ABSTRACT
Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite material wraps provide effective and economic solution for rehabilitating and upgrading of existing reinforced and precast concrete bridge structures with damage or deterioration, and is being used by many highway departments This study consisted of the review and comparison of relevant design guidelines and standards for FRP wrap strengthening of damaged concrete bridge elements, both from U.S.A. and abroad. Based on the flexural load carrying capacity of a prestressed bridge girder and possible failure modes, the various design provisions were validated against experimental results from literature and finite element analysis. FRP rupture, the preferred failure flexural mode, is validated in both experimental and theoretical analysis. In general, the code and practice guidelines are quite conservative in predicting the flexural strength of AASHTO type bridge girders with FRP wrapping. FRP strengthening design provisions are recommended based on the comparative study.
