Papers by Matthias Bowman
The Texas Department of Transportation frequently constructs prestressed concrete piles for use i... more The Texas Department of Transportation frequently constructs prestressed concrete piles for use in bridge foundations. Such prestressed concrete piles are typically built with steel strands that are highly susceptible to environmental degradation and corrosion in harsh marine environments. The department currently employs many techniques to combat these structural degradation, but these measures address only the symptom-not the root cause. It would therefore be advantageous to the Agency to adopt a corrosion-resistant reinforcing material. It was then the aim of this research to assess the feasibility of employing carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP's) into TxDOT infrastructure through comprehensive literature synthesis, investigations in the field and interviews with design professionals, and a comparative analysis of mechanics and economics. The findings of these studies illustrated the feasibility of CFRP adoption when considered over the entire lifespan of a bridge structure, relying on CFRP's excellent environmental durability to mitigate the more expensive upfront costs. Incorporating CFRP prestressing strands into bridge piles, especially in aggressive, corrosive environments, has the potential to not only increase the overall lifespan of the structure, but requires far less departmental maintenance, saving a large sum of repair costs and design time. It is therefore the opinion of the Research Team that some important issues must be better understood and quantified, such as additional drivability concerns and splicing information, before the large-scale implementation of CFRP-prestressed piles is undertaken by the Department.
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Papers by Matthias Bowman