3
Material properties
Material Compressive cube strength fc,cube (MPa) Elastic modulus Ec (GPa) Axial tensile strength fct (MPa)
Cast-in situ concrete 52 32.7 2.4
Prefabricated concrete 56 38.1 2.8

Cross-section Yield strength Tensile strength Elastic modulus

2
Reinforcement in lower flange As = 385 mm 619 679 Es = 205,000
12 Stressing bed wires Aps = 462 mm2 1374 1723 Eps = 205,000
2 Tendons Ap = 2001 mm2 1449 1790 Ep = 205,000

60 MPa after 1 day if cured at 25 C, thereby underlining

the need for elevated temperatures during curing in order
to ensure optimal quality. For test girder 4, strengthened
with non-prestressed CFRP plates, a regular adhesive Sika-
dur-30 was used.
The material properties of the concrete and steel given in
Table 3 were determined from girder 1 or assumed (see
[21]).

2.3. Prestressing of CFRP plates

The plates were prestressed using the gradient method

developed at Empa [15,16]. At the plate ends, instead of
applying anchorages, the force in the plate was reduced
to zero gradually. The CFRP plates were bonded to the Fig. 6. Prestressing and heating device at CFRP plate end.
concrete by using an epoxy based adhesive which cures fas-
ter at elevated temperatures. A special computer controlled
girder underside
device fixed directly to the test girder was used for the pres-
tressing and heating process, see Figs. 5 and 6. After heat-
CFRP Plate
ing of the plate and therefore curing of the adhesive in
sector 1 (Fig. 7), the prestress was reduced. Then, sector
Force in
2 was cured, followed by a reduction in prestress force plate [kN] 0.5m 0.3m

and so on. Approximately 3.5 h were required to finish sector no.

the gradient and the plate was then cut at the plate end. 3 2 1

Lastly, the free length of the plate between the gradients 60

was also cured by resistance heating, to ensure good adhe-

sive quality. The prestressing of each single plate caused the
girder to deflect 0.6–0.7 mm upwards.
Each plate with a cross-section of 60 mm2 was pre-
stressed to approximately 60 kN; six plates were applied 0 x [m]

Fig. 7. Force gradient at plate end.

in total (Fig. 8). This prestressing force corresponds to a

prestress level of 32% of the nominal tensile strength of
the plate (see Table 2). To control the prestress, mechanical
strain gauge measurements were performed on each CFRP
plate at three locations, see Figs. 3 and 4. The application
of the plates was performed from the Empa spin-off com-
pany Carbo-Link [24] with the help of Empa personal.

2.4. Static testing

Girders 2–4 were all tested as single span beams, Figs. 3

and 9. Four hydraulic jacks were used to apply the load
Fig. 5. Installation of a CFRP plate in the prestressing device. Girder 2. displacement controlled. The loading phases of girder 2,
882 C. Czaderski, M. Motavalli / Composites: Part B 38 (2007) 878–886

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Prestressing force

Fig. 10 presents the evolution of the force in CFRP plate

Fig. 8. Bottom view of test girder 2, prestressed CFRP plates with no
anchorages.
which occurred over a period of six months, are given in
Table 4. Mechanical strain gauge measurements were taken
at load steps, during which the load was adjusted in order
to maintain a constant deflection at mid-span.
As for girders 3 and 4, external shear strengthening with
steel cross beams and threaded rods was applied for the
failure test (phase 6) of girder 2 (refer to Fig. 19) to prevent
premature shear failure of the thin web (Fig. 2). The steel
beams were supported directly on the concrete and did
not come in contact with the CFRP plates.
1 over a period of six months, from the date of application
to the test-to-failure date. The force was calculated from
the mean value of strains measured at three locations on
the plate, see Fig. 3. The other CFRP plates on the same
girder exhibited similar behaviour. It can be seen that a
minor decrease (approximately 3%) in the prestressing
force occurred after installation, perhaps due to creep
effects. However, with increasing number of loading
phases, this prestress force loss vanishes almost completely,
Fig. 10. One reason for that might be that the cracks from
loading do not close fully. Furthermore, the temperature
change during the half year might have also an influence
on the strains in the plates. The small prestress loss can
be explained with the small prestressing force (six plates
with 60 kN each) compared to the large cross-section. As
a comparison, the both tendons had a nominal prestressing
force at anchorage of 1167 kN each. The measured pre-
stress loss in girder 1 of a tendon was in the range of
20% [21].
During loading phases 1–4, the force in the plates
increased to approximately 80 kN, whereas during load
phases 5 and 6 the maximum measured force in the CFRP
plates was approximately 90 kN at a load level 367 kN.

Phase 5
Phase 6
10
0
Phase 1

Phase 2
Phase 3

Phase 4
90

80
Force in CFRP plates [kN]

70

60

50

40 60 kN force corresponds to a strain of:

εl = Force / (Al x El )
30 CFRP plate no. 1
εl = 60000 / (60 x 165000) = 0.006
20

10

0
14.12.04 13.01.05 12.02.05 14.03.05 13.04.05 13.05.05 12.06.05
Time [day/month/year]

Fig. 10. Force in CFRP plate 1 of girder 2 over time. Determined with
Fig. 9. Test girder 2 in test set-up before loading. mechanical strain gauge measurements.

Table 4
Summary of loading phases of girder 2
Phase 1 First loading to F = 300 kN, deflection at mid-span: 51.7 mm, unloading
Phase 2 Second loading to deflection at mid-span: 51.8 mm, unloading
Phase 3 Third loading to deflection at mid-span: 51.9 mm, unloading
Phase 4 Fourth loading to deflection at mid-span: 52.5 mm, unloading
Phase 5A Fifth loading to deflection at mid-span: 51.9 mm
Phase 5 First loading F = 367 kN, deflection at mid-span: 85.9 mm, unloading
Phase 6A Sixth loading to deflection at mid-span: 51.9 mm
Phase 6B Second loading to deflection at mid-span: 85.9 mm
Phase 6 Load to failure, Fmax = 511 kN
 C. Czaderski, M. Motavalli / Composites: Part B 38 (2007) 878–886 883

Due to safety reasons, mechanical strain gauge measure- plate, bf is the width of CFRP plate, and Dl is the distance
ments were not performed at higher load levels, however, between position i and i  1.
strain gauge measurements could be performed until Table 5 gives the values of the strain measurements and
shortly before failure, see below. the calculated shear stresses. Similar to the strains, a good
repeatability of the shear stresses can be observed. The
plate at the front side had maximum shear stresses in the
3.2. Repeated loading range of 2.4 MPa, the other plate in the range of
4.3 MPa. The measured strains showed also that the CFRP
During the first five loading phases the same maximum plates behaved unsymmetrically. Because of the lower
girder displacement at mid-span of approximately 52 mm strains and no distinctive shear stress drop it is concluded
(load step 300 kN) was reached, see Table 4. Fig. 11 pre- that he CFRP plate at the front side did not debond.
sents the comparison of the mechanical strain gauge mea-
surements of the six loading phases. A good repeatability
of the strains can be observed and at mid-span maximum 3.3. Strains
strains of more than 0.25% were measured. Furthermore,
two strain measurements at a mid-span displacement of Figs. 12 and 13 show a comparison of mechanical strain
approximately 86 mm (load step 367 kN) are presented in gauge measurements at load steps of 300 kN and 367 kN of
Fig. 11 and also show good repeatability. the reference girder (girder 3) and strengthened girders with
The distinctive strain peak at the mid-span joint results non-prestressed (girder 4) and prestressed (girder 2) CFRP
in high shear stresses between the CFRP plates and con- plates. Strengthening using CFRP plates clearly reduced
crete, which can be calculated using the strains at the top and bottom side of the girders and
a further reduction of the strains resulted when the CFRP
DF jei  ei1 j  Ef  Af plates were prestressed. It is important to note that the
sf ¼ ¼ ð1Þ
bf  Dl bf  Dl strain measurement for girder 2 does not include strain
due to prestressing. As has been seen, the joint at mid-span
where sf is the shear stress between CFRP plate and con- resulted in distinctive strain peaks in the CFRP plates.
crete, ei is the CFRP plate strain at position i, Ef is the elas- Because of this high strain peak, high shear stresses
tic modulus of CFRP plate, Af is the cross-section of CFRP between the CFRP and concrete (Table 5) were present

girder 2: F= 300 kN, CFRP strain (phase 1) girder 2: F= 367 kN, CFRP strain (phase 5)
0.3 0.5
girder 2: F= 0 kN, CFRP strain
girder 2: F= 363 kN, CFRP strain (phase 6B)
girder 2: F= 294 kN, CFRP strain (phase 2)
joint at mid-span
girder 2: F= 0 kN, CFRP strain
girder 2: F= 292 kN, CFRP strain (phase 3) 0.4
girder 2: F= 292 kN, CFRP strain (phase 4)
girder 2: F= 0 kN, CFRP strain
0.2
girder 2: F= 287 kN, CFRP strain (phase 5A)
0.3
Strain [%]
Strain [%]

girder 2: F= 268 kN, CFRP strain (phase 6A)

joint at mid-span

0.2
0.1

0.1

joint at mid-span joint at mid-span

0.0 0.0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Girder length [m] Girder length [m]

Fig. 11. Comparison of mechanical strain gauge measurements on girder 2 during several load applications to the same deflection.

Table 5
Measured strains on two CFRP plates at mid-span of girder 2 and calculated shear stresses
Load Strain measurement sf(D31/32) Strain measurement sf(D43/44)
phase on CFRP plate front side Eq. (1) (MPa) on CFRP plate rear side Eq. (1) (MPa)
e(D31) (%) e(D32) (%) e(D43) (%) e(D44) (%)
1 0.23 0.10 2.4 0.31 0.11 4.1
2 0.23 0.11 2.4 0.32 0.11 4.3
3 0.23 0.11 2.4 0.33 0.11 4.3
4 0.24 0.12 2.4 0.34 0.11 4.4
5A 0.23 0.11 2.3 0.33 0.11 4.3
5 0.43 0.31 2.4 0.47 0.40 1.3
6A 0.24 0.18 1.3 0.26 0.23 0.5
6B 0.43 0.33 2.0 0.45 0.42 0.6
884 C. Czaderski, M. Motavalli / Composites: Part B 38 (2007) 878–886

girder 3: F= 300 kN, girder underside (mean value) 600

0.6 girder 3: F= 300 kN, Concrete strain top side
girder 4: F= 300 kN, CFRP strain (mean value)
F = 300 kN girder 2
0.5 girder 4: F= 300 kN, Concrete strain
girder 2: F= 300 kN, CFRP strain (phase 1)
500
girder 2: F= 300 kN, Concrete strain (mean value) girder 4
0.4 joint at mid-span
reference girder 3
400
0.3 girder 4

Load [kN]
Strain [%]

girder 2 300
0.2

0.1 200

0.0
100
-0.1 concrete compression strain
joint at mid-span
-0.2 0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Beam length [m] CFRP tensile strain at mid-span (mean K20/21) [%]

Fig. 12. Mechanical strain gauge measurements at F = 300 kN. Fig. 15. Load–CFRP strain behaviour at mid-span, strain gauge mea-
surements until failure (girder 2: prestrain of approx. 0.6% is not
included).
girder 4: F= 367 kN, CFRP strain (mean value)
0.6
girder 4: F= 367 kN, Concrete strain
F = 367 kN
0.5
joint at mid-span
girder 2: F= 367 kN, CFRP strain (phase 5)
have approximately the same concrete strain. The addi-
0.4
girder 4
tional tensile strain in CFRP plates in girder 2 is clearly
0.3 girder 2
lower than in girder 4. The maximum measured strains in
strain in CFRP plates
Strain [%]

CFRP plates for girders 2 and 4 was 0.78% (strain gauge

0.2
0.1
0.0
-0.1
joint at mid-spa
-0.2
7 8
Fig. 13. Mechanical strain gauge measurements at F = 367 kN.
causing stable debonding. Stable debonding means that the
debonded zone keeps constant at constant load. The
approximately constant strain at mid-span in Fig. 13 shows
that girder 4 has a longer debonding length than girder 2 at
mid-span. However, the inclination of the strain line of the
two girders, which corresponds with the shear stress, is sim-
ilar, indicating the same maximum shear stress.
Figs. 14 and 15 show the load versus the concrete com-
pression strain and CFRP tensile strain up to failure. The
effect of using non-prestressed and prestressed CFRP
plates is visible. On different load levels the test girders
600
K28) and 0.98% (strain gauge K20), respectively. If adding
the prestrain of approximately 0.6%, the maximum total
tensile strain in a CFRP plate in girder 2 was almost
concrete compression strain 1.4%. To conclude, the prestressed plates achieved approx-
imately 82% and the non-prestressed plates approximately
9 10 11 12
Girder length [m]
13 14 15 16
58% of minimum failure strain (Table 2) of the CFRP
plates. This shows that if CFRP plates are prestressed, it
might be possible to reach tensile failure. Possible measures
to achieve this could be the reduction of the CFRP plate
cross-section or a higher prestress level.
3.4. Load–deflection behaviour
Fig. 16 presents the load–deflection behaviour of the
three test girders. Smaller deflections at the same load
can be seen for girder 2, strengthened with prestressed
CFRP plates, than for the other two girders. At low load
levels until approximately 250 kN, the curves in Fig. 16 dis-
play higher stiffness of girder 2 than girders 3 and 4 indicat-
ing fewer cracks and/or crack width. Furthermore, the

girder 2 girder 2 Fmax = 511 kN (145%)

500
500
girder 4 girder 4 Fmax = 435 kN (124%)
girder 2
400
Load [kN]

girder 3 400 Fmax = 352 kN (100%)

300 girder 4
Load F [kN]

300 reference girder 3

200

200
100

100
0
-0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Concrete compressive (mean K12/13) and
CFRP tensile strain (mean K28/29) [%] 0
0 50 100 150 200 250
Deflection at mid-span [mm]
Fig. 14. Load–strain behaviour at cross-section under load (K12/13 and
K28/29), strain gauge measurements until failure (girder 2: prestrain of Fig. 16. Load–deflection behaviour of reference girder and girders
approx. 0.6% is not included). strengthened with non-prestressed and prestressed CFRP plates.
 C. Czaderski, M. Motavalli / Composites: Part B 38 (2007) 878–886 885

4.0E-06

girder 2: F= 300 kN
3.5E-06
girder 2: F= 367 kN

3.0E-06
Curvature [1/mm]

2.5E-06

2.0E-06

1.5E-06

1.0E-06

5.0E-07

0.0E+00
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Girder length [m]

Fig. 17. Calculated curvature from mechanical strain gauge measure-

ments (see Fig. 11).

Fig. 19. Test girder 2 at failure, plate end debonding.

maximum recorded load for girders 2 and 4 were 45% and
24% higher than the reference girder, respectively.
From strain measurements on the top and bottom of the agated during loading towards the girder ends. When sta-
girder, the curvature was calculated along the half length of ble debonding switched to unstable debonding, the CFRP
the girder using Eq. (2), see Fig. 17. plates separated totally from the girder. On the girder itself,
a large crack between the lower flange and the web, web
jec j þ jef j failure and concrete crushing at the top of the girder could
v¼ ð2Þ
h be seen. Apart from debonding failure, the failure mode of
where v is the curvature (1/mm), ec is the concrete strain at reference girder 3 was similar to girder 4.
top of girder, ef is the CFRP plate strain at bottom of gir- In girder 2, also a local debonding at mid-span took
der, and h is the height of the girder (value taken for calcu- place. Fig. 19 shows a photo taken from the video of the
lations: h = 1325 mm). failure of girder 2. It can be seen that final debonding
The deflection was then calculated through a double started at the plate end. Girder 2 had a higher load as gir-
integration of the curvature, see Fig. 18. The inclination der 4, Fig. 16, with higher shear and normal stresses at
at mid-span was assumed to be zero and at beam end where plate end, what might be the reason for the failure mode
curvature was not measured, the inclination was assumed concrete cover debonding at plate end. For the implemen-
constant. The calculated deflections at mid-span were 7% tation of post-strengthening using prestressed CFRP plates
and 13% smaller than the measured values but in the same anchored with gradient method in civil engineering, inves-
range (Fig. 18, Table 4). This shows that the calculation of tigations are needed for developing design equations to cal-
the deflections from measured curvatures delivers reason- culate such failure modes of prestressed plates.
able results. A reason for the smaller values might be shear
deformations. 4. Conclusions

3.5. Failure modes A large-scale prestressed concrete bridge girder was

strengthened with prestressed CFRP plates with a pres-
The failure of girder 4 occurred due to debonding of the tressing level of 32% of their nominal tensile strength.
CFRP plates. The debonding began at mid-span and prop- The static behaviour during loading was compared with a
reference girder and a girder strengthened with non-pre-
stressed CFRP plates. From these experiments, the follow-
Girder length [m]
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ing conclusions can be drawn:
0

-10
1. The use of the gradient method for the anchorage of pre-
-20
stressed CFRP plates on large-scale girders was shown
-30
to be feasible.
Deformation [mm]

-40 -44.8
2. Repeated loading of the test girder with maximal strain
-50 -51.7
changes in the CFRP in the range of 0.25% showed a
-60
good repeatability of CFRP strain distribution and
-70
-79.8
shear stresses between the plates and concrete.
-80
-85.9 girder 2: F= 300 kN, deformation from integration of curvatures 3. During the six months between the application of CFRP
-90 girder 2: F= 367 kN, deformation from integration of curvatures
girder 2: F= 300 kN, measurement plates and the failure test, the small prestress loss of 3%
-100 girder 2: F= 300 kN, measurement
vanished with increasing number of loading phases
Fig. 18. Girder 2 deflection calculated from the curvature (see Fig. 17). almost completely.
886 C. Czaderski, M. Motavalli / Composites: Part B 38 (2007) 878–886
4. The use of prestressed CFRP plates for strengthening of
the test girder resulted in:
(a) Lower deflections.
(b) Lower strains at top and bottom face of the girder
due to loading.
(c) Fewer cracks and/or crack width.
(d) Less debonding length between the CFRP plates and
concrete at mid-span, because of the lower strain
peak in the CFRP plates.
(e) Higher maximum load.
Therefore, the prestressing of the CFRP plates improved
the behaviour at serviceability (SLS) and ultimate limit
state (ULS).
5. The strain measurements on the girders with non-pre-
stressed and prestressed CFRP plates indicate that the
same maximum shear stress between CFRP plates and
concrete existed.
6. Girder 2 (strengthened with prestressed CFRP plates)
failed due to debonding, which started from the plate
end. At failure, the CFRP plates had a maximum total
tensile strain of almost 1.4% what corresponds to 82%
of minimum failure strain of the CFRP plates. Possible
measures to achieve tensile failure of the CFRP plates
could be the reduction of the CFRP plate cross-section
or a higher prestress level.
7. For a successful implementation in civil engineering the
method ‘prestressed plates’ with gradient anchorage
need more investigations about e.g. end anchorage fail-
ure modes, prestress level and location of anchorage.
Acknowledgments
The financial support of ASTRA, the Swiss Federal
Roads Authority, is acknowledged. The Canton of Ticino
is also thanked for providing the test girders.
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