Laboratory and field testing of an FRP-reinforced concrete guideway

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Durability of transport infrastructure is a major concern for government and private sectors. In this project Bombardier Transportation and structural engineering researchers at Queen's university are collaborating on a project related to the use of durable non-ferrous reinforcement in a mono-rail concrete girder that supports a new test track. The use of this technology promises significant reduction in maintenance costs of the civil infrastructure supporting monorail tracks. This is primarily due to the excellent durability characteristics of the glass-fiber reinforced polymer bars used to reinforce the concrete beams. Unlike conventional reinforcement these fiberglass bars do not rust. The project will be the first of its kind, where this type of reinforcement will be used in diameters up to 30 mm in such a large scale concrete beam that weighs about 30 tons. The bars will be used as longitudinal and transverse shear reinforcement. While smaller bar sizes of this type of reinforcement have been successfully used in highway bridge deck applications and showed great promise, fiberglass bars, especially large diameter bars, have not been explored for monorail applications. As such, this test track project would be an excellent opportunity to investigate the feasibility of using this technology in this application under real life conditions, where trains travelling at speeds of up to 90 km/hr will pass over the test beams. These beams, namely one reinforced with fiber glass bars and an adjacent beam reinforced with conventional steel reinforcement, will be instrumented with special strain and deflection sensors to collect data during testing when trains pass over the track. Additionally, two half scale beams reinforced with fiberglass bars will also be built and tested to failure in the lab to further understand behavior and establish the ultimate strength and service life of these beams. The project will involve training of one master's student, one post-doctoral fellow and at least one undergraduate student, along with several engineers and personnel from Bombardier Transportation.